lmuslibar – Page 4 – Anglers and Danglers

Hunting Scottish Skate

This blog is still in its infancy and like many my fishing ventures have been scuppered by covid this past year, so I’ve not written about Skate fishing on here before. However it has been something of an obsession for me over the last five years, having spent much of my waking life perusing Google earth and shipping charts trying to locate likely looking fishing marks for these elusive ‘barn doors.’ You need to consider not only the depth you’re fishing, but access to the waters edge to physically land a fish that could potentially weigh over 200lb which means understanding any underwater obstructions/ledges that will make the task of landing impossible.

Over the last five years myself and Steve, who’s been equally as obsessed with catching one of these fish, have put thousands of hours into researching possible skate marks and tactics and put as many miles on the clock travelling to these places with only limited success, with my last trip yielding a 30lb Common Skate, my first and only to date.

My first and only Skate to date – caught in 2019

There are of course places you can go which are well known that have been well canvassed on YouTube and social media – and this is another factor. These marks will and do yield results, but you have to be prepared to potentially share a small space with multiple other anglers. Such is the growing popularity of targeting these fish from the shore that people come from all over the U.K. to Scotland in order to try and catch them.

Long time since I last crossed the border!

Personally though I prefer the quieter spots, and what better way to truly embrace isolation than in this part of the country, combining wild-camping and fishing; I don’t think there’s a better soul medicine.

Tackling up for shore Skate

I’m by no means a seasoned Skate angler – as I’ve said, I’ve only had limited success with them. Consider though that you’re fishing for something that could potentially be as big as you, so it stands to reason that tackle needs to be beefed up to handle the job at hand. A heavy beach rod with plenty of guts is a must – I use a MK1 carbon metal crest, one of the early carbon metal rods – stiff and plenty of power! These fish will glue themselves the seabed when they realise they’re hooked and refuse to budge, so you need a rod that will provide enough backbone to keep the pressure on for a long time to encourage it to dislodge itself. Reel choice is down to personal preference, but make sure you consider the depth of the venue and the amount of line the reel holds and again, it needs to have the guts to handle the abuse of hauling a Skate up from the depths. I go for the penn battle 7000 fixed spool, preferring fixed spool over multiplier as i find it easier to control when casting large baits. I load this with 90lb braid – braid being better again for keeping the pressure up due to the lack of stretch, and the improved bite detection when fishing deep water.

The point here being that if a hooked skate decides to take off in the opposite direction, there’s nothing you or any rod and reel on the planet is gonna do about it, so make sure you’re gear is up to the task.

Rigs

Again there’s no single answer and everyone has their preference. Given the size of the quarry though rigs need to be of at least 150lb – matched with hooks 10/0 or bigger (avoid stainless steel as they do not rust if you need to cut the line on a deep hooked fish).

I use a pulley rig anywhere between 5 and 8 foot long depending on depths – and always with a weak link to the lead regardless of where I am fishing.

A good sized Mackerel bait mounted on a single 10/0

Day 1

This time I was joined once again by Steve and also his mate Jamie (his first time sea fishing) on a four day trip to various marks in the north west highlands of Scotland. The trip had been planned for months in advance and it seemed like fate that the Scottish government were lifting the border restrictions on the 26th of April – the exact date we were pencilled to go!

After just over a five hour drive I arrived at the first mark at around 7pm, Steve and Jamie having arrived a few minutes before. Spirits were high in anticipation; we’ve never fished this mark but it’s one we’ve had an inkling about for over a year but haven’t had the chance to fish yet due to covid!

To cut a long story short though there’s not a lot to talk about with regards to the first night other than how uncharacteristically beautiful the weather is – the night sky is lit up by an intense full moon and the water is flat calm, the occasional twitter of a tawny owl somewhere in the hills breaking the silence.

A wee Palmate Newt in a small pool nearby

An occasional dogfish breaks the monotony on the fishing front, some managing to hang themselves on the 10/0 Cox and Rawle meat hooks. No Skate though and In the end we decide to call it at 2am as we’re all a bit shattered from the drive up, with the intention of hitting it hard tomorrow.

Day 2

A mixed bag of weather today, with a stubborn cross wind and periods of intermittent rain making things a bit uncomfortable. In actual fact, other than a solitary pollock in the early morning mist, the mark is seemingly devoid of life throughout the daytime. Only when the sun drops do the ever reliable dogfish start to put in an appearance as we busy ourselves making a small campfire.

