I'm really starting to lag again with these blog posts so apologies to any of you that have been regularly checking for updates. Anyway to cut a long story short, since my last post I've had an absolute ball of a time - I'll just post up a load of photos for you to see rather than bore you. These are from end of June only
One of my main targets recently has been black bream, a fish that until mid last year I had never caught. Well it's fair to say that since then, I've had more than my fair share, in fact, when we have managed to get out on the boat, we've been getting regular hauls of 60-100 bream in a 2-3hour session and not very many of these fish have been sub 1lb. You will have guessed that most of these fish have been caught by the anglers we've had on board, but when given the all clear by the skipper, I have managed to bag a few quality fish myself, the best so far going 3lb 9oz (pictured top left), another PB. Not all my bream have come from the boat though and over the past few days I managed to locate a shoal of them, well at least for an hour or so, the best two from an 8 fish haul going 1lb 14oz and 2lb 3oz (top right)
Another fish I've had a good go at are the mullet. Although I've failed miserably to even tempt a bite from the golden greys thus far, I've had a few thick lips to a rather nice 4lb 6oz whilst my mate Chris has also managed to land a new PB of 3lb 14oz. Dan who I have also been targeting the mullet with has like me had no luck with the golden greys as yet but has had some wrasse to a cracking 5lb 4oz in the process. |
| Species 74 - Shore Clingfish |
I suppose I'd better mention the bass as well for all you silver lovers out there. It has been very tough to locate them of late but I have had a couple, nothing big but it sure puts a smile on my face when I feel that lure stop and watch the rod arch over. I have also picked up a few Pollack in the process and even a few wrasse to around the 3lb mark. My mates Dan and Ben on the other hand had a couple of nice fish during one of our sessions that both went around the 5lb mark, one just under, one just over.
Well I've been getting a bit behind with my posts of late, a lack of internet access and a busy working schedule being the main reasons for this. Eventually though, I've sorted myself some Wi-Fi and its time to do some catching up.
As many of you will know, during the first week of April, I made a switch to the channel islands to spend the summer working on a charter boat as a deck hand. However, with the first booking of the year not being until the 14th April, I was supposed to spend the first week settling in to Jersey life, learning the ropess on the boat and finding myself some digs. In reality though, it was essentially a week for exploring and finding marks that I'd be fishing later in the year, whilst doing a bit of fishing in the process of course. My catches during this period were fairly decent, with plenty of wrasse, garfish, turbot and mini species falling to my light gear tactics.  |
| PB smashing Turbot - 8lb 4oz |
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| My first Brill - 6lb dead |
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| PB Whiting - 2lb 15oz |
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| Monster 4lb 9oz Whiting |
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| 15lb 8oz Blonde - Andreas |
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| New PB Pollack - 11lb 12oz |
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| New PB Ling - !5lb 14oz |
For a few weeks now, myself and mate Lee Goddard have been contemplating meeting up for a days fishing. After dismissing pike fishing due to unfavourable conditions, the suggestion was made to go hunting big Pollack at one of my more successful marks on the Lleyn. Meeting Lee in Pwllheli for 7.30ish we were soon on our way to the mark with some high hopes of a productive session. The weather was spot on, couldn't have asked for a nicer day, a huge contrast to the last time we'd fished together, in which I avoided a blank by resorting to catching sand-gobies, desperate times lol. Anyway, as we finally stepped onto the mark it was time to get the ball rolling, or not as it seemed, for after 40 minutes of chucking the lures around, neither of us had managed a touch. The Pollack can be very finicky at this mark and often feed at random intervals throughout the tide, so I decided to have a small break and watch as Lee kept going. As fortune would have it, it was as soon as I opened my mouth and blurted the words 'maybe they're just not on yet,' that Lee's rod suddenly bent over and the first Pollack of the day was landed. 
Not wanting to miss out in case this just happened to be happy hour, I jumped up and got my lure in the water quick time. That cast, bang, that's my blank avoided and my first Pollack of the year. A couple of casts later, another one, only a tiddler but always welcome. After landing half a dozen or so, we both decided to have a change of tactic. If there was any bigger ones down there, we were gonna search them out with some much more manly and heftier lures. Wasn't to be though, didn't matter what was thrown on, the fish had lost interest, maybe another lull in their feeding. Reverting back to my previously successful deep spinning rig, I was soon banging them out again like no-ones business, even managing to get another short video done. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UiDLaYZrMg0&feature=youtu.be One after the other, they seemed to just throw themselves on the hook, whilst Lee watched on in slight disbelief.
