Celebrated 33 years of marriage by sneaking off to Milford Haven for another quick morning session. To be fair, it was actually my anniversary "present" off the wife, subject to the condition that I got her a Lidl almond croissant on the way back home.
In contrast to the previous morning it was bright and sunny with not a cloud in the sky. However, as a result it was a tad cooler at 10 degrees Centigrade and even briefly fell into single figures as I dropped down into the river valley at Gelli. Headed to the stone pier on the Hakin side of the marina entrance and found that I'd got the place to myself, although the port authority had put up some suitably grim posters to try and dissuade the local youth from tomb-stoning.
Again, it was about half an hour before high and there was a stream of boats of various descriptions exiting the lock and heading off up the haven. Set up on the end, baited up my mini two hook flapper and dropped it down the wall. Didn't get anything in the first ten minutes, so tried a few different spots before finding a shoal of pollack that seemed to like a strip of mackerel belly. Had half a dozen in quick succession before they disappeared, so went back to the first spot which I'd "chummed" with a few broken mussels. Had a couple of small corkwing wrasse, but bites were unusually slow in coming. At one point I spotted a shoal of sand smelt swimming under my feet so quickly wound in and dangled the my rig mid-water for one to immediately oblige and snaffle the mackerel strip.
However, by the time I'd unhooked him and popped him back his mates had scarpered. The tide had turned now and the outgoing flow was bringing a stream of debris past the end of the pier, including clumps of weed and presumably what were discards from the fishing boats, including bits of crabs and a sizeable bull huss.
Carried on moving about trying to chase bites, but could only manage a couple more corkwings and a rock goby. Briefly had a go off the main wall but it was a bit shallow and featureless, and after another ten minutes without a bite I was back on the pier. A few people had started to turn up now, including a couple of lady swimmers and a young family with some loud kids, so after a solitary shanny I called it a day. Had been a bit disappointing as the venue is usually far more prolific. Whether it was down to lack of ragworm for bait or something else, I don't know. Rounded off the morning dodging traffic and roads works to get the wife her croissant. Might need a rethink for the next two days.
