27/7/17 - Mullet

An unusual work shift meant that I got an unexpected most of the day off yesterday, and instead of dawdling on where to go I had already made up my mind. To be able to offer clients the best service and fishing options available I am making sure I have experience of catching as many species and using as big a range of techniques as possible. I decided that I was going to try for a mullet, a species I've caught a few times in the past by accident but targeted sessions have only ended in frustration.

Another benefit of a mullet session was that I would be fishing close to home and raiding the reduced bread section at the supermarket meant the session would be cheap on bait. I dug out some smaller floats and split shots from the pile of gear I've got at home, and off I went down to Felinheli. Here there is a small marina that goes direct to the sea and another boat park area that is separated from the sea by a lock gate. After a bit of walking and driving around I decided on fishing the marina, though with the tide on its way out I thought my chances were a bit limited.

I set up with a 3lb hooklength ending in a size 10 barbless hook, pretty standard affair if you're coarse fishing, set at 5ft depth under a self cocking float. Saving half a loaf for hook bait, the rest of the bread and a whole mackerel was mashed up with a bit of water to make a sloppy groundbait mix which I would spoon in at regular intervals. The groundbait soon worked its magic, as about half an hour in I could see shoals of fry, sandeels and smelt coming up in the water column, and soon I spotted the first mullet cruise past just a bit out of reach.

Over the next hour or so I continued to see mullet appear at the surface, but frustratingly either they were too far away, or were already swimming away from the baited area. They obviously weren't very confident of coming too near the bait, and I thought perhaps prebaiting the area for a few days in advance would encourage them to try the bread.

I was repositioning my float closer to a pontoon as all the floating groundbait started drifting that way, when two mullet appeared at the surface, closer than they had done before. One swam away, but the other inhaled a big piece of floating crust right under my feet. Immediately I lifted the line so my breadflake bait was now dangling just under the surface, the mullet took one look and sucked in my bait. I waited a split second to see if it would spit it back out. It didn't so I struck, the rod bent over and I was hooked into a mullet!

With the hard part of getting them to feed over, I just had the relatively easy task of landing the fish. Not having a landing net meant I had too beach it on a slipway, get my feet a bit wet and grab it, hoping that the 3lb hooklength held on. I took my time playing the fish, although it didn't make the runs I expected there was a lot of head shaking and if it did make a short burst I had to let it go due to the light line. Eventually the fish tired and I eased it onto the slipway. I was able to push it out of the water slightly and get my feet behind it so it didn't roll back in. There it was, a mullet I had targeted I had also now landed. Fortunately there were a few passers by, keen to see the fish and one of them was able to take a picture for me.

The fish was exhausted so I gently held it in the water a few minutes before it was strong enough to swim away. As I expected, the commotion spooked the rest of the fish and there was no sign of anymore mullet around me for the next hour, despite heavy groundbaiting.

Overall though I was ecstatic with even hooking never mind landing one and I rate it up with the shore tope and 9lb bass as best catches of the year so far. This gives me more confidence in taking clients out in future who wish to specifically fish for mullet. A little break now and depending on the weather, next up will be another try for a tope on home soil.

25/7/17

So this is a lot shorter report than the others from the last week. Originally I had planned another double session for the Tuesday, but in the end the tides weren't favourable for my target species. After completing a load of jobs at home I eventually got out of the house, deciding to try again for pollack on the float, seeing if they feed on the ebb as well as the flood.

I rigged up the same way as last time. On the first cast with a bit of sink and draw a fish took the sandeel bait. It put up a spirited fight, initially I thought I had hooked a reasonable pollack but the fight wasn't how I expected it to be. The puzzle was solved when I saw a shimmering silver flank in the water as a mackerel was making darting runs around the place. It was a chunky one, probably the biggest I've caught for a couple of years now, and it made a perfect size for dinner the following night by itself.

I continued casting, varying the depth of the float in an effort to pick up more mackerel if the pollack weren't showing. As it turned out neither were showing anymore so I made a move around the headland to try straight out to sea for half an hour. While there I bumped into Steve who was on holiday in the area, who I'd met last week while fishing for cuckoo wrasse. After a friendly chat I left him with a couple of rigs and tips of when and where best to use them, hopefully will catch up when he's next in the area and we can get into some decent pollack or rays.

24/7/17 -All the rays!

One of my goals this year, as it was last year, was to latch into a blonde ray. They are frequently caught from a mark that I regularly visit, however as yet I haven't seen one, never mind hooked one.

Armed with fresh information, I revisited the same mark on Monday. I wasn't convinced about the conditions, it was bright sunshine, and personally I've found the rays prefer it slightly more overcast. Still the tides were favourable, and with the current forecast this might be my only shot at them for a while.

