Andy 1965
Well-known member
- Joined
- Oct 18, 2020
- Messages
- 376
- Reaction score
- 3,442
- Points
- 93
- Location
- North Wales
- Favourite Fishing
- Lure
There wasn’t much on the telly on Saturday night and with the FPO planning on watching the Strictly Grand Final 
, I jumped at the chance to go fishing. With it being the weekend, I would also have a bit of company for a change as I was joined by my mate Steve A, aka Goldenb***s. With fresh South Westerlies blowing, the plan was a conger hunt at the top of the island and apart from the wind, the forecast was pretty good with only a 30% chance of light showers. With low at about 20:45, we planned to fish around 3 hours down to low and another 3 back up, so we were looking forward to a decent session.
After an uneventful convoy drive up the island, we were on the mark by 18:00 and though there was a decent swell running, conditions were otherwise good. We both had the same game plan and so the first rigs out were heavy duty ones aimed at Conger, and while Steve started off with a squid bait, I went for a mackerel fillet. After this we both set up a scratching rod each, hoping to get some fresh bait for the evening. Encouragingly, we had bites from the off but to begin with we struggled to connect with them. We were in no rush though and after an hour I was strangely delighted to get off the mark with a whiting ?, not because it was a whiting of course, but because for the first conger session this winter, I now had fresh bait. While I was re-baiting, I also spotted signs of a bite on my conger rod, so once the scratcher was out again I picked it up and after a short scrap I reeled in the first conger of the night, not a monster but at 4lb 12oz it was still my biggest of the year so far ?.
After a quick snap, I re-baited the conger rod, this time with a mackerel and squid cocktail, than cast it out and sat down to wait once more, hopefully for something bigger to come along.
It took a while, but eventually an hour later, I was in again and this time it felt like a better fish. After a decent scrap I was able to get the eel to the bottom of the rocks, where Steve grabbed the 200lb hook length and as he lifted it out of the water, I could see that I had improved on this year’s best yet again. Not a double but I was more than happy with a chunky 8lber.
The rest of the ebb was relatively quiet, but I did manage to catch another whiting for bait and after several recent whiting-less sessions, I was looking forward to seeing if it would bring me better luck than the usual mackerel and squid. What happened next convinced me of the merits of matching the hatch and of using freshly caught baits. A nice rattle on the scratcher indicated that the whiting were definitely around in better numbers than they have been recently, so I decided to leave the baits out a little longer in an attempt to catch a double header. Sure enough, a few minutes later I saw another bite, but this definitely wasn’t another whiting. Right from the start this looked like something altogether different, as the rods tip started bouncing all over the place. I gave it a few minutes before picking the rod up and striking to set the hook and I immediately felt a decent weight on the line, it wasn’t huge, but it wasn’t a whiting either. My guess was a smallish conger or maybe a huss, but I would never get to find out, as about half way in the assailant made a dive for freedom and “PING!”, the weight was gone . I was expecting to find a bitten off hook-length, but as my rig emerged from the swells I found this!
Proof that the big fish in the area did indeed like munching on any little stuff they could catch.
While I was catching conger, or not where the last run was concerned ?, Steve was having no luck with the eels whatsoever but he was catching some cracking doggies, the heaviest of which was a new PB of almost 2lb 14oz. He also managed a solitary whiting, but for now the conger continued to elude him.
After the excitement of the partly devoured whiting, things went quiet over low, so not wanting to waste them, I resisted the urge to use one of the remaining whiting until things picked up again. The next couple of hours was indeed slow, but we fished on and 90 minutes after low the conger started feeding again. After a classic conger bite I was in again, this time on a herring bait, once more a smaller strappy of 4lb 3oz but at least I was still catching.
Now that the eels were back on the feed, I decided it was time to fish all out for them and I switched the scratching rig for a 200lb running ledger, one of my whiting was then impaled on the 8/0, and lobbed out 20 meters or so into the depths. I didn’t have to wait long for an enquiry and after a few tentative pulls, something started to make off with my offering. The next few minutes were a game of cat and mouse, as the culprit kept stopping for a break before moving off again, but eventually I decided to go for it and to see if it was hooked. Thankfully, I was able to get the eel up off the bottom without any problems but once in open water it put up a surprisingly hard fight, there wasn’t any danger of it snapping my line but it wasn’t exactly keen to see me. Finally, I got it up onto the surface but agonizingly it spat the bait out before I could get it to shore ?. As if that wasn’t bad enough, the conger actually stayed on the surface for a moment or two, as if to torment me ?. Again it wasn’t a biggie but I would still have been happy to catch eel number 4.
