Moniar's Fishing Diary

Llanrhystud April 17th 2011

2011-04-17T14:45:00.000-07:00

After a long winter break from fishing, and a slow shore session for turbot in February, I finally managed to get out in the kayak last weekend off Aberaeron. Tried the usual spots but only managed 10 or so blank saving coalies.

This weekend was superb weather again so it was off to Llanrhystud to try a few more spots:

Second paddle of the year and I remembered the camera this time!

Launched from Llanrhystud beach in hope of some late turbot after putting a radio call into the coastguard.

Paddled out a bit and put down a mackeral baited shrimp rig in very shallow water - nothing doing so paddled a bit further out and towards one of my bass marks - still nothing on the shrimp rig trailing behind or close in with my favourite artificial eel. Still it was a nice afternoon for a paddle so I carried on with the last of the ebb tide.

I headed back up to the launch point and then further out on the first bit of the flood tide - the fish seemed to have woken up at last and as soon as I started on my lunch the ratched screamed and this double trouble came up:

They wrecked my baited shrimp rig so I replaced it with a one down two up beaded rig and sat back for some more dogfish sport on light tackle. Then this little ugly guy came up:

Finshed off with another few dogfish close in and enjoyed the sun going down before paddling back in and checking in with the coastguard again on the vhf.

So, two outings so far this year and two blank free sessions. Roll on the bass and mackeral and tope season:-)

2010-09-04T07:54:00.000-07:00

At last the wind had dropped on bank holiday Monday and after squaring off some garden jobs we loaded Marks new P13 and my P13 onto the car and met up with Mike in Aberaeron at Tuesday lunchtme.

The water was well flat and the sun shining ;D We launched off the beach and headed out to one of the usual marks

The plan was to plug and spin for bass on the way out, and then tie up with baited shrimp rigs to try for the bream if no bass showed up. Nothing to show for the surface plugging or bottom spinning, so we opted to tie up and put some mackeral baited shrimps down. After half an hour of nothing we went further out and tied up at a new mark - bites for the offset and Mike was soon pulling in the odd mackeral off the bottom as well as a plague of dogfish!

I managed a small pollack, and then more dogfish than I could shake a stick at ::)

Whilst Mike continued bringing in the mackeral and yet more dogs

I then had a characteristic set of bites and my rod did a dance for my first mackeral of the day; followed, much to my delight by a different sort of bite and the only black bream of the day (and first of the year for me) came up and into the supper box ;D I lost a couple more mackeral in between regular sandpaper rats.

I had a pot down on the bottom with mackeral in it to put a scent trail out for the bream, and to try for some live prawns or something bigger with claws, and had a bit of a shock when I brought it up feeling very heavy and discovered a decent size bull huss sat inside it, along with a frightened looking wrasse! As my better half likes huss, it was kept fresh for despatching later to make huss goujons :P

Mark got off the mark with his first dogfish off his new P13

and then had Mike and I in hysterics when he pulled up his first ever bull huss, and wasnt sure how to handle it :o

A scarred hand later and it was released to grow bigger ;D

It went quiet then so we went for another hour or so of drifting for the bass - one jumped clean vertically out of the water in front of me at one point but we didnt hook up with any despite trying bottom and surface lures.

We headed in after nearly 8 hours of fishing in the sun, tired but happy bunnies.

An enjoyable session, and nice to see some eating fish coming in.

Spend an hour after getting home, reading the relevant bit in the River Cottage fish book, and following the instructions on how to gut and skin the huss (not as hard as I thought it was going to be with the help of some large pliers) before removing the central spine and getting it ready to make goujons for the following days tea - a new one for the kids, but it seemed to go down well 8-)

After a couple of days back at work, it would have been rude not to have taken advantage of the still weather, so Mark and I got out again at 6pm on Thursday and spent a couple of hours plugging/spinning and bottom fishing for the bass/bream/mackeral but we both blanked - still enjoyable session though in the sunshine, fishing into dusk.

Heres hoping that this month brings more settled weather and less wind, and the bass onto the surface for some bigger sport ;)

Still not much to report!

