Another blow out.

[Prowler]

Yep I second that, if ya going out Bill have a good day watch out for the swell , leave some fish for me though eh

[Simon Everett]

We went to go to Aberdovey for the weekend - when we got there we didn't even get out of the car! Tha salt spray was blowing a mile inland and even the windsurfers and board surfers were not going out - it was far too rough for them. It was blowing a full gale from the West, so there was nowhere in the lee to go on the entire West wales coast. Nothing for it but look at the map - Anglesey, East Coast - it was our only hope. So we set forth through the mountains of Snowdonia - got to the North east side of Anglesey - 7 hours after leaving home! Found a campsite and looked out at a bay full of charging white horses, galloping all over the place they were. Not a boat out, even the fishermen were in the pub - as usual! They weren't even going out into the bay with their charters, 1 mile out was treacherous, and that was on the leeward side!

Found a campsite with space - because they had half a dozen campers booked for the weekend go home with ripped tents! YES, that blustery. By the time we got there the wind was abating, so pitched tent without going hang-gliding and settled down to getting things ready for an early morning foray.

Woke up at just before 05.00 - sun not yet over the horizon which we looked out on. Brilliant, wind down to about a 3, sea calmed right off, just a few lumbering swells but not tops. Out I go, paddled right out to the island and saw some porpoises surfacing - so I headed for them. They were in the tide rip off the eastern tip of the little island, I don't know what it is called but it is just off the Moelfre Lifeboat Station - it's on my chart but I can't be arsed to get it out to tell you

Had the porpoises right alongside the kayak - like 10 feet away, not bothered at all. I rigged up a sliver and started to troll around through teh tide rip and either side of it. Tried everywhere that looked fishy. The sun came up into a cloudless sky. It was glorious.

I didn't catch anything, but ad a fabulous before breakfast paddle - covered 4.8 nM and averaged 2.8 knots. Back to base for 08.00 and a welcome cup of coffee and an egg bap. Lovely stuff. Good catering manager employed you see

 

The tide was ebbing, so George went out and had a go for a couple of hours - see pictures:

[Simon Everett]

[Simon Everett]

[Simon Everett]

The folks fishing off the rocks were catching loads of doggies, well within casting range - but they had fish for bait, and lugworms. We didn't have any bait, so we didn't catch any dogfish - but we did end up with a fishing dog..

[Simon Everett]

[Simon Everett]

Then George came in for lunch and he went rockpooling. Good lad - he found 2 peeler crabs which he donated to Dad - "go and see if you can christen the kayak Dad," he said.

So I paddled back out to the island, from launching on the kelp again. And using just legs and claws I caught a 4lb ballan wrasse close in to the rocks on the sheltered side. Briliant. Then I missed two more with the crab bodies. Swines took the bait but didn't get hooked. Even so, I did get a fish!

[Simon Everett]

The following day I got the fly rod out, the water had cleared away and there were loads of (herring?) fry in the gullies around the rocks below our tent. Aha, I thought, bass, i thought. So on went a fry-like looking pattern and I cast off the rocks. I saw several fish running right up into the bladderwrack on the rocks round about,and a shoal of mullet were swirling about with their mouths out of the water! (Often you get bass under mullet like that).

Sure enough, I got hit with a massive, savage take which smashed me immediately - a bight of line had got round a rock and I couldn't do anything about it - this was in the cast, not a loose bight out of the line tray. Boooogggeeerrr!

But it shows they are about.

[spanner]

Looks like a cracking day to be out on the water .... and you beat me to getting the P13 christened .... with a pretty good fish too

 

I'll have to christen mine with something special to top that .... hopefully this weekend if the weather plays ball.

[Simon Everett]

Hi Spanner,

was up your way last week - had a bike to photograph in Whitehaven - but it was too late by the time I had finished to take the Yak off the roof and have a go around St bees Head. I took it all the way there, and brought it all the way back again - without taking it off the roof!

Had thought about making a seaborn assault on the Ravenglass estuary and seeing if I could sneak into the gunnery range under the radar Apparently the guy who runs the range is always asleep, or fishing