Terry, Dan and I had a trip to the west side of the Island yesterday to try and improve on our species counts.
The forecast was for bright spells and no rain, but it chucked it down all the way to Bangor before brightening up as we crossed Anglesey.
We arrived at our chosen mark, to find several cars in the parking area, so we sent Dan down to have a look and it was bad news. The ledge was full, with 5 people already combat fishing so we decided to head for another ledge we know a couple of minutes away.
This one was empty, so we were soon set up and fishing and we didn’t have to wait long for the Wrasse to find our baits.
They were all small, but we were using size 10 hooks for mini species so weren’t after decent ones, it was their more colourful cousins we wanted.
Dan found a female Cuckoo Wrasse and a Goldsinney and Terry had a Corkwing, but all I could get were Ballans.
They both had a Tompot each, and it took quite a while for me to get through the wrasse to find one for the hunt.
We all had Poor Cod too, but while Dan and I tried casting out for a smoothie, all we could find were Dogs. Dan did have a good run but it didn’t connect sadly.
As it got nearer to high, the swell started washing over the rocks, making it very slippy underfoot so we decided on a change of venue.
As we passed our original destination, a couple of the cars were still there so we headed to the Breakwater to try for a Smoothie.
We walked a fair distance, and were soon into the fish here. I added a Corkwing and a Shanny on the small rod, and was again just finding dogs on the smoothie rod.
Dan stole a crab off me to compliment the last of his frozen, and sent it out on his new continental rod and set the drag on his reel. It wasn’t long before the line started peeling off and he was into a tussle with something a lot more spirited than another tiny dog.
I went down the steps and was able to grab the fish for him as he manoeuvred it from above.
Target achieved for him, even though he has already had one for the hunt. A Starry Smoothie around 6lbs.
I peeled what crabs I had remaining and baited up my next rig, leaving some to donate to my old man. He used them straight away too and we both cast out and waited.
Within minutes, we both had bites, but these were the more familiar slow pulls of dogs rather than line stripping runs off smuts. However, when we reeled in, mine was a dog as expected, but Terry had managed to catch his first ever smoothie! Even if it was a baby.
There was no more smoothie action after this. We carried on finding dogs at range but Terry added a Goldsinney from down the side, and Dan had another one just to wind me up.
When a tosser in a yacht came past and snapped both of their rigs off we took this as a signal to end the day and head home.
Happy days!
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