My plan was to rig up as usual, 6oz beachcasters to combat the tide switching between pulley and up and over rigs. Bait was Sandeel, squid and bluey, either individually or presented as cocktails. These were chucked out as far from the rocks as possible. The first couple of casts I also sent out a 3 hook flapping rig, just to see if I could pick up a bonus flattie or gurnard.

The first ray bait was sent out and I had not even run the line through the rings on the second when the first ratchet started going. I thought it could be the sideways tidal current, but the pulls were too strong for that. I lifted in and it was fish on! Almost straight away I could tell it was a ray, as the fish stayed deep until quite close in, however it didn't have the weight behind it I expected from a blonde ray. My suspicions were confirmed when a spotted ray broke the surface, not the species I was looking for but welcome nonetheless. Unfortunately I had left my camera memory card in my computer so I had to make do with getting the pictures on my phone so the pictures aren't great quality. 

I recast the ray bait, this time having chance to set up and cast the second rod. While dealing with a dab on the flapper I noticed the ray bait had moved quite a way to the left. Again I left it a little while thinking it was the tide but it kept moving. On lifting in it felt similar to the first fish, staying deep until quite close in. Up popped another small ray, and it was a bit of a surprise that it was a small eyed ray, only little but nice to get the first one of the year. 

I was surprised to get two rays so quickly and relatively late into the flood, but they didn't stop there. The next two casts also bought another spotted and small eyed ray, also another dab to the flapper, all in the space of about an hour and a quarter. Expecting the action to continue I began fixing up a few rigs to make them usable this session and pre-baiting a few to make sure I was ready. Despite high hopes the rest of the session failed to match the beginning, in fact I never saw another bite on either rod.

Not taking any ragworm I didn't have any options for scratching around for wrasse so I was relying on the fish coming back on the feed as the ebb picked up. With all my best efforts nothing happened, the time I had been told would be best for a blonde ray had been and gone so I decided to make a move. I was disappointed not to get a blonde ray, but picking up four rays in arguably less than ideal conditions is a good session in anyone's book. 

22/7/17

So it was a busy weekend and start to this week, got a fair bit of fishing in, unfortunately that hasn't left me with a lot of time to write up the reports until now.

Starting with Saturday I planned two sessions, beginning with a short trip to a regular mark to try and rediscover my lure mojo by catching a bass or two. I arrived as the tide was dropping, as this mark has produced more for me around the mid tide and lure choices were the trusty Maria Angel Kiss and a sunslicker paddle up gibbon with a small spro weight to help casting. Conditions perhaps weren't ideal; sunny and slightly cloudy water, but I felt optimistic that there might be the odd schoolie around at least. To cut nearly two hours of fishing down very quickly there was no takes at all, and as I was leaving dark cloud loomed on the horizon. The only sign of activity I saw was a splash of panic as I seemed to land a cast right on top of a fish. Safe to say it didn't come back!

After a detour to Ronald's hamburger place it was onto mark number 2 for the day. I was told about a mark by John Mottram, a member of world sea fishing forums who I met a few weeks ago and recommended this area for decent Pollack. I set about as he suggested, using float fished sandeel. It took a bit of trial and error but eventually I was comfortably working the sandeel hovering just above the kelp.

I thought I saw a couple of bites as the float drifted around but nothing came of them. After about an hour and a half of fishing I was getting slightly frustrated that there was no more action, though I have read before that bright sunshine isn't the best for Pollack. Eventually when the tide was noticeably flooding I got the first definite bite and small Pollack maybe 1lb in weight came in rather easily on the spinning rod. A couple of casts later I was trying to keep the float away from a now underwater ledge and as I moved it, I felt something pulling back. Turned out to be another pollack of a similar size. From this point I decided to fish more 'sink and draw' to cover more ground in front of me and hopefully the bait would now imitate an injured sandeel.

This resulted in two bites in quick succession. The first one missed; the second hooked! This fish made several strong dives towards the seabed, indicating a decent size. As I drew the fish closer I could see my float appearing in the deep and I was eager to see what size this fish would be. Before I caught a glimpse it made one last dive, during which I tightened the drag,as I saw my line head towards a kelp bed. Unfortunately that was my mistake, as I'd dropped to 10lb hooklength in the clear water it was almost inevitable that a good fish would break free under moderate pressure. Still, it gives me hope that I can find a decent Pollack in future now!