2010-08-16T15:12:00.000-07:00

A planned kayak fishing trip out on Saturday was spoiled by 10 to 12 mph winds, but I took a work colleague out to Llanrhystud beach later on in the day to give him a go in the Prowler 13 kayak whilst I put the new Malibu 2 tandem kayak through its paces in the surf and chop. We played around in the surf and did a few self and assisted rescues practices over a few hours before dragging the kayaks back up the shingle.

The next day was a lot calmer and we joined Stewart out on a local bass mark - hopes were high when we arrived at the launch as a phone call to Stewart, who was already out on the water since 0830am, confirmed he had had a couple of bass, a bream, a wrasse, a codling and a pollack by then! We paddled out to the mark and put some lures down on the bottom, drifting on the still ebbing tideover some rough ground. After the flood tide started up we hit some small pollack and Stewart eventually had another small bass. It continued fairly quiet throughout the rest of the afternoon, with another bass for Stewart and a pollack for me, followed by a couple of dogfish when I tried with baited shrimp rig for the bream. Mark picked up three solitary mackeral towards the end of the day to avoid a blank too. We were out for around 6 hours, and the sea was a lot calmer than the day before. Not much to show for the 6 hours but a good workout on the arms with all the paddling!

Not much to report

2010-08-16T15:11:00.000-07:00

The weather, plus a few weeks lay off after a minor op, hasnt helped my activity levels this summer. Managed to get out on the P13 and our new Malibu 2 tandem for a family and friends beach bbq north of Aberystwyth weekend before last. A lonely mackeral, a gurnard, small pollack and the inevitable dogfish was the result after a couple of hours close in on some bass marks - the bream didnt show either so the bbq was mostly meat!Taking most of this week off work and the wind is predictably breezy! By 4pm last night, and following a phone call from another local who was just finishing work, I put the P13 on the car and met up with Nifty near Aberaeron. No surf but quite choppy, and the paddle out to usual bass marks was tiring against wind and a 5.5m flood tide. We bobbed around for a couple of hours, Nifty at anchor and me racing accross the mark on the big flood tide, trying a variety of bottom and suface lures. As the wind started picking up to 10mph around 7pm I paddled in (well flew in actually with wind and tide behind me!) followed by Nifty. A double blank but nice to get out again for a paddle, and the surf wasnt too big - I managed a nice fast plough up into the shingle, wheras Nifty got flooded by a second big wave from behind when he hit the shore Weather is looking better for Saturday, and with bass to 4.5lb coming in last weekend, hopes are set high for this coming weekend when the bass might come off the bottom in the lighter tides.

Another slow day in west Wales

2010-06-16T12:20:00.000-07:00

Having booked four days off work this week it was welcome news to see the high pressure building, but not so welcome was the wind. Tuesday looked like one of the better days with 8mph rising to 10mph later in the day.
Arranged to meet up with Mike from Aber but the strong sunshine had me out of bed at 6.30am and sorting out the ducks and hens before heading over to the coast for an 8am early start on the water. Surf was low and everything looked good for another bash at the bass, pollack and mackeral. Loaded up two older spinning rods, an old spinning reel and a new baitrunner reel loaded with some 20lb braid. A new xrap lure one one rod and a large slug go sandeel on a 5/0 hook on the other, and I was off to the first mark after checking in on the vhf with Milford coastguard.

There was a bit of chop about on the first mark but nothing to worry about. Tried the sandeel lure and then the new sub surface lure for around an hour and a half with no success on the last of the flood.
I paddled back in to the launch point to look for Mike and to take a loo break. The water flattened out a lot so I relaunched and tried the same mark again, fishing the sandeel just above the bottom for pollack whilst plugging with the other rod. Freelined the sandeel imitator on the baitrunner reel and then changed over to a small weighted trace to get it back near the bottom.
Mike appeared around 1030 so I paddled in for a chat and then we both paddled out to a second mark on the very last of the flood tide. There was a fair bit of chop on the waves by now with an increasing breeze so we headed north of the mark and then started a long drift back on the ebb, using sandeels and plugs.

