29/08/2018 - Summer sea round up

Signed up to the Sea Angling Diary project a while ago, not only to provide myself with a bit of an incentive to get out and do some fishing, but also to put back into the sport and to help provide accurate information about the impact that recreational angling has in the UK. You only need to look at the recent restrictions placed on recreational bass anglers and the subsequent acknowledgement that this was based on poor data to realise what importance such a study could have. A few days after signing up on-line I received my pack, which included a fishing log, a handy fish ID guide, a tape measure and instructions for logging catches using the dedicated web tool. August saw two family trips down to Pembrokeshire, so a few sessions were duly planned to fit around the prevailing tides. What follows are the diary entries for those trips - some more successful than others!


02/08/18 Hobbs Point, Pembroke Dock, -0.5 hrs HW +1.0 hrs. Grey and overcast with drizzle. Fished off the pontoon using a two hook mini flapper baited with bits of raw prawn. Had loads of rock gobies (as usual!) and a solitary, male corkwing wrasse. 

Lost three rigs to something that either broke me off or dived into the kelp and snagged me.  Did spot, but failed to tempt, several large mullet under the pontoon. A target for another time. Popped into Raven Trading just as the bait digger arrived with that morning's freshly dug haul of ragworm. Result!

03/08/18 Milford Haven wall, -2.5 hrs HW +1.0 hrs. Grey and overcast with showers. Had been warned that the harbour authorities were getting a bit zealous and had been kicking anglers off for "anti-social behaviour", so set up to the left of the mackerel landing stage and well away from the lock pit. Fished a double mackerel fillet at range on a pulley pennel rig hoping for a bass or a doggie and a two hook flapper rig baited with ragworm closer in for anything else. Got to high water with no interest in either, so fished down the side with the LRF rod with a mini two flapper baited with scraps of ragworm to relieve the boredom! Had several corkwing and ballan wrasse, pollack, shannies and a surprise silver eel (an addition to the species hunt) before my stomach called time and I headed home for breakfast.

 



















04/08/18 Cleddau Estuary, Lawrenny Quay, LW +4 hrs. Sunny intervals with a light, changeable breeze. Had sorted out my gear the day before to find the tip ring on my lure rod had broken off in transit. However, a quick trip to see John at Raven Trading saw that easily rectified and at minimal cost, much to  my relief. Started by fishing weedless, soft plastics over the slack water period without any hits, before switching to hard lures as the tide picked up. However, I was only able to manage just one small schoolie on the usually dependable Megabass x120, so got the bait rod out for the last half an hour. Fished a two hook flapper baited with ragworm out on the crease and had bites straight away, resulting in two more schoolies. Saw a huge shoal of mullet topping at the mouth of the inlet. They all moved upstream past me in procession as the tide turned, presumably heading for their (as yet unknown) feeding grounds.


05/05/18 Cleddau Estuary, Lawrenny Quay, LW +1.5 hrs. Bright and sunny. Planned to fish with lures again. It was very still and calm when I arrived, so I opted to fish on the top. Set up an IMA salt skimmer with a sandeel fly on a dropper three feet up the leader as a "teaser". Fishing around the moored boats I had seven strikes in quick succession, which I converted into five schoolies - two on the teaser and three on the skimmer. Was building into a great session before I was called away to deal with a family crisis.


25/08/18 Fishguard inner breakwater, -0.5 hrs HW +3.5 hrs. Sunny intervals with a brisk westerly breeze, so fished off the right hand side of the breakwater, drifting float fished mackerel strips around over the kelp in the hope of a pollack, wrasse or garfish. Saw a grey seal catch and eat a large mullet a bit further along the breakwater and wasn't too chuffed when he later popped up right in front of me although from the way he barked at me I don't thnk he was pleased to see me either! After a couple of hours I'd had nothing on the float, so got the LRF rod out and switched to fishing angleworm and fish strips on a mini two hook flapper down the side instead. Had several small pollack and a tiny little poor cod, which was at least a new species for the year, before packing up. Still haven't really got to grips with the venue. It always looks more promising than it actually is, but I'll be back again in the Autumn to for codling and whiting.

26/08/18 Saundersfoot Harbour inner wall, -0.5 HW +1.0. Overcast with a stiff, offshore breeze. Had been looking forward to having another go for the garfish at this venue for a while. Arrived in the early evening just before high tide to find a few people already set up on the inner wall, including John and Jay from Raven Trading out species hunting. Was less impressed to find that the sea was very coloured due to the high winds we'd had earlier in the day. Set up the float rod anyway with mackerel strip and fished bits of prawn on a mini two hook flapper down the side of the wall. Had two shannies, so at least avoided a blank, unlike everybody else around me! There was a brief moment of excitement when John spotted a fifteen spined stickleback on the surface, but even this had disappeared by the time he'd set up a rig for it. Not a session to remember!


27/08/18 Hobbs Point, -0.5 HW +1.0. Overcast with strong westerly wind blowing straight up the Haven. Nearly turned around and went home. Had planned to have a go for the mullet under the pontoon, but it was so choppy it would have been like fishing off a boat! Fished a two hook flapper down the wall instead baited with whole raw prawns for a bass, pollack or wrasse and a mini version on the LRF rod, again baited with scraps of prawn for the mini-species. Bite detection was a bit difficult because of the wind. However, the rock gobies were obliging and I managed nine of these and a single pollack before I'd had enough.

