27/102019 - Glutton for punishment!

Another weekend and another short trip down to Wales. Unfortunately it coincided with some awful weather and all of Friday and most of Saturday was spent watching the rain lash against the windows, with England's monumental win against the All Blacks providing the only break in the gloom. Sunday morning looked a lot better so I made plans to head up to Fishguard again, the scene of a comprehensive blank when I was down a few weeks ago! The clocks changing had thrown a bit of a spanner in the works in that first light came an hour after high tide. Fishing the ebb wouldn't be ideal, but it would have to do. Set off after having to de-ice the car after a hard, overnight frost and arrived just as the sun was creeping over the headland. 

Popped into the garage for a Costa and drank it in the car park before venturing out into the chilly air, hoping at the very least that the drop in temperature might keep the crabs quiet this time! Spotted oystercatchers, curlews, a kingfisher and a grey seal as I walked along the end of the breakwater. Once in position I got the gear sorted out and was soon avidly concentrating on the rod tips. Didn't have to wait long before the flapper rod started knocking. Wound in to find that a small pin whiting had hung itself on the bottom hook. 

At least I had avoided the blank! The other rod had also been banging away during this time, but I wound in to find the mackerel/squid cocktail reduced to bare hooks - crabs again?? 

Got into a routine of re-baiting, casting out and then waiting for the rod tips to start twitching again. More often than not there was nothing on the end when I wound in apart from a mangled bait, but now and then I managed to snag another pin whiting, aka "fish finger"! However, whilst it had turned into a glorious morning, it wasn't exactly riveting and I found my mind wandering a bit, what with keeping tabs on the score between Wales and South Africa in what sounded a real grueller of a match and also watching a grey seal hunting along the weedy margins of the breakwater. As the tide ebbed away the fish activity seemed to die off as well, so I decided to pack up and head home to watch the second half of the rugby with the wife (at this stage a very concerned Wales fan!). At least I'd had a few fish this time and hopefully they'll be a bit bigger when we come back at Christmas.