Bait wise we’re using a mix of things – mostly mackerel which are cut in half. It is possible to use larger baits, and there may be advantages in terms of scent appeal, however this comes at the expense of lost distance when casting. It’s certainly not necessary to use massive baits and many Skate have been hooked and lost having taken smaller baits intended for smaller species and half a mackerel is still compact enough that it can be flung out a good distance. Aside from mackerel we also try bluey, pollock and even dogfish for bait – all of which will be readily taken by Skate, which aren’t the fussiest of fish and will eat most things!

At 1:30am, one of my rods gives a typical nod nod of yet another dogfish. Resigned to having to probably change the bait again, I leave it a bit to see if it will lose interest. After a while though i notice the rod seems to be pulling down slowly a couple of inches at a time. Excitement sets in as we realise this is definitely something different – and after sitting on my hands and letting it develop a little more I decide to hit it. The resulting bend in the rod is unmistakable – I’ve hooked the first skate of the trip!

For the first 10 seconds it’s coming in relatively easily and it appears to just be a smaller fish, not dissimilar to the 30lb fish I’ve had previously. Then for whatever reason, it realises it’s hooked, turns in the opposite direction and (excuse the term) f***s off for the horizon – and there’s not a damn thing I can do about it. The drag of my penn battle is almost fully locked up, and yet the fish has my carbon metal crest buckled, peeling line off the spool at an impressive rate of knots – it’s immediately obvious at this point that she’s a big girl! She then employs the typical “sit and sulk” tactic, gluing herself to the seabed and there’s nothing to do but jam the rod butt into a rock and sit on it, keeping the pressure constant, waiting for her to give up. She dislodges a handful of times and lets me gain a few yards, only to give me the proverbial finger and take double, triple, quadruple the amount of line back before suctioning herself to the seabed again. The lads are providing words of encouragement (and the odd bit of micky taking). At one point she is sat, completely unmoved, for a good 40 minutes. A bit of extra pressure and I feel the lead part company – reiterating the importance of a weak link. No matter how clean you think the ground is, a Skate will spend 95% of the fight on the deck, and you can pretty much guarantee if there’s a snag to be found, it’ll find it!

Sure enough she’s moving again and finally starts to come up through 90ft of water. This is probably the most nail biting (and exhausting) part of the fight, as every time I lower the rod to pump it back, the momentary slight lapse in pressure is taken as an opportunity as the skate turns and shoots back down again – and all I can do is hang on and let her. A few times she isn’t far from the surface before turning and heading back down the full way and I have to start over again!

First glimpse nearly an hour and a half later!

Finally, 1 hour and 20 minutes after first hooking her, she suddenly emerges on the surface a couple of yards in front of us and we’re all in complete shock. You see plenty of pictures and videos online but until you see one in the flesh it’s hard to appreciate their size.

A couple of nervous moments as she makes a couple of last ditch attempts to turn and get back down again – even now testing the gear to complete limits. She eventually gives up though and we negotiate her onto a low lying rock, still partially in the water, so that she can be unhooked, measured and photographed.

It’s impossible to physically weigh a fish of this size so weight is determined by pre approved charts using a measurement from nose to tail and wing tip to wing tip and we calculate that by the chart she weighs 178lb. I’m absolutely ecstatic. After 5 years and hours and hours of research and travel time, I’ve finally landed a Skate over the 100lb mark.

A shore caught, female Common Skate – 178lb according to the charts

Following a few photos she’s released, taking her time to disappear off into the depths and leaving us watching, completely speechless. In fact I’m speechless for pretty much the rest of the night, not knowing what to do with myself. I don’t even really bother continuing to fish – just sitting content having finally achieved what I set out to do years ago. It’s nearing 4am and we have a few beers to celebrate next to the campfire on a blissfully calm night before turning in.

Day’s 3/4

Despite the success of the previous night we decide to up sticks and head further north, given that the current mark doesn’t appear to fish well during the day and the forecast is for the wind to swing round into our faces. In hindsight we probably would have been better off staying where we were as our efforts were only rewarded with a handful of dogfish, and we can’t help but feel the day was wasted a bit. We decide that tomorrow for the final full day we’ll go back to the area where I caught my 30lb fish 2 years ago.

This Loch has a reputation for smaller Skate and I suspect it acts as a nursery.

