dabcatcher
Well-known member
Friday [a week ago today]
Syd and Dave arrived in the early hours of the morning, unpacked then headed off at lunch time to meet Chris at Caernarfon. they were to collect a supply of crab for the next few days fishing. back to the cottage [near Nefyn] for Chris to unpack then they all set off to Abadaron to try and get a supply of mackerel. after a couple of hours they had around 20 between them and enough to get us started.
having some fresh mackerel in there bag, they couldnt resist heading straight to our favourite huss mark. they only had an hour fishing when the long drive through the night before caught up on them. after just a few dogs they made the long climb back up and drive back, to go to bed.
Sat.....
Bill and Ste arrived at Caernarfon in the early hours to collect some crab for themselves. straight off to the cottage and grab a few hours sleep. we were woken by the smell of breakfast. it was a lovely sunny day so it was decided to head off to the Abadaron area to do some lure fishing and get some wrasse on the crabs we collected earlier.
with the kind permission of the lady in the farmhouse and the promise of a few fish when we returned, we parked up and set off to our mark.
we had plenty of fish between us with the pollock falling to deep spinning methods.
Ste had the best pollock 4lb 4oz and Dave the best wrasse at 3lb 6oz.
i ended up on 13 pollock to 2.1,2lb and 12 wrasse to 3lb. a couple of rods were left out on the bottom with large fish baits in the hope of a huss or.... tope, but only attracted dogs.
Ste, Chris and Syd decided to have the night in after a very long day in the sun [with a few beers]. Bill and Dave went for a short session at the bottom of the garden. we had a few whiting and lots of dogs before the forecast wind started to increase with rain, which made for a very slippery climb back up the mud path.
Sun.....
we awoke to heavy rain which put most of the marks we wanted to fish out. we traveled back up to Caernarfon to collect crabs and lots of big softies for our next session.
to get out of the wind and rain we chose to fish Trefor beach. the cliff behind us would give us some shelter.
we all fished a big rod at range and a shorter bass rod very close in. the distance rods all produced a dog every cast all night.
the short rods all armed with a large crab on a 5/0 produced a few bass up to 3lb and more dogs.
a couple of others were there fishing plugs but had nothing.
Mon.....
a nice sunny morning again so we chose to fish a different mark in the Abadaron area. with the permission of the farmer again we headed off for the long treck to the mark.
this was to turn out to be our best day of the week. in glorious sun [when out of the wind] we had around 100 pollock to various methods, chris even had a 3lb 4oz fish on a whole side of mackerel fished on the bottom.
we had over 60 mackerel, all very small. loads of wrasse were caught staight down the side with Chris getting the biggest at 3lb 6oz. on one cast while feathering mackerel i hit, mid water, what i thought was a full string of large mackerel that turned out to be 3 coalfish. 2 at 2lb and one at 3lb 4oz. good fun on light rod and braid.
to add to the species list we also had launce, corkwing wrasse. again rods with large fish baits on the bottom only attracted more dogs. [appart from Chris,s pollock.] Ste fished crab on 2 hook rigs cast well out and kept getting double shots of either wrasse, dogs and pollock. while feathering for mackerel we regularly had strings with 2 or 3 pollock on them. i had pollock to 3lb 4oz, coalfish to 3lb 4oz, wrasse to 3lb 2oz and 30 mackerel.
Syd and Dave had only come for the long weekend so with the poor forecast for the next day, decided to leave for home early.
we watched a pod of Dolphins in front of us for hours that moved around the bay in small groups chaceing the mackerel shoals. at on point they were only 200yds from the beach right in front of a couple of guys lure fiushing. bet that gave them a shock.
Ste was having the night in so myself and Chris went to try a night session on the huss mark. this was a rubbish, very tired session that only produced 2 dogs each. it was 4am before we got back and to bed.
Tues.....
after a long day yesterday and a late night we woke late to a cooked breakfast by Ste. today was very wet and windy. we drove to Caernarfon to collect crab again to target bass at Pwllheli this evening.
we arrived at the beach to find a massive sea with a wind too strong for casting, in our face, plus rain.
we drove through the caravan park and found a concrete platform that gave us some protection so set up there. the sea looked perfect here for a big fish but i had the only one about 1.1/2lb. we moved to the harbour entrance and fished here as the tide dropped. we were getting bites and missing them but found that by dropping hook sizes and holding your rod we could hit them. once we,d worked it out we had 8 small bass and more dogs before we called it a night.
Wed.....
despite the poor forecast we woke up to a glorious sunny day.