Over the second mark I at last had a follow on a surface lure and then had two light hits over the same rough ground. Unfortunately no hook up on either hit and I took some shore rest to sort out a wind knot on the braid. Paddled back out to rejoin Mike in increasing choppy conditions and tried some more spinning and plugging at various distances from the shore. Nothing doing, so we paddled back down on the ebb and in to shore. No sign of mackeral close in, and the cloudy water and bright sunshine meant the bass didnt want to play either. Surprised that neither of us had a pollack, as in recent weeks it has been hard to get through the small pollack to the bass.

http://s65.photobucket.com/albums/h225/moniar/?action=view&current=IMGP1563.mp4

We both managed to get back in without any surf trouble, so it turned out to be a fishless day but it was at least nice to be out for a paddle for most of it.

Slow day in west Wales 5th June 2010

2010-06-16T12:12:00.000-07:00

Met up with Nifty at a local beach with a plan to take advantage of the decent weather and head further out.
After getting through the small surf

We trolled some feathers for some live joey mackeral on the way out to a potential tope mark some mile or so offshore. Unfortunately the mackeral had other ideas and Nifty was having more success on the species front - first a pouting, then a codling, then a launce! The fishfinder was going mad but the next fish up for Nifty was a herring! Finally a lone large mackeral was brought up and Nifty went on the drift with some live bait on the main rod. I unfortunately was still blanking, despite having two rods out with shrimp rigs and black shrimps on.

Nifty had a few takes on the live bait, but there was still no mackeral about, so we headed back inshore for a bit of spinning for the bass. I carried on trolling feathers on the way back in and finally managed to get off the mark with a medium size mackeral, which went into the footwell as potential bream bait.

We set up for spinning - Nifty with some bottom fishing lures whilst I tried a variety of surface and sub surface lures. There were sea trout jumping all around us but other than an odd pollack for Nifty it was pretty quiet. We moved around a bit and drifted over a mark which then produced a take and a follow for me on a J9 rapalla and the first bass of the day for Nifty:

the bass was returned to grow bigger, and we carried on for another hour or so drifting on the flood.
We then paddled accross to another mark after a short shore rest for me. We drifted over this second mark a few times before Nifty was rewarded with a pollack and then his second bass of the day. I managed to scrape a small pollack myself for another 2010 species, which went back after a photo.

We carried on spinning for a few more hours but it went very quiet at high water slack water, and at 5.30pm we headed back in to the beach.
A slow day, and the lack of mackeral scuppered our plans to dirft offshore all day for the tope, but still some fish were caught to avoid a blanking session.

Aberaeron Blues 20th May 2010

2010-06-16T11:40:00.000-07:00

The light wind and good forecast meant it would have been rude not to have taken a day off on Thursday, after a ten day lay off due to a sore back (cricket is dangerous!).
Loaded up the P13 at 945 and headed west to Aberaeron with my favourite plugging rod and reel plus a bag full of plugs and feathers to try for some mackies and early bass.
Launched off Aberaeron beach onto a flat sea and hugged the shoreline towards the first mark as the mist was quite close in. Put a call into Milford coastguard to advise them of my paddle plan as paddling solo.

I paddled around for a couple of miles trying out different marks but not a sign of any mackeral or bass. Stopped off at a beach for a bite to eat and then tried a few more marks.

I headed north and tried a few more marks with feathers and a toby plus my favourite original jointed thunderstick lure (you can already feel a tragedy coming on here I know!)
Nothing doing around the river mouths and only saw one fish jumping the whole afternoon. I pushed out a bit further into deeper water looking for the early mackeral but nothing found, so I paddled back to Aberaeron beach with the help of the ebbing tide, having done around 8 miles in total - which is where is started going horribly wrong!

