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Mid Wales Meet.


nifty

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Hi All,

Well, What a fantastic weekends fishing, not so much for the quantity of fish caught, but for the quality, and with a brilliant bunch of guys who made it a pleasure to be there. :)

Most of the lads had come up for the flyfishing and to have a last fish with Captainsorgan (Mike) before he departs these shores for fishier ground, and I would like to wish him well with the move and hope he get's plenty of those Pinks and Snook, He's been telling us all about :thumbs:

There always has to be an outcast or two in a group :( and that fell to me and Phooey to go and spoil the purist approach being applied by everyone else, and going and sticking a dirty great bait out :D .

For three days I've been sat out with a complete fishing "Junky" who when I came ashore this afternoon, was heading back out to get another fix, and will probably still be out there now!!!!!!! .

Friday morning I drove up to the camp and met up with Starvin, Richi and Chris as everyone else was coming up after lunch and and after an hours tackle and Kayak tinkering and general catching up we headed down to the launch spot and made our way easily down the river to the open sea.

Starvin and Rich stayed inshore fluff chucking whilst Chris and I went in search of a Tope or two. We paddled about threequarters of a mile out and I tried to remember which tree and farmhouse we had to line up with on the shore to be somewhere on the edge of the reef.

We got there a couple of hours into the ebb which was pushing through quite quickly and after getting anchored up it was down to business. We were fishing half mackerel baits, which we later learned was not the best method at this time of year when the BIG female Tope are around, and should have gone for whole fish. Anyway, for a couple of hours it was pretty ordinary with a few dogs and the odd Huss coming up to the surface choking on our baits and to be honest I was beginning to doubt whether the Tope had come inshore as we hadn't heard anything to suggest that they were actually there.

But "if you ain't got a bait in the water you'll never catch" as Phooey said, and around midday I got a good solid run develop which although not fast, could tell was a Tope. I put the reel into gear and leaned into the fish which as usual just kept going albeit quite slowly.

After a short 40ish yard run down tide she got into trying to pull the kayak uptide and I spun round in time to see the line going around the anchor rope and felt the line chafing at which point I thought I would lose her. After a lot of tooing and froing around the bow with the rod, she came clear and we carried on uptide the other side.

This fish felt heavy from the start but gradual pressure soon began to tell and it was only 10 minutes or so before she came into view, and what a sight!!!!!!!!!!!!. I tried to calm myself down and think what I was going to do and try and remember the plan I'd got for dealing with something this size if it ever came my way.

After what seemed like an eternity of heaving and then having to slacken off I felt I was in a position sitting sidesaddle to be able to lift the fish and unhook her(Lip hooked on a barbless so easily out) but the sheer weight as I lifted made me glad that these yaks are so stable and although it leaned over I never felt as though it would tip. All this time, Phooey had been busily taking pics and I can't thank him enough for taking the time out from his own fishing and getting what look like some cracking pics. :)

Weightwise, although it's really only a guess we both put her at 50lb plus and after showing the pics to the local charter skipper who boated and weighed a 72lb fish whilst we were close by he thought 60lb was nearer the mark. Whatever? it was a beautiful fish that I doubt I will ever better.

After releasing her, Phooey went back to his fishing and I to be quite honest could have quite easily packed in, but we had to get him one and after several moves and no fish we ended up close in to fish the start of the flood. I didn't bother fishing and paddled the short way over to Mike and the others who were catching some reasonable Shiny things on feathers. A quick chat and back out to my bait fishing buddy to see what was occuring.

We just sat having the craic and Chris decides to stick on a whole mackerel to see what happens. Well he didn't wait more than a couple of minutes before his ratchet screamed and he turned to me and said " now what do I do"? :o He shouldn't have listened to me because I told him to give it a few seconds and then hit it to avoid gut hooking, but I was thinking about how we do it with half baits and this fish obviously hadn't got the whole bait in and it came adrift :(

Whether it was the same fish or not but only a few minutes later it went again and after a longer pause, he clamped down on it and this time he was in. I'm not going to spoil his story and I've just seen how long this post is, so here are a few pics.

phooey013.jpg

The " Phoo " in battle mode!!!

 

phooey023.jpg

One addicted Toper.

phooey030.jpg

Day two, when we stayed close to shore and the maestro got a smaller fish within casting distance literally of the beach :wallbash:

So as not to upset the fly lot :lol: I did get a pic of Mike playing and holding a nice fish he took when I went in to see them.

phooey009.jpg

phooey011.jpg.

 

Got to go and get packed away now but thanks to everyone for a brilliant weekend, it was SUPERB!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Edited by nifty
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Well done lads :thumbs: Looks like you had a cracking time yet again.I hope you left some for us :D

I can see by the smile on Phooeys face that he had really enjoyed it.He is like a kid that has had his first Ice Cream.Well done to the lot of you.

Zzippy

 

zzippy2.gif

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Well done Nifty or should we now call you Mr Tope?Love the flag Phooey.....not as much as I'd love to have caught such a beautiful specimen :clap::clap:

Team Ocean Kayaks U.K.

 

Kayaks: Necky vector,Flame SPTW

previous Kayaks:Yellow Ocean Kayaks Caper,Flame Prowler 13,Sunrise Ocean Kayaks Prowler 15 Trident, Perception Dancer XT

 

assisted rescues---5

longest paddle:65 miles

top speed under sail 11.1mph

 

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Great writeup Stuart. Glad to hear you caught one of the biggies out there. Can't wait for Phooey to check back in and post the pics up.

 

Given the size of your fish would you step anything up gear wise when fishing for them this time of year?

 

I can see by the smile on Phooeys face that he had really enjoyed it.

 

Phooeys tope is smiling too :D

Kaskazi Dorado - Yellow

Location: East Dorset
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Tops guys!

 

Great Pics. Phooey how was that versus Pike?

 

BUt was it better than sex? :clap2::yeah:

Fished since 2003, the rest of my life I just wasted.

 

Southampton, Scupper Pro TW Angler: Yarak2.

 

Member of the OK fishing Team ( I have had free bits) :-)

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I'll try this pic again cos it didn't resize first time around. :(phooey021.jpg

This is Phooey's biggy, again over 50lb beaten on 12lb line and one of those toothpick fladen rods, So Simon, I don't think you will need to step up the gear. :)

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I'll try this pic again cos it didn't resize first time around. :(phooey021.jpg

This is Phooey's biggy, again over 50lb beaten on 12lb line and one of those toothpick fladen rods, So Simon, I don't think you will need to step up the gear. :)

 

WOW stunned!!!!!!!!!!!

 

Nice on e boys, the reason we do what we do :):):):)

 

:thumbs:

SDD~~~~~ :sun:

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Cheers Lads,

Just remembered something that finished off the weekend for me perfectly. As I was wading out in the river mouth to chuck some fluff this afternoon, an Otter came swimming up past us as bold as brass and got out and went to it's lair in the boulder groyne. First one I've ever seen and a real treat :)

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