By now I was being pushed off my fishing ledge, so I relocated to another where I could still fish over the same ground. Before leaving I had another bite, resulting in another pollack, this one a bit bigger than the first two, pushing towards 2lb weight. So that was Saturday done with, work took up Sunday but in the meantime I made plans for decent sessions Monday and Tuesday, write ups of those one their way!

18/7/17 - so near!

So after 3 unsuccessful lure sessions in the past week, I planned a change of tactics yesterday. The aim was two fold - starting in the day time I was hoping for a cuckoo wrasse, followed by a late beach session with Paul for a tope.

The daylight session was at a new mark for me near Trearddur Bay, but one I'd seen a lot of decent reports from. All I took down was my spinning rod, a pack of ragworm and plenty of small weights as I expected a few losses. Rig was a short 2 hook flapper with size six hooks, so I had a chance at catching a variety of other mini species that might be lurking around the rocks.

Being a very bright day I thought that most of the fish would be lurking in some shade, so started out casting into a gulley between my ledge and another rock. Initially it was difficult to hold bottom with such a small weight but eventually I got the rig to settle and started getting bites. As expected, the major culprits were going to be Ballan Wrasse of various sizes, and three came in steady succession. Unfortunately bites slowed right down in the gulley, and despite repeatedly casting and re-positioning the baits all I could manage further was a tompot blenny.

With the tide rising I moved a bit further around the ledge, dropping baits right down the side onto a submerged ledge. This must have been where the fish were hiding fishing around this ledge was bite after bite, sometimes not even needing to drop the weight right to the seabed. I was still reasonably confident of getting my target, even if I had to fish through every Ballan or Corkwing Wrasse in front of me.

Around high tide another fella joined me on the ledge, as he would casting further out we wouldn't get in each others way. We chatted away and while doing so we both had a Ballan Wrasse each. As I was describing what I was hoping to catch the guy had another bite and on lifting it out I saw the unmistakable blue tinge of a male Cuckoo Wrasse. In double quick time I rung the changes and lobed my baits a little further out. As it would happen my first bite after casting out a bit turned out to be my target, a striking blue cuckoo wrasse...success! Two casts later I landed a female of the same species so it was a short but productive session.

For the night session it was myself and Paul, looking for a tope from the beach. After such a long period of settled weather it was expected that the weather would turn, unfortunately it would happen throughout Tuesday. By the time we were fishing strong winds were now pushing on our backs but we thought it would just hold out while fishing.

Big mackerel baits were cast out as far as possible and we settled down for the long wait. We were discussing how long to fish for when there was a distinct zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz, as Paul's ratchet went. He lifted in and it was fish on! The way the rod was bending suggested it was what we came for. However coming on the first cast I think we were a bit unaware and no sooner was it hooked there was a ping as the line snapped. Gutted nearly described the feeling, but incredible for Paul to experience his first tope run. We hoped that was a signal for things to come, but no more bites came, just crabs, shrimps and other scavengers munching the baits to pieces.

Our nerves were on edge for the last hour or so, as over the horizon lightning was showing. It certainly felt like the storm was coming, but while the skies were clear we fished on with a watchful eye. Eventually it got a bit too much, though the lightning had stopped, it was now cloudy above us, the wind had dropped and it had started raining. Not wanting to be caught out by the storm appearing above us we cut the session short, eager to get back for a longer session and hopefully we can land our target.

08/7/17

So since my previous session I had received information which would help bring my mission to catch a blonde ray a little bit easier. I put it to use Saturday just gone and despite conditions probably being not quite right, I arrived at the mark with a bit of optimism.

First up the heavy rods were set up and cast out with double sandeel, or squid/sandeel wraps. I waited in anticipation but unfortunately bites were slow to come by. This was the theme throughout the day, just the occasional nibble, the odd doggie landed and a couple of snoods snipped by spider crabs. One bite got me a little bit excited as whatever I had hooked stayed deep right to the edge. Unfortunately it turned out to be a doggie and a foul hooked dab that provided resistance in the tide.

To keep myself interested I had took along a pack of ragworm and a spinning rod with the intention of fishing small hooks close in. Thankfully the rock dwellers were happy to bite and I caught Leopard Spot Gobies, Tompot Blennies and Shannies mixed in between a steady stream of Ballan Wrasse up to about 1.5lb.

In the end there were 4 people fishing from the ledges and there wasn't much else being caught. I saw a small ray caught as I got there, and a fella who arrived later got a decent smoothound to the edge. I went down to grab it for him, unfortunately deciding on the wrong ledge to land it from. I slid about 2ft down into the water, and as I did the hook pulled from the smoothound. A soaking and a lost fish wasn't the plan, but I was thankful I didn't go any further into the water.