The conger obviously hadn’t managed to get the hook all the way down, and the whiting wasn’t in too bad condition, so rather than waste one of only the 2 I had, I simply tied it back on the hook and cast it out once more.
20 minutes later, and it was almost an identical story as my line started to slowly trickle off the spool again, this time I had learned my lesson though and I gave the bite longer to develop before striking. Once more the fish came up off the bottom without any problems, but this one didn’t fight so hard. I took my time though and after a minute or two, I had another conger around the 5lb mark, up on the surface in front of me. Typically though, my luck had definitely run out as once again it spat the whiting, gave me a cheery wave of its tail and then dived back into the depths ?.
Of course I was annoyed to lose 2 eels in as many casts, but with the conger on the feed I felt sure there would be more, so I secured the whiting to the hook for the third time and cast it out again.
After watching the action up to this point, it was finally Steve’s turn next and after switching to a whiting bait too, he finally landed his first conger of the evening, a nice fish of 6lb exactly.
Originally we had hoped to fish until midnight, but with the flood well underway now, the swells were getting bigger, and it didn’t look like we would be able to stay on the lower ledges for much longer. Steve wasn’t about to let that stop him though and while the bites on my rods dried up completely, Steve had another bite within minutes of casting his whiting bait out again.
After giving the eel time to get the bait down, the battle was on but Steve didn’t have it all his own way. Worryingly, his line must have gone around a snag and as he reeled in he could feel it scraping horribly
. As if this wasn’t bad enough, he had managed to get the fish to within a few meters of the shore, when his gear snagged completely and this time it wouldn’t move! ? With the tide rising rapidly now, he didn’t have much time to free it but miraculously, just when he thought it was game over the fish came free, the only thing to do now was to somehow get it out of the surging swells at the base of the rocks. Thankfully, after a few hairy moments and timing it with a rising wave, I was able to grab the hook-length and to lift the eel safely ashore. It might have taken Steve a while to get going but he had finished the session on a high, with the last conger of the night and the first double at 11lb 11oz ?.
By the time the eel was pictured and released, it was getting on for 23:45 and with the tide rising rapidly, we had to retreat for higher ground. With only 15 minutes to go until our original finishing time of midnight though, it was hardly worth moving camp for just 1 more cast, and we decided to call it a night.
So Steve had brought some luck my way, and I had improved my best conger of the winter from 4lb to 8lb and despite not getting a double myself, I was at least happy to see the first one for quite a while. I’ll be counting the days now though, until the lockdown is eased and I can get back on the hunt for Congerzilla once more ?.
, I jumped at the chance to go fishing. With it being the weekend, I would also have a bit of company for a change as I was joined by my mate Steve A, aka Goldenb***s. With fresh South Westerlies blowing, the plan was a conger hunt at the top of the island and apart from the wind, the forecast was pretty good with only a 30% chance of light showers. With low at about 20:45, we planned to fish around 3 hours down to low and another 3 back up, so we were looking forward to a decent session.After an uneventful convoy drive up the island, we were on the mark by 18:00 and though there was a decent swell running, conditions were otherwise good. We both had the same game plan and so the first rigs out were heavy duty ones aimed at Conger, and while Steve started off with a squid bait, I went for a mackerel fillet. After this we both set up a scratching rod each, hoping to get some fresh bait for the evening. Encouragingly, we had bites from the off but to begin with we struggled to connect with them. We were in no rush though and after an hour I was strangely delighted to get off the mark with a whiting ?, not because it was a whiting of course, but because for the first conger session this winter, I now had fresh bait
. While I was re-baiting, I also spotted signs of a bite on my conger rod, so once the scratcher was out again I picked it up and after a short scrap I reeled in the first conger of the night, not a monster but at 4lb 12oz it was still my biggest of the year so far ?.After a quick snap, I re-baited the conger rod, this time with a mackerel and squid cocktail, than cast it out and sat down to wait once more, hopefully for something bigger to come along.
It took a while, but eventually an hour later, I was in again and this time it felt like a better fish. After a decent scrap I was able to get the eel to the bottom of the rocks, where Steve grabbed the 200lb hook length and as he lifted it out of the water, I could see that I had improved on this year’s best yet again. Not a double but I was more than happy with a chunky 8lber
.The rest of the ebb was relatively quiet, but I did manage to catch another whiting for bait and after several recent whiting-less sessions, I was looking forward to seeing if it would bring me better luck than the usual mackerel and squid
. What happened next convinced me of the merits of matching the hatch and of using freshly caught baits. A nice rattle on the scratcher indicated that the whiting were definitely around in better numbers than they have been recently, so I decided to leave the baits out a little longer in an attempt to catch a double header. Sure enough, a few minutes later I saw another bite, but this definitely wasn’t another whiting. Right from the start this looked like something altogether different, as the rods tip started bouncing all over the place. I gave it a few minutes before picking the rod up and striking to set the hook and I immediately felt a decent weight on the line, it wasn’t huge, but it wasn’t a whiting either. My guess was a smallish conger or maybe a huss, but I would never get to find out, as about half way in the assailant made a dive for freedom and “PING!”, the weight was gone . I was expecting to find a bitten off hook-length, but as my rig emerged from the swells I found this! Proof that the big fish in the area did indeed like munching on any little stuff they could catch.