In summary, I didn't really set the world alight this summer, but I suppose that's reality and not Youtube! Looking forwards, apart from the sad and tragic family event that cut short my first trip down to Wales, we received the happier news that my lad had passed his A-levels with flying colours and confirmed his place at Exeter University's campus at Falmouth to do Zoology. 


Whilst it's a flipping long way, it will hopefully open up a whole new world in terms of venues and species. First trip will be in September via Exmouth, so fingers crossed! 

05/08/2016 - Gars and silver bars

Happened to have a chat with John at Raven Trading about how his species hunting was going and got around to garfish. He mentioned that there were quite a few coming out at Saundersfoot so, having managed to procure a mackerel at the last minute for bait, James and I headed off down to the harbour for a evening high tide.

The outer wall was lined with grockles flinging mackerel feathers to the horizon, sideways or straight up in the air depending on their competency, but we spotted a gap where a couple of chaps and their kids were packing up. Had a quick chat with them, but it didn't sound too hopeful as they said nobody had caught anything all evening! However, undeterred, I set up the float rod for James with an adjustable two-hook rig baited with thin belly strips of the mackerel, which turned out to be less than fresh! To start with one of the size 6 hooks was set at about 18 inches below the float and the other at 3 feet. Cast it out about 20 yards to the edge of the ripple. It was then just a question of getting the boy to keep an eye on it as it drifted back towards the wall, hopefully to be intercepted by a garfish or a mackerel. 

In the meantime I set up one of the light rods with a scratching rig and dropped it down the side of the wall baited with bits of equally stale ragworm and prawn to see if there was anything about. Didn't have to wait long before I had the first of many rattles.

Basically there just seemed to be a couple of species present. Either the bait on the bottom was taken by a shanny, or a sand smelt grabbed the bait on the top hook - it was a race between the two! However, didn't mind as there were plenty of both and I still appeared to be the only person catching anything! The garfish rig had been re-cast a couple of times when James said the float had gone under. Told him to wind the slack in quick and he briefly felt a fish on before it came off. Cast out to the same spot and it wan't long before the float was off again. This time I wound down and struck for him and then handed him the rod. After some brief, surface acrobatics our target species was safely in the net.

Unfortunately, he turned out to be deep-hooked, so he was swiftly dispatched for the boy's tea. Re-baited and cast out again for the float to disappear almost immediately. James confirmed fish on and got it to the point of lifting it out of the water when it fell off. However, there were no problems with the next one. This was hooked nicely in the beak, so was released with a quick shake of the forceps. Not long afterwards I had an unexpected silver eel that made a complete mess of my end rig! It was getting a bit dark to see the float by now and the crabs seemed to have moved in under my feet. John happened to turn up at this point as well so, after thanking him for his tip off and gleaning yet more useful information off him, we gave the crabs the leftover, manky bait and headed home. 

A few days later, I had the opportunity of lure fishing a couple of early morning low tides down on the estuary at Lawrenny for the bass. 

First morning I was up at 5 am, making my way down to the estuary in the half light to catch the tide as it turned and started flooding back in. Kept faith with the "teaser rig" - a bass fly on a dropper about three feet up from the lure. It was nice and still when I arrived, so started with a surface lure, but after about half an hour I'd had no interest, so switched to my favourite Megabass X-120. However, whilst this obviously got down the where the fish were feeding, all of the subsequent takes were on the fly. Had a couple of mini-bass, then lost a decent fish as I was drawing it into the shallows to unhook. Working my way up the beach I had a better schoolie before the racing tide and bright sunshine called a halt to the session.

In complete contrast, whilst I got an extra hour in bed, the following morning was cold and windy. Got to the venue to find somebody already fishing from the point and, as I put my waders on, another van pulled up beside me. Had a quick chat with the driver who was also down for the bass. He said that there'd been some decent fish coming out on soft plastics. I'd not got any with me this trip, so that was filed away for future reference. He was obviously keen to get going, so left him to join his mate on the point, while I went down onto the beach.

Over the next couple of hours I methodically fished my way towards them, occasionally having a crafty look to see how they were doing. Saw van chappie catch at least two nice fish. All I'd had at that stage was a micro-schoolie that you would have struggled  to make a fish finger out of! However, that was to change with the weather. The wind dropped completely and a fine drizzle set in.

My companions on the point packed up, confirming as they walked past that they'd just had the couple, whilst I persevered a bit longer. Walked up to the point where the incoming tide was now creating a pronounced crease between the main channel and the beach. Cast down and across the crease and was rewarded by a thump on the rod tip from a plump schoolie. Next cast the tip thumped over again, resulting in a bigger, albeit skinnier, fish. Carried on for a bit, working back down the beach, but that was it. 

Stopped off on the way home to pick some samphire, which I made a very satisfying breakfast of with a poached egg on toast. Well...you can't have a bacon sarnie every day!