After missing a few of the trips East, I finally had a small window today to get afloat (after all it is my birthday and I have a very understanding wife (most of the time!) - what a stunning day to get out!.
2 options - take time to travel East to somewhere I know the codling are living, or gamble, experiment and stay local and hope for the best?!!
More fishing time won so off I trotted somewhere North of the Gower armed with some frozen blacks, a couple of squid and some manky 8 year old garfish fillets from the freezer (they were for the turbot on the shambles, but hey ho!). Tide was bit big, but I fancied experimenting and travelling out a fair way.
45min paddle out West (I should have left a little early for an easier trip) and soon the hook was down and I was fishing.
1st half hour was slow and I was thinking of moving when I had the 1st bite, and landed a nice codling of around 2.5lb or so.
That's when all hell broken loose on the dab front - it was difficult to keep 2 rods in the water with double and triple shots of good dabs flying over the side (mainly to frozen blacks - but squid worked too).
I even managed back to back to back triple shots on dabs, and after about 400 of the beggars I thought I'd call it a day. Dismantled one rod and swung the kayak round to pull up the anchor, but as I was swinging round I noticed a bite on the other rod, and was soon lifting another nice codling out of the water.
Sat bow into the tide I thought I'd have one sneaky last drop (over the shoulder job - couldn't be arsed swinging back round) - and within a couple of minutes I was lifting a near 4lb'er over the side. Back down and another comfortable 2lb'er, and then another! Crazy 15 or 20 minutes - but I really had to go - so decided to slip the last one back as I already had a few nice ones for the table.
Only 1/2 decent pic that came from my new 'muvi' camera - more practise required.
Fair do's the tide was thumping through today (7.5m Llanelli scale). I've fished it from boats before, but only on neaps - still plenty of fish about (and the landing back in Burry Port was also a bit hairy with some nice surf rolling in).
Stayed dry tho (just!!), and bagged 5 codling and around 70 - 100 dabs - strange thing was that I didn't get a single whiting?!
The fridge/freezer is now replenished and my species hunt is off the mark (when I get a chance to submit)!
