North Wales Counting the days till spring.

[Andy 1965]

My winter bait fishing hasn't exactly got off to the best of starts, with 5 whiting caught last Tuesday evening and only 3 on Thursday, so I had high hopes for last night's match on the Menai Straits ?. Conditions were decent enough, except for a little more moonlight than I prefer ?, but the dirty water should be enough to counteract that and to encourage the fish to feed more confidently.


7 of us turned up, with high hopes of non-stop dogs, whiting and hopefully more for the next 4 hours, but it wasn't destined to be.

Things started off on a promising note, with bites for both Steve A and me on the very first cast, but while Goldenb***s started off with a double header of a dog and in-size whiting, I missed the bites completely and reeled in nothing but bare hooks ?. The next cast resulted a strap conger for Steve, while I missed out again.

This set the tone for the rest of the match, and though I had plenty of bites, including one serious pull down reminiscent of something a lot bigger than a doggie ?, I just couldn't connect with any of them. I did eventually beat the blank with a whiting, but at 25cm it was 2cm short of the minimum size and ultimately I failed to weigh in ?.

The rest of the lads didn't exactly bag up, but they all caught at least 1 in-size fish. Kenny finished in 6th place with a whiting of 0.22kg, Glyn was 5th with a whiting of 0.23kg, John 4th with a dog and a rock goby for 0.59kg and Gwion 3rd with a conger of 0.88kg. That left the top 2 places, and after getting off to a flyer, Steve A held onto his lead to finish in first place with 2 dogs and 2 whiting for 2.01kg ?, just in front of Steve O with 2 dogs for 1.56kg and the runner up spot ?.

So my bait fishing has gone from bad to worse since I packed in the lures and unless things pick up dramatically this next week, then it will be a very long winter ahead, and I'll be counting the days until the arrival of spring ?.

 

[Degs]

I'm already counting, dislike winter more with every passing year ?

 

[Wolf]

At least you didn't blank mate , ???, good report & piccys.

 

[richtic]

Great report and pictures

 

[ouchthathurt]

I’ve had enough of winter too! I hate winter with a passion, it’s too dark for too long, it’s cold, wet and miserable, hibernation is a fervent wish!

 

[Warby72]

I’ve had enough of winter too! I hate winter with a passion, it’s too dark for too long, it’s cold, wet and miserable, hibernation is a fervent wish!

I like what I call "Menthol mornings", clear skies, sunny but crunchy underfoot from the frost. The air smells really fresh. I agree about the cold, wet and miserable shit though, it's really not pleasant. I've noticed that these days I'm most definitely a fair weather Fisher.