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3rd/4th March Monknash beach
With reports of rays starting to show off the beach, Valleyboyo and Barrelreef
decided to give it a go.
The forecast wasn't the best with strong south Easterly winds coming in,
although a little check on the internet weather sites showed us a little window of oppurtunity where it could be ok.
With low water at 1am we arrived a little later than planned at around 11ish
and our 1st casts hit the water with up and over rigs baited with sandeels and squid.
1st bite was for Valleyboyo which he didn't connect with.
Then on about the 3rd cast Barrelreef noticed his tip pull down once and come back to rest.
Fully expecting the rod to pull down any second with signs of a ray it didn't happen so Barrel left it a few minutes
then wound down, ready to wind in.
There was something there, not big but a fish all the same. It turned out to be a turbot that
had scoffed the sandeel bait. We didn't have the scales with us but we estimated this thick set little fish at around
1 & 1/2 - 2lb. Not bad from the shore and also Barrel's 1st shore caught turbot which he was happy with.
Further down though Valleyboyo went over to have a look at a near 17lb blonde ray taken by another
WSF member, Big-Spence, and just managed to see it before it was returned. Awesome fish!
No more bites for us though and with the wind picking up and Valleyboyo not feeling 100% we packed
up and left vowing to come back down for a crack at those big rays!!
Nice to meet Big_Spence and riddlers Tiddlers down there as well
Barrelreef - Turbot 1 & 1/2 - 2lb (estimate)
Valleyboyo - Blanked
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| Barrel's turbot |
11th march Mumbles pier
Blackcat, Barrel and Teggy ventured down to mumbles for the day in the hope
of picking up a few dabs and to see what else was about.
We arrived at the pier early and waited a while for the guy to come and
open up. We were surprised to find we were the only ones there and had the pier to ourselves.
Baits for the day were ragworm, lugworm, sticky black lug (for the dabs),
mackerel, squid and sandeel.
With High water around 10am, we would be fishing an hour of the flood and
most of the ebb.
1st casts hit the water with blackcat opting for mackerel baits and Teggy
and Barrelreef starting off with lug. As soon as the bait hit the water, Barrelreef had the tell tale doggy bite and wound
in a decent one pushing 2lb. blackcat also hit into a doggy straight away, another decent one about the same stamp as Barrel's
fish
Teggy then had a little nibble and wound in to find a whiting with a lamprey
stuck to the underneath of it!
1st time we've seen one these
and they are really ugly little creatures!
Barrelreef then had another fish a small whiting which had taken a black lug bait.
This continued for a while with the odd whiting and doggie showing for Barrel and blackcat, while Teggy
seemed to have bites but kept getting snagged up on the retrieve.
Barrelreef then landed a decent pouting and followed that up with a double
shot of a rockling and a dab. Barrel's 1st dab!
With Teggy still having trouble and snagged up again, blackcat stepped in to help and while pulling
for a break one of the eyes of the rod tip caught th pier railings and the spigot joint parted, sending the tip sliding down
the line and into the drink! Oops!
Back to the fishing though and Teggy while a little confused about what had just happened had
a cracking bite on his other rod, which was baited with a side of mackerel. After pumping the fish up to the surface about
30yards out, a big angry bull huss shook its head. Just to make a crappy day worse the continuous head shaking and writhing
from the huss helped the hooks pulled free and it swam away! To say he was gutted was an understatement, tip of one of
his rods 15 foot under the sea and a double figure huss swimming away after escaping his hook!
Meanwhile Barrelreef and Blackcat continued to hook a few more whiting and doggies with
Barrel having another double shot this time another dab and whiting.
Most baits seemed to catch through the day although the whiting and dabs seemed to prefer the
worm baits.
Teggy also landed a couple of doggies and another whiting, although we tried various ways
to get his tip back like casting over and dragging our gear to see if we could grab it and sliding weights down the line to
try and free it we failed to get his rod tip back.
Not the best day for Teggy but still quite a few fish showed although the best fish of the day
got away.
With the lamprey (which was landed but not really hooked) 6 different species
of fish were landed today and with the huss could have been 7.
In spite of the incident with Teggys rod we had a good day with some good banter and plenty of
fish!
Barrelreef - 16 fish - 7 whiting, 5 doggies, 2 dabs, 1 pouting and 1 rockling
Blackcat - 9 fish - 5 doggies and 4 whiting
Teggy - 5 fish - 2 doggies, 2 whiting and a lamprey
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| Teggy's whiting with lamprey attached |
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| Barrel with a dab and whiting |
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| blackcat with a doggy |
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15th March Ogmore
With a day off and good reports coming from the area, Barrelreef fished
on the rocks near cod gulley in Ogmore from 1.30pm to about 6ish, with high water at 3.15ish. Baits used were sandeel, squid,
mackerel, prawn and crab.
With the weather overcast and a light south westerly(starting off -
It got quite strong later) conditions seemed good.
1st bite came about an hour before high water. A small turbot had
taken the sandeel bait, but just as I swung the trace up to unhook the fish and take a photo, it came off the
hook and fell into a deep rockpool!
The only other fish taken was a small whiting which I didn't even know had
mananged to hook itself on a 3/0 hook. If I had known it would have been left out as livebait.
Not the best of days but at least i didn't blank! Also the tide came up
and covered the rockpool which the turbot fell in so it probably got away ok.