Having fished and paddled all day on a flat sea, suddenly some large and regular rollers had appeared from nowhere (still no swell at all) and were hitting the deep hole just before steep part of the pebble beach.
I put my feathers and toby away and put a leash around my rod and reel, whilst trying to count the frequency of the largest rollers. I eased my way in and contemplated trying to reverse in, but didnt like the look of the way the larger rollers were breaking just short of the steep pebble section of the beach. So I turned round and attempted to paddle in a lull.
I thought I had timed it right after seven big ones hit the beach, and I paddled like mad for the beach - they were breaking further away from the steep bit, just before a section of sand, and a big one lifted me up - survived that but then saw an even bigger one curl up and I knew this one was bigger and was going to break right on me - sure enough - the rear end came up, right up! and the bow took a dive. Before I knew it I was falling forward and sideways into the water and bobbed up next to an upturned P13. Due to the deep hole just in front of the shallow sand bit I was out of my depth and so I upturned the yak and clambered back on - only to be hit by the next one - radio got pulled off my pfd and snagged on the rear tankwell bungees, and I started to think this is not good!. Managed to get my radio back on the pfd and decided a re entry was not going to happen in that surf - Just managed to get my toes on the bottom, and stuggled to swim with the next breaker and drag the yak with me. Got hit a couple more times before dragging the yak up the steep pebbles and looked around to find my rod and reel and favourite lure had not made the landing with me - ******! **** Luckily my lure bag had been secured at the front and was still hanging on, and I managed to find my coolbag with some tools and leashes in the surf. Spent the next hour of the ebbing tide wading around still in my dry suit hoping that the rod would wash up. I thought I saw it after I had put my camera and radio back in the car, so I launched back into the rollers and got ditched before raising a paddle! Managed to try again and this time got through several big ones out into calm water again - by which time I could no longer see what I had thought was my rod butt end bobbing around at the end of the surf zone! So then had to navigate the surf again to get back in - took another dip (closer in this time luckily) and dragged myself and the yak up the beach looking like a drowned rat!
Not a happy bunny! Lost a nice 7ft xl plugging rod, a diawa reel, expensive braid and my favourite (and only) original jointed thunderstick plug.
Although I have been ditched by surf before in the shallows this was the first time I have been ditched out of a kayak out of my depth in the surf zone - and no amount of regular self entry practice prepares you for it - and the lack of interest being shown by the people on the beach to my plight was a bit of an eye opener too. The dry suit and pfd, and the regular practice of re entrys did help to turn it into a sobering lesson rather than a major epic - and I didnt need to resort to the whistle on my pfd or the radio which was still attached, to call for assistance - just shows though, even ten yards off the shoreline, a deep hole and a nasty surf can put you into trouble. Expensive lesson learnt - will secure the rod and reel more securely next time!
Couple of pics of the rollers below - dont look much in the pics but the way they were breaking made them very nasty!

Tywyn tope and the dogs of war Fri 16th April

2010-04-25T00:50:00.000-07:00

This weather was too good to miss, and after Nifty gave me a call to say he was off to Tywyn for some tope on thursday afternoon, it was a no brainer for me to take Friday off work and head up to Towyn for first of the years long day fishing.

I sorted my gear out on Thursday night and loaded up the car with kayak, a bass plugging rod and a 30lb class diawa boat rod for the tope. I was up at 6am the next morning and after a brief breakfast I left at 7am. By 8.45 I was outside the tackle shop in the centre of Tywyn where I met up with Nifty waiting for bait. The cafe next door was open so it would have been rude not to have stashed a bacon butty and hot coffee down whilst we waited for the tackle shop to open

The shop opened at 9 and we plundered the freezer of most of its frozen mackeral along with some squid and other essentials. We parked up at the bridge and geared up on the small beach whilst waiting for the still flooding tide to start subsiding. We launched into the river around 10am but still had a hard paddle against the still flooding tide in the final section of the river, but it was nice to see the low wind and large tide meant there was no wall of surf to encounter at the entrance

We paddled out to the tope mark, and anchored up about 80 yds appart over a deeper water trough running through the reef. First time anchoring for me in the scupper pro so I was pleased it all worked out ok with no dramas, and we both sat back to wait for some tope action with the reels out of gear and the ratchets on.

