Fishing Wales: Stay a bit longer

The first day of autumn and I thought about the bass leaving the shores of the British Isles. I , as a non native to this land starts to wonder about stories of bass staying till winter and i am no doubt that i have seen reports of bass being caught after summer. I was keen to know the fact whether this held through.

A few days off after a long weekend working is a perfect timing for such a research. There could only one bias in my study, location. Best be bias towards the one mark in Wales that should produce in the right tide and the right tide. Certainly, it has to be night time where the fish is at its most numerous.

So, after lying down the main objectives, a round trip to Wales is usually intersped by secondary objectives. After about 1.5 hours drive along the A55 , stop over at a huge beach to collect some lug. Tides were small enough for me to collect some yellow tails and occasional black lug. The pumping was easy and managed enough for the session and a few for the freezer. I for one still couldn’t determine which cast have the small size lug and which one have the opposite. Nevertheless, the term PDR ( Pump Dig Release lug) was coined. I hope the small one grow bigger and healthier in the future.

By dusk, I was in my car enjoying a bag of crisp and a bar of Cadbury to boost the energy up for the fishing across the Snowdonia mountains. When you are alone in middle of nowhere even eating become a welcome treat and felt like company. ( Reminder to oneself: Need to butter wife up more to get fishing on weekends with the 9 to 5 friends). Oh well, you just have to make the best of what you got.

I reached the intended mark with hardly any time to spare for high water fishing. The water have nearly reached the gravel and covered all the sea bed features. Novice mistake for a novice like like me. Relying on past experience of the mark i headed off about 100 yards to where i parked my car and set up. The wind was blowing directly on my face and there was a good surf on. Wonderful, at least the conditions were right for the mark and there were nobody else that could be spooking the bass from the water with their a million lumen head torch. So, what choices do I have? A beachcaster with 5oz lead or the typical bass rod light gear 3oz lead. The amount of sea weed on the beach  strewn over the high tide line made me chose the obvious, heavy gear.

First cast, started after another delay trying to position my tripod and the ‘Shaky’ box on the boulders. Not easy when the rocks are moving about so much you felt that you are going to slide into the deep sea every time you go for a rest on the box. Anyhow, back to the first cast. I casted about 50-80 yards out with the Daiwa 7ht with an eerie sand filled sound. That screech is heart dampening which means another service is needed, Doh! Waited for the bites but I could only sea the gentle curve of the rod getting worse by the second. 2 minutes later, i was reeling in a bucket full of stringy weed and spent another 5 minutes untangling them from the line and rig . Only The One can save me now from a whole night spoilt fishing session.

The second cast faired a bit better with the line holding bottom perfectly and I felt a bit happier. Allahamdulillah was the only way I could expressed myself as I was ready for a session infested by weed. 5 minutes into the cast, the thump thump thump of the rod made my heart jump and I’m sure I was half flying towards the rod to give that strike that hooks the fish. It kites to left and right and eventually the fish was landed. A nice 44cm bass , fat and certainly angry at being taken out from the blue yonder ( in this case, in pitch black). It was raining at this point and the taught of destroying the mobile phone due to water was out of the question and hence no pics of the bass on scene. Sorry guys and gals.

The third and 4th cast faired the same with a curious thump and release, slackliners was name of the game. One after the other was reeled in. One that herald the arrival of winter to the British Isles, Mr. Cod. Beauty personified in true wintery colours in shades of cream and brown.

The first of ‘winter’ codling (juvenile cod)

I missed a few more bites through high water and then the weed was just unbearable after. Stuck till about 2 hours after high and packed up after there were hardly any water left in front of me. The weed though stayed till the end. I, by this point was more than content. I have achieved what I have set out to prove that Bass still exists after August and I hope there is time for the Komplot! Manchester members to catch one before the snow fall on this beautiful Island.
Tightlines
Mo

Steamed bass with Ginger and Salad onion