Andy 1965
Well-known member
- Joined
- Oct 18, 2020
- Messages
- 376
- Reaction score
- 3,436
- Points
- 93
- Location
- North Wales
- Favourite Fishing
- Lure
After last week’s congerless session, I was determined to do better this week and so I decided on a visit the same venue where I caught my PB eel back in December 2015. Once again, it looked like I might be in for a wet one though, with heavy rain forecast until at least 22:00, but with freshly Nikwaxed salopettes and boots, I was confident that this time I would be able to cope with anything the weather gods could throw at me 
.
As expected, it rained for virtually the whole journey to the mark but incredibly, the rain stopped just as I pulled up in the parking spot. Thanking my lucky stars, I was soon at the mark but being unable to get down onto my usual ledge until the tide dropped a little further, I set up base camp on a higher ledge just off to one side. Perhaps it was wishful thinking ? but by the time I had rigged up the first rod, I had already spotted a suitable spot to land any snakes, so a juicy mackerel and squid cocktail was consigned to the depths. The second, scratching rod soon followed, in the hope of tempting some fresh whiting for bait, and I then poured myself a cup of tea and sat back to wait for the action to begin.
Apart from a couple of small taps, the first hour was quiet but then just as the rain started to fall again, things began to look up. First off came a series of small bites on the scratching rod, which sadly I missed, but on the very next cast I made no such mistake and the blank was beaten with a doggie. I’ll spare you a picture, as I’m sure you all remember what they look like ?. By the time, the rig was re-baited and cast out again, the conger rod was also showing signs of interest. A series of firm pulls continued for several minutes and though they weren’t enough to take any line off against the drag, it certainly didn’t look like the culprit was about to give up, so I picked up the rod and set the hook. I could tell immediately that it wasn’t a 20, but despite this it still put up a decent scrap, as most conger do, then sure enough my first conger of the winter was soon landed safely. At just over 4lb, it was a long way short of my target but you have to start somewhere and I was at least off the mark ?.
After a quick pic and release, another cocktail bait was lobbed out into the depths, but once more, it was the scratcher which showed the next sign of interest. A similar bite to the previous doggie indicated that it wasn’t my hoped for whiting, and sure enough after a short scrap a double header of what appeared at first glance to be 2 dogs broke the surface below me. One of the fish was indeed a dog but on closer inspection, the second fish was in fact a small huss, something different at least.
I know I said I wasn’t going to post pictures of dogs any more, but this one just happened to be in the way when I photographed the huss ?.
So back to the fishing. After the slow start the bites just kept on coming, as did the rain, and next it was the turn again of the conger rod, but this time it looked like it might be something special. I was just baiting up the scratcher, when I happened to glance up at the conger rod, just in time to see it pulled hard over before the line started to run off against the loosely set drag ?. I immediately stopped what I was doing and as quickly as I could I moved over the wet rocks to the tripod, I then lowered the rod tip, screwed down the drag and as the line pulled tight, I lifted the rod firmly to set the hook. Now after such a great run, I was expecting to feel a solid resistance straight away but instead of that, there was absolutely nothing there ?. Whatever was responsible had somehow managed to take a mackerel and squid cocktail, bound securely with loads of bait elastic off my hook without getting itself caught. I was of course devastated to miss the best conger run I’ve had for years! ?
To say I was gutted was an understatement of the year but there was no point in dwelling on it, so hoping that where there was one decent fish there might be more, I prepared another offering and lobbed it out into the same area. Unfortunately after all the excitement, things now went all quiet again and apart from this absolute beast on the scratching rod ?
there was nothing doing.
As the last hour of my session began, the rain finally stopped again but the improvement in the conditions wasn’t reflected by an improvement in the fishing, so with no sign of any whiting on the small baits, I decided to go all out for conger with the baits I had. The 3 hook flapper was replaced with a 200lb mono running ledger, a double squid bait was mounted on the 8/0 and both traps were set. Sadly for me things stayed quiet after that and the rest of the evening the rods barely moved ?.
With 10 minutes left, I spotted the beginnings of a bite on one of the rods but it didn’t look like anything special, so keeping one eye on it just in case, I reeled in the other rod and started tidying my gear up. Finally it was time to call it a night and as I reeled in the second rod I could feel some weight on the line, but it wasn’t particularly big. It wasn’t a conger either but it was still nice to finish the evening with one last fish, a small doggy sized huss.
