ANGLING ADVENTURES
A friendly fishing challenge to catch the best specimen started badly for the English contingent, but among their ranks was the best ray angler in the country
so secret weapon saves the day.
Every year, normally in November, I look forward to venturing to South Wales to target a few rays. It remains a fixture on my calendar because the fishing can be really prolific. Yes, I’ve had some very memorable sessions, but none would compare to my 2019 visit.
A month earlier, the Sea Angling Adventures team had formed the SAA Sea Angling Club, which consisted of those of us who enjoy the specimen hunting side of the sport. It is a small group, limited to 20 members, most of whom are based in the South West, with a few from South Wales, East Yorkshire and the Portsmouth area.
It’s our vehicle to stage events and competitions among ourselves, such as going head-to-head to catch the single best specimen and best of two species.
The trip to South Wales seemed a good time to stage one of these competitions, with the build-up to our trip prompting plenty of banter between the English and Welsh lads in the club. No-one wants to get beaten on home territory.
RAY HUNT
I planned to fish a venue known as
Witches Point, near Southerndown, over high water on the
Friday night, where my target would be small-eyed rays, before heading off to Stout Point, a low water mark near
Llantwit Major, to target a blonde ray.
With high water around 9pm that night, it meant we would be fishing through the night and then meeting up with the other club members for a lowwater session on Saturday afternoon. Joining me for the car ride were Rob Yorke and Gav Cuthbertson. We would meet Kane Hyden from South Wales, while Adam Slack was driving up after work that afternoon. Joining us at Witches Point was Nick Tompson, from Preston, who had entered a Hooker’s Bait event and won a raffle prize of a fishing outing with the SAA team.
Arriving at the Witches Point car park around 2pm, we met Nick and made our way to our chosen part of the mark. The venue can be very dangerous to fish due to the potential of swells and the fact we were fishing from height. Care must be always taken when fishing this area.
By the time we’d set up our gear, Kane Hyden had joined us. Our match was due to start at 6pm and end at 10pm. With a few hours before our match started, we cast out our baits knowing nothing would count until 6pm. Things began slowly, but Nick got the ball rolling with a 2lb dogfish. Eight minutes before our match started, my rod tip went over and I landed a 6lb 6oz small-eyed ray. With one ray caught so far down in the tide, we were hopeful of catching a few more.
Sadly, between 6pm and 10pm we were rewarded with only a dogfish each cast. After packing up and getting back to the car park we said farewell to Nick.
ROCKY PERIL
The next venue would be fished over low water, and I’d had some awesome fishing sessions here. It involved climbing down from a clifftop and wading around rocks to get to a pebble beach, where we would target blonde rays over rough ground.
After waiting for the tide to ebb enough for us to wade, I went first and eventually climbed up on a large rocky outcrop so the lads could pass up the gear. Next was Kane, who handed me his rods and started to climb up a steep part of the rocks. He seemed to know what he was doing, but as he got to the point of having to reach his arms across to pull himself up, he fell off the rock.
Luckily, Kane turned his body in mid-air and landed arms first into the water and only hurt his knee. He got off lightly. It could have been much worse, and was a lesson learned for us all. Accidents do happen, even when you know your surroundings.
Kane and the other lads soon followed me and we spread out along the beach ready to fish for blonde rays. After fishing for nearly four hours, we could not find a single one. Within seconds of casting out, the dogfish were on our baits and gave the rays no chance. At around 3.30am we gave up and headed back to the accommodation for only five hours sleep.
OFF TO SULLY
After breakfast next morning, we headed off to meet Matt Herring, Gethyn Durham and the rest of the lads who’d spent the night on the rocks. Matt had caught a 9lb 10oz small-eyed ray and was leading our match.
Things were not looking good for the English and we had to do something to change that!
The final session of the match would see us head to Sully, a new venue for me, to fish a sandy beach for rays. With tackle boxes on our backs and rod bags over our shoulders, we headed down to the beach to find 15 other anglers all waiting for the tide. Soon we were walking out to the sand bar, not knowing where we were going. It was a case of using our heads and trying to read the flat water.
It was clear that everyone wanted to be as far to the right as possible, but that meant we would be further away from the tide line which dropped off around 120 yards in front of us.
I set up my gear and attached pulley rigs with size 7/0 Cox & Rawle Uptide Extra hooks, then attached some squid and sent it out to sea. After seeing a local lad catch an 8lb cod, I sat chatting to the lads and noticed my rod tip arch over. A ray was on my bait. Soon I retrieved a small blonde ray of 10lb to put me in second place in the event, but still not enough to save the English blushes.
RENEWED HOPE
As the tide ebbed down to low water, we needed a blonde ray of around 14lb to seal the deal. Once the tide changed, it pushed hard and gave renewed hope that one of us would catch a fish. As I stood talking, I heard a shout and turned to see Rob with his Century T900 tip buckled over. Fish on… and a good one!
In my opinion, Rob, who has caught three blondes over 25lb from the shore, including a personal best of 29lb to his name, is the best ray angler in the country.
As Rob eased the fish off the seabed, the other the lads waded towards it. Earlier, some
of them had been hitting line snags from long-lost rigs and that could cause a problem if Rob’s fish hugged the bottom. Thankfully, Adam managed to grab it when the ray approached the shoreline.
I could see it was a very special fish, and this was confirmed when it took the scales over the 20lb mark and settled at 23lb 6oz. Any blonde ray weighing more than 20lb caught within the Bristol Channel is a very special fish. It was the second 20lb-plus blonde the SAA team had caught for the camera.
Rob had done it and smashed the event with a specimen rating of 194.87 per cent. The English team’s not-so secret weapon had turned the tables. It was handshakes all round for Rob. Just to witness a fish like that is a very magical moment.
Back at our cars we held our presentation awards and said our farewells. It had been a fantastic weekend and it just goes to show what the coastline of South Wales has to offer for a ray fishing angler. ■
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