While we were out on Tuesday, Dan and I hatched a plan to try for a Small eyed ray on Thursday evening, fishing down the ebb on one of Angleseys beaches. This is somewhere Dan had only fished once ( and caught his Turbot from), and neither Terry or I had been before.
We picked Dan up and headed off, although the half hour hold up at the Penmaenbach tunnel wasn’t in the script, we still made it to the venue for high.
There was a decent surf running, and we had high hopes, with the only worry being how much weed would be in the water.
We all fished 2 rods, one for the rays, and one in hope of something else. Turbot in mine and Terrys case and a Coalfish or a Bass in Dans.
Dan had a Plaice on his first cast, on Ragworm left from Tuesdays trip. ( I haven’t had a Plaice! )
We then struggled for the next couple of hours with large lumps of weed sometimes dragging the rigs sideways in the tide, and sometimes being picked up on the retrieve.
Once darkness had fallen, we started picking up Whiting, and the weed seemed to ease.
Dan had a slack liner and thought it may have been a doggie while reeling in, but felt some weight once the fish got into the shallows, and was very pleased to see his main target species for the night.
A small eyed ray we estimated at around 6lb and species number 48 for the year!
We carried on with renewed enthusiasm, but only managed more Whiting, and we all had a Dog each. As the tide approached low water, we had a pow wow to see how long we were going to stay. I was watching my rod and saw no movement on the rod tip, but when I returned to it, there was a bit of slack line.
As with Dan, I didn’t think it was anything special as I started reeling in. It felt like a small dog, but suddenly the weight increased and it became a bit more of a struggle to retrieve.
I was still expecting a dog to come out of the waves, but I could clearly make out the shape of a ray so waded in to pick it up. It then became clear, while I was reeling in, I had picked up Terrys rig which had added the extra resistance.
Not as big as Dans, maybe 4lb and number 19 for me. Number 16 since the beginning of September.
One down, one to go. I carried on trying for a Turbot, and we all fished on, over low, only managing to find more Whiting before we decided that 6 hours was enough and it was time to pack up and see how long it would take us to get through the tunnel tonight. ( It took around 20 minutes when we were coming home on Tuesday but managed only 10 minutes tonight! )
Happy Days!
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