Bank Holiday

I rarely go far on a bank holiday as I loathe fighting the traffic to get anywhere, however this morning I was in need of some river therapy. Didn't manage to connect with any big fish but it was nice to see the fish I caught seem to have recovered some of their winter condition. The river has been scoured clean of the blanket weed that carpeted the entire bottom and I think this makes it easier for the chub to feed well. Non of the fish were carrying argulus which seemed to be a problem in the low water heatwave conditions of the early season. This was the best of the bunch at a shade over 4lb.

Lots of smaller fish provided the complete river therapy!

 

Holiday

We arrived for a few days holiday in North-East Anglesey on Monday lunchtime to be greeted with glorious sunshine despite the poor forecast.

The view of Point Lynas from our caravan

This is the view West down the coast from Point Lynas

It was really windy so grabbed a couple of hours fishing without success in a sheltered little cove. I had a few follows from wrasse but couldn't get any to actually take the lures. I was dying to try out my solid tipped Major Craft Zalt so went to Amlwch harbour and had a hour catching Blenny and Poor Cod with my youngest - Jack. We were just dibbling Marukyu Power Isome on tiny jig heads and sight fishing for the small fish living in the weed of the harbour wall. It reminded me of fishing with a piece of cane and a bent pin as a kid - great fun!

The Blennies come in a whole range of colours and patterns.

This one bit me and I had a job getting it to release my finger! A comical looking Blenny with attitude.

Both the Blenny and tiny Poor Cod were new lure caught species for me.

We ended our first day lying on our backs outside the caravan watching the amazing Perseid meteor shower!

Tuesday afternoon saw me trying to catch my first bass. I knew there were fish around as they were leaping out and swirling for sand eels near the surface. I tried everything in the box but couldn't manage to catch one.

I did get one of the Launce on a very small wedge though! New species number three!

The view across Bull Bay

Wednesday saw me still chasing my first bass. After a trawl on the internet and gleaning some useful information fro 'The Lure Forum' and from Scott and Mal from the LAS (thanks due to both!) I had a few marks not very far away from where we were staying to try. The chosen venue was not as picturesque as those I'd tried earlier in the week but I'd been told that it often holds a few bass and fishes best at low water. So while the family slept I sneaked out early and arrived at the mark at 6 am. I'd tried all the fancy crank baits without any luck so sticking to what I know from my fresh water luring stuck a free-lined slug-go rigged on an offset worm hook on.

I cast into the boiling white water and after a few turns of the reel there was a wrenching take. What followed was undoubtedly the best fight I have ever had from a fish of this size. The fish went on several blistering runs and repeatedly turned and shot off as I tried to net it. After half a dozen goes and some anxious moments I finally slipped the net under it. Not a monster, but one of the most satisfying catches in my life and a fourth new species.

 

The washing machine water that gave up my fish.

Thursday was a washout with the extreme winds and lashing rain making the rocks a pretty unpleasant, and at times dangerous, place to be and the fishing nigh on impossible using light lure tackle. I was hoping to catch wrasse but after an hour, and despite a few follows from good fish to small paddle tailed shads, I retreated to safer ground.

Friday saw a complete change in the weather with very light winds and warm sunshine, it would be hard to find any two more contrasting, consecutive days!

We spent a few hours catching small fish under our feet on the LRF set ups. I added more small Pollack to the weeks catch.

This is a bronze sculpture of Dick Evans - one of the brave lifeboat men who skippered the boat at Moelfre.

Another pair of bronzes in the grounds of the RNLI visitors centre at Moelfre

 A fantastic short holiday that will live long in the memory!

Little Egret

I saw my first Little Egret today on the far bank of the river. The pictures aren't fantastic due to the extreme zoom.

It was really windy and difficult to put the lure precisely where I wanted it but managed to bank half a dozen, with these being the best of the bunch.

Chub Art

Had a couple of hours on the river this morning. The river has had a good flush through recently and had dropped down to a decent level and visibility was good. Today I hooked and lost three decent fish before I realised the hook points had all bent out slightly. I obviously need to swap all the hooks on my Bomber shallow A. I did manage to bank a few in the 2-3lb range and had another play with the macro settings.

Macro

My camera is a Canon PowerShot SX 30 IS, it's a 'bridge'camera ( a Digital SLR for idiots!) I bought it specifically because of the features which allow easy 'self-takes' when fishing, namely a flip screen and a programmable timer. I always leave it on 'Auto' and let the camera do the rest. I'm off to Wales for a weeks hols next week where I hope to do a spot of LRF so in anticipation of catching some of the smaller species I decided to try out the 'Macro' settings. The traditional trophy shot with small fish really doesn't work.
A couple of hours perching  produced a few opportunities to get to grips with the camera.
I'm really pleased with the first efforts.

A bit more interesting than the 'in-hand' shot!

Our Day Out

Today saw the latest NW Chapter of the Lure Anglers Society get together. We had a great day in May on our last visit so returned to the same venue. The lake contains some large perch and everyone came armed with their Ultra Light gear. Unfortunately they eluded us once more but everyone had action from the smaller perch and a number of pike were landed. Even these small fish are great fun on light tackle. Not the greatest picture as the lively jack had splashed water all over the lens!

The gang - Graeme in action with his all Spro Passion outfit, he had a few jacks and loads of perch.

Mike had a nice pike of around 6lb (pic to follow!) and also managed to lose a nice perch of around a pound at the net so a picture of his silly hat will have to do!

Al also caught loads of perch and accidentally released his best fish before he could pose for his trophy shot.  

Well known fashionista Antony with his orange braid, orange reel, orange rod and orange hat! He did his usual trick of giving half the perch in the lake a hard time on his UUL gear.

Not much chance of losing him!

Another enjoyable day out and I hope we can pick up on our unfinished business with the lunker perch in Autumn!

Major Craft Lures

Having won 'Post of the Month' for one of my catch reports on the LAS forum I chose a Major Craft Zoner Crank 40 Shallow in perch as my prize and received it within a couple of days thanks to Steve Bridgen of The Pike Shop (see Links). The lure is a beautifully finished little 4cm crank bait which weighs 4g and dives to about 3'- perfect for one of my UL set up. Having looked at the EA site, the river looked like it might be fishable after the recent rain so decided to give the lure its first swim this morning. The river was still carrying a fair bit of water and was pushing through and predictably the fish had dropped down from the head of the pools where I have been catching them lately. The extra 18'' of water worked in my favour as this lure gets down a bit deeper than my normal wake baits and I was concerned that I'd end up losing it to the rocky bottom or one of the many snags. The lure has a lovely action and by being careful not to retrieve too quickly it didn't take too long to connect to my first fish of around 3 lb.

I had a few more fish from 2-3lb before this slightly better one and then unclipped the lure before I lost it as I fancied giving it a go at our North West get together tomorrow.

Many thanks to Steve for sponsoring this competition and I will be looking at acquiring a few more of the Major Craft lures :D  :D  :D