Thigh burning fishing.

Uwchmynydd's "Cardiac hill" is named such for a good reason, scaling the ground there is at times hard going and yesterday was one of those times, both in terms of physical strain and tough fishing.

I had arranged to meet up with my friend Jon who I met through the World Sea Fishing Forum.

Jon kindly picked me up at 7:30am yesterday and we made our way up to Pen Llyn. Jon is not massively familiar with the fishing there and seeing as his main discipline is fishing ultra light, it pays to have someone with some knowledge of the ground.

I figured it would be hard going, especially when Jon informed me there was a minimum 2' swell. Really those conditions render the place un-fishable using short light rods, but thankfully it was not nearly as bad as expected with maybe a 1.5' swell.

I took Jon to the nearest place first; a place known to myself and Ben as "Wrasse Gully". Its usually crammed with Wrasse up to around a pound or so, with the odd larger fish in the mix, sadly there was nothing really happening aside form a small Pollock that I hooked and then lost before landing. 

Back up the rocks and hill we went and walked North to find some fishable water inside another cove. Upon making the steep decent, things were looking good, yet the conditions proved deceiving, as aside from Jon catching a small Pollock (first blood) and myself catching a small Wrasse, things remained tough.

I was genuinely surprised, I had expected more and larger Pollock to show. It was true that we were not fishing the best Pollock marks as those were out of bounds due to the swell, however I would have certainly expected to catch the sub 2lb ones with reasonable consistency. Still it wasn't a bad day to spend time on the coast chatting and it gave Jon a chance to try out his new, very nice looking Major Craft Truzer Aji rod.

Up the cliff again and again up the steep, wet grass hill we went, this time travelling back south. The walk was more of a traverse at the top of the rocks, so nothing too arduous, but the cliffs didn't half burn my muscles!

Eventually we found some fishable water, with a degree of shelter from the swell and once again made a steep descent.

There was a stiff side wind, which did make rings a little difficult, but far from impossible and though there was a bit of colour in the water, it was definitely workable.

From the off we were both getting bites, some far out which I suspect were small Pollock and some tight in. It was pretty clear the fish were being finicky and they were also small, it wasn't long before that was confirmed.

I had a fairly steady amount of action, a few caught and a few lost and Jon was also breaking in his new rod with some small Pollock and the odd Wrasse. I don't have any pictures of Jons fish unfortunately, but below are some of mine.

All my fish were caught fishing Texas rigged HTO mini sticks and Mini Shads, which are just perfect for getting tight to structure and in amongst the kelp. I do find that in most conditions the Ayu and Margherita colours work best, but on the occasion the white and blue can be awesome. If you don't own some of these lures, I'd highly recommend them, I tend to rig them on Gamakatsu G-lock hooks in size 4 with a 2-5g cone weight.

My legs didn't half burn on the climb back to the car, but as hard as it all was it was certainly not a waste of time, to some degree you have to expect hardship this time of year. 

I hope to return with Jon when there is a good period of settled weather and a half foot swell, pretty much all of the headland becomes more accessible then and there are some sweet reefs to investigate, with better action to be had.

I wouldn't always go that light there mind as there are some pure brutes about and even with a heavy rod, they can be at times hard to get away from the underwater structure. The other thing is some of the area is incredibly deep and unless you know where yo are going, you can often find yourself blanking!

Having said that, Uwchmynydd is a very worthwhile place to spend some time exploring, its literally one of my favourite places to fish. I've had some great times there with all of my friends and it certainly holds some good memories.

Tight lines.

Baby its Cold Outside!

Since returning from Menorca, conditions have been so bad locally I haven't managed to get out at all. 

The first opportunity to actually get a lure in the water came Monday last. I was down in Barmouth sorting out my rail card and had an hour or so to kill before returning home, so thought I may as well throw some lures I have been wanting to test. 

Damn it was freezing on the Breakwater, with the wind gripping me to the very bone, but it was sure nice to get a spirited run as the tide rose. I was just fishing an AquaWave Lockhead and lure in the current when a nice late season Schooly took the lure.

I was pretty pleased as that is the latest Bass I have ever caught on Lure, the conditions and water colour were less than perfect too!

I didn't stay long afterwards, but I may get down again soon, although I will wear thermals next time!

Tight lines

Rockfish Menorca - Calescoves to Mahon

The last day of our Rockfishing trip and I was personally feeling good, I still wanted to catch a few more fish for sure but I was feeling more relaxed about the whole thing.

We'd visited some stunning parts of the coast, caught a nice variety of fish and had some laughs along the way, but there was one place I wanted to at least see; Calescoves.

I'd spotted the place on Google Earth before we departed the UK and it really is a place of such beauty, it didn't disappoint.

Calescoves was possibly my favourite place of the trip, it was so serene and the water was quite cool, in fact I took the time to chill a couple of times.

We did catch a few fish here, mainly combers and Wrasse. We did have a load of Garfish in at one point, but they proved too small to catch in size 6 jig heads, though they definitely took a liking to my Aquawave Spark 40's.

Here's a couple of pictures including a small but perfectly formed Dusky Grouper caught by Scott;

 After the half a mile walk to the car we were incredibly thirsty and visited Nelsons bar located not far away. That was a bit of a strange place in my opinion, an English Bar ran by a couple of folk from Essex charging London prices, 11 Euros for 6 cans of Sprite! I much preferred the Spanish joints.
From Nelsons we headed Mahon way to fish Es Castell.

At Es Castell I was really feeling tired, heat rash had broken out across my back and I really just chilled while Scott searched for Gobies in order to top up his species tally, I couldn't be bothered with that.

We then moved to a spot we had fished earlier in the week; Cala Figuera.
Its quite nice and comfortable fishing there with plenty of fish to keep you occupied. The water is quite coloured so I didn't feel it necessary to mess around with non-gulp lures to be honest, this is where I feel smelly lures really give you the edge.

Initially I had a good run of Mediterranean Horse Mackerel using a Gulp Fish Fry at range on a dropshot rig. Its a shame they weren't bigger,but a nice catch anyway.

I also got my Common Pandora which I was pretty happy about indeed, they are a right nice fish and pull quite well for the size.

Scott added a Rusty Blenny to his impressive species tally;

And I caught plenty more Bream species, mostly Annular and Two Banded.

The Two Banded bream were really nice and often featured the kind of facial blue hue that you sometimes fiend on our Black Bream.

As darkness was soon expected we headed around the corner to El Funduco in the hope of Barracuda turning up. To cut a long story short, I didn't get My Barracuda, I did catch more Comber and Bream and on Scotts very last cast of the trip, managed a new species for him; a Pickerel.

A pretty nice way to end a very enjoyable trip I thought.

The very last fish of the trip and a nice reward for Scott.

I was genuinely sad to leave Menorca and would certainly like to return someday, it such a peaceful and beautiful place, with friendly people and great weather.
Our next trip is to Madeira though and I am very much looking forward to that, hopefully the anticipation shall stave the winter blues!

Tight lines all and thanks for reading.