Basstastic 14th October 2009

Following another enforced period away from fishing and the kayak, due to work, weather and other pressures, I finally managed to get back out on the water yesterday with Stewart (Nifty) off anglers afloat. A rare day off work from my new job in west Wales and we headed off to Cardigan Bay and a remote off the beat mark. The weather was perfect with just a few rollers at the launch site to concentrate the mind, and then we were out onto flat calm water with the occasional ripple. Armed with a selection of plugs we paddled out to one of Nifty's hotspots and chucked the surface plugs in.




First pull in and bang! Nifty was into his first bass on a sub surface lure which turned out to be the deadliest one of the day. A bass of around 2lb was landed and released, and the action continued on the subsequent casts for the first hour. I had chucked out a chug bug on my first cast and was thrilled to see a bass make a lunge for it close in to the kayak - same on the second cast - I changed to an old jointed thunderstick for the third cast, having failed to hook up two fish, and just before the lure reached the kayak there was an almighty splash and a large bass slammed down on the lure and headed for the bottom. On a light 7ft spinning rod and braid I then had a thrilling ten minute fight with the bass taking line and diving down and either side of the kayak. Happily landed my first bass off the kayak,and a pb of over 3.5lb, which was quickly despatched for the pot as had promised to take one back home.



Other smaller ones up to 2.5lb followed :









Over the next hour we both had smaller fish of up to 2.5lb with the action coming thick and fast. Nifty was well in the lead and into double figures already when things quietened down over slack water. All the other bass were safely returned to grow bigger and we paddled over to another mark as the tide turned to the flood. There wasnt any sign of bass or anything else at this mark so we trolled back to the original mark against the flooding tide. During the rest of the afternoon Nifty took his catch count up to 19 on his magic lure, whilst kept swapping between rapala j13 and j9's and back to the trusty jointed thunderstick. We had a few more and after a quiet spell I hit into another bigger one and spend another ten minutes with the rod bent over double before another 3.5lb plus bass came on board - this one was released as well to grow bigger for another day, and at the end of the afternoon we paddled back to the launch point two very happy kayakers having had an excellent days sport. Limited photos included within this report due to the large number of netters who are out at present and with respect to Nifty for showing me one of his hotspot marks (cheers!).




If I dont get out now for the rest of the year I will still be happy, having finally caught bass on the plugs from the kayak and having beaten my previous PB bass catch. Now i know why I moved down to West Wales :-)

More feasting

After a few futile shore attempts to plug for bass in early July, work and bad weather have conspired again to keep me off the water for around four weeks. The weather this last week was much better, so it was time to feast again.

On Tuesday 11th August I planned to get out at Aberaeron after work for some mackeral and bass fishing. Although the early evening was still sunny, the wind had increased during the afternoon and after parking up at Aberaeron beach I decided that fishing in the swell would be hard work. I decided to go further south to seek shelter at Newquay, but upon arriving there it was really busy with tourists and it would have meant a long trolley down of the scupper pro from the top car park. So I headed further south and checked out the beach at Cwm Tuddu - really nice bay but the sea looked choppy just outside the bay and I wasnt sure about solo paddling around the headland with the wind against tide. So I got back in the car after a short clifftop walk, and headed down to Llangrannog for a look there, having more or less decided not to launch. I was lucky at Llangrannog and found a parking space right at the top of the beach, so decided to go for a paddle anyway without the fishing gear. I launched just after 6.30pm after a trolley down the sandy beach, and got ditched by the first wave in a foot of water! Got out after that one and paddled for an hour and half on either side of the wide bay, taking some pictures, and then practising some surf entry and exists.Here are some pics from the evening paddle.























Left work early on Thursday 13th and launched onto a smooth Aberaeron bay from the beach with just a gentle swell present. Paddled accross and along a few marks in the bay trolling a J11 plug and then switched to a chug bug surface plug to try closer in for bass. Lovely views across Aberaeron town, the harbour and the coasdtal protection works in progress to the north of the harbour entrance. After a few sweeps of the bay I switched over to the second rod and drifted over a few marks further out in search of mackeral. I had been told that they had been a few miles out of late but having heard one or two splashes on the paddle I decided it was worth a go. 30 mins later, whilst drifting over one underwater feature in the bay, I had a good series of knocks and a second drift brought a hook up and a nice size mackeral was wound in - success, I now had my tea sorted! - I saw a few more mackeral jump clean out of the water in different parts of the bay as I paddled around in search of more, but failed to catch any more. Around 9pm with the sun going down over the water, I paddled back into the beach and trolleyed the scupper pro up to the car, stopping on the way to have a chat with another local sea kayaker (nice to meet you Gary). Here are some pics of this second session of the last week:

South of Aberaeron bay




North of the harbour entrance looking at the coastal protection works underway




Looking at my work offices from the sea :-)




Aberaeron town from the sea




The harbour entrance at Aberaeron




and the sunset looking west:



Happy evenings!

