Change of wind

After a session on the North of Anglesey on Monday went pretty badly, I was set up for a session on the west coast on Wednesday night. The forecast was for the westerly gales to finally give way to North Easterlies, knocking the swell down and making the west coast fishable.

I was itching to get fishing all through work, and arriving in good time I had best pick of the ledges with no-one else there. I set up in daylight, swell was a bit sketchy but I figured it couldn't get worse with the tide dropping. Ended up being a slightly wet session still, with the rain never completely stopped.

Action was slow to begin with, just a couple of half hearted bites in the first couple of hours. I remained hopeful, expecting a mad hour or so as the tide dropped further. As darkness fell, bites became a bit more regular with the culprits being doggies, and several of them. I struck into another doggie looking bite but this felt heavier, and started to fight back. Soon a nice huss was on the surface and I made my way around the rocks to land it. I attempted to use the swell to bring it up the rocks but unfortunately it slipped back down and as it writhed around it managed to slip the hook.

Two refreshed baits were sent out immediately, and the rods were soon nodding again. It was a doggie on the one, and the other turned out to be small bull huss.

Another doggie or two followed (I didn't keep count) before I saw a slack line bite. Upon striking I felt a good weight again and the fish started taking line. After a short but decent tussle I had a nice thornback ray at the surface. This time I made no mistake with the landing, getting it onto a lower ledge before hand lining up. Its wasn't big but that was both likely targets achieved and firsts of the year. I had hopes for a couple more but sadly the doggies came on strong and nothing else got a look in.