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.