Chris was leaving us today and going back to work. myself and Ste set off to abadaron with high hopes only to find it pouring down and an onshore wind. we wernt going to try to fish those rocks when wet so we headed back to the cottage. the wet weather had also found its way over there aswell. it dried through the day so we decide to fish the bottom of the garden, fishing about 3 hours of daylight and into darkness.
we would fish small 2 hook rigs on the bottom in daylight to try for some different species. all we found were small whiting and dogs but we were getting fish every cast.
as light dropped Ste hooked something that felt heavy on a whole squid bait. about 20yds out it tried to take off, nearly pulling his rod out of his hands as he fought to slacken his drag off.
you should have seen his face when he saw a large smalleyed ray kiteing in the clear water towards him. i had to climb down to a small ledge in the wall to grab hold of the fish as he gradullay played it towards me. his first ever ray at 7lb 5oz. he was well chuffed and will now claim his first specimen badge.
the dogs kept coming every cast but i had kept a few of the small whiting i had caught earlier. Ste didnt beleive that i was actually going to use these as bait, but..... i had caught huss on whiting in other years down here.
i cut the head off one and whipped it onto my 3/0 pennel. it was only in the water a few minutes when i had a bite on it. it was only a couple of pounds, but it was a huss... the bait was ok so i cast it straight back out only to get another huss on it straight away about the same size. excited, Ste whipped one onto his hooks and straight away caught his first huss of the week and another to his species list. small... but a huss.
i caught another whiting, this was a bit too big so cut it in 2 and whipped on the back half and cast out. in the mean time Ste had recast his whiting bait and hooked a better one. this one went 5lb 4oz. excited by the results the whiting were getting, Ste baited up with the head section i had left. i then hooked a better fish of 8lb 4oz which i had to climb down the wall for again. once photographed and released as we sorted ourselves out Ste,s rod rest was pulled over damaging both his rods. the culprit was another huss. i could see in the clear water this was bigger than mine. at 10lb 8oz it was ste,s biggest huss and would get him another specimen badge.
it was getting late now and the tide flying out so we called it a night.
Thurs.....
we had a lie in till 10am and woke up to more heavy rain that was set or the day. on checking the forecast it wasnt going to get any better and the forecast for friday was going to be gale force winds and torrential rain.
we addmitted defeat, we decided to collect crab on the afternoon to take home then start packing that night for an early start the next day.
Fri.....
the rain and wind hadnt arrived yet... but the mist was very thick as we packed. a quick hug, kiss and thank you to Dorreen and we were away by 9am.
another brilliant trip down there, even if the weather could have been kinder. because of the constant wet and un natural n/e to s/e winds we couldnt fish a lot of the marks we wanted to and actually halfed our fishing time. we only had 2 dry days but they were very productive.
the pollock, wrasse and mackerel fishing has been better than recent years but it seems that our very productive huss mark has seen its days. we only found out during our return that the black bream had turned up, but our last 2 days saw heavy seas on that side anyway.
species caught....
Dogfish
Bullhuss
Smalleyed ray
Whiting
Ballan wrasse
Corkwing wrasse
Launce
Mackerel
Rockling
Pollock
Coalfish
Bass
were already looking foreward to next year.
Ste should have some pictures later
Bill
Syd and Dave arrived in the early hours of the morning, unpacked then headed off at lunch time to meet Chris at Caernarfon. they were to collect a supply of crab for the next few days fishing. back to the cottage [near Nefyn] for Chris to unpack then they all set off to Abadaron to try and get a supply of mackerel. after a couple of hours they had around 20 between them and enough to get us started.
having some fresh mackerel in there bag, they couldnt resist heading straight to our favourite huss mark. they only had an hour fishing when the long drive through the night before caught up on them. after just a few dogs they made the long climb back up and drive back, to go to bed.
Sat.....
Bill and Ste arrived at Caernarfon in the early hours to collect some crab for themselves. straight off to the cottage and grab a few hours sleep. we were woken by the smell of breakfast. it was a lovely sunny day so it was decided to head off to the Abadaron area to do some lure fishing and get some wrasse on the crabs we collected earlier.
with the kind permission of the lady in the farmhouse and the promise of a few fish when we returned, we parked up and set off to our mark.
we had plenty of fish between us with the pollock falling to deep spinning methods.
Ste had the best pollock 4lb 4oz and Dave the best wrasse at 3lb 6oz.
i ended up on 13 pollock to 2.1,2lb and 12 wrasse to 3lb. a couple of rods were left out on the bottom with large fish baits in the hope of a huss or.... tope, but only attracted dogs.
Ste, Chris and Syd decided to have the night in after a very long day in the sun [with a few beers]. Bill and Dave went for a short session at the bottom of the garden. we had a few whiting and lots of dogs before the forecast wind started to increase with rain, which made for a very slippery climb back up the mud path.
Sun.....
we awoke to heavy rain which put most of the marks we wanted to fish out. we traveled back up to Caernarfon to collect crabs and lots of big softies for our next session.
to get out of the wind and rain we chose to fish Trefor beach. the cliff behind us would give us some shelter.
we all fished a big rod at range and a shorter bass rod very close in. the distance rods all produced a dog every cast all night.
the short rods all armed with a large crab on a 5/0 produced a few bass up to 3lb and more dogs.
a couple of others were there fishing plugs but had nothing.
