Grey skies but brighter fishing

So after last Mondays trip, I decided to get out again and hopefully find myself a spotted ray.

I headed to Trearddur Bay last Thursday to a mark that I've not had much success from other than the ever present doggies, and sometimes even they aren't here! I wasn't sure of the forecast but the mark is high above the water line so I knew I would be safe even with a reasonable swell. However the wind was fresh to say the least, and being westerly was pushing right into me face bring the weather with it. As predicted the doggies were the first to find the baits, followed by the whiting and a solitary pollack.

At this point the sporadic showers became a full on downpour and my gear was getting increasingly wet, as were my trousers. With the horizon getting closer as thick rain clouds rolled in off the sea I quit the session an hour earlier than I planned so I could dry off before heading to the gym.

Fast forward to yesterday and I had an all day double header planned out.

I started out doing a bit of float fishing for garfish but sadly the only rod bending action I saw was a seagull getting tangled in the line then taking off. Fortunately it managed to free itself when I tightened the line. The amount of seagulls and terns diving and catching small fish gave me optimism but at the same time made fishing frustrating as they kept investigating the bait and float. I had one gar jump out in front of the float which gives me hope in a couple of weeks they will feed more readily.

After stopping back in valley for some grub I went out towards Trearddur Bay for the main session. There was already two lads on the higher ledge and with the tide in the lower ledge was inaccessible, so I went for a bit of a walk further round the headland. I stumbled on a nice looking ledge that jutted further out than any others but in order to get any rigs back I would have to run the gauntlet of lobster pots spread in front of me. Deciding it wasn't worth it I went back to my original plan and the tide was just about low enough, save for a couple of big swells making my coats a bit soggy, to set up on the lower ledges.

With three rods out I was into wrasse down the side, a corkwing added another species for the year and a ballan, while business as usual further out with whiting and doggies. I was just setting up another rig when I noticed my furthest rod had gone slack, sure enough there was a fish on though it didn't feel heavy it stayed deep so I put the money of it being two dogs. Eventually I got a glimpse and it turned out to be the target, a tidy little spotted ray. After a brief panic of not knowing how to land it from so high up I thought the hook hold was good enough and the fish was small enough to hand ball up and I soon had my prize.


A quick photoshoot and she was returned and I hoped there would be more of them out there. However things went back to normal for a bit with a couple of dogs before they vanished and it was then that the dabs and whiting came on the feed. About low water and everything went quiet with bait being stripped, either by crabs or dabs and whiting too small to hook so I called it a day, happy with mission accomplished.

Another Last few weeks post

This is another post with multiple updates, as usual with the best bits at the end! Partly because not much has been caught, and partly because I haven't done that much fishing until the last week or so.

Back in early April me and Paul went up to Cymyran to have a bash for so small eyed rays. While greeted with near perfect conditions I was feeling under the weather and my motivation was pretty low. The tide ebbed away and so did our hopes, however Paul did manage a decent whiting and a bass around 2lb. I struggled with the tide moving everything to the left and suffered a rare blank but I was much more looking forward to bed than anything else.

A couple of weeks after and the start of some warm weather I went for a walk with another mate Bruno around the Rhoscolyn Point and we took a couple of rods for a few hours. It was a pretty comfy ledge although the tide was out, the ground rocky and shallow, I still expected to get something biting, even if it was just mini species. In the end I lost most of the rigs I cast out and had one bite all session on limpet which came to nothing. It did however give me a good view of the coastline which I've not seen before so will be returning this way later in the year.

Fast forward to last Saturday and I attempted to lure an early smoothound from an area near Dinas Dinlle. The bonus I thought would be possible huss and bass if my main target didn't show. With a bucket of juicy soft crab and fresh dug ragworm to supplement a variety of fish baits I felt pretty confident. I got set up just before dark with 3 rods, two were far out and one at 15-20 meters in between a patch of rocks in the water. In the end it turned out to be a complete dogfest from the word go, the only variety being a gigantic spider crab and a small coley which kept the species tally ticking. As probably expected it was a bit early for the smoothounds, or they just weren't there so that will be knocked on the head for a couple of weeks until there are more reports of them coming from the shore.






That brings me on to the weekend just gone when I turned my attention to targeting spotted rays. With Ty Croes now likely to be busy almost everyday, on Saturday I opted to give Cable Bay a go straight from work in the afternoon as an excuse to use up my scanky frozen bait and sit in the sun. There was already a fella fishing but he didn't have much to report. I set up to the left of him aiming for the clear ground further out. I started out with a 3-hook flapper and a pully rig to cover as many options as possible. The first round of casts resulted in 2 whiting and a dogfish. A spider crab was next but it came off as it hit the surface, after which it became another dogfest. I put out a third rod with a flapper closer to the rocks on which I had a pollack about 1lb an lost another on the way in before the dogfish even found these baits. However it was an enjoyable session, the freezer was empty ready for new bait and I even caught a bit of sun.

The lure of the rays proved too strong so on Monday night (first picture) I picked Paul up and we headed back to Cable to fish the tide down. Things started well in day light with whiting and doggies, add to that a pollack and a spider crab coming off I felt a pattern was emerging. As night fell a lad who was feathering gave me the 2 mackerel he had caught which were gladly received as I had forgotten any feathers! Night came and the dogfish were simply quicker than anything else to the baits, often I wasn't able to bait up quick enough as I already had a bite on the next rod. I set up a third rod with half a fresh mackerel cast out towards the edge of the rocks. The monotony of continuous dogfish was getting to much when out of nowhere the ratchet started going as a good fish took off with the mackerel. After a brief tussle and having to let the fish find its way out of a snag it was at the surface and Paul did a brilliant job landing it, despite taking a weight to the face. On dry land we could admire the big huss which we estimated at just over 10lb.

It was a female in the process of contributing to the next generation of bull huss so after a couple of quick photos she was slipped back into the sea to carry on where she left off. And after catching endless amounts of doggies it was almost a relief to catch something that put up a fight.

I can see potential for a few more sessions before the end of the month, hopefully get my rays and smoothound as well as the gars, so watch this space for more updates!