Andy 1965
Well-known member
- Joined
- Oct 18, 2020
- Messages
- 376
- Reaction score
- 3,436
- Points
- 93
- Location
- North Wales
- Favourite Fishing
- Lure
With only one session planned on the lures this week, my chances of reaching the ton were pretty slim, especially given the forecast of winds gusting to almost 40mph. I wasn’t about to let that stop me though and I had a mark in mind, where the winds would at least be offshore 
. After one of those rare journeys when slow drivers seemed to melt out of my way, and when the roads were almost completely clear of traffic, I arrived at the mark to find leaden grey skies, more reminiscent of December than August, but the sea was at least flattened nicely by the wind, as I hoped it would be. The water clarity was excellent too and with the occasional tern smashing into the sea, betraying the presence of bait fish, I was quietly confident.
Planning my tactics, I waded out onto the reef and once in position, I looked in my box for a lure which has worked well for me at the mark in the past. It was at this point that an evening which had started so well, suddenly started to go wrong, when I discovered that the Frosty in 500g was nowhere to be seen ?. Having been fishing another mark recently I had swapped out some lures and I had been in such a hurry to get out, that I had forgotten to swap them back again ?. Thinking on my feet, I decided to go with the next best thing and I clipped on the Frosty in Cabot instead. Now I’ve never caught on a lure in that particular colour before but I’ve always thought it looks well fishy, so I couldn’t see why it wouldn’t work.
Though conditions weren’t easy, the wind did have one advantage and with just moderate effort, the lure went one hell of a long way ?. Once it splashed down, I let it float a few seconds, in case a bass might have been intrigued by the disturbance, before I began walking it on its long journey back to shore.
As I worked the lure, I looked around to take in my surroundings but my musings were suddenly disturbed when I felt a gradual increase in resistance on my line. It wasn’t a typical bass take and at first I thought it might I might have picked up some weed, but when I looked into distance to see what it might be, I was horrified to see that my lure had been picked up by a bloody great big black backed gull! ?
Now I’ve hooked a gull before and successfully reeled it in to untangle it, but that was on heavier beach casting gear, and a massive thing on a 7-35g rod was a completely different story. To begin with I actually made some progress, but that early success was short lived and once the lure snatcher realised what was going on, there was only going to be one winner. As soon as gullzilla got airborne, I couldn’t compete and within seconds my braid snapped like cotton ?.
I was gutted to lose my first lure in a long while, but then it was my own fault and If I had been paying attention in the first place, then I might have been able to pull my lure out of the gull’s way ?. There was no point dwelling on it though, so I quickly tied on another leader and got back to the fishing.
For the next 2 hours I tried a variety of lures, while keeping a very keen lookout for any potential feathered lure snatchers, and I couldn’t help but scowl at any bird that came anywhere near my lures ?, but thankfully the gull episode was a one off.
Though things were generally quiet, I did manage to snare what I came for, when a 41cm schoolie took a liking to my Swimish ?,
but as I suspected, the 100 wasn’t looking good.
I fished on into darkness, but after 4 and a half hours of trying various lures, with just the one take to show for it, I accepted that I was wasting my time and happy to have at least beaten the blank in less than perfect conditions, I decided to have an early night for once.
So far my fortunes had been mixed, but with light traffic on the drive home it looked like I might finish the evening on a high. I should have known better though and on the A55 just outside Bangor my night suddenly took a massive downturn, when I spotted a matrix sign saying “ROAD AHEAD CLOSED” ?.
With long running roadworks in the area, there have been occasional overnight closures of the A55 for the last 2 years but these closures are usually well publicised. On this occasion I hadn’t seen anything anywhere, even the usual signs on the roadside had been conspicuous by their absence, or perhaps I had just become blinded by the sheer volume of signs on our roads these days ?, but that fact remained that the road home was closed ?. There was nothing for it but to follow the 31 mile diversion and my plan for an early night was well and truly scuppered, when I eventually arrived home at 2am ?.