We busy ourselves making camp and once again spark up a fire, cooking steak, sausages and pork chops on a flat piece of slate – proper bushcraft style!

The fishing is a little slow but we do manage a handful of Thornback Ray’s each throughout the evening and into darkness, including a first ray for Jamie, although sadly no more skate.

And so ends another trip. I’m still in awe from the experience, and my arms still hurt 4 days later! But I can’t wait to get up there again.

Dusting off the fluff chucker

Fly fishing is more of a reserve option for me nowadays – I used to split my time between sea and fly fishing pretty much 50/50, even occasionally dabbling in the odd bit of coarse and pike fishing back in my youth. Nowadays 99% of the time I get the urge to go fishing however, I usually find myself contemplating saltwater venues up and down the country rather than freshwater. Today was an exception to the norm – the sea has been rough on our north east coast for over a week and in general this is a pretty dire time of year for sea fishing without putting in a few hours of travel so I decided after a 3 year hiatus to dust of the fluff chucking gear and head to my local fishery, Sharpley Springs in Seaham, County Durham.

Looking out on the main lake at Sharpley. ‘The Doxford’

Sharpley is a made up of 5 fly fishing only lakes stocked predominantly with hard fighting rainbow trout, although there are also some absolutely stunning brown trout, which are a lot more shy and seldom seen in comparison. There have also been some more recent introductions in the shape of tiger trout, although I’ve yet to be lucky enough to pick one out! Aside from the fly fishing only lakes there is also a small kids worm lake at the entrance of the site stocked with rainbows for the young’uns to cut their teeth on.

Most of the time when fishing this venue I tend to stick with midge patterns of some description as they’re more often than not the staple and readily fed on at some stage during the day – be it bloodworm larvae imitations, buzzers or emerging patterns. The lakes also get a regular smattering of olives also, especially in the warmer months of the year, as well as the occasional good hatch of brown sedge which can make for some really exciting dry fly fishing on a late summer evening. As the fishery is bordered by conifers and hedge rows, it’s no surprise that it gets its fair share of terrestrials as well – and this is about the time of year when hordes of adult Hawthorn flies begin to make an appearance, which on a blustery day can see the fish gorging on wind blown adults.

I arrived just before 10am and signed in at the golf lodge before heading round to the fishery. As it’s still early spring, I decide to start off with a team of 2 buzzers on a 12 foot leader to see how things go, choosing a black buzzer for the point fly and a self tied quill buzzer in dark olive on the dropper. There doesn’t appear to be much rising to start with so the idea is to straight line these to test the depths until the fish are found.

Well the first couple of hours pass with little more than a couple of twitches. I try a few different patterns and sizes but the fish are really slow on the uptake until around half an hour before midday when suddenly the lake starts to come alive with emerging midges of all sizes. There seems to be a mix of colours from pale olive, black and even orange – some of them are massive as well, the biggest I’ve seen on here before. Sure enough the trout are soon homing in on them and I quickly change to a couple of shipmans patterns to fish in the surface film. That does the trick and after turning a couple of fish over I finally hit one on a size 14 brown shipmans and the thrill of fighting a good stocky rainbow comes back – I’ve missed this!

A fine conditioned fish is soon landed and unhooked in the net – I’m on a catch and release ticket so he’s quickly unhooked and slipped back. I follow this up with another fish shortly after, this time on a black size 16 shipmans before the weather takes a turn and the luke warm sunshine turns to grey cloud and snow in a matter of minutes, putting the fish down again. The fish are still feeding though and a swap back to buzzers fished deeper and allowed to move with the wind brings a few more to the net over the course of the next couple of hours – all on black buzzers in sizes 16-14.

A fine conditioned Rainbow Trout caught on a Black Buzzer

The weather is really making things difficult however. The midges continue to emerge infrequently, taking advantage of brief intermittences of sunshine which encourages tentative rises from hungry trout, only for them to be put down again by the onset of regular of flurries of snow and an icy breeze. The wind direction is unusually inconsistent as well which makes finding an optimal cross wind to drift the buzzers round more difficult than it should be!

Frustrating conditions. The wind is all over the place and getting a decent drift is a challenge so a slow retrieve at different depths is necessary.

Moving around a few pegs over the course of the afternoon proves fruitful however and the fish continue to oblige on the buzzers when I actually manage to get them drifting well. By the time 5pm rolls around I’ve had my fill and am starting to feel the cold! I’ve had at least a dozen fish which is a decent day really, especially given my 3 year absence!