It wasnt long before Nifty was first off the mark with the first of the dogfish coming up. Once the whole mackeral fillet was bitten and released a bigger scent trail you couldnt keep the dogs away until you swapped it for a fresh whole fillet. I pulled I my first couple of dogfish, and downsized the bait to fillets and squid for a while until I got board of the constant bites and hauling the ugly dogs in. At least the use of a barbless hook meant that they were easy to unhook and release unharmed.

I put a whole fillet back on the hook after the ninth or tenth dogfish had been put back, and sat back in the morning sun, enjoying the view accross the mountains and south to Tywyn. The silence was broken by the loud sound of a ratchet screaming away and Nifty shouted "tope on". I quickly pulled my line in and up anchored carefully before paddling like mad accross to Nifty, who was enjoying the tope doing 360 degree circles around his kayak and anchor line I managed to take a couple of video clips of the action before getting in a bit closer to take some pics of Nifty bringing the tope on board for unhooking and a photo shot I had never seen a tope caught off the kayak before and took a good note of how Nifty handled the shark and then let it back into the water on the other side of the kayak. Approx size of around 30lb - not the biggest caught off Towyn from the kayak but it was one of the younger more feisty type that wanted to try and escape Nifty's love embrace

http://s65.photobucket.com/albums/h225/moniar/?action=view&current=niftystopevid2.flv

http://s65.photobucket.com/albums/h225/moniar/?action=view&current=niftystopevid3.flv

After that major excitment, I anchored up again slightly further offshore from Nifty as the ebbing tide started gathering some pace. I sat back for another hour, interupted by the odd adrenaline rush of the ratchet clicking when something took half my whole mackeral bait with one bite. As nature was calling and my legs needed a stretch, I headed in to the shore for a bit to eat and a stretch.

I paddled back out to the tope mark where Nifty had had no further action in my absence, and anchored back up. I sat back in the kayak contemplating whether I really wanted to hook a tope or not, and concluded that it would be rude not to at least try to catch one, given that Nifty had been giving me hints on dealing with them all day. I was so relaxed and laid back that the first scream of my ratchet didnt really register with me Zzzzzzzzzzzz! until it turned into ZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz!!! oh sh*t! that wasnt a dog fish! I let it run for a few more yards, raising my arm to Nifty to confirm that I had action, and then I eased my thumb onto the spool and prepared for the thump and weight of the tope - nothing! It had dropped or taken the bait. My heart rate started slowing down, and Nifty shouted over some advice to leave it a few minutes in case it came back for the bait. I sat there, now very alert, for 10 mins, then reeled in to find that the whole of the mackeral bait had gone leaving just a shiny hook. Feeling pleased that I had had my first ever tope run, I rebaited with another whole mackeral and sat back again waiting. Unfortunately, there were no more runs for either of us, and in late pm just before the tide started to flood again we headed further in shore. I put the plugging rod into action and trolled a jointed thunderstick lure 30 yds behind me to see if there were any bass around to be tempted. We paddled in and around some large boulders and over the shallow part of the reef, before calling it a day for the fishing and beaching at the river entrance.

It was a long hard slog back up the first part of the river which was too fast and too shallow to try paddling so we dragged the kayaks up the shallows, until we could finally paddle up the final stretch against the current to the bridge.

We then decided to carry on up river for about a mile to do some nature spotting, and saw a variety of mullet and wild birdlife as far up as the lake.

As we paddled back down to the bridge and dragged the kayaks back up on the beach we met up with MarcJ who had just arrived in his campervan for the weekend. It appeared that a good crowd of other kayakers were on their way up there for the weekend too, all hoping for a tope or two. I left Nifty and Mark and headed back south down to Lampeter after a brief chat.

