North Wales Just not the same as congering.

[Andy 1965]

With mission conger kyboshed for another year due to the lockdown , I’ve really been missing my fishing, so on Thursday evening I decided on a session at my local beach to blow away the cobwebs. I wasn’t expecting much apart from pin whiting and rockling, but it would get me out of the house and the exercise of walking there would do me good.

After a brisk stroll, I arrived at the beach an hour after low, where my plan was to fish the rest of the flood and the first hour of the ebb. After some fairly rough seas in the morning, conditions were settling down nicely and with a moderate surf running, plus some nice colour to the water, I began to think that I might even be in with a chance of maybe a winter bass, codling or a ray after all .

Hedging my bets I fished a 2 hook flapper on one rod, baited with lug, squid and sandeel, fished either alone or cocktailed together, while the second rod was set up with a pulley dropper and bigger baits, hoping for bigger stuff. Of course this turned out to be wishful thinking, and for the first 3 hours the baits on both rods remained completely untouched .

I kept trying though and about 90 minutes before high water my patience paid off, when I finally had the first bite of the night. A series of sharp rattles suggested that a whiting had found my bait, so I gave it plenty of time to develop but annoyingly, when I eventually reeled in my bait was barely touched . Assuming that the culprits were just too small to swallow the baits, I decided to scale down my gear but as I already had another rig baited up, I cast that out to keep a bait in the water while I got myself sorted.

Fortunately I always carry a variety of rigs with me so I dug out one of those I use with the lads while scratching in Caernarfon, a 3-hook boom rig armed with size 6 hooks, which I baited up with small pieces of lug and sections of sandeel fillets.

While I was setting this up I noticed several bites on the other rod, but expecting the same result as the previous cast I didn’t pay much attention to it, so when I reeled in to change rigs I was I was very surprised to actually feel a weight on the line . As this could potentially be my first and only fish of the night, I reeled in slowly and steadily until the identity of the bait nibblers was revealed and blank was beaten with a 5-bearded rockling. On closer inspection it turned out that the fish wasn’t actually hooked, but had managed to shove so much of the bait down its throat that it couldn’t spit it out, but I wasn’t complaining .


Before casting out again I switched rigs and after 3 hours of no action whatsoever, it was like someone had flicked a switch, as my baits were now under constant attack and the rod barely stayed still! For the next hour I caught a constant stream of fish, mainly pin whiting


but I also caught another rockling, a cracker this time of 26cm, equalling my PB on size but sadly, at 5oz it was an ounce lighter than my best, I was still chuffed though .

With the big baits still coming back untouched, I tried something completely different now, and I baited up with one of the smaller pins I’d caught. It appeared that there just weren’t any big fish around though, as still no bites were forthcoming .

Regrettably, by an hour after high water the small fish also went off the feed, so with the time fast approaching 1am and with an uphill walk ahead of me, I called it quits and headed for home.

So my evening had turned our pretty much as expected, with nothing but small stuff to keep me busy, and though I was happy with my rockling, the evening hadn’t been a patch on a conger session . I can’t do without my fishing though and no doubt I’ll be back down the beach again before too long, but with only small stuff to catch, it’s going to be a looooong couple of months before I can get back to some proper fishing again .

 

[Thrasher]

With mission conger kyboshed for another year due to the lockdown , I’ve really been missing my fishing, so on Thursday evening I decided on a session at my local beach to blow away the cobwebs. I wasn’t expecting much apart from pin whiting and rockling, but it would get me out of the house and the exercise of walking there would do me good.

After a brisk stroll, I arrived at the beach an hour after low, where my plan was to fish the rest of the flood and the first hour of the ebb. After some fairly rough seas in the morning, conditions were settling down nicely and with a moderate surf running, plus some nice colour to the water, I began to think that I might even be in with a chance of maybe a winter bass, codling or a ray after all .

Hedging my bets I fished a 2 hook flapper on one rod, baited with lug, squid and sandeel, fished either alone or cocktailed together, while the second rod was set up with a pulley dropper and bigger baits, hoping for bigger stuff. Of course this turned out to be wishful thinking, and for the first 3 hours the baits on both rods remained completely untouched .

I kept trying though and about 90 minutes before high water my patience paid off, when I finally had the first bite of the night. A series of sharp rattles suggested that a whiting had found my bait, so I gave it plenty of time to develop but annoyingly, when I eventually reeled in my bait was barely touched . Assuming that the culprits were just too small to swallow the baits, I decided to scale down my gear but as I already had another rig baited up, I cast that out to keep a bait in the water while I got myself sorted.