Barrelreef - 1 whiting, 1 turbot
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| Little whiting - only just bigger than the weight |
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24th March Ogmore deeps (Reported by Wilba)
we were having a guest fisherman with us today mph1954 boss was over from
germany on buisness and wanted to fish with us so decided to hit the deeps plans were made to meet the valley_boyo and the
blackcat there they were getting there for 7am and we were getting there for 8am ish but alas our german friend needed a english
breakfast and who was we to say no!! so finally arriaved at 9am for the walk down a few anglers there, a gorgeous day down
to the t-shirts the valley_boyo had managed a whiting and a pouting and a few doggies had been caught further along. First
cast for our german friend and nice knock a nice size doggie to the surface and fell off, his second cast a nice doggie about
the 2lb mark landed and returned and he was happy. The blackcat was not after nearly 4 hours with out a bite he told out german
friend if he catches another he's going for a swim. A great day had by all. The penygraig sac were fishing there
and 1 of them landed a 5lb 3oz cod a pleasant surprise.
mph1954 doggie
Jurgseman doggie
valley_boyo doggie,whiting,pouting
blackcat
whiting
Wilba blanked
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| A doggie for Wilba and MPH's german friend |
25th March - Hutchins Porthcawl
With Barrelreef working the day before and unable to make it to the deeps
with the other lads, he decided to tag along with Herbie and Del who were heading for hutchins point in Porthcawl. The weather
was slightly overcast with a light north Easterly wind. with high water at 11.40am we decided to fish from around 8ish.
Arriving a little late to find the preferred mark full, we walked along
the ledges until we found a suitable platform to fish from.
Barrelreef was into a fish on his 1st cast, a small turbot which had engulfed
a black lug bait, and after a quick pic swam off ok!
Then barrel noticed a small bite on his other rod baited with whole sandeel
which also turned out to be another small turbot. For small fish they've got big appetites!
It went quiet for a while leading up to high water but Del did manage a small doggie.
With bites thin on the ground, Barrelreef decided to try a raw tiger prawn for bait and after
about 5mins in the water, noticed his weight had been tripped and had a slackline bite which
he wound down to find some weight there. It turned out to be a small eyed ray of about 2lb, which Barrelreef was very
happy with. A 1st ray from the shore for quite some time!!
Next cast then resulted in another small turbot for Barrelreef then Del also landed a turbot.
Del also lost a decent fish on his last cast which came off before coming to the surface.
All in all a good day with no biggies but a few fish. Herbie blanked though, which he reckoned
was his punishment for sleeping late.
Barrelreef - 3 Turbot, 1 small eyed ray
Del - 1 Doggie, 1 turbot
Herbie - blanked
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| Barrelreef with his 1st turbot of the day |
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| Barrel's ray |
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| Del and his turbot |
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27th March Cold knap
Blackcat and Wilba fished the knap in bright sunshine over high water with some good reports
of spotted rays being landed.
Baits used were sandeel, squid, mackerel and ragworm.
Unfortunatly no fish showed although Wilba did land a crab.
Wilba did mention that an angler near them landed a doggie and a ray fishing at extreme range
using a pendulum cast and sandeel baits.
March 28th Cod gulley Ogmore
Fished ogmore with Herbie and Del hoping for some rays. High water
was about 3.40pm with a light N.E wind.
When we got to the mark the mist had come down and visibilty starting off
was poor to say the least.
After a while as if by magic the mist cleared to reveal a bright sunny day
and Del landed a turbot on sandeel soon after.
Del then landed another turbot this time a little smaller also on sandeel.
Around high water the wind picked up quite alot and with Barrelreef and
herbie struggling, Del told us he was going to catch another one and promptly wound in another turbot!! cheeky lucky bugger!!
Around an hour after Del then landed another turbot which had taken a mackerel
bait.
A decent days fishing for Del with Barrelreef and Herbie blanking and the
only rays showing were the ones from the sun!
Del - 4 turbot
Herbie - blanked
Barrelreef - blanked
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| Del with the biggest of his turbot haul |
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| Del with another of his turbot |
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30th March Porthcawl pier
With Wilba travelling down with fellow WSF member Snaggletooth, Blackcat
and Barrelreef decided to meet them at the pier. Snaggletooth had never caught a dogfish so the mission for the day for him
was to catch one!
Barrel and Blackcat joined them around 2pm and were suprised to see WSF
members Marcus and Pob also fishing. Radiokaos also joined us later on.
Baits for the day were sandeel, mackerel and squid with the hope of
rays or dogfish.
With a few fish starting to show, small whiting and dogfish. After
a few small whiting Snaggletooth landed his 1st ever dogfish and didn't really look back, managing to catch doggies seemingly
every other cast and finishing up with 7 of them. Mission accomplished for him - how long til he gets fed up of them??
Barrel also got in on the act catching a decent doggie with Blackcat also
landing a whiting.
Funny moment of the day came when WSF member Fisher jay robins came down
for a look around with his springer spaniel. His dog though it would be good to run down the steps at the end of the pier
and jump over, fortunatly though he landed on a ledge but was stuck. Using the pier life ring we all managed to lower Jay
down to get his dog though!
Doggies were being caught most casts and we stayed til 8.30pm and managed to catch a few more
fish.
All in all a nice relaxing day with a good bit of banter.
Blackcat - 6 whiting, 4 Doggies
Barrelreef - 6 Doggies
Wilba - 4 whiting , 1 doggie
Snaggletooth - 7 doggies, 4 whiting
Not sure how many Marcus, Pob and Radiokaos caught but plenty of dogs and whiting I expect
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| Snaggletooth with his 1st ever doggie! |
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| Blackcat with a doggie |
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31st March Hutchins point
Wilba fished hutchins with MPH for a few hours leading up to high water
Wilba landed his 1st ever turbot on sandeel and followed it up with
another 2. He also landed 2 small whiting a and a doggie with MPH also having a small turbot.
Despite getting wet in a downpour they had a good day and Wilba was well
happy to have landed his 1st ever turbot
Wilba - 3 turbot, 2 whiting, 1 doggie
MPH - 1 turbot
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| wilba's 1st turbot |
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| Wilba with a doggie |
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