Hope there will be further tope tales after this weekend and some more pics. Another month and I will be back for that tope

Aberaeron Friday 9th April 2010

2010-04-09T14:06:00.001-07:00

Launched at Aberaeron beach this afternoon around 3.30pm for second paddle of the year, some fitness training and a casual fishing session. Launched off the beach and after a quick safety call on the vhf to the Milford coastguard (as was solo paddling) I headed south against the flooding tide towards Newquay. Tried a few inshore and further offshore marks with a new silver toby, and then paddled further for an explore a bit further than I have been before. Turned around and came back up with the tide and tried again on one rough ground mark with a deeper spinning dexter wedge. Also tried trolling my one and only jointed thundertick, which usually brings any predatory fish to the sub surface, but nothing doing.

I paddled back to Aberaeron and had a play in the harbour and up into the River Aeron, before heading north out of the harbour to try trolling the thunderstick over some shallow ground for another mile. Turned back and came back down to Aberaeorn beach on the ebbing tide around 7pm, and landed back on the beach after calling back into Milford coastguard.

No fish caught or seen, but weather was brilliant sunshine and flat calm conditions, so cant complain. No photos I am afraid as camera battery hadnt been charged. Roll on them bass and mackeral arriving

2010-03-07T15:44:00.000-08:00

Met up with Mike from Aberystwyth this pm at llanrhystud for a first paddle of 2010. 9mph winds so just a bit of chop and very little surf thankfully. No fishing today as we both wanted to get back into the paddling and there arent many fish about yet.

Launched just after 2pm from the beach carpark, admiring the new lambs in the fields on the way down the track.

We paddled northwards towards Aberyswyth against the now ebbing tide and against the wind, so we could have an easy ride back. Mike was in his prowler 4.5 elite and I was in the scupper pro.

We paddled against an increasing chop towards the cliffline and parked up on the pebble beach for a breather and to swap kayaks.

Mike wanted a go in a scupper pro so we swapped kayaks after the break and paddled with the tide and wind back towards the launch point.

After getting back to the launch point around 4pm we decided to have a play near the beach as Mike hadnt done many self rescues before. I gave the dry suit another test with the scupper after dumping the camera and vhf on the beach. After a few months lay off I struggled to get back on the scupper and kept falling back in, but at least the dry suit didnt leak!

After a rest Mike tried some self rescues in his elite 4.5 and proved that he could do several without a problem. After I did a self rescue on the elite I went back out on the scupper and managed to complete a self rescue on that. Heres some pics of Mike on the elite and scupper (sorry about the blurred quality - had water on the lens)

Mike doing a (dead) turtle impression

and on the scupper:

after the play it was time to head in to shore and a well earned cup of tea

Nice to be out for a paddle again, and lucky with the weather :D

Roll on spring and them bass and tope ;D

Basstastic 14th October 2009

2009-10-15T13:54:00.000-07:00

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

2009-08-16T13:58:00.000-07:00

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!

2009-06-27T11:32:00.001-07:00

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

2009-06-27T10:20:00.000-07:00

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

2009-02-22T00:06:00.000-08:00

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 ;)

Cable Bay 16th February 2009

2009-02-18T14:39:00.000-08:00

met up with Marc from anglers afloat forum at Cable bay yesterday to try to find him his first ever thornback ray.

We launched around 10am just as the tide had started to flood into a sea which still had a swell but not so much surf as on Saturday.

After a short paddle Marc anchored up whilst I went for a paddle closer in shore with the spinning rod and a baited shrimp rig in search of coalies. After no luck I returned to marc and tied up to him.

It wasnt long before Marc hooked into his first ever thornie of around 3-4lb on the first drop of the day 8-) Mission accomplished!

Marc followed this with another 6 or 7 (I lost count!) ranging from around 2.5lb to 4/5lb. I carried on blanking, but was getting plenty of thumps on the large frozen mackeral baits - think I was using too large hooks and too short snoods.

