Andy 1965
Well-known member
- Joined
- Oct 18, 2020
- Messages
- 376
- Reaction score
- 3,432
- Points
- 93
- Location
- North Wales
- Favourite Fishing
- Lure
In a change of pace from lure fishing, it was time yesterday evening for the latest club match, and the venue chosen by a majority decision was Llanbadrig. Sadly for me, it’s a venue where I’ve struggled in previous matches and where last year I had an absolute nightmare. In 4 hours of fishing, I lost at least 8 rigs while those around me pulled in a steady stream of fish for the whole 4 hours, while barely losing anything! ? I only hoped that this year things would be different ?.
After a bit of a race across Anglesey, led by John who was obviously desperate to get to his favourite spot ?, all 3 cars arrived at the car park in convoy and 8 excited anglers, well maybe 7, plus 1 rather apprehensive one ?, got suited and booted in double quick time, we then headed off for the ledges where we planned to fish. 20 minutes later and the match was underway.
I was fishing in the centre of the field, on a ledge with Glyn and Steve A, 2 of the luckiest guys I know
, while Ady and Kenny, who had come first and second at the mark for the last 2 years, fished immediately to our right. The other 3 lads, John, Steve O and Gwion fished around a headland to our left. As in previous years we had bites from the off, but while I missed several cracking wrasse bites , the other lads all started to catch fish from the off, mainly dogs and wrasse. On the plus side though, at least I was getting my rigs back this time and I only lost the odd hook. Eventually, I even caught something ? but after the first hour I was trailing the lads around me with just a small dog and a ballan wrasse.
While the others caught a steady stream of dogs, ballan, corkwing and cuckoo wrasse, conger, pout, poor cod and a nice smoothhound for Kenny ?, the middle 2 hours of the match were a struggle for me and try as I might, I could only manage 1 more dog and an undersized strap conger. As the last hour of the match got underway, I decided to use up the last of my rag, so I picked up my lure rod, which was rigged with a 2 hook flapper and lobbed it out 10 meters or so. While this tactic had failed to attract any interest earlier in the match, it was a different story now and for the next 20 minutes I had a constant stream of bites. With wrasse being the consummate experts of smash and grab raids, I missed a lot of these bites, but my luck improved slightly and I managed to connect with a couple of half decent ballans of 0.86 & 0.70kg.
Though my bag was looking healthier than it had been, I was still nowhere near the obvious leaders Steve and Kenny, who had been catching steadily all match, but with an extra couple of points on my score card, I was feeling a little bit happier about things ?. Sadly my fun wasn’t to last and with half an hour of the match to go I lost my rig, baited with the last of my rag to a snag ?.
With the light fading, the dogs were coming back on the feed now, so I switched back to my big rod and lobbed out another 2 hook rig baited with sandeel, hoping I could tempt just one more fish before the end of the match.
My rig had only been out for a few minutes when I saw the first signs of interest, so I quickly began baiting up another rig, but while my back was turned, Steve and Glyn both shouted to look at my rod! I immediately turned around to see it bouncing around all over the place ?. With every second counting, I hurriedly finished baiting up my spare rig before picking up my rod, and at the next pull down I struck firmly to get my gear up and out of the snags. Once it was free of the bottom I could immediately feel a heavy weight on my line as something quite substantial tried it’s best to escape. Judging by the bite, I was confident that I knew the identity of the culprit and sure enough, after a minute or two of tug o war a half decent huss broke the surface ?. With my heart pounding, I managed to guide the fish around the rocks to a point where Glyn could grab my line, and after a few hairy moments in the swells, he safely landed my catch for me ?.
At 3.26kg, 7lb 3oz in old money, it certainly propelled me up the leader board but would it be enough to threaten the lead? Given that Kenny seemed to have been catching a steady stream of dogs for the last 4 hours, plus the fact that he’d also caught a nice smoothhound, I didn’t think so, but with only 10 minutes left of the match we would soon find out.
As it happened, Kenny finished off his evening with a second, even bigger hound on the last cast, so his victory seemed assured but where would I finish in relation to the others? ?
Once back at the car park we totted up the bag weights and the result was finally revealed. As expected, Kenny had won comfortably with a bag of 9 dogs and 2 nice hounds of 3.35 & 2.25kg, to give him a total bag of 9.87kg ?. My late huss was enough to take second place with a total weight of 6.17kg ?, while Ady finished in 3rd place with 3.83kg ?. Steve A came in 4th with 3.78kg, Glyn 5th with 3.33Kg and Gwion was 6th with 1.27kg. Finally, bringing up the rear of the field were Steve O in 7th with 1.02kg and last but not least was John in 8th with a solitary dog for 0.49kg.
