North Wales A double header of matches.

[Andy 1965]

Part 1 – It was Michelle Keegans fault.

After the disappointment of a final lure session blank on Thursday night, I didn’t have long to dwell on things and less than 24 hours later, it was time for our next club match on Friday night. The intended venue was the beacons at Conwy but things didn’t get off to the best of starts, when we arrived to find the car park blocked off for the filming of Brassic, no never heard of it either! ? Though some of the lads were in favour of ignoring the security guards and sneaking down to the shore by another route, we decided it wasn’t worth any grief and so we set off in a socially distanced convoy for Deganwy on the other side of the river instead.

After a short drive, we arrived to find another angler whose plans the film crew, already fishing there, had also spoilt but with plenty of room for us all we spread ourselves out along the shore and started to get set up. After 20 minutes we were all ready to go and so 15 minutes later than planned, the match got underway.

Going by past matches in the area, we expected to catch mainly codling, whiting and rockling, with the odd flounder, silver eel and maybe a dog thrown in, but sadly peeler crab is as difficult to find as rocking horse s**t this late in the year, so we would probably be limited to what we could catch, by the bait available to us. Disappointingly, the match got off to a very slow start but eventually Ady got off the mark with a treble shot of whiting. Only 1 was in-size but at least he was weighing in.

The remainder of the flood was quiet but Glyn and John also managed a whiting each, meanwhile the rest of us fishing further up river struggled and as the flood got underway, we were still blanking.

As the ebbing tide gathered pace the fishing finally began to pick up but while the league leader Glyn started to build up a decent bag, Steve A and I who were in second and third place respectively, were still struggling to even get a bite. We persevered though and eventually we at least started to get bites.

Now this may seem like good news but due to the club scoring system, whereby a members lowest score in the winter, summer and overall league is dropped, we both stood to gain more from a blank than we would by catching a single whiting and finishing way behind Glyn on the night ?. As it stood, Glyn’s lowest score in the winter league was 2, mine was 11 and Steve’s was 16 so 2 points for a blank would save me 9 points and Steve 14 ? but this would be offset by Glyn’s 12 points for a win and a point per fish. It was a similar story in the overall league, though not quite as pronounced but safe to say a blank wouldn’t have been the end of the world for either of us.

We both had a tough call to make, to carry on fishing or to reel in and go sit in a nice warm car ? but as it happened the decision was soon taken out of my hands, when I finally beat the blank with a just in-size whiting ?. With less than an hour to go I really needed to pull my finger out now, to score as many points as possible but when on the next cast I reeled in an undersized pin, it didn’t look good. With the clock rapidly ticking down, I did finally manage a second whiting but Steve decided it wasn’t worth the risk and he packed in 20 minutes early to save himself a decent chunk of points. Finally, it was time to reel in and we all assembled back at the cars to tot up the final weights.

As expected, Glyn had won on the night with 5 whiting and a score of 17 points, while my 2 whiting was only enough for 5th place and 7 points . Personally I blame Michelle Keegan for the poor fishing but it wasn’t all bad, 7 points was my new lowest match score in the winter league and a saving in real terms of 4 points. Steve though had gained the most and by blanking for 2 points on the match, he was now dropping 14 points less off his total score, to only drop 3 more behind Glyn when it could have been a lot more had he actually caught something! ?

So with 2 matches to go, Glyn still held the lead in the winter league by 5 points from Steve and 12 points from me, and in the overall league by 7 points from Steve and 18 points from me, very slightly closer than at the start of the evening so it’s still all to play for.

Part 2 – Mr Seal does me a favour.

Following the disappointing match on Friday, it was time on Sunday evening for a change of pace and in a season badly curtailed by Covid, a rare chance to fish a deep-water rock mark. With light winds forecast, the venue chosen was Ty Croes and though the rays have likely thinned out slightly at this time of year, we hoped instead that there would still be big points to be had by catching some good sized huss ?. After another drive in convoy, we arrived at the car park and incredibly we were the only ones there! ? Not wanting to look a gift horse in the mouth we got suited and booted ASAP, before quickly marching to the coast. After a quick chat at the top of the path, I made my way to my favoured ledge on the right of the mark, accompanied by John and Gwion, while Glyn, Ady and the 2 Steve’s headed straight on.

A brisk stroll and a scramble later we were on the rocks and taking in the sea air, on a lovely calm and surprisingly mild evening. Once settled we immediately busied ourselves with rigging up and at 5:45 precisely, we launched a variety of fishy morsels out into the darkness. Incredibly, by 5:45 and 30 seconds the rod tips were bouncing around all over the place, as our carefully presented baits were set upon by what looked like hordes of ravenous whiting!

