Andy 1965
Well-known member
- Joined
- Oct 18, 2020
- Messages
- 367
- Reaction score
- 3,376
- Points
- 93
- Location
- North Wales
- Favourite Fishing
- Lure
Now that we have some calmer conditions, I was finally able to get onto a deep-water rock mark for last week’s conger hunt, and with news of a 17lber being caught recently on Anglesey, I was feeling quite confident 
. Conditions were also pretty good, and even with the light winds there was some decent swells rolling in, which seems to suit this particular mark.
First bait out was half a mackerel on an 8/0 pulley rig, which was dropped in close among the rough stuff. This was followed by the usual 3-hook flapper out onto the sand, to try and catch some fresh bait.
The conger bait remained completely untouched, but the scratcher started rattling within 5 minutes of being cast out. I gave it a few minutes, in the hope of a multiple hook-up, but after the movement gradually stopped, I reeled in a solitary dab, my first of 2024.
A couple of casts later and the whiting duly obliged, giving me plenty of bait for the evening, so I switched to 2 rods with big baits for the eels.
For the next 3 hours I tried a variety of baits, in an effort to tempt a conger, or even a huss for that matter, but apart from a half decent pollack of 38cm, which somehow managed to engulf a large mackerel and squid cocktail,
and my first doggie of 2024, the baits remained largely untouched, so I called it a quits just after midnight with no sign of my target species
.
Despite a disappointing result, that wasn’t my last session of the week and on Saturday night I was out again. This time I wasn’t alone, and I had my son Sam for company,
along with Steve and his son Matty,
plus another mate Kenny and his son Josh.
This time the venue was a series of flat rock ledges, from where we would be casting out onto clean sand.
Despite the clean ground though, I caught my my pb conger of roughly 15lb from here while I was on a ray hunt, plus a second eel of 8lb 1oz which was caught in a club match a couple of weeks later, again on a bait intended for rays, so a conger definitely wasn’t out of the question.
With these captures in mind, my plan was to lob a big bait close in, while both Sam and I fished a second rod with a 2-hook flapper, intended for anything else which might be lurking, particularly coalies, which have been showing up recently in decent numbers. Sadly, our plan was scuppered from the start by the ravenous whiting which devoured our baits within minutes
.
While the boys were happy just to be catching, things didn’t look particularly inspiring on the variety from, but we carried on trying and after an hour or so Sam noticed a particularly vicious bite on his rod. Thinking that it was just another whiting, he didn’t pay it too much attention, but a minute or two later I noticed that rather than running into the water at an angle of 45 degrees, his line was dropping straight down from the rod tip!
I pointed this out to Sam, who immediately picked up the rod and after quite a few turns of the reel handle, he finally made contact with his end gear again. Thankfully the bait snatcher was still there, and it put up quite a scrap, but eventually Sam had it beaten on the surface below us. Up to this point I had assumed that the fish was a coalie but as soon as I saw it in the bream from my headlamp, I knew I was mistaken and as Sam reeled the fish up onto the rocks, I could see that he had in fact caught a cracking sea trout!
Though the fish was spent after spawning, it was still in surprisingly good condition, and not as skinny as a lot of early season sewin are, at 50cm it was also a decent length and Sam was rightly chuffed to bits with his catch
.
After taking a few snaps, I clambered down as close to the water as I could to release it and thankfully it swam off strongly.
This catch gave everyone’s confidence a boost and we all fished on expectantly, but unfortunately the whiting were still around in numbers and they snaffled every bait before anything else could get to them
.
After another 30 minutes of this everyone was getting a little bit bored
so gradually we all swapped over to fishing larger baits, in the hope that there might be some predators feeding on the seemingly unending source of food. It wasn’t our night though and despite trying a variety of bigger baits such as squid, mackerel and whiting either whole or filleted, we could only tempt a few greedy doggies.
We eventually called it quits just after midnight and despite the relative lack of variety on the species front, the boys were really excited by Sam’s catch. Now they’re mad keen to go fishing again, and to make it a regular thing, so it looks like being another busy year ahead on the fishing front
.
. Conditions were also pretty good, and even with the light winds there was some decent swells rolling in, which seems to suit this particular mark.First bait out was half a mackerel on an 8/0 pulley rig, which was dropped in close among the rough stuff. This was followed by the usual 3-hook flapper out onto the sand, to try and catch some fresh bait.
The conger bait remained completely untouched, but the scratcher started rattling within 5 minutes of being cast out. I gave it a few minutes, in the hope of a multiple hook-up, but after the movement gradually stopped, I reeled in a solitary dab, my first of 2024.
A couple of casts later and the whiting duly obliged, giving me plenty of bait for the evening, so I switched to 2 rods with big baits for the eels.
For the next 3 hours I tried a variety of baits, in an effort to tempt a conger, or even a huss for that matter, but apart from a half decent pollack of 38cm, which somehow managed to engulf a large mackerel and squid cocktail,
and my first doggie of 2024, the baits remained largely untouched, so I called it a quits just after midnight with no sign of my target species
.Despite a disappointing result, that wasn’t my last session of the week and on Saturday night I was out again. This time I wasn’t alone, and I had my son Sam for company,
along with Steve and his son Matty,
plus another mate Kenny and his son Josh.
This time the venue was a series of flat rock ledges, from where we would be casting out onto clean sand.
Despite the clean ground though, I caught my my pb conger of roughly 15lb from here while I was on a ray hunt, plus a second eel of 8lb 1oz which was caught in a club match a couple of weeks later, again on a bait intended for rays, so a conger definitely wasn’t out of the question.
With these captures in mind, my plan was to lob a big bait close in, while both Sam and I fished a second rod with a 2-hook flapper, intended for anything else which might be lurking, particularly coalies, which have been showing up recently in decent numbers. Sadly, our plan was scuppered from the start by the ravenous whiting which devoured our baits within minutes
.While the boys were happy just to be catching, things didn’t look particularly inspiring on the variety from, but we carried on trying and after an hour or so Sam noticed a particularly vicious bite on his rod. Thinking that it was just another whiting, he didn’t pay it too much attention, but a minute or two later I noticed that rather than running into the water at an angle of 45 degrees, his line was dropping straight down from the rod tip!
I pointed this out to Sam, who immediately picked up the rod and after quite a few turns of the reel handle, he finally made contact with his end gear again. Thankfully the bait snatcher was still there, and it put up quite a scrap, but eventually Sam had it beaten on the surface below us. Up to this point I had assumed that the fish was a coalie but as soon as I saw it in the bream from my headlamp, I knew I was mistaken and as Sam reeled the fish up onto the rocks, I could see that he had in fact caught a cracking sea trout!
Though the fish was spent after spawning, it was still in surprisingly good condition, and not as skinny as a lot of early season sewin are, at 50cm it was also a decent length and Sam was rightly chuffed to bits with his catch
.After taking a few snaps, I clambered down as close to the water as I could to release it and thankfully it swam off strongly
.This catch gave everyone’s confidence a boost and we all fished on expectantly, but unfortunately the whiting were still around in numbers and they snaffled every bait before anything else could get to them
.After another 30 minutes of this everyone was getting a little bit bored
so gradually we all swapped over to fishing larger baits, in the hope that there might be some predators feeding on the seemingly unending source of food. It wasn’t our night though and despite trying a variety of bigger baits such as squid, mackerel and whiting either whole or filleted, we could only tempt a few greedy doggies.We eventually called it quits just after midnight and despite the relative lack of variety on the species front, the boys were really excited by Sam’s catch. Now they’re mad keen to go fishing again, and to make it a regular thing, so it looks like being another busy year ahead on the fishing front
.