So my Llanbadrig jinx seems to have come to an end, for now at least ? and next up, in 2 weeks’ time is Point Lynas, a mark where I usually do better. With Kenny on a roll of 3 wins in the last 4 matches though, I know who my money is on.
After a bit of a race across Anglesey, led by John who was obviously desperate to get to his favourite spot ?, all 3 cars arrived at the car park in convoy and 8 excited anglers, well maybe 7, plus 1 rather apprehensive one ?, got suited and booted in double quick time, we then headed off for the ledges where we planned to fish. 20 minutes later and the match was underway.
I was fishing in the centre of the field, on a ledge with Glyn and Steve A, 2 of the luckiest guys I know
, while Ady and Kenny, who had come first and second at the mark for the last 2 years, fished immediately to our right. The other 3 lads, John, Steve O and Gwion fished around a headland to our left. As in previous years we had bites from the off, but while I missed several cracking wrasse bites , the other lads all started to catch fish from the off, mainly dogs and wrasse. On the plus side though, at least I was getting my rigs back this time and I only lost the odd hook. Eventually, I even caught something ? but after the first hour I was trailing the lads around me with just a small dog and a ballan wrasse.While the others caught a steady stream of dogs, ballan, corkwing and cuckoo wrasse, conger, pout, poor cod and a nice smoothhound for Kenny ?, the middle 2 hours of the match were a struggle for me and try as I might, I could only manage 1 more dog and an undersized strap conger. As the last hour of the match got underway, I decided to use up the last of my rag, so I picked up my lure rod, which was rigged with a 2 hook flapper and lobbed it out 10 meters or so. While this tactic had failed to attract any interest earlier in the match, it was a different story now and for the next 20 minutes I had a constant stream of bites. With wrasse being the consummate experts of smash and grab raids, I missed a lot of these bites, but my luck improved slightly and I managed to connect with a couple of half decent ballans of 0.86 & 0.70kg.
Though my bag was looking healthier than it had been, I was still nowhere near the obvious leaders Steve and Kenny, who had been catching steadily all match, but with an extra couple of points on my score card, I was feeling a little bit happier about things ?. Sadly my fun wasn’t to last and with half an hour of the match to go I lost my rig, baited with the last of my rag to a snag ?.
With the light fading, the dogs were coming back on the feed now, so I switched back to my big rod and lobbed out another 2 hook rig baited with sandeel, hoping I could tempt just one more fish before the end of the match.
My rig had only been out for a few minutes when I saw the first signs of interest, so I quickly began baiting up another rig, but while my back was turned, Steve and Glyn both shouted to look at my rod! I immediately turned around to see it bouncing around all over the place ?. With every second counting, I hurriedly finished baiting up my spare rig before picking up my rod, and at the next pull down I struck firmly to get my gear up and out of the snags. Once it was free of the bottom I could immediately feel a heavy weight on my line as something quite substantial tried it’s best to escape. Judging by the bite, I was confident that I knew the identity of the culprit and sure enough, after a minute or two of tug o war a half decent huss broke the surface ?. With my heart pounding, I managed to guide the fish around the rocks to a point where Glyn could grab my line, and after a few hairy moments in the swells, he safely landed my catch for me ?.
At 3.26kg, 7lb 3oz in old money, it certainly propelled me up the leader board but would it be enough to threaten the lead? Given that Kenny seemed to have been catching a steady stream of dogs for the last 4 hours, plus the fact that he’d also caught a nice smoothhound, I didn’t think so, but with only 10 minutes left of the match we would soon find out.
As it happened, Kenny finished off his evening with a second, even bigger hound on the last cast, so his victory seemed assured but where would I finish in relation to the others? ?
Once back at the car park we totted up the bag weights and the result was finally revealed. As expected, Kenny had won comfortably with a bag of 9 dogs and 2 nice hounds of 3.35 & 2.25kg, to give him a total bag of 9.87kg ?. My late huss was enough to take second place with a total weight of 6.17kg ?, while Ady finished in 3rd place with 3.83kg ?. Steve A came in 4th with 3.78kg, Glyn 5th with 3.33Kg and Gwion was 6th with 1.27kg. Finally, bringing up the rear of the field were Steve O in 7th with 1.02kg and last but not least was John in 8th with a solitary dog for 0.49kg.
So my Llanbadrig jinx seems to have come to an end, for now at least ? and next up, in 2 weeks’ time is Point Lynas, a mark where I usually do better. With Kenny on a roll of 3 wins in the last 4 matches though, I know who my money is on.
