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!