Lee instead opted to continue with the larger lures for a while before eventually deciding enough was enough and changing method. This time he had an ace up his sleeve and started using a Jika rig to see if there was any willing customers lurking on the bottom. Not long after starting with the method, he soon found himself into a powerful fish, well at least for 5 seconds as it unfortunately chucked the hook a moment after the hook-up. This would kick start an hour of misery for Lee, as rig after rig kept getting snagged up with no gear coming back, it was getting expensive for him. As his frustration grew, I just couldn't resist adding fuel to the fire by giving him a rolling commentary on my tally, it's funny when he gets angry lol. He soon cheered up though, when after a gargantuan effort, he finally hooked another fish on the Jika and this one wasn't coming off. Not exactly sure what it was, the thought's leaned towards ballan and this was confirmed as it hit the surface, quite possibly the first lure caught wrasse in North Wales this year, a top result. This one had a lovely tiger like pattern with vivid green spots on both its dorsal and caudal fins, a real stunning fish. 
Now tired of Pollack, I spent my last half hour chasing blennies round a rockpool, catching 3 of them in the process, before I snagged a rock out of my reach and lost the lure, this was a sign to pack up. So session over, I could gladly say it was a far better outcome than the previous time we'd fished together, my finishing tally being 26 Pollack and 3 blennies. Lee had struggled with the Pollack landing just 3, but did manage a well earned ballan wrasse that he will say was worth 20 Pollack, so we both left more than happy. 
Having already visited the channel island of Jersey twice this year, its fair to say I can't keep myself away and this time I was on a personal mission to catch a red mullet, a species which had so far eluded me. To give myself the best chance, I'd been in contact with a mate of mine Dan Ferguson, a Jersey local and good all round angler and we'd arranged to have a long weekend of intense fishing. Please take a minute to check out Dan's blog as well :
After a couple of hours sleep it was back out again, this time targeting bass and pollock on the lures. We'd kindly been invited to go out on friend David Sullivan's boat, so would have been rude not to take him up on his offer and he'd picked a prime morning for it. The session turned out to be a good one for me with 6 bass falling to my blue savage gear sandeels, the best going 2lb 11oz, not huge but great fun all the same. David also managed a bass as well as a few pollack. Dan's luck from the previous night had deserted him though and he resorted to last minute wrasse tactics to avoid a dreaded blank.
Back on dry land for 12ish, it was time for Dan's 24 hour club competition and he had his game plan sorted. We first hit a wrasse mark where we'd meet Dan's mate Ritchie and his missus Hannah. Not much was caught with myself getting a small ballan on the SP's and Hannah showing us lads how to do it with a nice wrasse of 3lb+. Dan continued to be out of luck but I kept telling him that it was all building up to be a productive evening session for him...... wouldn't you have guessed it, that's exactly what happened. Fishing a conger mark of Dan's in the evening produced a cracking pollack for him, which doubled his previous shore caught PB, dropping the scales to 7lb 12oz, a real beauty and again some brilliant points towards his club comp. As if that wasn't enough he then landed a conger of 20lb 8oz on the following cast before things went quiet for the night, just one more strap conger being landed and myself narrowly avoiding a blank with the rat of the sea, mr dogfish.
The third day of the Jersey trip came round all to fast. Again just a couple of hours sleep before we again headed out to try and get a wrasse big enough to weigh in for the comp. Dan did manage a few to around the 3lb mark but unfortunately none large enough to meet the qualifying weight. I spent an hour or so venturing further afield with my plugging rod which produced a single schoolie before returning and having a bash at the wrasse myself. In no time it was 11 o'clock and we were off to the weigh in. There was a few really good fish brought to the scales, notably some lovely mullet over 5lbs, a double figure undulate ray, a good rockling and of course red mullet and sole, one of which had been landed by mate Rob Dingle. The plan was then hatched for another shot at the red's and we were joined by Rob for the evening. After a few hours digging worm we headed off once more full of hope. Dan once again landed sole, two of them this time whilst I had finally got my first new species of the trip, but not the one I was after, it was in fact a 5-bearded rockling (Species 66 of 2012) We also managed a number of pout and doggies but nothing of decent size. |
| Me looking rather tired with my mullet |
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| Dan also looking tired |
After yet another hours digging we decided we both needed a short rest so off to the pub we went. A pint has rarely tasted so good and it was definitely well deserved. It was over all to soon though and back out we went for one last go at the red mullet. A different mark this time and with a nice swell rolling in, the thoughts were that the bottom would be getting nicely stirred up and fingers crossed, the reds would have moved in to feed. I'd made a few new rigs up for the occasion designed so that all baits would be hard on the bottom and this time i'd blinged up the snoods with luminous beads, a little thing i'd noticed Dan had been using when he'd got his sole. It started much like the other night sessions with pout and dogfish turning up, so after a few hours we had a little chill. Rods went out and we sat back to watch a bit of facejacker on Dan's phone. Half way through the Brian Badonde part my baitrunner started going so I jumped up and hit the run. The fish must have been swimming straight towards me as I couldn't feel anything until close in when it suddenly decided to go the other way and put up a spirited fight. I didn't want to presume anything but I was getting a little excited as this was possibly the fish I'd been after.
