Andy 1965
Well-known member
- Joined
- Oct 18, 2020
- Messages
- 370
- Reaction score
- 3,401
- Points
- 93
- Location
- North Wales
- Favourite Fishing
- Lure
After an unsuccessful return last week, to the mark where I fluked my first decent conger in years, it was time on Thursday night for a full on conger hunt over some proper gnarly ground. The mark chosen was one recommended to me by a friend, in an area I don’t often fish with bait, never mind when after conger, the Menai Straits. The plan was to fish the last 4 hours of the ebb and the start of the flood, on a smallish 26ft tide, in order to make the most of the easing run, which really rips through this particular mark when the tide is in full flow. A last minute text meant that for once I wasn’t alone and I was joined for the first time this year by Steve O.
With the Straits being a shorter drive than my usual stamping grounds, we arrived earlier than expected to find the tide was still pushing at a rate of knots, this immediately screamed hard fishing, with our gear likely to be dragged around into all manner of snags, so both Steve and I decided to start off with just the one rod. By casting slightly uptide and letting out a bow of line, we hoped to be able to anchor our baits in one spot but it immediately became clear that this just wasn’t going to work, as our end gear were swept down tide in seconds ?. Hoping that they weren’t snagged already, we gave our baits 20 minutes or so to soak but it came as no surprise when we finally tried to reel in, to find both sets of gear stuck fast ?. Despite our best efforts to free them, both were eventually lost when we were forced to pull for a break, not easy with 70lb mono! ?
The next hour was more of the same, with several lost rigs, but the tide did eventually start to relent and we finally felt safe enough to set up a second rod each. While Steve opted to fish big baits on both rods, I decided to target something different and I rigged up my second rod with a 2 hook flapper, which was baited with lug and squid cocktails, in the hope of a rare North Wales cod ?.
The first cast with the flapper failed to attract any interest but at least I got a rig back for a change ?, so I hurriedly re-baited and cast out into the flow once more. After letting out bow of line to anchor my baits in place, I placed the rod in the tripod with the rod tip set nicely in the tide. For the next 10 minutes the rods sat motionless on the tripod, but I happened to look up just in time to see the rod tip of the “cod” rod bounce back in the tide, as somewhere out in the swirling water my grip lead was dislodged ?.
After a moment or two the slack line was taken up again, as my gear travelled downtide and the rod tip started to bounce, as something set off with my bait in its gob. I hurriedly picked up the rod and I could immediately feel the lug snatcher trying its best to escape. It certainly felt like something decent, but that could be deceptive with a decent flow still running, so I took my time and slowly drew my catch towards the shore. Of course I hoped that it was an elusive Welsh coding, but as it surfaced in front of me I could see immediately that I was to be disappointed, as it was in fact a small huss around the 2lb mark.
Though my wait for a decent Straits codling goes on, I was still more than happy to beat the blank ?.
With the first fish on the bank, we hoped sport would belatedly pick up and I did actually get some decent bites on the flapper, but sadly they all failed to connect ?. As for the conger rods, they stayed pretty much dead all night. Steve had a couple of small bites and I managed to land a decent lobster, but there was no sign whatsoever of our target species.
Eventually, Steve couldn’t take any more excitement and he called it quits at midnight, leaving me to soldier on alone, but even though I gave it another hour, I couldn’t add to my solitary huss.
So that’s another mark which came highly recommended, but which failed to produce for me, and with others managing to catch at these places I’m beginning to wonder if it’s me? Maybe I’m just not cut out for congering and I’m just destined never to get that 20lber after all ?.
With the Straits being a shorter drive than my usual stamping grounds, we arrived earlier than expected to find the tide was still pushing at a rate of knots, this immediately screamed hard fishing, with our gear likely to be dragged around into all manner of snags, so both Steve and I decided to start off with just the one rod. By casting slightly uptide and letting out a bow of line, we hoped to be able to anchor our baits in one spot but it immediately became clear that this just wasn’t going to work, as our end gear were swept down tide in seconds ?. Hoping that they weren’t snagged already, we gave our baits 20 minutes or so to soak but it came as no surprise when we finally tried to reel in, to find both sets of gear stuck fast ?. Despite our best efforts to free them, both were eventually lost when we were forced to pull for a break, not easy with 70lb mono! ?
The next hour was more of the same, with several lost rigs, but the tide did eventually start to relent and we finally felt safe enough to set up a second rod each. While Steve opted to fish big baits on both rods, I decided to target something different and I rigged up my second rod with a 2 hook flapper, which was baited with lug and squid cocktails, in the hope of a rare North Wales cod ?.
The first cast with the flapper failed to attract any interest but at least I got a rig back for a change ?, so I hurriedly re-baited and cast out into the flow once more. After letting out bow of line to anchor my baits in place, I placed the rod in the tripod with the rod tip set nicely in the tide. For the next 10 minutes the rods sat motionless on the tripod, but I happened to look up just in time to see the rod tip of the “cod” rod bounce back in the tide, as somewhere out in the swirling water my grip lead was dislodged ?.
After a moment or two the slack line was taken up again, as my gear travelled downtide and the rod tip started to bounce, as something set off with my bait in its gob. I hurriedly picked up the rod and I could immediately feel the lug snatcher trying its best to escape. It certainly felt like something decent, but that could be deceptive with a decent flow still running, so I took my time and slowly drew my catch towards the shore. Of course I hoped that it was an elusive Welsh coding, but as it surfaced in front of me I could see immediately that I was to be disappointed, as it was in fact a small huss around the 2lb mark.
Though my wait for a decent Straits codling goes on, I was still more than happy to beat the blank ?.
With the first fish on the bank, we hoped sport would belatedly pick up and I did actually get some decent bites on the flapper, but sadly they all failed to connect ?. As for the conger rods, they stayed pretty much dead all night. Steve had a couple of small bites and I managed to land a decent lobster, but there was no sign whatsoever of our target species.
Eventually, Steve couldn’t take any more excitement and he called it quits at midnight, leaving me to soldier on alone, but even though I gave it another hour, I couldn’t add to my solitary huss.
So that’s another mark which came highly recommended, but which failed to produce for me, and with others managing to catch at these places I’m beginning to wonder if it’s me? Maybe I’m just not cut out for congering and I’m just destined never to get that 20lber after all ?.