While I was catching conger, or not where the last run was concerned ?, Steve was having no luck with the eels whatsoever but he was catching some cracking doggies, the heaviest of which was a new PB of almost 2lb 14oz
. He also managed a solitary whiting, but for now the conger continued to elude him.After the excitement of the partly devoured whiting, things went quiet over low, so not wanting to waste them, I resisted the urge to use one of the remaining whiting until things picked up again. The next couple of hours was indeed slow, but we fished on and 90 minutes after low the conger started feeding again. After a classic conger bite I was in again, this time on a herring bait, once more a smaller strappy of 4lb 3oz but at least I was still catching.
Now that the eels were back on the feed, I decided it was time to fish all out for them and I switched the scratching rig for a 200lb running ledger, one of my whiting was then impaled on the 8/0, and lobbed out 20 meters or so into the depths. I didn’t have to wait long for an enquiry and after a few tentative pulls, something started to make off with my offering. The next few minutes were a game of cat and mouse, as the culprit kept stopping for a break before moving off again, but eventually I decided to go for it and to see if it was hooked. Thankfully, I was able to get the eel up off the bottom without any problems but once in open water it put up a surprisingly hard fight, there wasn’t any danger of it snapping my line but it wasn’t exactly keen to see me. Finally, I got it up onto the surface but agonizingly it spat the bait out before I could get it to shore ?. As if that wasn’t bad enough, the conger actually stayed on the surface for a moment or two, as if to torment me ?. Again it wasn’t a biggie but I would still have been happy to catch eel number 4.
The conger obviously hadn’t managed to get the hook all the way down, and the whiting wasn’t in too bad condition, so rather than waste one of only the 2 I had, I simply tied it back on the hook and cast it out once more.
20 minutes later, and it was almost an identical story as my line started to slowly trickle off the spool again, this time I had learned my lesson though and I gave the bite longer to develop before striking. Once more the fish came up off the bottom without any problems, but this one didn’t fight so hard. I took my time though and after a minute or two, I had another conger around the 5lb mark, up on the surface in front of me. Typically though, my luck had definitely run out as once again it spat the whiting, gave me a cheery wave of its tail and then dived back into the depths ?.
Of course I was annoyed to lose 2 eels in as many casts, but with the conger on the feed I felt sure there would be more, so I secured the whiting to the hook for the third time and cast it out again.
After watching the action up to this point, it was finally Steve’s turn next and after switching to a whiting bait too, he finally landed his first conger of the evening, a nice fish of 6lb exactly
.Originally we had hoped to fish until midnight, but with the flood well underway now, the swells were getting bigger, and it didn’t look like we would be able to stay on the lower ledges for much longer. Steve wasn’t about to let that stop him though and while the bites on my rods dried up completely, Steve had another bite within minutes of casting his whiting bait out again.
After giving the eel time to get the bait down, the battle was on but Steve didn’t have it all his own way. Worryingly, his line must have gone around a snag and as he reeled in he could feel it scraping horribly
. As if this wasn’t bad enough, he had managed to get the fish to within a few meters of the shore, when his gear snagged completely and this time it wouldn’t move! ? With the tide rising rapidly now, he didn’t have much time to free it but miraculously, just when he thought it was game over the fish came free, the only thing to do now was to somehow get it out of the surging swells at the base of the rocks. Thankfully, after a few hairy moments and timing it with a rising wave, I was able to grab the hook-length and to lift the eel safely ashore. It might have taken Steve a while to get going but he had finished the session on a high, with the last conger of the night and the first double at 11lb 11oz ?.By the time the eel was pictured and released, it was getting on for 23:45 and with the tide rising rapidly, we had to retreat for higher ground. With only 15 minutes to go until our original finishing time of midnight though, it was hardly worth moving camp for just 1 more cast, and we decided to call it a night.
So Steve had brought some luck my way, and I had improved my best conger of the winter from 4lb to 8lb and despite not getting a double myself, I was at least happy to see the first one for quite a while. I’ll be counting the days now though, until the lockdown is eased and I can get back on the hunt for Congerzilla once more ?.
