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!!

Report - Spot On! - Brixham - 20/06/14

Glorious sunshine, but an Easterly wind put wind over tide, and seriously affected the drifts, by practically putting us on stop.

1st up for me was a pollack of around 5 ot 6lb, quickly followed by a double figure ling.

3 further fish in the next 3 drifts were all pollack.

The tide died off completely and with no drift at all the fishing went quiet, except for 2 x 23lb cod and the odd small pollack.

A move to another wreck resulted in another ling for me on the 1st drop, followed quickly by another.

A few pollack made up the rest of my catch.

Steve J also managed to catch a couple of ling (his 1st ever) and proved he was king of the put, by landing a 2lb'er.

A few wrecks were tried on route home but nothing was interested in our lures!

Report - Cefn Sidan - 18/06/14

Last minute decision to fish the last 1/2 hour of light with the lrf rod on a glorious evening.  Managed only one fish - a small flounder.

 

 

Report - Oxwich - YAK - 05/06/14

Day off, stunning weather and a light westerley blow - Oxwich bound!

Started off drifting for plaice, with no luck, so decided on an experimental session over parts I hadn't fished before.

1st up was a small codling, quickly followed by a pollack and a ballan wrasse. 

Not a lot of movement except for wind drift, so moved out onto the sand - dabs, lsd and a grey gurnard or two quickly followed. 

No anchoring today - all fish on the drift.

Stunning day, and a few fish to boot. 

Report - Cefn Sidan - 04/06/14

Dug a few worms late afternoon, and ventured onto Cefn Sidan for HW - neap tide.

No nets due to the strong NW breeze, and a few fish about to keep the rod tip busy - all small though!

Finished with 12 bass (all well under legal limit) and a flounder.

Report - Seren Y Mor - 31/05/14 (Danglers)

1st Dangler trip of the year for me, and a bash at the hounds.

After a short steam, the hounds soon started coming on board, and provided steady sport throughout the day.

 

1 Common hound, 5 starry's, a couple of codling, a bull huss and 4,000 dogs kept me busy throughout the day.

Biggest hound for me wend 10lb 8oz.

Report - YAK - Stackpole 17/05/14

Gorgeous day, but a change to the planned venue.  Was intending on Oxwich, but due to bait issue, and being unable to leave home until 9am, decided to have a short experimantal session on the yak.

Headed West with nowhere in mind really, and eventually ended up in Stackpole.

Easy launch at HW, but a little trickier return close to LW (see pic below).

 Only fished on the drift as I didn't know the area (bottom or full tide strenght etc) and it was pin whiting and dogs every drop from the off.  Some big dogs!

Picked up micro dabs in between and then a couple of these (grey gurnard).....

 

Had a drift or 2 close in for wrasse, and picked up the biggest corkwing wrasse I'd ever seen (stunning fish).

 

Couple of jigs for early mackerel proved fruitless - so it was back to the car.  Do-able on your own - but easier with 2.  Lesson learned - lol!

Stunning place, weather and a few fish to boot.

Report - Mountbatten, Plymouth

With a few worms left over from the Skerries, and Riley asleep for 40 mins - managed a quick worm dunk at Mountbatten - the breakwater itself was shut.

 

Weather wasn't great, but avoided getting wet!

Ballan wrasse up 1st.

Then a little goldsinny!

Report - Gemini Charter - Skerries Plaice

Used a days fishing pass from the boss to get out on the Skerries onboard Dave Harrisons Gemini.  Of all the boats, in all the ports, on all the days to pick - I ended up on the same trip as Greg, and Kevin and Dave from Seren y Mor.

Glorious morning churned up a few plaice and a couple of whiting.

View looking out over Start Point.

One of the mornings plaice.

A double header of nice plaice.

Darkening skies en route back to Dartmouth.

We finished the day with over 70 plaice between 6 of us on board - not massive fish compared to Weymouth, but non stop action throughout the day, and a few nice fish for the table. 

Managed 11 myself and a whiting.

I managed

Report -Pendine 20/04/14

Decided on a quick change of scenery with Steve, so headed to Pendine and fished infront of the slip.

Bait used lug and rag, fished 3 hours up to HW and picked up lots of flounder and about half a dozen 5b rockling.

Report - Hobbs Point - 19/04/14

Quick 1/2 hour with 5 ragworms from the Pembs Dock tackle shop.

2nd batch of poor cod in 2 days, the usual suspects and a common blenny.

Report - Yak - Oxwich - 18/04/14

A free afternoon and a quick bash at Oxwich again.

Dogs, codling, dabs, pout, whiting and poor cod at anchor.

Codling, pout and whiting on the drift.

Report - Yak - Oxwich 13/04/14

Arrived early at Oxwich with Steve, and we quickly set up and were greeted with a stunning spring morning on Oxwich bay.

 

 

A brief paddle out to the moorings, we had a couple of drifts for the plaice, but no fish showed.

 

Paddling out a little further, we stuck the hooks down (Steve for the 1st time ever!), and soon the rods were tapping away........

 

1st up there were whiting;

 Then lots of these (lsd);

A few 1/2 tidy sized ones of these - very thin though (dab); 

 

Some 30cm+ codling;

 And lastly, pouting;

A quick drift around the wreck and back around the moorings proved fruiteless, and all too quickly it was time to pack up!

All in all a good day, plenty of bites, fish and 5 species.