Feast after famine!

Following the inland sea / Cymyran river paddle in late March, the new job in west Wales and getting the house on the market had stopped all play for the last two months. Although I did manage to try a bit of spinning and plugging from the shore in April/May it was more exploratory, hunting out some bassy looking areas in and around Aberaeron. On the plus side, my mid week temporary accommodation is only 4 miles from the sea, and my temporary office looks out on Aberaeron harbour, and the beach is about 50 yards in front of the office building! Bit frustrating when I didnt have my kayak down there, but at least I could see the state of the tide and take a note of where all of the fishing boats were heading for :-)

After the first few weeks down in west Wales I managed to get round to buying some roof bars for my new car, after the company volvo from my last job had gone back. So finally after two months of drought and famine I managed to get the kayak down to the storeroom attached to my rented cottage - and last week met up with Mike, RST100 from Aberystwyth for a first launch at Llanrhystud, only to find the wind had come up and it was raining by the time we met up on the beach, so we abandoned the first launch and I went walking instead.

Last weekend I finally got out on the Menai Straights again for a morning paddle and plug with Hughesey, after he kindly let me loan his 4.5 elite kayak whilst he paddled his scupper pro. My scupper pro was still down in west Wales as I didnt want to bring it back up for just the weekend. We met up at Hughesey's house and drove to Moel Y Don for the launch around 9am.

We paddled against the now ebbing tide up towards britannia bridge, and stopped off for an explore in the old quarry in search of mullet and bass:
















I explored a second smaller quarry area too, then we had a nosy around in the boathouse at Plas Newydd stately home:











We then paddled up towards a river entrance, and had a look at the wildlife which included these swans complete with their babies - cute:















We then paddled up to the bridge, taking advantage of a back eddy until we pushed through underneath the bridge







We discovered that the current was too strong to get into the swellies, so after an about turn, and a bit of ducking and weaving in some whirlpools to avoid a back eddy trying to suck us there anyway (!) we managed to join the main conveyor belt south again and had a leisurely paddle back downstream on the mainland side before crossing over to land back at Moel y Don. We plugged / trolled for some of the time but the only fish we saw was a sea trout jumping near the river entrance. Neverthe less it was nice to be out on a kayak again after over eight weeks of famine!

Monday saw me back down in Aberaeron and I went straight back out with the kayak after finishing work at 7pm - met a couple of other kayak fishermen just outside the harbour in Aberaeron and gained some local knowledge about the mackeral and bass spots before having a couple of hours trolling plugs close inshore and out on the inshore reef. I blanked but it was a beautiful flat calm evening with a brilliant sunset over the water when I hit the beach again around 10pm.

Tuesday night saw me out again but a bit earlier, and this time with my fladen boat rod as well as the plugging rod. After trolling plugs and trying a few bass spots for a couple of hours I went back n the reef and went on the drift in about 20ft of water, slowly drifting towards an anchored boat. By around 9.30 I was thinking of heading back to shore with no fish, despite seeing several garfish jumping out of the water during the evening. The anchored boat up anchored and moved off the reef, and two drops of the feathers later my line went slack and I wound up into one, two then three mackeral :-) Job done! 3 mackeral landed and one small one shook off the hook to grow bigger and the other two were tapped and bagged for my first mackeral tea of the season.

Sorry for the lack of pictures, but I was travelling light and hadnt taken the waterproof camera out with me on the first two nights.

Wednesday night, after tucking into four fillets of fresh mackeral, I went back to Llanrhystud beach and met up with Mike from Aberystwyth. Although there was a bit more of a breeze it was offshore and there was no surf. We launched off the stony beach and paddled against the flooding tide to a bassy spot which I had noted whilst out for a long walk the previous week - I put a call in to the coastguard for a radio check and was pleased to be able to access both Holyhead and Milford haven coastguard with just the 5w on the handheld, and left them a paddle plan for the evneing - this time I had my camera with me to capture yet another lovely evening sunny paddle:









We trolled surface poppers and sub surface plugs for a mile or so against the tide, and then moved into the target area of weed and boulders - within a few minutes Mike has a big bass leap for his surface plug but there was no hookup. We plugged away for half an hour or so, with plenty of bass swirling around the shallows. We then moved on and headed for another spot which I had noted down, with slightly deeper water - we fished there for a while and then paddled back up with the last of the flood tide around 9pm. I had several bass move off in front of my kayak on the way back up, and we stopped off to talk with a local who had walked along the shoreline to plug and area a bit earlier - he confirmed the presence of bass by taking a lovely 3 lb+ one out of his bag which he had taken minutes earlier! We plugged away for another hour until the sun disapeared, and then paddled quickly against the now ebbing tide back to Llanrhystud beach:







We landed around 1030pm and put a final call in to the coastguard to confirm our return onshore. No fish, but another lovely evening paddle and confirmation that my bassy spots were indeed bassy!