Ultimately not the day I had planned but good fun fishing close in anyway, and I'll get another chance at the blonde rays in better conditions before long!

Morning Ray

After the disappointment a couple of weeks ago of losing what felt like a ray I headed back to the mark this morning to try and make amends. The forecast was for the wind to increase throughout the day, but I though it would be manageable during my planned fishing time. 

It was tricky for almost all the time I fished, the strong cross wind making it difficult to keep in contact with the weight and detect bites. I didn't expect much in the first hour or so after low tide and sure enough, nothing happened! Baits came back untouched, but I kept putting fresh on to maximise the scent trail left in the water.

After having a snood snipped by a spider crab, I watched the other rod as it seemed to be moving in the current. However there was a lot of movement in the rod tip outside what I was used to by now with the wind. I reeled down tight and lifted into the resistance. It was light, but not like a doggie, so my suspicion was that it was a small ray. This was confirmed as it stayed deep until right next to the rocks, and I could see the distinctive diamond shape emerging from the very blue sea.

It was tiny, maybe only a pound in weight, however it was target achieved. I didn't have another bite but it rounded off the 2 sessions quite nicely, catching targets both today and last night. I was off the rocks just both the weather turned and I was cut off by the tide.

Back on the Lures

It was exactly a month ago that I had that epic night landing the 9lb bass, but since then I've not had a proper session throwing the plastic around, instead just an hour here and there trying new places. That all changed last night though, with the tide size within my comfort and the weather looking favourable I headed out to my so far reliable night lure mark.

I arrived with a bit of daylight left, starting downtide of where I normally fish, having a few casts into a channel as the tide was slack. Nothing happened, as expected, but I did notice that the patches of Japanese knotweed that was just sprouting a few weeks ago, were now a full length two to three metre rafts waving around in the water. Having long strands of floating weed about is far from ideal, treble hooks soon get caught up in it then its goodbye expensive lure.

With no sign of fish activity and the current yet to get moving I had a mooch around for some crab. While there were some monstrous male crabs around peelers and softies were few and far between, however a check of the pockets afterwards and I had nine to bulk out the numbers in the freezer.

By now the small tide had started to creep in, and the water had reached the point where the mark was now properly fishable. I began casting "the" lure, the Maria Angel Kiss, my go to lure and always the first one out of the box. I fished as I normally would, letting the lure drift most casts, occasionally straight retrieving from uptide or way downtide. Gradually the lure snagged less and less on the bottom, and my hopes rose as the tide reached the height at which my previous successes had come.

Despite hearing one fish jump off to the side of me early in the tide, the "hot" time I expected to catch came and went. Facing a possible blank I began to think what was different tonight than previous nights. It was flat calm, the wind was on my back and was decreasing throughout the session, and the current was sweeping to my left, but wasn't a raging torrent. I shone my torch at my feet, checking the water visibility. Curiously it was now down to a maximum of 2ft, while at slack tide there was around 3-4ft clarity when previously the water had cleared as the tide was running.

As my light was on I noticed a small silvery fish travelling with the current. Thinking this would be the typical prey of any bass around, I watched its movements so I could try and imitate them with the lure. While trying this for a couple of casts I heard a commotion in the water behind me. Shining my light in that direction I caught a glimpse of a dark grey/silver back as it moved out of the shallows. Even though I was fast being pushed back knowing there was bass around it was lights off and continue working the water.

It didn't take long after these latest signs of activity that as I worked the lure parallel to the shore, the rod hooped round. I felt the tell tale head shaking followed by a long first run as a bass took off downtide with the lure. Wanting to keep the fish away from the long strings of weed I lifted the rod high and pumped the fish up till it was on the surface. It made several more spirited runs but I was soon on top and slid the fish alongside me to land. It wasn't massive, but at around 3lb it gave a good account of itself. Once photographed it was back in the water. as usual I held it steady before it swam off strongly. All thoughts of an early bed were now gone as I went back out to the point.

Not two casts later the rod bent round and my reel was screaming again. This time the fish continued its long first run and made several attempts at darting between the shallows and deeper channel, also swimming uptide right towards me. It was trying every trick possible but the hook held and the fish was finally subdued. Now all I had to do was bring an evidently decent fish towards me against the current. I took my time and got my prize fish, and it was another clonker. A quick photograph and measure, at 66cm gives a weight of approximately 7lb, before it was back in the water swimming off as strong as it was on the way in.

I gave it another 30 minutes but was being pushed further back all the time. I also think that the fight from the last fish may have spooked any other fish in the area. Once again though, I was more than happy with my nights work and began thinking about my session the next morning

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