As I mentioned at the start of this tale, I can only lure fish once this week so my chance to reach the ton will have to wait for the time being. It’s not all bad though, as tomorrow I’m off with the lads on our annual trip to Penzance, for a couple of days of shark chasing and general fishing ?, when hopefully I’ll beat my PB blue of 110lb and we’ll all get to see some species we just don’t catch here in North Wales ?.
. After one of those rare journeys when slow drivers seemed to melt out of my way, and when the roads were almost completely clear of traffic, I arrived at the mark to find leaden grey skies, more reminiscent of December than August, but the sea was at least flattened nicely by the wind, as I hoped it would be. The water clarity was excellent too and with the occasional tern smashing into the sea, betraying the presence of bait fish, I was quietly confident.Planning my tactics, I waded out onto the reef and once in position, I looked in my box for a lure which has worked well for me at the mark in the past. It was at this point that an evening which had started so well, suddenly started to go wrong, when I discovered that the Frosty in 500g was nowhere to be seen ?. Having been fishing another mark recently I had swapped out some lures and I had been in such a hurry to get out, that I had forgotten to swap them back again ?. Thinking on my feet, I decided to go with the next best thing and I clipped on the Frosty in Cabot instead. Now I’ve never caught on a lure in that particular colour before but I’ve always thought it looks well fishy, so I couldn’t see why it wouldn’t work.
Though conditions weren’t easy, the wind did have one advantage and with just moderate effort, the lure went one hell of a long way ?. Once it splashed down, I let it float a few seconds, in case a bass might have been intrigued by the disturbance, before I began walking it on its long journey back to shore.
As I worked the lure, I looked around to take in my surroundings but my musings were suddenly disturbed when I felt a gradual increase in resistance on my line. It wasn’t a typical bass take and at first I thought it might I might have picked up some weed, but when I looked into distance to see what it might be, I was horrified to see that my lure had been picked up by a bloody great big black backed gull! ?
Now I’ve hooked a gull before and successfully reeled it in to untangle it, but that was on heavier beach casting gear, and a massive thing on a 7-35g rod was a completely different story. To begin with I actually made some progress, but that early success was short lived and once the lure snatcher realised what was going on, there was only going to be one winner. As soon as gullzilla got airborne, I couldn’t compete and within seconds my braid snapped like cotton ?.
I was gutted to lose my first lure in a long while, but then it was my own fault and If I had been paying attention in the first place, then I might have been able to pull my lure out of the gull’s way ?. There was no point dwelling on it though, so I quickly tied on another leader and got back to the fishing.
For the next 2 hours I tried a variety of lures, while keeping a very keen lookout for any potential feathered lure snatchers, and I couldn’t help but scowl at any bird that came anywhere near my lures ?, but thankfully the gull episode was a one off.
Though things were generally quiet, I did manage to snare what I came for, when a 41cm schoolie took a liking to my Swimish ?,
but as I suspected, the 100 wasn’t looking good.
I fished on into darkness, but after 4 and a half hours of trying various lures, with just the one take to show for it, I accepted that I was wasting my time and happy to have at least beaten the blank in less than perfect conditions, I decided to have an early night for once.
So far my fortunes had been mixed, but with light traffic on the drive home it looked like I might finish the evening on a high. I should have known better though and on the A55 just outside Bangor my night suddenly took a massive downturn, when I spotted a matrix sign saying “ROAD AHEAD CLOSED” ?.
With long running roadworks in the area, there have been occasional overnight closures of the A55 for the last 2 years but these closures are usually well publicised. On this occasion I hadn’t seen anything anywhere, even the usual signs on the roadside had been conspicuous by their absence, or perhaps I had just become blinded by the sheer volume of signs on our roads these days ?, but that fact remained that the road home was closed ?. There was nothing for it but to follow the 31 mile diversion and my plan for an early night was well and truly scuppered, when I eventually arrived home at 2am ?.
As I mentioned at the start of this tale, I can only lure fish once this week so my chance to reach the ton will have to wait for the time being. It’s not all bad though, as tomorrow I’m off with the lads on our annual trip to Penzance, for a couple of days of shark chasing and general fishing ?, when hopefully I’ll beat my PB blue of 110lb and we’ll all get to see some species we just don’t catch here in North Wales ?.
