April 2007

Welsh Danglers reports

April 2007

1st April Llantwit Major beach

Barrelreef tagged along with Del and Herbie again to fish Llantwit over low water - A mark that none of us had fished before but were willing to have a good crack at it.

We arrived at 8.30am a bit too early to start fishing but good timing just as the beach cafe was opening so we decided to have a bit of brekkie to get us ready for the day. So after filling up on sausage, bacon and egg we made our way down the beach.

Anyway baits for the day were lugworm, ragworm, (generously given by Radiokaos the Friday before - cheers butty), sandeel, mackerel, squid and frozen peeler. We used pulley pennels with rotton bottoms as it seemed quite rough. With the forecast sunny and with a light Northerly wind conditions seemed good.

1st casts hit the water and every one of us was into a fish straight away.......Herbie landed a 10lb cod with Barrel landing a ray of 9lb 8oz and Del also got in on the act with another cod pushing double figures! This continued for the session with more cod and ray to 15lb........................................................................

APRIL FOOLS!!!!

What really happened was Barrel landed a codling about 1/2lb 2 hours before low to a lug/crab cocktail and Del landed a codling around 1lb and a doggie just after low water both on sandeel. Del also lost what seemed a very good fish after his trace got snagged winding in!

Herbie blanked.

The wind changed direction to an Easterly and got quite strong making the fishing difficult later on with our rods blowing over more than once.

Quite a rough ground mark but seems like it could produce some decent fish, well worth another visit later in the summer.....maybe bass or smoothies??

Del - 1 codling. 1 doggie

Barrelreef - 1 codling

Herbie - Blanked

Barrel's codling

Del's codling

A doggie for Del

April 8th - Llantwit Major -Del's return!

Del decided to give Llantwit another bash after deciding the mark had some potential.

He had a good day with blazing sunshine and some fish.

1st a doggie then later on a good conger eel over 10lb on a mackerel strip!

Del holding his eel

April 14th Monknash

With low water around 11.30pm and the weather more like August tha april, we decided to head down to Monknash to fish 3 hours either side of low water in search of some rays. Armed with the usual baits - sandeel, mackerel, squid and some crab we got to the beach around 8.30ish to find quite a few angler already there.

Turned out Carling Wales had a club match there. So after a quick chat to another angler we walked futher on and set up. 1 or 2 turbot had shown up but that was it so far.

After our 1st 2 casts it was obvious we were going to have trouble with weed in the water, after we both had to unclogg our traces and knots.

Even so we fished on and Barrelreef managed to land a doggie on a sandeel bait around low.

Unfortunatly that was the only fish that showed for us and with the weed still causing problems we packed up around 2 hours after low.

Same stories seemed to come from the other anglers on the beach with the odd doggie and turbot, although one angler next to us did land a small ray.

Besides the weed and lack of fish we had a pleasant evening, but that walk is a killer!!

Barrelreef - 1 dogfish

Valleyboyo - Blanked

22nd April - Cold Knap - WSF friendly comp

Barrelreef, Teggy and Blackcat fished the friendly WSF match to raise funds for the Barry RNLI.

With hopes high after some decent rays and conger showing at the Knap, Our baits for the day would be sandeel, mackerel, squid, ragworm and some peeler crab.

We arrived around 8.30 and met WSF member and match organiser King of Leon and booked in with the match starting at 9am.

We set up and at 9am a loud whistle signalled the start so we cast out various baits.

First in to a fish was Blackcat with a doggie that was just under the size limit for weighing.

Barrelreef then had a doggie big enough to weigh which only weighed 10oz.

With the fishing slow it looked like a big doggie would be enough to win it.

With that Barrelreef landed a decent doggie which weighed 1lb 12oz.

Blackcat landed another doggie and a small whiting but Teggy was struggling for bites!

With Teggy not having bites he decided to put on a load of brightly coloured beads in the hope of enticing a fish.................it worked when he landed a small whiting and doggie on his last 2 casts.

When the match finished Teggy left before the 'weigh in' but blackcat and Barrelreef stayed on to see how everyone had done.

A 2lb 11oz conger eel won the match with 2lb+ doggies claiming 2nd and 3rd and Barrel's doggie in 4th.

A good day with bright sunshine and a chance to meet some WSF members with a good amount raised for the lifeboat.

Well done King of Leon

Blackcat - 2 dogfish, 1 whting

Barrelreef 2 dogfish

Teggy - 1 dogfish, 1 whiting

April 28th - Hutchins, Porthcawl

High water at 5.15pm and with no real good reports we decided to fish a mark a little to the west of Hutchins point, in the hope of ray, dogfish and turbot.

With a brisk Easterly and bright sunshine conditions were'nt ideal to bring the fish in feeding but good all the same.

Herbie and Barrelreef arrived around 2.15pm with Teggy and Blackcat following a little later.

By the time they arrived Barrel and herbie had already put sandeel baits out.

As the other boys set up Herbie had a bite and after a little tussle landed a small eyed ray of 3lb 3oz.

Barrelreef then landed a doggie and so did blackcat on his 1st cast. Teggy joked that he didn't want to catch any doggies only better fish.

This continued up until high water,bites on most casts and plenty of doggies landed . Herbie with 4, Barrel with 5 and Blackcat with 5. teggy though struggled to hook any fish.........had he jinxed himself with his earlier joke???

Just before high water, Herbie had a good postive bite and pulled into a good fish that stayed down in the water. After a good scrap where the fish even took some line, Barrelreef clambered down the rocks to the edge of the water in readiness to land what we thought was a good ray only to see the head of a very large conger break the surface.

Without a net or a gaff it was obvious we were going to have difficulty landing this one and as Barrel grabbed the line the fish gave a big head shake and a twist and the 40lb hooklength parted.

This eel was one of the biggest most of us had seen off the shore and was easily over 15lb maybe evne over 20lb. Shame we couldn't land it for Herbie though.

The fishing continued after high with Blackcat landing his 1st ray of the year a small eyed of about 2lb which he was happy with.

barrelreef followed that up with another small eyed ray the same size as Herbies 3lb 3oz ray.

Teggy meanwhile still struggled while Blackcat and herbie added another species by both catching a small whiting each.

The fishing slowed for a while around 2 hours after high water although Herbie and Blackcat landed another doggie each with Barrel adding another 2.

Around 8pm we started to pack up with Teggy looking at a blank session and some big mickey taking. He managed to save his blank though with a doggie on his last cast.

One of our best sessions so far this year with plenty of bites and some decent fish.......All in all a very enjoyable day

Blackcat - 6 dogfish, 1 small eyed ray, 1 whiting

Herbie - 5 dogfish, 1 small eyed ray, 1 whiting and the big eel

Barrelreef - 7 Dogfish, 1 small eyed ray

Teggy - 1 dogfish

Herbie's ray

Blackcat's ray

Barrelreef's ray

Teggy's blank saving doggy