Andy 1965
Well-known member
- Joined
- Oct 18, 2020
- Messages
- 376
- Reaction score
- 3,436
- Points
- 93
- Location
- North Wales
- Favourite Fishing
- Lure
For anyone who might not have read my reports before, I have spent at least the last 12 winters on the hunt for conger around Anglesey and North Wales, where my original aim was to catch a double figure eel. After a lot of effort, I achieved that target in February 2010, with an 11lb 10oz snake ?.
You would have thought that would be enough but no, and at some point in the last 10 years I made the foolhardy decision to set myself an even bigger challenge, to catch a very elusive and as I have since found out, a very rare beast, a 20lb conger. So far, despite an awful lot of effort and time spent stalking the coastline in all weathers, I haven’t even come close and my best eel to date is a measly 13lb 6oz.
Being a tenacious bugger though, I keep on trying ? and after a relaxing spring, summer and autumn spent chasing bass on lures, it was finally time again on Thursday night to resume my annual hunt for Congerzilla.
As usual, the forecast wasn’t great and though it had varied for most of the day, when I finally left home it was promising wintry showers until somewhere around 8 or 9 o’clock, when they were expected to die out. This meant that I might get wet, but I wasn’t about to let a little moisture stop me ?. The drive to the island was a very wet one and as I neared my destination I was battered further by a heavy downpour of massive hailstones ?, but I hoped that this was the dying throes of the weather front ? and I pressed on. By the time I parked up it was only raining lightly, so I decided to seize the opportunity to get suited and booted while I could, and to make my way to my chosen rock ledge. As it happened this lull in the weather was only temporary, and I had barely started the yomp to the coast when it began to rain more heavily again. With so much rain having fallen recently, the path downhill was more of a river and I would honestly have been better off wearing my waders rather than my walking boots ?. I carried on though and by the time I reached the coast I got the distinct feeling that my right boot wasn’t as waterproof as it should have been
. As if that wasn’t bad enough, it was a lot more exposed down near the sea than it had been at the car and the Northerly breeze was bitingly cold. Despite the chill, there were still conger to be caught, so I crouched behind a rocky outcrop and rigged up with a 200lb running ledger armed with an 8/0, then 10 minutes or so after I arrived, half a mackerel was consigned to the depths and Mission Conger 2020/21 was underway.
As usual, my original game plan was to fish a second rod with smaller baits alongside the conger rod, not only to provide some fresh bait for the eels, but I hopefully catch a few bonus species and maybe get me a feed. At the very least, it would keep the boredom at bay while I waited for something to happen on the big baits. Unfortunately, the weather had other ideas and for the next 90 minutes I was battered by horizontal rain and sleet, interspersed by the odd violent hailstorm. In fact the onslaught was never ending and it was all I could do to check the conger bait every 30 minutes, and the other rod stayed safely in the holdall.
Conditions were pretty nasty but if this wasn’t bad enough, I also discovered that my salopettes aren’t quite as waterproof as they once were. While my upper half was perfectly protected by my float-suit jacket ?, my legs were drenched from the knees down and my right boot was now rather soggy ?. In fact, things were so miserable that on more than one occasion I considered admitting defeat and heading home for a hot shower and a cold beer, eventually though the weather blitzkrieg abated, the rain finally stopped and the skies cleared ?.
Before setting up my second rod, I decided to check the conger bait first and I was surprised to find that the line had dropped slack, that was strange I thought, as apart from the buffeting by the wind I hadn’t seen any movement whatsoever on the rod tip. Intrigued, I picked up the rod and took up the slack to feel for any interest and I could actually feel something gently tugging at the line. Hoping that it was my target fish, I lifted the rod up sharply to set the hook but instead of the headshakes of an angry eel, I only felt a relatively modest weight on the line. Still intrigued to find out what it was, I turned my headlamp up and peered down into the surging water below, where I was pleasantly surprised to see this half decent pollack appear in the pool of light below me ?. Though it wasn’t a monster, at 2lb 6oz it was a good catch from the shore and would still make good eating ?.
Keen to fit in as much fishing as possible now that conditions had improved, I baited up again with another half a mackerel, which was then lobbed out into the darkness while I concentrated on belatedly setting up the second rod.
With another couple of hours to go until high water and my planned departure time, I fished it hard now in an effort to tempt a conger but despite offering them mackerel, squid and freshly caught whiting, I saw no sign of them and the rod tip remained motionless until the end of the evening
.
The scratching rod on the other hand was quite busy, with at least one fish on every cast. In 2 hours I caught 3 whiting, a dog and a decent dab to at least keep me moving and relatively warm.
Eventually it was time to call it a night and with no signs of anything decent taking an interest in the big baits I reeled in the conger rod first, once this was done I turned my attention to the scratcher. When I picked it up off the tripod I was surprised to find that my line had gone off to the left ? and I wondered if a conger or huss might have picked up one of the smaller baits. It wasn’t to be though and once more I only felt a relatively small weight on the line. Thinking it might just be a doggie I reeled it straight in but I was mistaken and as I lifted the culprit up to the ledge I could see that it was in fact another pollack. It wasn’t quite as big as the first one, but at around the 2lb mark it was still a decent fish and the 2 fish together would make a good feed for the family ?.
