01/08/17 - Going for Gold

Yesterday I made a plan to have two short sessions, the main one would be to target an elusive North Wales gilthead bream, a species distinguished by a gold band running between its eyes. They have become increasingly common around the South and South West coasts of England and Wales, and slowly they seem to be visiting us as far North on Anglesey. There has been a fair few reports of them popping up around the Island, and with reliable information I headed to a mark where one had been caught earlier in the year.

The wind was quite strong, but on my back, meaning I could chuck a 2-hook flapper a reasonable distance with the spinning rod. After reading the fish baits weren't as preferable, I took some frozen crab and dug a few lugworm at the mark, using size 2 hooks I would also pick up anything else that would be feeling hungry.

Not completely confident in the conditions the first bite took me a bit by surprise. I lifted in after a series of short rattles and there was a fish on! It wasn't big, but I had a hope that it would be my target for the day. Sadly it wasn't, it was a tiny fingerling bass about 6 inch long. After a photo and bit of surgery to remove the deep hook it was back in the water to hopefully become that magical double figure fish. 

Another tiny schoolie later and I decided to move to try and locate a bream without fishing through the entire shoal. Unfortunately this second spot didn't fill me with confidence either, the water was shallow and clear, with the only sign of life being what looked like a mackerel leaping out of the water a couple of times. I moved back to the first spot and it was clear the schoolie bass were still around, missing a couple of bites before landing another.

A short drive later I was at mark 2 for the day. I fish this area quite a lot, mostly heavy ledgering for big fish. This time light ledgering crab and spinning in the gulleys was the order of the day, having been told that with a bit of white water pushing around the rocks, wrasse, bass and pollack would be lurking, waiting for an easy meal. I threw everything out there but it wasn't my day, instead of the water pushing through gently it was more like a washing machine. A tompot blenny managed to wriggle onto a big 2/0 hook, I had another missed bite on the crab and a couple of light taps on an IMA Narbarone diving plug, which I put down to small pollack.

Certainly not the results I was hoping for but can see the potential for both marks, an I have a good idea what to do differently next time to improve my chances. Looking at another session Friday, still tricky to decide on location with the unpredictable weather.