Five boats fished the third leg of Colwyn Bay Victoria sea angling clubs boat league earlier today.
With the Easterly winds easing from yesterday, we decided to make an early start and launch from Trearddur Bay for a change.
Expectations were high as we took to the water and headed off to our chosen marks. Sadly the fishing was a little disappointing, with most of the boats struggling to get through the Dogfish to add species to their totals.
However, some nice fish were caught, and several boats didn’t do them selves any harm in the species competition, especially Jo Amm who along with this nice Pollack,
Managed to find a small eyed ray,
But were unlucky with this spotted ray which was just under size.
Dan and I were aboard 02b@c today, with Ad on a jolly, so we had to work extra hard. We struggled to find any decent sized fish, with several of our species just over the minimum landing size. We did however pick up some target species easily, and so had some time towards the end of the match to concentrate on finding a flatfish for the triple rollover flatty pool and maybe target a smoothie.
We fished the area off Ravens Point for the last hour of the match, with one rod each targeting flatfish and another rod each fishing crab baits targeting a hound.
With 20 minutes to go, and after very little action, apart from the Dogs, we decided we would drift for the last part of the match, but as we both reeled in, Dan had an undersized Dab on his flatty rig. After a short discussion, we decided to stay put and I opted to change my crab bait for a lug, rag and squid cocktail, hoping for a plaice.
While busy with my other rod, Dan shouted as my uptider swung hard over against the run of the tide, and kept going. I quickly grabbed it and as I lifted into the fish, we both realised I was into a goodun!
After some adjustments to the drag, the battle commenced. The fish stayed deep and made a couple of runs, taking line from the drag before I could get some back. All the while I was hoping my reel would hold up, as the gears had been slipping while reeling in earlier in the day but it had seemed to have sorted itself out.
The lads on Goldilocks watched as I fought the fish and Dan readied the net, and it wasn’t long until he slipped the net under this beauty.
Happy Days!
After a quick photo, she was quickly released, and swam off strongly after being held into the flow for a minute or two.
Just to top it off after all the excitement, Dan then reeled in a double header of in size Dabs, which took our species tally up to 11 for the day.
When we got in, it became clear that we were in the lead, and we also managed to pick up the flatty pool we were after, so even Happier Days, a few quid and a new pb for me.
The final results were,
1st. 02B@C, 11 species for 09-00-00lbs and 50 points.
2nd. Lady M, 8 species and 1 specimen for 09-07-00lbs and 45 points.
3rd. Jo Amm, 7 species for 13-12-00lbs and 41 points.
4th. Goldilocks, 5 species for 12-07-00lbs and 34 points.
5th. Blue Moon, 5 species for 06-06-12lbs and 31 points.
Heaviest round fish, Thornback caught aboard Goldilocks weighing 05-10-00lbs.
Heaviest flatfish, Dab caught aboard 02B@C weighing 00-06-08lbs.
Anyone suggest a weight for the smoothie? It had a good old gut on it like its captor!