Recent Sessions

After Dan and Chris's guided session last weekend there was little chance to rest as I had Barry booked in for a guided lure session on the Tuesday. Faced with the same issue of the weather forecast making things tricky to predict, I spent much of Monday and Tuesday morning getting out with the lures at some new marks where hopefully there would be a decent level of water clarity.

During my preparation sessions I came across marks that were full of bait fish, initially I thought the water was dirty before realising it was fish, with mackerel of a range of sizes relentlessly smashing into them. This gave me a fair bit of optimism, and reading a few recent reports suggested that there were bass in amongst the mackerel. I tried a host of lures, different marks and techniques but unfortunately no bass showed for me.

I decided to take Barry into the Swellies, an area of fast currents and rocky pinnacles, situated between the two bridges that span the Menai Strait. We were starting around low tide and the current had yet to get going properly. We had some nice areas of slack water and eddies in front of us so I instructed Barry to go for casts around these regions. The thinking being that the bass would be sitting out of the main flow waiting for the current to bring them their meal.

Looking in the water it was obvious there was a lot of bait fish around even here, and not long after starting fishing the water in front of us erupted as they made a desperate attempt to reach freedom. While Barry carried on with the surface and shallow diving lures, I stuck on a long silver bar spinner to see what was causing the commotion. As expected it was a mackerel, and a really small one at that, perfect live bait size and I was hopeful that the bass would be following up the shoal. In between using his own lures I gave Barry a couple of mine to try, the main ones being the IMA Narbarone and Maria Angel kiss sandeel due to their action and likeness to potential prey at the time.

Despite walking up and down the bank there was no sign of any bass, and as the current got stronger the areas of slack water were severely reduced. With my confidence in the mark fading we made a move up towards Penmon where hopefully the water would still be clear and over high tide we could fish shallow diving lures over the rocky ground without too much risk of snagging.

In short, nothing happened. The water looked good but it was a case of being in the right place right time and sadly we weren't. I was determined to find Barry a fish, however with a long drive back he, quite sensibly called it a night. I'm certain that the fish would have turned up at some point but that could have been long into the night.

With the frustration of not being able to provide Barry a fish I got back on the lures over this weekend. I revisited Penmon, but faced with completely different, very murky conditions I decided not to waste much time there, heading back to the Swellies just on the turn of the tide. I lost faith in the lures pretty quickly and after a quick rummage I found a few late season peeler crabs. These were lashed on and just lobbed out, again aiming for calmer areas of water. It wasn't to be though, as either wrasse or blennies were stripping the baits in seconds, thats if I managed to get the gear back at all.

After stopping in Menai Kayak Angling for a bit of up to date information and a couple of new lures I was back in the Swellies for the slack water again. Admittedly I wasn't particularly confident again and as expected I drew a blank. It is, however all learning, it has taken people years to master fishing within even this short stretch of water and it will be the same for me and hopefully the hard work will pay off in the long run. In addition it has apparently been hard going for many fishers in the area. Dave in Menai Kayak Angling suggested that the abundance of baitfish and small mackerel mean that the bass have simply gorged until full up, and a bass that isn't hungry is less likely to make an instinctive strike at a lure. Lastly the rain that fell early in the week may have had an impact, as all that freshwater would now have worked its way into the Straits, and that might partly explain why the water clarity was slightly reduced on Monday compared with Saturday.

I may be completely wrong with these thoughts but persistence will definitely pay!

2/9/17 - Guiding

Saturday just gone I had a couple of guests, Dan and Chris, who had booked in a session a few weeks ago. In an effort to give them as much preparation time as possible I was keeping close watch on the weather forecast which would likely have the deciding factor where we would fish. Unfortunately due to the storm activity in the Atlantic, the weekend forecast was changing pretty much by the hour. There were several possibilities but in the end I opted for Cymyran, as the building wind and waves would possibly bring us a few schoolies and an early ray. Both guys were experienced all round fishermen, however with sea fishing they had fished mostly the same places and caught mostly the same species. The plan here being to take them to a new mark, and try for a different species.

We met at the beach late afternoon. I was still unsure about fishing here until popping my head over the top I could see a decent area of breaking waves, but not so far out that they would have trouble casting. As an added bonus the wind was coming straight onto the beach and was definitely not as bad as expected. Once suited and booted we headed off down the beach.

Both were well prepared for the session, having tied up plenty of pulley and up and over rigs which are my preference to use when fishing for rays. To start with they fished one each for rays, and I recommended having one flapper out to try and tempt any schoolies or flatties which given the surf should have been running close inshore. As darkness came on we would swap to fishing big sandeel or crab baits for rays, bass and occasional smoothound that run the beach.

It wasn't long after first casts were made and Chris was scrambling back to his rod. Waiting a few seconds before striking it was clear that the fish had made good its escape with a chunk of squid. A few minutes into the next cast and he had another obvious bite that we all saw. It was slightly tense on reeling in, the fish didn't appear to be on again, the only sensation being the grip lead bouncing along the sand ripples. As his leader knot appeared it was a relief to see small splashing in the shallows, and he lifted up a little schoolie bass. With neither of the guys having caught a bass before I was chuffed that was the first fish of the evening.

With that I thought there would have been a few more schoolies out there, so keep the guys using flapper rigs a bit longer but no more fish obliged. As night fell, if we were going to get a ray this would be the window, so both Dan and Chris swapped both rods back onto pulley and up and over rigs using mostly double sandeel, and using the occasional softie crab to maximise our chances.

Sadly no more fish showed. The wind increased and started coming across us which might have hampered casting distance and we simply weren't able to reach the fish, or they simply weren't there. I think it was a case of the latter, as with the range of baits and rigs cast out they had covered almost all bases, and wading out certainly helped gain valuable yards on the cast. With no obvious signs of movement and the weather now uncomfortable the guys made the decision of making last casts before the long drive back for them. They had a great time, the aim was always to take them to a new mark and try a different way of fishing but I couldn't help feeling a little disappointed that no more fish turned up. However they can take the knowledge away, and if they fish the same mark the same way in a couple of weeks they might bag up on rays.

The evening conditions were a complete contrast to the morning, I finished a night shift at 8am and with the lures already in the car I set off to explore a new area of the coast. While chucking the lures around I spotted a decent wrasse swimming around the boulders almost at my feet. The only option I had was to freeline a couple of limpets into a hole and it didn't take long before the line tightened. It was a good fish, and clearly the water was a reasonable depth under the boulder but after 3 or 4 dives it was under control and posing for a photo.

Next up is another guest tomorrow for some lure fishing this time, so plenty of exploring today and tomorrow morning, the weather again making things tricky

!