Fortunately I always carry a variety of rigs with me so I dug out one of those I use with the lads while scratching in Caernarfon, a 3-hook boom rig armed with size 6 hooks, which I baited up with small pieces of lug and sections of sandeel fillets.

While I was setting this up I noticed several bites on the other rod, but expecting the same result as the previous cast I didn’t pay much attention to it, so when I reeled in to change rigs I was I was very surprised to actually feel a weight on the line . As this could potentially be my first and only fish of the night, I reeled in slowly and steadily until the identity of the bait nibblers was revealed and blank was beaten with a 5-bearded rockling. On closer inspection it turned out that the fish wasn’t actually hooked, but had managed to shove so much of the bait down its throat that it couldn’t spit it out, but I wasn’t complaining .
View attachment 4189

Before casting out again I switched rigs and after 3 hours of no action whatsoever, it was like someone had flicked a switch, as my baits were now under constant attack and the rod barely stayed still! For the next hour I caught a constant stream of fish, mainly pin whiting
View attachment 4190

but I also caught another rockling, a cracker this time of 26cm, equalling my PB on size but sadly, at 5oz it was an ounce lighter than my best, I was still chuffed though .

With the big baits still coming back untouched, I tried something completely different now, and I baited up with one of the smaller pins I’d caught. It appeared that there just weren’t any big fish around though, as still no bites were forthcoming .

Regrettably, by an hour after high water the small fish also went off the feed, so with the time fast approaching 1am and with an uphill walk ahead of me, I called it quits and headed for home.

So my evening had turned our pretty much as expected, with nothing but small stuff to keep me busy, and though I was happy with my rockling, the evening hadn’t been a patch on a conger session . I can’t do without my fishing though and no doubt I’ll be back down the beach again before too long, but with only small stuff to catch, it’s going to be a looooong couple of months before I can get back to some proper fishing again .

Thanks fof the report Andy. Good to see you didn't blank for your effort despite it being all small stuff.

 

[Another Angle UK]

Good effort, better than a blank, a fish is a fish as they say.

 

[Viaductbaggies]

Sounds like one of my summer reports only difference is I’ve probably done a round trip of 300 miles to do it ?

 

[JLD]

And Andy did catch something.

 

[Viaductbaggies]

And Andy did catch something.

Cheeky git ? !!!!!!!

I rarely blank just don’t catch much of any size ?

 

[Cfish]

Geeky git ? !!!!!!!

I rarely blank just don’t catch much of any size ?

lol don't mention bass they seem to disapear when certain peeps come down.

 

[Treeby]

At least you got out and did some fishing, and more fish than some we could mention.

 

[Plaicehunter]

With mission conger kyboshed for another year due to the lockdown , I’ve really been missing my fishing, so on Thursday evening I decided on a session at my local beach to blow away the cobwebs. I wasn’t expecting much apart from pin whiting and rockling, but it would get me out of the house and the exercise of walking there would do me good.

After a brisk stroll, I arrived at the beach an hour after low, where my plan was to fish the rest of the flood and the first hour of the ebb. After some fairly rough seas in the morning, conditions were settling down nicely and with a moderate surf running, plus some nice colour to the water, I began to think that I might even be in with a chance of maybe a winter bass, codling or a ray after all .

Hedging my bets I fished a 2 hook flapper on one rod, baited with lug, squid and sandeel, fished either alone or cocktailed together, while the second rod was set up with a pulley dropper and bigger baits, hoping for bigger stuff. Of course this turned out to be wishful thinking, and for the first 3 hours the baits on both rods remained completely untouched .

I kept trying though and about 90 minutes before high water my patience paid off, when I finally had the first bite of the night. A series of sharp rattles suggested that a whiting had found my bait, so I gave it plenty of time to develop but annoyingly, when I eventually reeled in my bait was barely touched . Assuming that the culprits were just too small to swallow the baits, I decided to scale down my gear but as I already had another rig baited up, I cast that out to keep a bait in the water while I got myself sorted.

Fortunately I always carry a variety of rigs with me so I dug out one of those I use with the lads while scratching in Caernarfon, a 3-hook boom rig armed with size 6 hooks, which I baited up with small pieces of lug and sections of sandeel fillets.