A nice Rainbow. The brass tool is handy for unhooking in the net when practicing catch and release – minimal handling.

I really enjoyed today actually despite the frustrating weather. Sea fishing is definitely my go to in most situations but with poor prospects locally at the moment it’s good to have this on the doorstep as a backup. I might even have another go in the coming weeks.

First session of 2021 – hard work!

Finally, after 4 months of lockdown, I’ve managed to get out and actually have something to write about! Sods law I finally get round to starting a blog after a few years of thinking about it and then covid comes along!

Anyway, i headed up to Druridge armed with ragworm and mackerel from baitsrus.com (first time using these and must admit I was really impressed – mackerel was still solid when the package arrived and the worms were brilliant).

There’s a canny surf running, in fact it was a bit on the bigger side of what I prefer but I was determined I was going to make the most of it. Despite clear skies and sunshine all day the temperature was really low and I regretted leaving the second hoodie in the car!

An hour into the flood and the first Bass made an appearance, a small schoolie which had a fair bit of growing to do to get to keepable size! It looked like it had been though the wars a bit with some scarring across its flank and was a little lean – hopefully this is a sign that it’s starting to feed well and will be back to prime condition soon!

Shortly a surprising Turbot followed – I always fish a rod for Turbot when I’m up here but with the combination of rough sea and murky water I wasn’t expecting there to be any about.

From this point the next 4 hours are a struggle – the sea is big and the current strong, bringing in the weed but I stick it out. It’s not until an hour before high water that the rod finally registers some interest and Bass number 2 pops out – pretty much the same size as the last.

I give it another hour to use up the last of the worms but no more fish show so decide to call it a night. Not quite the return to form I was hoping for but there’s always next time!

A crisp evening on the beach to blow away the lockdown cobwebs!

Helloooooo out there.

What a truly rubbish few months (and year) it’s been. Truthfully I haven’t gotten out fishing since my last report in December – primarily because of the latest Covid lockdown in England. I could have maybe gotten out locally as i live not far from the sea, but in all honesty most of my preferred venues are outside of my immediate locality!

With restrictions relaxing though I’m off out for the first time in months on Saturday – I think I’m Druridge bound fo some general pleasure fishing for flatfish and Bass. Then off work for a week so may have another session further afield as things start to relax a bit more hopefully.

Roll on the weekend!

New mark in Northumberland

Another opportunity beckoned to break the monotony of lockdown this weekend. Conditions weren’t as favourable as they have been on my last couple of outings but Tony and I were still hopeful of a few fish. The choice of mark was another new one for me – though Tony has fished it for years. The mark has a reputation for good quality fish, with bigger doubles common.

A 10 minute walk through a farmers field had us circumventing some curious cattle – mostly young bullocks from the look of things. Thankfully they don’t get too excitable and we were shortly down on the coast and scrambling over smooth rocks and boulders to get to our first mark. Ive been toying with investing in some wader studs and at this point i think my minds made up – it took some careful judgement as I hopped from rock to rock, praying to god i didn’t slip and break my neck! Some of the rocks are really mossy and an absolute death trap when wet, especially at night.

We soon had baits in the water whilst waiting for the tide to recede enough to wade into our main mark for the evening. A couple of tentative knocks showed that there was at least something about.

We only had time for one chuck before the first part of the skeer was exposed so we quickly moved over. First chuck on here on a squid, black and cart cocktail proved a winning combo as I got a very convincing thump after 5 minutes – and upon lifting into it there was a healthy weight on the end. It kept low all the way in and made use of a few of the ledges, which I suppose added to the surprise when it finally surfaced and turned out to be smaller than I was expecting. Still at 4lb 10oz I’m happy with that for a first fish on a new mark!

This lulls us into a false sense of confidence – surely an early fish means a half decent night? Unfortunately the reality is there’s little more for me to write about as what followed was a pretty much fruitless 4 hours save for a barely sized codling for me to keep me from nodding off completely!

Only on the “last cast” of the evening does Tony finally beat the blank with a fish of around 2lb. “Be rude not to have another cast” he says and sure enough he manages another about the same size to level the score and we decide to call it a night before the tide begins to push us back.

So not the night we were hoping for but at least we did not blank – and another decent fish supper for me! Hopefully things don’t tail off early this year and we still get a couple more sessions in before the fish move off to spawn.

Nothing to write about!

