Andy 1965
Well-known member
- Joined
- Oct 18, 2020
- Messages
- 410
- Reaction score
- 3,705
- Points
- 93
- Location
- North Wales
- Favourite Fishing
- Lure
After somehow managing to fluke a new PB conger last week, while fishing for rays and coalies (without an exact weight of course), I thought I would try the same trick again on Thursday night, to see if lightning would really strike twice ?. Though my chosen venue this time can usually be relied upon to produce some rays, it was unlikely to throw up any coalies, but there was a good chance of a decent huss instead. After an earlier than usual dart, I arrived to find a solitary car parked up already and though this usually means my favourite spot is taken, I thought it worth a look anyway, in case the occupant of the other car had decided to fish elsewhere.
After a 10 minute walk, and as I neared the coast, I could see someone already at my chosen spot but he was actually fishing on a higher ledge. Thinking that it might be too rough to get any nearer to the water, I approached the lone angler to see if he had caught anything. As it happened, the conditions weren’t too rough but the other angler simply preferred to fish higher up off the water. After a brief chat, he asked me if I was going to fish the lower ledge, so agreeing to cast in the opposite direction to him I descended to my preferred outcrop ?.
Just like last week, my first rod out was rigged with a pulley dropper, armed with pennel 4/0s and baited with a whole squid, while the second rod was rigged with a 3 hook flapper, aimed primarily at supplying me with some fresh whiting for bait. Encouragingly, both rods showed bites from the off and the flapper soon produced a half decent whiting, but the bait robbers were too small to take the bigger hooks and the dropper just came back stripped.
The next hour produced a couple more whiting, one of which did actually manage to impale itself on a 4/0, and I also caught my first codling of the winter ?, albeit a small one
then with a supply of fresh bait, it was time to put plan B into operation.
The dropper was now baited with a juicy whiting fillet, which produced the only dog of the night, and I also had another bite very reminiscent of a huss, as it bounced around and dragged my gear downtide, but the culprit failed to hook up. Sadly the rays also remained elusive.
While the dropper rod remained fairly still, the flapper rod continued to produce regularly. The vast majority of takers were whiting, but I did manage the one Pollack among them, again my first of the year ?.
Every now and then through the evening, my “upstairs” neighbour and I shared progress reports but apart from the one lost huss, he seemed to be having a quieter evening with just the odd whiting to show for his efforts. He eventually left at about 11:30, allowing me to spread my casts out a little wider to cover more ground but the bigger fish still eluded me. Finally, with just a triple header of whiting to show for my efforts, I called it a night at 00:30.
That’s a couple of sessions now targeting something other than conger, and I feel suitably refreshed, so I’ll be out again tonight, this time on the hunt for snakes and for a change I’ll be accompanied by the one and only Goldenb***s himself, so watch out Congerzilla, we’re coming to get ya! ?
After a 10 minute walk, and as I neared the coast, I could see someone already at my chosen spot but he was actually fishing on a higher ledge. Thinking that it might be too rough to get any nearer to the water, I approached the lone angler to see if he had caught anything. As it happened, the conditions weren’t too rough but the other angler simply preferred to fish higher up off the water. After a brief chat, he asked me if I was going to fish the lower ledge, so agreeing to cast in the opposite direction to him I descended to my preferred outcrop ?.
Just like last week, my first rod out was rigged with a pulley dropper, armed with pennel 4/0s and baited with a whole squid, while the second rod was rigged with a 3 hook flapper, aimed primarily at supplying me with some fresh whiting for bait. Encouragingly, both rods showed bites from the off and the flapper soon produced a half decent whiting, but the bait robbers were too small to take the bigger hooks and the dropper just came back stripped.
The next hour produced a couple more whiting, one of which did actually manage to impale itself on a 4/0, and I also caught my first codling of the winter ?, albeit a small one
then with a supply of fresh bait, it was time to put plan B into operation.
The dropper was now baited with a juicy whiting fillet, which produced the only dog of the night, and I also had another bite very reminiscent of a huss, as it bounced around and dragged my gear downtide, but the culprit failed to hook up. Sadly the rays also remained elusive.
While the dropper rod remained fairly still, the flapper rod continued to produce regularly. The vast majority of takers were whiting, but I did manage the one Pollack among them, again my first of the year ?.
Every now and then through the evening, my “upstairs” neighbour and I shared progress reports but apart from the one lost huss, he seemed to be having a quieter evening with just the odd whiting to show for his efforts. He eventually left at about 11:30, allowing me to spread my casts out a little wider to cover more ground but the bigger fish still eluded me. Finally, with just a triple header of whiting to show for my efforts, I called it a night at 00:30.
That’s a couple of sessions now targeting something other than conger, and I feel suitably refreshed, so I’ll be out again tonight, this time on the hunt for snakes and for a change I’ll be accompanied by the one and only Goldenb***s himself, so watch out Congerzilla, we’re coming to get ya! ?