Finally, about 30 mins before I had to head home at 2pm I had a good thumping bite and pulled up into this beauty of a thornie which took half a mackeral - an estimated 6-7lb and a couple of pounds heavier than my first one last year. So left Marc to carry on for another hour, happy that I had christened my new scupper pro kayak with a personal best thornie:

Happy days 8-)

Cable Bay 14th February 2009

2009-02-14T15:39:00.000-08:00

Started the day meeting Alan (Brilltime) off Anglers afloat forum, who came to pick up the malibu2xl I was selling - nice to meet you. We then proceeded to Cable bay to meet up with Hughesey, Curly, Kev and Boomphat. I was keen to put my ocean scupper pro (swapped my prowler 13 kayak for it yesterday) through its paces, and as the swell and surf turned out to be bigger than predicted I mainly paddled up and downtide in the swell getting used to the longer, thinner. faster kayak - great fun, even when I took a big one broadside and got flooded :P After staying out for a couple of hours, and some of the guys picking up small rays, I paddled in for some lunch.

Here's some pics:

My new scupper pro kayak

Curly fishing in a bigger than predicted swell

and Curly with another ray

I think the total was Curly 7 and Kev 3 ranging from around 3lb to 5lb. All returned safe.

I was too busy playing in the tide and swell with my new scupper pro to bother fishing, and only dropped my shrimp rig down on the one short troll.

With the increasing wind around 1330 I went into the beach with Alan Hughesey and Boomphat for some lunch - managed to get in ok in a lull and then laughed as both Kev and Curly came in later on and both got wiped out in the surf which had come back up. Nothing lost thankfully and after stashing the fishing gear etc back in the cars we all had a really great time in the surf for the rest of the afternoon - and performed a number of self rescues / re entrys in the scuppers and some assisted rescues (during one of which my rafting of the two kayaks came appart and I ended up straddling the two yaks :o >:()

Had a great day out in the scupper and learnt a lot about its handling.

Got home in time for the Wales/England rugby - to round off an excellent day

Sunday 8th February 2009

2009-02-14T15:24:00.000-08:00

Met up with Boomphat at Menai bridge slipway for a fitness paddle up to Bangor pier and back. After picking up Hughesey and his scupper pro we swapped kayaks so I could have another go at paddling the ocean scupper pro in preparedness for swapping my prowler 13 kayak for one the following week.

The launch at Menai Bridge slipway with 2 deg c outside temperature

We paddled up towards Bangor pier and passed these two seals basking on a concret work platform - after they both jumped into the water my paddling speeded up!

We had a short race between the two scupper pros and the prowler 13 - which confirmed the scuppers are fast kayaks over a sprint. After arriving at Bangor pier and having a tea break with paddled back on the ebb tide against a rising southerly wind.

We then had a play around near to the slip and went with the tide under the suspension bridge towards the swellies, then paddled hard against the tide to get back under the bridge to the launch site.

An enjoyable paddle, with no rods being carried for fishing this time.

Bull Bay - first kayak fish of 2009

2009-01-09T15:06:00.000-08:00

I took advantage of the weather and a day off work today to get the first launch of 2009 under my belt before the wet and windy weather moves in this weekend.

Met up with another local kayaker at Bull Bay just after lunch and launched off the beach at Bull Bay - we were going to give one of the west coast marks a go for codling but the wind had picked up by this afternoon so we opted for the shelter of Bull Bay.

Paddled north to our usual coalie marks and tried trolling and jigging baited feather and shrimp rigs on the drift accross the marks. It was very quiet on the last phase of the ebb, so I then opted to drift further out on the light offshore breeze whilst my mate stayed in close and put on a conger trace and fish bait near to the cliffs out of the sun in the hope of tempting out a conger at dusk.

I had some good bites on the black lug and local herring baited shrimp rig as I drifted further out into deeper water. Didnt connect into anything and assume they were pin whiting. After paddling back inshore to meet up again we moved into the middle of the bay and i went further out again and tried a mark next to a pot buoy where we had previously had triple headers of whiting - nothing doing so as the sun started to go down we moved back towards the launch site against the now flooding tide and I tied up to a buoy over a deep hole in the main headland rip - bang, deep water and straight into fish 8-)
I pulled in a medium size whiting and saved the first blank of the year as well as photographing the first species of 2009 off the yak 8-) . For the last half an hour I pulled in four more fish of between 1/2 pound and 3/4 pound - all returned to grow bigger.