Not much interesting to write about the latest session sadly. I attempted to repeat the success of last week and hit the rocks in search of cod. Sadly a solitary Coalfish and a well lit sky were about the only interesting events of the evening. Next time!

First Cod of 2020

While I’m not perhaps the most die hard enthusiast when it comes to cod fishing, I do enjoy having at least a few sessions on them each winter.

Following a lengthy hiatus due to work, studying and general life, I spotted earlier in the week that finally, after weeks of settled conditions, there was a bit of sea forecast for Thursday. Thrilled at the prospect of going fishing for the first time in 2 months, I got myself a few packs of fresh black lug worm from the local tackle shop and raided my somewhat depleted freezer for a load of year old cart sticks and some ropey looking squid that had been refrozen following the last Wales trip.

I didn’t care – I was going and that was that!

It was obvious from the forecast that marks were going to be limited. I’d arranged to meet with Tony, one of the lads off the SAR forum, as we both had similar plans in mind in terms of marks that would be suitable during what was forecast to be a pretty big northerly sea! By the time I arrived at the first mark Tony had already been fishing well over an hour and had a codling of size for his efforts. I managed a couple of fruitless casts here before the tide receded and we upped sticks to a mark a little bit down the coast.

There’s a skeer here that gets exposed towards low water giving access to multiple holes thick with kelp. We still had a bit to go before it was safe to wade on so fished to side of it for the first couple of hours. This proved a good decision as we were into fish pretty early, nothing massive but all going size with the best probably just over the 2lb mark. I was getting them on squid and blacks while Tony seemed to be getting the slightly better stamp mostly on cart. Most fish were sent back kicking, the 3/0 circle hooks having done a good job of lipping most fish with only one of them being badly hooked and kept for the table.

A codling of about 2lb. They were feeding well tonight – this one coughed up a rockling!

With over half a dozen fish between us, eventually the tide had dropped enough and we trudged along the first part of the skeer now that it was exposed. First chuck into the jungles; not much time passed before I had a good thump on a cocktail of squid/lug/cart and once i struck it was obvious that this was a better stamp of fish. It kept low most of the way in but thankfully avoided the worst of the snags before popping up to the surface, it’s gob open wide in protest, defeated. This one was also destined for the fryer so was quickly dispatched. I’d later find out when weighing it at home that it was 5lb 8oz – not bad for first chuck!

Best fish of the night for me – 5lb 8oz.

Surprisingly the rest of the evening was slow, in fact save for a couple of tentative nibbles from smaller fish I didn’t manage to connect with anything else. Tony on the other hand hooked into something that put a fairly heavy bend in his T1000 and probably would have been the fish of the night, although sadly we never saw it as the hook came away. Another hour or so passed without much interest then on the last cast before home Tony winkled one out at 4lb 7oz.

Suitably content with the evenings efforts, we called time at around 1am.

It was great being out again after so long – hopefully get another chance in the coming weeks.

Still here!

I started this blog with good intentions but as always life gets in the way and I’ve somewhat neglected it these past couple of months. The truth is I haven’t actually been fishing since the last Wales post – mostly down to time as I’ve been busy either with work, family, farm handing and more recently studying part time for a degree!

We’re smack in the middle of Cod season up here in the north east and I’ve yet to get out for them. I must admit it’s not my favourite type of fishing, but I do try to have at least a couple of sessions on them every year. But these last few weeks whenever there’s been a rare opportunity, the conditions haven’t favoured.

So I might have to have a rethink about other fishing related stuff to post about to fill the gaps between sessions – maybe more gear, rigs, tackle related stuff etc.

I have a week off next week so I’m sure I’ll squeeze a session in somewhere!

Anglesey excursion

I love a trip away. Fishing on the doorstep serves well to satisfy the ever present urge to wet a line, but there’s nothing like a trip away somewhere to target something different and I spent the last weekend doing just that.

North Wales has some tremendous fishing on offer and it’s not hard to see why so many anglers up and down the country travel here. The Isle of Anglesey has a variety of sport unrivalled by almost anywhere else in the U.K. I’ve not had much opportunity to fish further afield this year due to a combination of Covid and being a new dad, so I’ve been looking forward to this trip!

I arrived on the island around mid day Friday and headed straight to Holyhead Breakwater. I was to be joined later in the afternoon by Steve and Erica. The intention was to use daylight and the flooding tide to tally up some species points by fishing light gear down the side of the harbour wall, then concentrate on the bigger Huss and Conger during the hours of darkness.