So my first conger hunt of the winter had drawn a blank, no great surprise there ?, but I had at least survived a proper ninja test and I was also happy with my consolation prize. Here’s hoping that next week I will at least see an eel ?.
You would have thought that would be enough but no, and at some point in the last 10 years I made the foolhardy decision to set myself an even bigger challenge, to catch a very elusive and as I have since found out, a very rare beast, a 20lb conger. So far, despite an awful lot of effort and time spent stalking the coastline in all weathers, I haven’t even come close and my best eel to date is a measly 13lb 6oz.
Being a tenacious bugger though, I keep on trying ? and after a relaxing spring, summer and autumn spent chasing bass on lures, it was finally time again on Thursday night to resume my annual hunt for Congerzilla.
As usual, the forecast wasn’t great and though it had varied for most of the day, when I finally left home it was promising wintry showers until somewhere around 8 or 9 o’clock, when they were expected to die out. This meant that I might get wet, but I wasn’t about to let a little moisture stop me ?. The drive to the island was a very wet one and as I neared my destination I was battered further by a heavy downpour of massive hailstones ?, but I hoped that this was the dying throes of the weather front ? and I pressed on. By the time I parked up it was only raining lightly, so I decided to seize the opportunity to get suited and booted while I could, and to make my way to my chosen rock ledge. As it happened this lull in the weather was only temporary, and I had barely started the yomp to the coast when it began to rain more heavily again. With so much rain having fallen recently, the path downhill was more of a river and I would honestly have been better off wearing my waders rather than my walking boots ?. I carried on though and by the time I reached the coast I got the distinct feeling that my right boot wasn’t as waterproof as it should have been
. As if that wasn’t bad enough, it was a lot more exposed down near the sea than it had been at the car and the Northerly breeze was bitingly cold. Despite the chill, there were still conger to be caught, so I crouched behind a rocky outcrop and rigged up with a 200lb running ledger armed with an 8/0, then 10 minutes or so after I arrived, half a mackerel was consigned to the depths and Mission Conger 2020/21 was underway.As usual, my original game plan was to fish a second rod with smaller baits alongside the conger rod, not only to provide some fresh bait for the eels, but I hopefully catch a few bonus species and maybe get me a feed. At the very least, it would keep the boredom at bay while I waited for something to happen on the big baits. Unfortunately, the weather had other ideas and for the next 90 minutes I was battered by horizontal rain and sleet, interspersed by the odd violent hailstorm. In fact the onslaught was never ending and it was all I could do to check the conger bait every 30 minutes, and the other rod stayed safely in the holdall.
Conditions were pretty nasty but if this wasn’t bad enough, I also discovered that my salopettes aren’t quite as waterproof as they once were. While my upper half was perfectly protected by my float-suit jacket ?, my legs were drenched from the knees down and my right boot was now rather soggy ?. In fact, things were so miserable that on more than one occasion I considered admitting defeat and heading home for a hot shower and a cold beer, eventually though the weather blitzkrieg abated, the rain finally stopped and the skies cleared ?.
Before setting up my second rod, I decided to check the conger bait first and I was surprised to find that the line had dropped slack, that was strange I thought, as apart from the buffeting by the wind I hadn’t seen any movement whatsoever on the rod tip
. Intrigued, I picked up the rod and took up the slack to feel for any interest and I could actually feel something gently tugging at the line. Hoping that it was my target fish, I lifted the rod up sharply to set the hook but instead of the headshakes of an angry eel, I only felt a relatively modest weight on the line. Still intrigued to find out what it was, I turned my headlamp up and peered down into the surging water below, where I was pleasantly surprised to see this half decent pollack appear in the pool of light below me ?. Though it wasn’t a monster, at 2lb 6oz it was a good catch from the shore and would still make good eating ?.Keen to fit in as much fishing as possible now that conditions had improved, I baited up again with another half a mackerel, which was then lobbed out into the darkness while I concentrated on belatedly setting up the second rod.
With another couple of hours to go until high water and my planned departure time, I fished it hard now in an effort to tempt a conger but despite offering them mackerel, squid and freshly caught whiting, I saw no sign of them and the rod tip remained motionless until the end of the evening
.The scratching rod on the other hand was quite busy, with at least one fish on every cast. In 2 hours I caught 3 whiting, a dog and a decent dab to at least keep me moving and relatively warm.
Eventually it was time to call it a night and with no signs of anything decent taking an interest in the big baits I reeled in the conger rod first, once this was done I turned my attention to the scratcher. When I picked it up off the tripod I was surprised to find that my line had gone off to the left ? and I wondered if a conger or huss might have picked up one of the smaller baits. It wasn’t to be though and once more I only felt a relatively small weight on the line. Thinking it might just be a doggie I reeled it straight in but I was mistaken and as I lifted the culprit up to the ledge I could see that it was in fact another pollack. It wasn’t quite as big as the first one, but at around the 2lb mark it was still a decent fish and the 2 fish together would make a good feed for the family ?.
So my first conger hunt of the winter had drawn a blank, no great surprise there ?, but I had at least survived a proper ninja test and I was also happy with my consolation prize. Here’s hoping that next week I will at least see an eel ?.
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