3rd May - Porthcawl pier
With a day off work Barrelreef and Del headed for Porthcawl with either
hutchins point or the pier in mind. So with high water at 8am we arrived at porthcawl around 5.30am and decided to go for
the easy option........the pier!
1st casts hit the water baited up with mackerel on running ledgers and up
and overs rigs.
1st bite came a few minutes later with Barrel landing a doggie, then almost
straight away Del also landed a doggie.
A decent start. Barrel then landed another 2 doggies and a small whiting very quickly with Del
landing another doggie.
The whiting was then dropped down the side as live bait to see if anything bigger was lurking.
while waiting for more bites Barrel explained to Del he hadn't had a ray off the pier and with
that had a decent bite around high water, struck and began to wind.............and a ray came to the surface! Sods law??!!
Turned out to be a small eyed ray that had take a squid strip and weighed just over 4lb. No monster
but welcome all the same.
After a quick photo the ray was released unharmed.
Just after a mssive bite a came on the live whiting bait and thinking it could be a bass
or conger barrel lifted and wound only to find a greedy doggie had tried to eat the whiting!
The dogfish kept biting and around 9am Barrel had caught 11 dogfish
while Del had caught 21.
Barrel also managed another 2 whiting including a double shot of a whiting and doggie.
After highwater with the dogfish still biting and Del on around 25 fish Barrel set up a running
ledger with a small weight and small hook with tiny peices of mackerel and dropped it down the side. A little pollack
had taken the bait...result!! Barrel followed this up with another little pollack!
Del decided he wouldn't mind catching a little pollack, have a break from the dogfish. He dropped
it down and within seconds had a bite and after a real good scrap which we thought could've been a decent pollack a doggie
surfaced!! Del couldn't believe it........another doggie!!
No more pollack bites after that so we packed the spinning rod away and had a last few casts
with our main rods....the dogfish continued to bite with Del and Barrel landing a few more including 2 on a pennel rig for
Barrel.
A good day with loads of bites and fish to keep busy. A new species for the year for Barrel with
his 2 pollack and new records for Del and Barrel for most fish in a session.
Del - 28 dogfish
Barrelreef - 17 dogfish, 3 whiting, 2 pollack 1 small eyed ray