Mon.....
a nice sunny morning again so we chose to fish a different mark in the Abadaron area. with the permission of the farmer again we headed off for the long treck to the mark.
this was to turn out to be our best day of the week. in glorious sun [when out of the wind] we had around 100 pollock to various methods, chris even had a 3lb 4oz fish on a whole side of mackerel fished on the bottom.
we had over 60 mackerel, all very small. loads of wrasse were caught staight down the side with Chris getting the biggest at 3lb 6oz. on one cast while feathering mackerel i hit, mid water, what i thought was a full string of large mackerel that turned out to be 3 coalfish. 2 at 2lb and one at 3lb 4oz. good fun on light rod and braid.
to add to the species list we also had launce, corkwing wrasse. again rods with large fish baits on the bottom only attracted more dogs. [appart from Chris,s pollock.] Ste fished crab on 2 hook rigs cast well out and kept getting double shots of either wrasse, dogs and pollock. while feathering for mackerel we regularly had strings with 2 or 3 pollock on them. i had pollock to 3lb 4oz, coalfish to 3lb 4oz, wrasse to 3lb 2oz and 30 mackerel.
Syd and Dave had only come for the long weekend so with the poor forecast for the next day, decided to leave for home early.
we watched a pod of Dolphins in front of us for hours that moved around the bay in small groups chaceing the mackerel shoals. at on point they were only 200yds from the beach right in front of a couple of guys lure fiushing. bet that gave them a shock.
Ste was having the night in so myself and Chris went to try a night session on the huss mark. this was a rubbish, very tired session that only produced 2 dogs each. it was 4am before we got back and to bed.
Tues.....
after a long day yesterday and a late night we woke late to a cooked breakfast by Ste. today was very wet and windy. we drove to Caernarfon to collect crab again to target bass at Pwllheli this evening.
we arrived at the beach to find a massive sea with a wind too strong for casting, in our face, plus rain.
we drove through the caravan park and found a concrete platform that gave us some protection so set up there. the sea looked perfect here for a big fish but i had the only one about 1.1/2lb. we moved to the harbour entrance and fished here as the tide dropped. we were getting bites and missing them but found that by dropping hook sizes and holding your rod we could hit them. once we,d worked it out we had 8 small bass and more dogs before we called it a night.
Wed.....
despite the poor forecast we woke up to a glorious sunny day.
Chris was leaving us today and going back to work. myself and Ste set off to abadaron with high hopes only to find it pouring down and an onshore wind. we wernt going to try to fish those rocks when wet so we headed back to the cottage. the wet weather had also found its way over there aswell. it dried through the day so we decide to fish the bottom of the garden, fishing about 3 hours of daylight and into darkness.
we would fish small 2 hook rigs on the bottom in daylight to try for some different species. all we found were small whiting and dogs but we were getting fish every cast.
as light dropped Ste hooked something that felt heavy on a whole squid bait. about 20yds out it tried to take off, nearly pulling his rod out of his hands as he fought to slacken his drag off.
you should have seen his face when he saw a large smalleyed ray kiteing in the clear water towards him. i had to climb down to a small ledge in the wall to grab hold of the fish as he gradullay played it towards me. his first ever ray at 7lb 5oz. he was well chuffed and will now claim his first specimen badge.
the dogs kept coming every cast but i had kept a few of the small whiting i had caught earlier. Ste didnt beleive that i was actually going to use these as bait, but..... i had caught huss on whiting in other years down here.
i cut the head off one and whipped it onto my 3/0 pennel. it was only in the water a few minutes when i had a bite on it. it was only a couple of pounds, but it was a huss... the bait was ok so i cast it straight back out only to get another huss on it straight away about the same size. excited, Ste whipped one onto his hooks and straight away caught his first huss of the week and another to his species list. small... but a huss.
i caught another whiting, this was a bit too big so cut it in 2 and whipped on the back half and cast out. in the mean time Ste had recast his whiting bait and hooked a better one. this one went 5lb 4oz. excited by the results the whiting were getting, Ste baited up with the head section i had left. i then hooked a better fish of 8lb 4oz which i had to climb down the wall for again. once photographed and released as we sorted ourselves out Ste,s rod rest was pulled over damaging both his rods. the culprit was another huss. i could see in the clear water this was bigger than mine. at 10lb 8oz it was ste,s biggest huss and would get him another specimen badge.
it was getting late now and the tide flying out so we called it a night.
Thurs.....
we had a lie in till 10am and woke up to more heavy rain that was set or the day. on checking the forecast it wasnt going to get any better and the forecast for friday was going to be gale force winds and torrential rain.
we addmitted defeat, we decided to collect crab on the afternoon to take home then start packing that night for an early start the next day.
Fri.....
the rain and wind hadnt arrived yet... but the mist was very thick as we packed. a quick hug, kiss and thank you to Dorreen and we were away by 9am.
another brilliant trip down there, even if the weather could have been kinder. because of the constant wet and un natural n/e to s/e winds we couldnt fish a lot of the marks we wanted to and actually halfed our fishing time. we only had 2 dry days but they were very productive.
the pollock, wrasse and mackerel fishing has been better than recent years but it seems that our very productive huss mark has seen its days. we only found out during our return that the black bream had turned up, but our last 2 days saw heavy seas on that side anyway.
species caught....
Dogfish
Bullhuss
Smalleyed ray
Whiting
Ballan wrasse
Corkwing wrasse
Launce
Mackerel
Rockling
Pollock
Coalfish
Bass
were already looking foreward to next year.
Ste should have some pictures later
Bill
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