To add to the feast I went out with my 11ft plugging rod from the shore on Thursday night and had another go for the bass, having learnt what the locals were using to tempt them :-) There was a big tide and hopes were high, with the locals also out on the plugs, but despite giving it 3 hours of effort the bass had not been playing by the time I headed back to the car at 1015pm.

So, a feasty week after 8 weeks of famine, and some very useful info on the local bass scene. My offer to help a local small craft owner whose boat had been swamped by a passing fishing boat on Monday night was rewarded with some local info about the bass spots around Aberaeron, and my chats with the locals further north confirmed that some large bream had started showing at a certain mark at the end of the week - so my game plan for this coming week is well laid out - bream and bass, game on!

Last paddle before the long drought

This is a very late report on my last paddle before a 2 month drought with no paddling and no fishing being done - After the Rhoscolyn session in February things hotted up on the work front with a second interview for a new job down in mid Wales, and then suddenly landing the job in later March and having to rush around working a months notice in my old job as well as getting the house and garden up to scratch for putting on the market in early April. I did manage to get out for one last paddle with Hughesey the week before I started my new job at the end of April, so here is the belated report:

We met up at Cable bay for a planned paddle but the swell and wind didnt look inviting, so we came up with a cunning plan B - to catch the last hour of the flood tide up the river at Cymyran beach and paddle up to four mile bridge (and back on the ebb)- a trip I had been wanting to do for ages. We had a lovely chill out paddle up the river, diverting into a few interesting blind alleys on the way, and then sat on the bridge at four mile bridge for a coffee break whilst watching some surf kayakers playing in the outfall before the tide turned to the ebb. Then paddled back on the ebb, enjoying the views and wildlife again, which was only disturbed at the end of the trip by some moronic jet skiers racing about at speed in what is a 5mph byelaw restricted area. Here are some pics and video I took on the day:

The launch at an hour before high tide - straight off the car into the water!



Some nice houses were passed on the way up to four mile bridge:








The parking lot:




Looking back the way we had come:






Hughesey, admiring the view and the outlow play area:





Playtime:









Back at the seaward end of the river:

Rhoscolyn 21st February 2009

Met up with Kev (Hatter 3) at Rhoscolyn mid morning to try a new venue for me in the kayak.
The launch was easy access :P



I launched with two rods baited up - an old spinning rod and fixed spool reel, with shrimp rig baited with squid and herring and sandeel; and my fladen solid carbon rod and shimano multiplyer with 1 up 1 down rig and 5/0 hooks for the big stuff.



We paddled out past the little islands toward Rhoscolyn beacon and met up with Mal (Boomphat) who was returning on the ebb from a paddle up to the white arch and back.




Kev anchored up whilst I had a paddle around up tide and drifted down on tide and wind with the shrimp rig looking for coalies or whiting.





Nothing doing on the drift, so I joined kev at anchor, left the shrimp rig down and also put down the big fish rig with a jelly worm and squid on the top hook and a large fillet of herring on the bottom hook for ray or huss.




We got bites from the off, and it wasnt long before I got a blank saving whiting jumping onto the jelly worm top hook despite it being a 5/0.

Bites continued until it quietened off - so resorted to pouring a cup of tea and pulling out a mars bar after rebaiting both rods - never fails to secure a bite! - big fish rod started nodding and line started peeling off on the ratchet. I lifted into something heavy and kev got his camera ready as I got it half way up with a good bend in my fladden rod - only to have whatever it was spit the bait, leaving just a well mangled fillet of herring hanging off the hook. Presumed it was a small huss so popped a whole herring down on the bottom hook.

Kev then saw some action and brought up his first doggie of the year





I followed up with a second whiting on the shrimp rig, which went back down as live huss bait on the main rod (having not seen the local seal about!). The whiting disapeared off the hook after 30 mins and as the fishing had slowed down we up anchored and paddled further inshore - with kev trying float fished sandeel and I tried trolling the shrimp rig close in along the rocks and rocky beds.

Nice views towards the beach and south towards Rhosneigr









I paddled further north to admire the hundreds of cormorants and other sea birds on one of the islands





and then we paddled in and out of the little islands through some gullies






before heading down a final shallow gully back to the beach at just after 2pm






It was a nice paddle (third in 7 seven days 8-) ) and another none blanker. Lovely venue - so will be back with the family in warmer weather and I can see some evening paddles there after a couple of other species later on in the season ;)