So I’m still waiting to meet Congerzilla but for all I know the missed run could have been her, so I’ll be back out there again next week for another attempt.
.As expected, it rained for virtually the whole journey to the mark but incredibly, the rain stopped just as I pulled up in the parking spot
. Thanking my lucky stars, I was soon at the mark but being unable to get down onto my usual ledge until the tide dropped a little further, I set up base camp on a higher ledge just off to one side. Perhaps it was wishful thinking ? but by the time I had rigged up the first rod, I had already spotted a suitable spot to land any snakes, so a juicy mackerel and squid cocktail was consigned to the depths. The second, scratching rod soon followed, in the hope of tempting some fresh whiting for bait, and I then poured myself a cup of tea and sat back to wait for the action to begin.Apart from a couple of small taps, the first hour was quiet but then just as the rain started to fall again, things began to look up. First off came a series of small bites on the scratching rod, which sadly I missed, but on the very next cast I made no such mistake and the blank was beaten with a doggie
. I’ll spare you a picture, as I’m sure you all remember what they look like ?. By the time, the rig was re-baited and cast out again, the conger rod was also showing signs of interest. A series of firm pulls continued for several minutes and though they weren’t enough to take any line off against the drag, it certainly didn’t look like the culprit was about to give up, so I picked up the rod and set the hook. I could tell immediately that it wasn’t a 20, but despite this it still put up a decent scrap, as most conger do, then sure enough my first conger of the winter was soon landed safely. At just over 4lb, it was a long way short of my target but you have to start somewhere and I was at least off the mark ?.After a quick pic and release, another cocktail bait was lobbed out into the depths, but once more, it was the scratcher which showed the next sign of interest. A similar bite to the previous doggie indicated that it wasn’t my hoped for whiting, and sure enough after a short scrap a double header of what appeared at first glance to be 2 dogs broke the surface below me. One of the fish was indeed a dog but on closer inspection, the second fish was in fact a small huss, something different at least.
I know I said I wasn’t going to post pictures of dogs any more, but this one just happened to be in the way when I photographed the huss ?.
So back to the fishing. After the slow start the bites just kept on coming, as did the rain, and next it was the turn again of the conger rod, but this time it looked like it might be something special. I was just baiting up the scratcher, when I happened to glance up at the conger rod, just in time to see it pulled hard over before the line started to run off against the loosely set drag ?. I immediately stopped what I was doing and as quickly as I could I moved over the wet rocks to the tripod, I then lowered the rod tip, screwed down the drag and as the line pulled tight, I lifted the rod firmly to set the hook. Now after such a great run, I was expecting to feel a solid resistance straight away but instead of that, there was absolutely nothing there ?. Whatever was responsible had somehow managed to take a mackerel and squid cocktail, bound securely with loads of bait elastic off my hook without getting itself caught. I was of course devastated to miss the best conger run I’ve had for years! ?
To say I was gutted was an understatement of the year but there was no point in dwelling on it, so hoping that where there was one decent fish there might be more, I prepared another offering and lobbed it out into the same area. Unfortunately after all the excitement, things now went all quiet again and apart from this absolute beast on the scratching rod ?
there was nothing doing.
As the last hour of my session began, the rain finally stopped again but the improvement in the conditions wasn’t reflected by an improvement in the fishing, so with no sign of any whiting on the small baits, I decided to go all out for conger with the baits I had. The 3 hook flapper was replaced with a 200lb mono running ledger, a double squid bait was mounted on the 8/0 and both traps were set. Sadly for me things stayed quiet after that and the rest of the evening the rods barely moved ?.
With 10 minutes left, I spotted the beginnings of a bite on one of the rods but it didn’t look like anything special, so keeping one eye on it just in case, I reeled in the other rod and started tidying my gear up. Finally it was time to call it a night and as I reeled in the second rod I could feel some weight on the line, but it wasn’t particularly big. It wasn’t a conger either but it was still nice to finish the evening with one last fish, a small doggy sized huss.
So I’m still waiting to meet Congerzilla but for all I know the missed run could have been her, so I’ll be back out there again next week for another attempt
.
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