ANGLING ADVENTURES
Hooray! It’s the New Year and time to celebrate…by going fishing
The team become 24-hour fishing people
With bells ringing in the New Year, I avoided the party animals and instead got my first fishing trip of 2020 underway. Yes, as fireworks lit up the skies and others celebrated, I was itching to get out and wet a line after what seemed a very long Christmas break.
Within half-an-hour of midnight, I set off to Exeter to join Gav Cuthbertson for a journey to South Wales, where, at about 2.30am, we met our Sea Angling Adventures’ colleagues Gethyn Durham and Matt Herring.
Thankfully, this being very early morning and New Year’s Day, the roads were empty.
“The plan was to travel light because there would be a bit of a hike to get to the actual fishing mark. Several hours later... we started to head up a mountain”
From the rendezvous point, we would then head to the west coast of the Principality, where we’d fish for bull huss and pollack. The plan was to travel light because there would be a bit of a hike to get to the actual fishing mark.
Several hours later we reached a car park where we stretched our legs, unloaded our gear and started to head up a mountain. Honestly, the walk seemed to go on forever. After an hour or so of walking up and then down we reached our destination.
DEEP WATER
Strong tackle and rotten-bottom rigs were required because the ground could be quite snaggy. A few extra lead weights were needed too, as we would lose a few to the broken ground.
My choice was a pair of Century T900 rods matched with Daiwa Saltiga reels loaded with 25lb mainline, while Gav had gone a step up with a pair of T1000 rods and Saltiga reels loaded with 25lb breaking strain Asso Bulletproof line and 100lb shock-leaders to cope with the conditions.
It was around low water and the sea was flat, which was helpful because we were very close to the water level. Gethyn confirmed that the venue could only be fished in flat seas because the swells get very big and can be very dangerous at times. As we set up our rods, I noticed a few anglers descending the cliff tops to our left. Obviously, others had the same idea of an early-morning New Year start. We weren’t the only ones crazy enough to walk for an hour or so in the cold just to wet a line.
When I cast out, my lead weight just kept sinking and sinking. I’ve fished some deep marks back home in Devon, but this seemed to be a lot deeper.
Things were slow for a few hours until the tide started to flood. We hoped the pollack would find our whole squid baits fished on pulley rigs with rotten bottoms. As I chatted to Gav and Gethyn about the area, Matt seemed to be ignoring the conversation and instead was watching his rod tip. For good reason, because his rod tip slammed over and dropped into slack line. Matt lifted his rod and started to gain line on his reel. Fish on! After a short battle Matt landed a pollack of around 2-3lb, a great start.
As Matt released the pollack into the sea to fight another day, we hoped for more action, but the fishing was really slow for the rest of the daylight hours, with little or no sign of any fish activity in front of us.
As darkness approached, the bites started from numerous dogfish. Our long journey to Devon was turning into our worst nightmare because these bait robbers were the last species we wanted to see. There was no option but to fish through the pesky dogfish, hoping that the bull huss or pollack would get to our baits before another dogfish. Sadly, neither of these species turned up for myself or Gav.
However, just as we decided to admit defeat and call it a night, Gethyn’s rod tip bent over. He jumped up, lifted the rod and began to retrieve line before hitting into the fish. With that, the tip of his T1000 buckled over. As he lifted the fish up through the rougher ground, we all directed our headlights on the water and were soon rewarded as the beams highlighted a huss of around 8-9lb coming towards us.
After a quick photograph, Gethyn released the fish and we watched it dive straight into the dark depths. That was the last fish of the night. Even though it was not the trip we had aimed for, it was a great day out with fantastic company at a new location.
Tiredness started to kick in during our long walk back to the car. It was around midnight when we arrived at Gethyn’s home in South Wales. After about 24 hours on the go, we still had a two-hour drive back to Devon ahead of us, so we decided to get our heads down in the wagon for a few hours before setting off.
Feeling a bit fitter for the drive, we were already looking forward to hitting the coastline once again for another adventure. It’s being there that matters. ■
“Just as we decided to admit defeat and call it a night, Gethyn’s rod tip bent over. He jumped up, lifted the rod and began to retrieve line before hitting into the fish”