A Difficult Day in December!

On Friday I checked Magicseaweed and Met office for weather and tide reports, I was hoping to get out on Saturday yet Met office said there would be strong winds and Magicseaweed said there would still be a residual swell running. I therefore opted for Sunday (today) as the winds were said to be low and the sea - flat.

Of course, these sites cannot get things right even within a 24 hour period! Saturday there was barely a wisp of wind and it was a glorious day, I had wasted a good day in some sense, I opted for a much needed lie in.

So I head up to Uwchmynedd today with Pollock in mind. Of course I was expecting no wind and calm seas, did I find this? Did I heck!

There was quite a stiff cross onshore and a pretty angry sea. I climbed down to my consistent marks and each were too unsafe to fish, especially on my own. The sea was the kind you'd dare not turn your back on, there were quite frequent growlers threatening to wash me off of the rocks.

This photo hardly does it justice!

I climbed up and down cliffs trying to find more placid water and fish, admiring these bright red toadstools as I went, its a good job the peninsula is such a beautiful place! 

I found it very hard to control my line and lures at times and I eventually opted for a cove I have fished before with very mixed results. Sometimes it can be really good and others - very poor, well today was the later!

I picked up small Pollock on Ecogearaqua Swim Shrimps trailed on a deep water carolina rig, they were not the size I had in mind for today and though disappointed, I was glad not to blank!

For a very short time the sea slackened off a bit and I got hit off of a different fish about 30 foot down and bought in a small Ballan Wrasse. I love catching Wrasse and the sight of this wee fella certainly brightened up my day and put a smile on my face.

Stunning fin colouration! 

"Well, where there's one, there's more" I thought to myself and I rigged up a Watermelon Yoshikawa Superworm on my Carolina rig. Casting out, retrieving with shakes and pauses things weren't epic, but I was getting the odd bite. I was nearing a subsurface ledge beneath my feet and I was getting small shy bites, when wallop! My Sakura Mazzera 742MH hooped over and I felt the weight of a decent fish. "Ah yes a PB Wrasse" I thought "easily 6lb". As I started pulling the thing from the bottom, I felt a sort of click, like you get when your weight hits granite, except my line had gone limp!

I had lost the fish and was completely shocked and bemused. I reeled in my line to find out my hook and lure had gone, my 20lb fluorocarbon looked as though it had been cut by pliers, a nice clean cut!

I was thoroughly pissed off, but surely this could not have been a Wrasse? It bit off a 4" lure and a 3/0 hook! The only thing I can think of is that there was a small wrasse biting my lure, which in turn got eaten by an eel, engulfing my lure and wrasse at once?

I guess I'll never know, but I would be interested to know any theories or hear of similar experiences, I was thoroughly confused by it.

Anyway, with that I decided enough was enough and headed home.

It was a disappointing,  difficult and a frustrating day, but a total loss? I'll let you decide.

Tight lines.