Loaded down for a long session – with enough bait and leads for 3. The trolly was groaning a bit with the weight

There was a difficult side wind blowing from the south west at a fair rate of knots and unfortunately this was to be the theme of the weekend – in fact Saturday and Sunday were forecast gales, so marks were restricted. But I was here so…get on with it!

First fish was a bit of a surprise – a female Dragonet. I’ve normally only caught these over clean sand so I wasn’t expecting to pull one out of the tangles of kelp and rock down the side of the wall, so a nice welcome bonus!

A welcome surprise first cast – a female Dragonet

Not long after, the obligatory Corkwing Wrasse started to make an appearance. These fish are often here in big numbers and provide good sport on light gear, albeit a bit of a nuisance at times when trying to winkle out other species! There was one or 2 good size amongst them though and the males are a truly stunning looking fish in full colour.

The occasional Ballan Wrasse broke the monotony with a couple of nice fish over the lb mark putting up a great scrap on the 7g LRF rods. I’m by no means a purist when it comes to “LRFing” – in fact I don’t usually bother with the lure side of it, preferring instead to fish small 2 or 3 hook rigs with small hooks and sections of ragworm. You get some odd looks sometimes but it keeps things interesting to have a little rod baited and dropped short for smaller species.

Double shotting species with another Corkwing and a Ballan

Anyway just before Steve and Erica arrive I manage a nice little Rock Goby which was one of the targets for the species hunt.

The wind is challenging and I’m having to lay the rods flat on the deck with the tips just protruding over the edge to try and stop them from bouncing around too much in the wind – as I think the frantic movement transferred to the baits underwater water puts some of the more interesting mini species off – although it does seem to appeal to Wrasse!

It goes quiet for a bit at this point and I brave the howling winds on the upper levels with the bigger rod to see if I can tick off a few more species. The ground off of the outer wall of the breakwater is rough, some of it pure evil – so a 2 hook flapper with a weak link is the order of the day.

The wind is howling along the top of the breakwater and it seems the intended Cuckoo Wrasse aren’t playing, but I manage a nice surprise in the shape of a 3 Bearded Rockling. These are far more striking than their northern counterparts and great to look at with their mottled patterns and it’s a welcome bonus species that I’ve not caught in a few years.

Fish of the weekend for me, a 3 Bearded Rockling

I also manage a decent size Pouting and Poor Cod, both of which are deep hooked and so are retained for Huss bait – and also a nice Pollock which is returned, while Steve and Erica are enjoying success with the Wrasse again down on the lower levels.

As darkness falls the big rods come out and long pulley rigs are baited with big fish baits and sent out into the the rough stuff to see if the Huss and Conger are willing to oblige. Darkness for me has definitely been a factor in success when targeting Huss or Conger – they do come occasionally during the day but without a doubt they feed far more confidently at night.

A fresh Poor Cod bait is sent out in the hopes that something big fancies it

A few hours pass with just a couple of Dogfish showing before I get the first decent take of the night on a big lump of mackerel. After a powerful fight a nice Bull Huss surfaces. Steve does a magnificent job with the drop net in the awkward side wind and it’s hauled over the wall. We quickly weigh it and with the weight of the sling deducted it comes out at 11lb 12oz.

The rest of the night is a bit slow with just more Dogfish showing. Both me and Steve get a few more tentative runs but most result in dropped baits. Steve hooks into a good fish only for it to come off near the wall. Then just at the turn of the tide I manage another Huss around the 7lb mark before we make the 1.7 mile trek back along the breakwater to the car.

Didn’t weight the 2nd one but estimate 6 or 7lb

The Next day

After a lie in I grab some breakfast from the local Asda and since I’m up I head to a mark 2 mins from the hotel where I know there’s usually a pocket of Black Gobies. It’s strange how these seem to be localised in certain areas, unlike the Rock Gobies who seem to turn up pretty much everywhere on the island! Sure enough after 20 mins i manage one for the species hunt.

Then we head off to Amlwch in search of more minis. I’m particularly after the 3rd Goby species of the weekend – a Leopard Spotted Goby – so set about fishing down the side with small bits of worm. The wind is picking up again and is meant to turn gale force from around tea time so the intention is to have a few hours here before finding a rock mark to try and get some shelter under the cliffs.

