Tywyn tope and the dogs of war Fri 16th April

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

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

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

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!