While I was setting this up I noticed several bites on the other rod, but expecting the same result as the previous cast I didn’t pay much attention to it, so when I reeled in to change rigs I was I was very surprised to actually feel a weight on the line . As this could potentially be my first and only fish of the night, I reeled in slowly and steadily until the identity of the bait nibblers was revealed and blank was beaten with a 5-bearded rockling. On closer inspection it turned out that the fish wasn’t actually hooked, but had managed to shove so much of the bait down its throat that it couldn’t spit it out, but I wasn’t complaining .
View attachment 4189

Before casting out again I switched rigs and after 3 hours of no action whatsoever, it was like someone had flicked a switch, as my baits were now under constant attack and the rod barely stayed still! For the next hour I caught a constant stream of fish, mainly pin whiting
View attachment 4190

but I also caught another rockling, a cracker this time of 26cm, equalling my PB on size but sadly, at 5oz it was an ounce lighter than my best, I was still chuffed though .

With the big baits still coming back untouched, I tried something completely different now, and I baited up with one of the smaller pins I’d caught. It appeared that there just weren’t any big fish around though, as still no bites were forthcoming .

Regrettably, by an hour after high water the small fish also went off the feed, so with the time fast approaching 1am and with an uphill walk ahead of me, I called it quits and headed for home.

So my evening had turned our pretty much as expected, with nothing but small stuff to keep me busy, and though I was happy with my rockling, the evening hadn’t been a patch on a conger session . I can’t do without my fishing though and no doubt I’ll be back down the beach again before too long, but with only small stuff to catch, it’s going to be a looooong couple of months before I can get back to some proper fishing again .

Pity you can't travel to Plymouth. See my South West England report today! PH

 

[Andy 1965]

Cheers for the replies all .

Pity you can't travel to Plymouth. See my South West England report today! PH

Just read your report .

The Tamar certainly is home to some seriously big conger , you're lucky to be able to fish there.

 

[Plaicehunter]

Cheers for the replies all .



Just read your report .

The Tamar certainly is home to some seriously big conger , you're lucky to be able to fish there.

Conger in the Tamar is something we in Plymouth just take for granted. It's a perfect combination of deep water (well over 100ft in places so unaffected by cold), resident and seasonal baitfish, a contoured bottom offering places to hide and hunt plus no commercial fishing.
The ones caught by anglers are almost all returned. From an angling point of view, no long voyages are required and there are plenty of spots sheltered from prevailing winds. I don't fish for conger very often, but the chances of catching in suitable conditions are very good. I usually find the ebb tide is best - perhaps because it disperses the bait scent over a wider area - but it's a real struggle to get them to the boat in a fast-running tide! PH

 

[Timbc2]

Good report Andy, beats being stuck inside.

 

[Another Angle UK]

@Plaicehunter in the old days I used to scuba dive around Marshfords moorings and the tide could be wicked. Same off Devils Point.

 

[Plaicehunter]

@Plaicehunter in the old days I used to scuba dive around Marshfords moorings and the tide could be wicked. Same off Devils Point.

Both of those places are pretty fierce especially on the ebb. Brave diving! Yesterday I was tied to a buoy just below the ferries on the Torpoint side and the two mooring buoys uptide of me were completely submerged by the speed of the current. Once a decent conger gets downtide of you and starts spinning and thrashing backwards it's hard to hold! PH

 

[Andy 1965]

Conger in the Tamar is something we in Plymouth just take for granted. It's a perfect combination of deep water (well over 100ft in places so unaffected by cold), resident and seasonal baitfish, a contoured bottom offering places to hide and hunt plus no commercial fishing.
The ones caught by anglers are almost all returned. From an angling point of view, no long voyages are required and there are plenty of spots sheltered from prevailing winds. I don't fish for conger very often, but the chances of catching in suitable conditions are very good. I usually find the ebb tide is best - perhaps because it disperses the bait scent over a wider area - but it's a real struggle to get them to the boat in a fast-running tide! PH

It sounds like a hell of a place! Sheltered, deep and full of fish, with some real monsters to be caught .

We're fortunate here, in that we have the island of Anglesey close by, so whichever way the wind is blowing we always have somewhere sheltered to fish, if we're allowed to travel there of course . As well as plenty of variety, there are some good size specimens around the island, but the Tamar is definitely in a different league .

 

[richtic]

Thanks for the report and pictures, well done.

 

[Gordon28]

Nice report bud. Beats sitting in the house all day alongside the added bonus of no blank ??