23rd October Cardfiff Foreshore
With a successful trip to the foreshore the previous day Valleyboyo and
Barrelreef wanted to try the mark in the dark.
The forecast seemed ok light winds and dry for most of the night. So with
some good black lug, frozen peeler and squid, we set off. High water at 8.30pm so we got there for around 6pm.
We set our gear up and the heavens opened and from then on it was obvious
the forecast was wrong.
Heavy showers seemed to come down every 5 minutes or so. We manged to 'cwtch'
up with our gear behind some bushes for some cover and carried on fishing.
It was a little slow until after high water when a few bites started to show.
Valleyboyo was 1st into a fish, most probably a good codling but unfortunatly it came off
when his line snagged the rocks down in front of us.
Next it was Barrelreef's turn and he struck into a stonking bite which had pulled down then
slack lined. This was a good fish, it nodded all the way in and pulled Barrels rod down hard. He managed to get the fish
within a few feet of the surface and Valleyboyo went down in readiness to grab it.
The mainline though, just above the leader not had caught under some of the concrete debris in
front of us. Barrelreef was shouting down to Valleyboyo to grab the line and hold the leader but he couldn't hear because
of the wind and lashing rain. The fish seemd to regain some strength and started pulling again.....SNAP!! the line chaffing
the rocks had given way and the fish was gone!
Barrelreef was gutted and had to sit down on his box for the disappointment to sink in, this
was possibly the biggest fish Barrel had hooked, and it had escaped!
After that the rain kicked in and turned into a torrential downpour, we carried on fishing and
Barrel landed 2 codling one after each other the 1st about 2lb and the second 1lb.
The rain by then had got so heavy that it was starting to soak through our supposedly waterproof
clothing so we packed up and set off home even though it looked like the codling had started to feed!
'The one that got away' was the order of the night for Valleyboyo and Barrlreef and normally
if the fish are feeding we would have stayed but we were soaked through. No piccies this time (too wet to take any)
Barrelreef 2 codling
October 29th Ogmore Deeps
Teggy, Blackcat, Valleyboyo and Barrelreef decided to have a crack down
the deeps.
After leaving a little bit later than planned we got to the mark with about
2 hours til high water.
Baits for the day were lug, rag squid, mackerel and frozen peeler crab.
Blackcat was 1st into a fish an undersized whiting, which had been deeply
hooked and didn't survive.
Valleyboyo decided to keep it and use it as bait rather than throw it back
dead. Blackcat followed that catch with another small whiting on his next cast. Both whiting had taken mackerel baits.
At high water Valleyboyo decided to have a go for a conger, (something he
regularly does but never pays off).
He cut the whiting into a flapper and cast it out on a running ledger. As
he turned round after placing his rod in the rest the rod slammed down and Blackcat grabbed it and passed it to Valleyboyo.
After a good little scrap Valleyboyo had the eel at the base of the rocks and Barrelreef clambered down to land it, getting
wet feet in the process.
The eel was weighed at 7lbish and after some photos swam away strongly when released.
Valleyboyo was chuffed to bits with his conger not only being his 1st shore conger but also his
biggest fish off the shore so far. The other 'Danglers' congratulated him on his catch and fished on.
Thats all we had for the rest of the session, and valleyboyo wouldn't stop telling us how good
an angler he is after targeting and catching a conger he was also rubbing it in that some of us had blanked........................something
he would later regret, after packing up before the rest of the boys he wandered off leaving his box unattended.
Barrelreef decided to play a little trick on Valleyboyo..............................................................................
He struggled back up the hill from the deeps and commented how his box seemed heavy.
At one point he even shouted up that we may have put something heavy in his box but rather than
check it he struggled on.
Back at the car a red faced sweating Valleyboyo opened his box and found a few stones in
the bottom. He wasn't very happy as we all laughed at him and reckoned we were jealous of his catch.
Teggy was rolling with laughter as Valleyboyo emptied the stones.
Even though only a few fish were caught, we were all happy for valleyboyo and also had a bit
of a laugh and a joke on the way up.
Blackcat 2 whiting
Barrelreef Blanked
Teggy Balnked
valleyboyo conger eel
