SESSION SAVERS
Even top anglers struggle sometimes.
Every angler will have experienced sessions where the fish fail to play the game and you either can’t buy a bite or you catch only what some consider nuisance species. Yes, it’s not just you, for even the best in the business occasionally experience the session from hell – but what they do is adapt and catch what’s available.
It’s a fact that Joe Arch, from Cardiff, is internationally recognised as being one of the top match anglers in the world, and his friend Roy Tapper is undoubtedly one of the top shore anglers in Wales.
Both outstanding anglers, I’ve known them for around 25 years, so when I was invited to join them for a ray session at Witches Point, near Bridgend, I jumped at the chance because they are usually guaranteed to produce the goods.
We arrived at low water, planning to fish the full duration of the flood tide up to high water at midday, but as we walked over the high headland leading down to the actual point we could see conditions were far from perfect. The curse of “catching for the camera” had struck again. Some anglers would have cut their losses and either scuttled off home, retreated to the pub to wax lyrical about past exploits, or tried another venue less susceptible to such conditions. However, they decided to press on… ever the optimists!
You are no doubt wondering why conditions were far from perfect. Well, a light offshore wind (easterly or north-easterly here) is ideal along this stretch of the coast because it creates a flat sea and also helps anglers cast large baits a long way, which is perfect if targeting rays.
Unfortunately, we were greeted by a strong and bitingly-cold south-easterly that immediately knocked our confidence. Someone once described an easterly wind as being a ‘lazy wind’, which blows ‘through you’, rather than around you – they were right.
You can catch rays at Witches Point almost all year, but the main season starts around March and continues into the autumn. In addition to rays, which consist mostly of small-eyeds, along with thornbacks, spotteds and a few blondes, the other species include the dogfish, strap congers and small turbot.
RAY TACTICS
When seeking rays, you should bait up with blast-frozen sandeels. Fishing one on its own, or as a cocktail with squid, is a very effective bait, though other types of fish bait and crabs will also produce rays.
As always, Joe and Roy prepared their baits with a long-practised skill honed from countless hours on the beach. I watched as they meticulously trimmed and sliced their individual baits to just the right size and shape before carefully and neatly securing them in place with fine elastic. Joe’s rig was a fixed Pennell consisting of a 4ft-4ft 6in hooklength of 40lb Maxima Chameleon line terminating in a pair of size 1/0 Mustad BLN hooks. I suggested that many anglers typically use
much larger hooks for rays.
“Everyone thinks that you need larger hooks, but rays don’t have large mouths,” explained Joe. “You should always match your hooks to the size of baits you are using, and for the size of sandeels I’m using today, these hooks are perfect, and plenty strong enough to land a ray.”
Rays are plentiful during the day at Witches Point, especially early in the season, but night fishing is often the most productive. The problem with fishing this mark at night, though, is the amount of dogfish you might catch, which at times can border on the ridiculous. When the dogfish are around in big numbers they grab a bait in no time at all before any ray gets a chance. I can almost hear readers saying “Been there and done that”.
Roy was the first to catch, quickly landing a squirming dogfish that took his bait shortly after the flood tide started to push its way up the channel. Joe got the day’s second fish, another dogfish, and so it continued. During the course of the six hours we fished, both anglers were kept busy reeling in a constant succession of dogfish – I really don’t know what the final count was, but it was comfortably in excess of a couple of dozen.
Throughout the morning the bone-chilling wind not only persisted but got stronger, negating the efforts of the sun to provide some much-needed warmth, hardly conditions conducive for catching rays. Despite the conditions, we enjoyed a productive session, albeit catching the one species of fish that can be relied upon when all else fails. As I said before… been there, done that! ■