After 5 minutes or so, just enough time to bait up a fresh rig, I reeled in the first triple header of whiting of the night and though they were sadly undersize, it was an encouraging sign for the evening ahead .

The next hour was more of the same but eventually I did manage to catch one over the 27cm minimum size ?. I also caught a decent dab, just over the 23cm limit and the match anglers’ friend a doggie, to start building up a decent bag. While John and I were catching the usual culprits, Gwion managed to catch a nice pollack of 35cm but unfortunately in all the excitement of catching something decent, he threw it back without weighing it! ?

90 minutes or so into the match and I had an altogether different bite, this was a lot more aggressive than anything I’d seen so far and as I was using braid and had loosened the drag, it took off several meters of line. From previous experience I guessed it to be a huss and when I eventually tightened up the drag and lifted the rod to set the hook, it took on a very satisfying curve ?. Not wanting to risk pulling the hook due to the lack of stretch in the braid, I reeled in steadily and things started off well but after 30 seconds or so the fish dived back for the bottom and ping, I felt the distinct and horrible sensation of the line going slack as the fish made good it’s escape ?. Of course I was gutted but there was no time to dwell on it, so I immediately clipped on a freshly baited rig and cast out again.

The next hour was spent mainly catching small whiting, with only the odd one big enough to weigh in, so I decided on a change of tactics. The 3 hook flapper was replaced with a pulley dropper, armed with pennel rigged 4/0 & 2/0 hooks and baited with a fresh whiting fillet, which was then promptly whacked out in the hope that where there was one huss, there would be more. Unfortunately this tactic only resulted in a solitary doggie and an incredibly over confident dab ?, while John and Gwion continued to catch a steady stream of whiting, so after an hour or so I reverted to my initial plan, in an attempt to build a bag of smaller fish.

Soon after this we realised that we had some company, as we were joined by a bloody great bull seal, no doubt attracted by the return of lots of small fish. To begin with this wasn’t a problem but knowing that seals have a habit of taking fish off hooks, we immediately stopped throwing any back and stored them in a rock pool until the end of the session instead. We hoped that the seal would get bored and go away and though the principle was sound, it didn’t work in practice as the seal continued to hang around ?. For the time being it behaved itself and I was able to add and additional dab and whiting to my bag, along with another brace of dogs but eventually, as our companions confidence grew, our fears were realised.

As we entered the last hour of the match, the first victim was a dab on John’s line and this was followed by a couple of whiting on my line, hopefully not in-size ?. As if this wasn’t bad enough, the average size of the whiting we did manage to get past the blockade also dropped and as the clock ticked down, we failed to add to our bags. Finally our time was up and after giving Mr Seal a last free meal, we packed up and headed back for the car park, to meet the others and to compare bag weights.

As it happened we weren’t the only ones to have an unwanted visitor and though we had lost some small stuff, Glyn had been well and truly robbed as the seal patrolling their mark took what felt like a very decent ray off his line .

Without the ray, Glyn’s bag of 4 dogs and a dab for 2.22kg was only enough for third place. This was just shy of Steve’s bag weight of 2.26kg, consisting of 3 dogs & 2 whiting to give him second place. Which meant that thankfully, my lost huss and the stolen fish weren’t a deal breaker as my bag of 3 dogs, 2 whiting and 3 dabs for 2.48kg was still enough to “seal” victory ?.

So with just one more match to go Glyn still leads the winter league on 65 points, Steve is second on 62 points and I’m in third on 60 points. As for the overall league the scores aren’t quite so close, again it’s Glyn in the lead on 146 points, Steve in second on 141 points and I’m third on 135 points but even there it’s not over yet. Steve made up a deficit of 10 points to take the title in the last match of the summer league, and in the final match of last year I scored 31 points to take the overall title by a single point, so the final match of 2020, pencilled in for Saturday December 12th, promises to be a real humdinger ?.

 

[richtic]

Fantastic report Andy, thanks for sharing

 

[Viaductbaggies]

Bloody hell I haven’t read anything that long since I left school ?

 

[Shirleycodlin]

Brilliant report , that's a funny points system you have!

 

[Andy 1965]

Brilliant report , that's a funny points system you have!

The points system for matches isn't too bad, with 12 points for the winner, 9 points for second, 7 for third and 6, 5, 4, 3 & 2 for the lower placings, plus a point per fish and a bonus point for each fish over a kilo.

Dropping the lowest score from each of the winter, summer and overall leagues is a bit strange, but I think the idea is not to penalise someone who for whatever reason, can't fish every match.

It takes some getting used to, as it penalises someone who scores consistently high through the whole season, but I guess it's the same for everyone. Unfortunately this year, I'm the only angler to have weighed in at every match so far.