Oxwich - Yak - 27/07/14

Packed the yak and managed a swift 2 hours while down the Gower with Riley today.

Felt the need to exercise the 'dab' demons from last week, and managed one with minimal effort - typical!!!

Anchored close to the wreck and was soon pulling in 3 inch bream and dragonets.

Picked up a pouting to make it 4 species in less than 2 hours fishing!

Shame the dab, pout and dragonet didn't turn up last week.  ;-)

Oxwich Kayak comp 2014 - 19/07/14

Steve and my 1st bash at the infamous SWKA Oxwich kayak competition - a speices hunt, with the person catching the most species the quickes winning.

Nearly 150 competitors turned up on the beach......

 

Steve pre start.......

Me waiting to get afloat.....

A quick paddle out saw Steve and I the first ready to fish (not that that helped!).  30 min later I land my 1st fish - a shanny (common blenny).....

Moving a little further out - I decided to stick the 'hook' down and was soon having instant bites.  On the 3rd drop I managed to get one to stick and it turned out to be a slab of a triggerfish (fought superbly!!).

Straight into the black bream after releasing the trigger.......

I'm holding it as the 1st one I caught dropped off the hook, bounced of my leg and went over the side before I could take a pic - luck that I caught another 6, 8 or so.

After losing my anchor (even after the trip failing) - I made a move out to th ebay in search of dogs, and dabs - easy species (or so I thought!!!).

1st up was a stunning red gurnard....

Then a grey gurnard....

And mackerel.....

After a few more red & grey gurnard and lots of drifting - I finally managed one of the Oxwich resident woofers.....

But the dabs proved elusive for me.  A move to search for wrasse and/or pollack over the rough ground proved fruitless (maybe something to do with the 60 yaks round the wreck!).

On my travels I did bag a my grand slam gurnard - a tub.......

Another tub, and a grey boated, I then decided for one last drift for a dab.  It wasn't to be.

Back ashore for the 'check in' - 8 species and 8th place overall (Bloody dabs!!!! :-)) and a bramd new Conoflex rod in the prizes.  Don't think my trigger was far from specimen of the day either!  Stunning fish

Steve managed a fair few bream, a first corkwing wrasse and a mackerel. 

Oxwich wasn't giving up her fish easy today - everyone had to work hard for them!!!

To finish the day - a swift pint prior to the presentation.

Report - Critter Bash!!!

A few free hours with some free manky rag was too tempting not to have a critter bash!

The first double shot of Rock Gobies (they were out in force!!).

 Black Goby

Ballan Wrasse



Long Spined Sea Scorpion





 Poor Cod

 The last drop elusive tompot!

YAK Report - Stackpole - 28/06/14

With 5 x golden nuggets donated to the national trust, jonesbach and I managed to be on the water just after 6am. The fog on the way down was like pea soup, and nearly put us off, but we carried on and were met by stunning clear skies at Stackpole.

An easy high water launch and a quick paddle out we tried for some mackerel with little success. With a fair chop on the water, and wind and tide pushing us out towards the head (which looked as rough as fek!!) we decided to fish a few drifts inside the inner bank.

 

I managed a starry hound to squid 1st drop and Steve pulled in the 1st mackerel of the year for us. Codling and doggies landed and returned, we were both panting a bit from paddling back up tide and wind, and seriously hot, so decided to take an early morning break on barafundle to remove a few layers and have breakfast (a twix and a penguin!).

 

Back on the water we anchored up and were soon into the dogs, and some mackerel. We managed gurnard, codling and scad before we spotted a nearby boat landing a few strings of mackies, so up anchor and a quick move. After about 20min or so we had enough mackies for bait, tea, family, and a few for the freezer.

 

Back out to anchor up for something bigger left us feeding the dogs! Flappers and whole macks (less tails) devoured in minutes, so we up sticks and made out way back to the quay for 12 noon.

Glorious morning and another session under our belts!

Definitely plan on getting back out there soon for one of those toothy critters!!