As the 1st November rolled around, myself and Lee were in the car and on our way down to Poole to catch the ferry, Scott was set to meet us in Jersey after flying over the previous day. Six hours after leaving North Wales we were at the port and both very excited, at least until the dreaded text came through just an hour before we were set to sail to inform us the ferry was cancelled. So after evaluating our options and having a good moan, we decided to make the most of our day and get the LRF gear out. First stop was Poole harbour where both myself and Lee bashed out a few gobies each, Lee adding two new species to his yearly list with rock goby and black goby. The wind then decided to pick up a little making controlling the light gear much harder. The result was a short drive to Weymouth where we hoped for a few more new species. We made our
We were now 5 days into our 10 day visit and it was time again for some wrasse fishing on the SP's. We had chosen to try a new mark pointed out to us by Mick, a very nice looking area of rough and bouldery ground, ideal for our target species. Sam again decided he would try for a bass but his days efforts were not rewarded with any fish. For myself, Ed and Jon though it was a different story. Ed was first off the mark with a small ballan of around 1lb and Jon followed him the next chuck with one of his own. I in the mean time was concentrating my efforts fishing into a nice gully a little further along the coast and was rewarded with a few small ballans, as well as a couple of corkwings and a single rock goby. A quick wade across though after the tide had dropped a little, saw me fishing into some much deeper water and expecting something a little bigger. Jon and Ed had not spotted my move and so it was just me and Sam on this island, Sam still on the plugs and me on the SP's. After 20 mins or so of bouncing bottom it was time to try something different, on went the 3" one up shad and a slow but straight retrieve was the new tactic. First cast I had a take, reeling in the lure to find its paddle tail had been bitten off. New lure on, 2nd cast and another take, this time a hook up but the fish managed to throw the lure. 3rd cast I finally got a good hook up and this one was taking some line so I knew it was a little better. In it came after a spirited fight and weighed a respectable 3lb 11oz. This was the last fish of the day with exception to a few giant gobies from the rockpools on our way back to the car.
he was extremely happy about. It just wasn't happening for me though and before I knew it, Mick was starting the rib up ready to return to the spot we'd started in. As we steamed over, we could see a few fish rising to the top just as Mick had told us to expect. Adrenaline still going we were casting out into the rising fish and we were all hooking up fairly regularly, but it was not what I was after, instead a passing shoal of mackerel that were taking everything we threw at them and were clearly visible swimming around in the water, a fantastic sight to see. Mick then hooked another scad raising my hopes once more, but they didn't seem to like my lure one bit. I was running out of ideas fast, switching to small sp's and only getting macky, so when Mick offered me one of his rock vibe shads I was on it like a fly to s**t. I did have some in my bag but for some reason had completely forgotten about them until after the session had ended. Anyway, this switch was crucial and on just my second cast I was into a scad of my own. These fish really do go well on |
| Scad - Species 56 of 2012 |
immediately thought bass but I couldn't tell in the early stages. Sure enough in time the fish tired and with both Ed and Mick stood in anticipation the fish finally surfaced so we could have a look. Mick was right, it was a bass and my first one on proper LRF gear, very enjoyable. A few more quick dashes for freedom before it was netted and brought in for a picture. It was by no means a monster but at around the 2lb mark it certainly made a great account of itself in the fight. Time was flying by and we'd had a cracking evening, so after ending on such a high note we headed back to the harbour to join Jon and Sam for a nice celebratory beer and takeaway. This was one of the highlights of my trip so massive thanks has to go out to Mick for making the effort to take us out and for putting us on our target species and also Callum for letting us on the rib.
The rest of the holiday didn't quite live up to this session (on lures at least), but it was memorable for one member of our fishing foursome, my younger brother Sam, who after all his efforts on the plugs finally got his deserved reward with this nice looking bass taken from a deep rock mark on a large savage gear sandeel. I must say, he deserved it as usual, he really does put in some effort for the bass even when the conditions are against him. Thanks must go to Dan Ferguson again though for the mark and giving him the confidence to use the larger SG Eel.
The only other lure caught fish came on our session inside the harbour where all of us but Ed managed to land a good number of sand-smelt on unbaited sabikis (a new one for me on lures) as well as a number of black and rock gobies and a single herring. This is the only pic out of around a dozen where I managed to catch the smelt still and not jumping all over the place lol.