Paddled back into the beach and slipway around 30 mins before it got dark, and then spent 10 mins checking out the effectiveness of the dry suit and thermals underneath by wading out a bit with PFD still on to try out the water temp - still not too bad but toes got cold with just one pair of walking socks on :lol:

The moon was out when we came back in:

Avoiding the blank was a welcome start to kayak fishing in 2009, and end to what had been a pleasant paddle in flattish conditions in the remaining sunshine of the afternoon.

Sunday 4th January 2009

2009-01-07T13:45:00.001-08:00

First boat fishing trip of the year. Met up with Alan and several other locals for a trip out of Holyhead on My Way charter boat. The plan had been to fish inshore in the morning and then head out to fish holyhead deeps in the afternoon. Unfortunately despite several calm days preceding the trip there was an increasing westerly and a swell which meant we had to stick to inshore marks in Holyhead bay.

The fishing started off slow with pouting and whiting but at least I was off the mark with my first fish of 2009 a pouting, followed by two more.

We moved to couple more inshore marks and Pete landed the biggest fish of the day, a huss of around 6lbs. I managed a couple of dabs for another species:

Just after a nice lunch of the skippers home made chilli and rice pots, the fishing picked up as we hit a nice shoal of good size whiting and I was bringing them in two and three at a time for a period, then back down to mixed singles.

Despite the swell I managed to overcome the sea sickness feeling that was lurking around most of the day and we moved again to anchor over an inshor wreck for the last hour in the hope of some huss and conger. Neither obliged but some more pollack and poor cod came on board to keep up the friendly catch and release points competition that was running on the boat. Pete managed to win on both points and the largest single fish.

Alan and Pete gave me some good advice on rigs and bait presentation, and Alan supplied me with another batch of rigs to try - cheers mate! Here is Alan giving a pose on board in between marks:

We headed in around 5pm, content that we had had a good days fishing despite the swell and cold westerly wind. Company was great and we had a good laugh on the boat, with Gethyn the skipper and Paul his crew supplying lamb chops, chilli, biscuits and hot mince pies, as well as lots of teas and coffees throughout the day - thanks guys!

The kayak fishing story so far

2008-12-26T15:18:00.000-08:00

I got interested in kayaking again in early 2007, and after joining North Wales Kayak Fishing for a local meet on the island at Penmon point in a demo model of the new malibu I was hooked! I borrowed another small ocean kayak to try fishing off the kayak, and the rest is history!

Here is a pictorial highlight history of my kayak fishing in 2007 and 2008, during which time i have made lots of new friends and learnt a lot about both sea kayaking on SOT (sit on top) kayaks and fishing off them:

Maiden voyage of my Ocean Prowler 13 kayak at Cable bay, Anglesey, Spring 2007

Coalfish success at Bull Bay spring 2007

My first smoothhound - summer 2007

Second kayak added to the family fleet - an Ocean Malibu 2xl tandem kayak

First sea bream off Tywyn reef summer 2007

Family hunt for mackeral on the new tandem kayak

My first solo paddle at Benllech

First thornbacks of the year spring 2008 with Hughesey and Alan

and one for me, my first ever

First Dab off the kayak, Porthdafarch, Anglesey spring 2008

Kayak demo and training day at Llanberis Lake spring 2008

Jac's first mackeral off the tandem kayak, Porthdafarch 2008

family fishing for mackeral 2008

Bass hunting in the straights autumn 2008

Herring fishing in the straights xmas eve 2008!

Calm weather at last to end the year 2008 on a high and a nice load of herring!

Roll on the good weather in 2009!

Welcome to my fishing diary

2008-12-26T11:27:00.000-08:00

Welcome to my fishing diary blog!

Having contributed regular shore and kayak sea fishing reports, and articles about kayak fishing on various sea fishing and kayak fishing websites over the last two years I thought it would be a nice idea to create a blog for my 2009 fishing activities (shore, boat and kayak fishing). This way, all of my fishing reports will be together in one place for me to review at the end of the new year. I will continue to post reports on the various fishing forum sites, but will put a bit more detail onto my blog.