Again the Corkwings are being obliging and we manage quite a few of them along with some smaller pouting. I’m getting plenty of gobies – just not the right ones – they’re all Rock Gobies!

These fellas are prolific on this mark and can make a bit of a nuisance of themselves when trying to find their Leopard Spotted cousins!

That’s about it for the couple of hours we were there so we head up the coast a bit to the intended mark for the evening. Upon arrival however it’s apparent that it’s not quite as sheltered as we’d hoped, with the now stronger south westerly wind whipping round the headland and straight across us. With the forecast to get worse we decide to move further round to the east side of the island and after a bit of searching, find a mark neither of us have fished before that gives a good depth of water and some much needed protection from the cliffs on our back.

We’re fishing the ebb which is obviously a gamble on a new mark but I’m hoping the good depth will mean it retains fish throughout the tide.

Well it did… in a manner of speaking. Unfortunately this was just a steady stream of ever present dogfish, until Steve managed a Huss around the 6lb mark half way through the ebb, which is about as interesting as it got all night. We stick it out until a couple of hours into the flood but we’re both shattered and decide to call it a night.

The following day the wind was horrific – Steve and Erica had to leave in the morning and since the tide didn’t start flooding until mid afternoon and most of my usual daytime marks were a complete blowout I decided to head home too.

12 species in total on what was a difficult weekend conditions wise so happy with that.

Another evening on Druridge

Back to my favourite local beach again this evening for another impromptu session to get rid of the ever present niggling that sets in whenever i don’t go fishing for a while.

First outing for the newly loaded Trabucco Fluo mainline – it casts beautifully.

I hadn’t planned on going out this evening initially but still had a couple of packets of dodgey looking ragworm in the fridge from a week ago so rather than salt it down for LRF bait I decided to used it while it was still on its last legs and head up to see if there were any more Bass about.

2 nice ragworm baits behind a 4.5oz pyramid lead

Conditions were going to be interesting; there’s been an onslaught of onshore easterlies this week coupled with masses of rain, so I was expecting chocolate coloured water and a lot of weed. Well, surprisingly the water at my mark wasn’t as bad as further down the coast. It was still murky, but because there’s no mud/silt in the immediate area, just plain sand, it seems to clear up quite quickly once the sea dies down.

The surf was smaller than it has been on recent trips but still Bassy enough to instil some confidence. I’d arrived for the last 3 hours of the ebb intending to fish it down and back up until the bait ran out. The sun was already dipping behind the dunes by the time the first baits went out on what was a cool but beautiful evening. No weed present yet – result! And the surf is just light enough that I can get away with using a plain pyramid lead – result!

The first hour and a half is quiet with only a couple of flounders troubling the rods.

Blank is off with a typical Druridge Flounder

Then while taking pictures I turn around to find slack line, so start focusing more intently on what the rods are doing and sure enough 10 mins later I get the first proper bite of the evening; the rod is bouncing frantically and it’s obvious the Bass have arrived. The first fish is beached without much fuss and hits 41cm. Good start!

Bass number 1 glimmering in the moonlight

Next chuck on the same rod and not 5 minutes later another thump and fish number 2 is hooked, giving a good account of itself in the surf and providing enjoyable sport on the Gravity Surf. This one comes in a little bigger at 43cm so just over legal size. I’m partial to the occasional bit of oven baked Bass, but I’m content enough with a picture this time and he’s unhooked and slipped back none the worse for his ordeal.

The best of the session – 43cm weight 1lb 12oz

The bait is already running out and I’m having to be very stingy. Some baits are going out more than once, while others that are more washed out are just shoved up the line with fresh added below to bulk them out a bit! It doesn’t seem to put the fish off though as I miss another cracking Bass bite before the Coalfish start to make an appearance at last light. Inevitable that they’ve turned up really what with the post storm conditions and the onset of darkness, but they’re of a decent size and still provide some exciting sport so not complaining too much.

Always plenty of these fellas around after a storm, especially at night.

I manage a few of these with the best going over 35cm then just on low water the weed comes on hard, with big balls of it clinging to the line and dragging everything in shore. Checking the bait situation I realise the ragworm is pretty much gone – I do have a partially thawed mackerel in the bag as well but since the weed is here and the surf has died down considerably I decide to call it a night – the mackerel can go back in the freezer. I probably could have had a few more Bass in the time I was there if I’d had better/more bait but I’m happy with my few hours effort and won’t be too tired for work in the morning!