Match no1, Colwyn Bay

Subject: Match no1, Colwyn Bay 25th May 2010, 9:27 pm

Venue-Colwyn Bay, date 23/05/2010
Forecast-wind light west northwesterlies, sunshine and warm.

Great forecast for the first match of the 2010 boat league but we still could only attract 12 anglers fishing off four boats,meeting at the slip next to Colwyn Bay pier for 8-00am the boats were promptly launched and we were on our way to our chosen marks for 8-30, the sea inshore was like a mirror, the only fly in the ointment was the only to obvious algae bloom, a lot worse than i had imagined.

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Match no1, Colwyn Bay Boatmatchno12010009

Lady M on her way at the start of the match.

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02B@C before the off, a few familiar faces on there.

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Hanna Lou just off the slipway.

Our plan was to fish close in against the Great Orme to try for the wrasse and pollock in the rough but on arrival confidence was not high with brown water and very low visibility but we had travelled here so we were going to give it a go, after about an hour trying different marks all we had to show for our efforts was dogfish.
We had given the Orme long enough so there is a bit of a wreck about a mile or so out that has produced good pouting, poor cod and other bits in the past, it is also supposed to hold some good conger but this is just hearsay, i have tried for them in the past fishing on Rosea without any joy. There is not a lot of the wreck that shows on the sounder, no more than a shadow on the screen and with us looking for this feature and going on the estimated position of the wreck on the plotter it was going to be difficult to find, we steamed onto the plotters position of the wreck and drifted the area with baited shrimp rigs, it was dabs and whiting soon as the gear hit bottom, i must say the water quality had improved a lot just being a mile or so out, Bob re-positioned Bass Hunter for another drift over some fresh ground only for similar results from the first drift apart from a couple of undersize codling, one more drift with similar results and we were off to fish the wreck of the Dublin about 11 miles from our present position, the wreck is broken up over a fairly large area, once located we drifted to check our track on the plotter after a couple of misses Bob had it sussed and he could position the boat for an almost perfect drift over the wreck. The fishing was not as productive as we had hoped but nevertheless we were catching fish with pollock and two species of gurnard coming aboard, we stayed in the area of this wreck for a few hours adding the odd species to our tally, we had a call on the vhf from one of the Rhyl charter skippers ( no prizes for guessing which one )saying that they were catching some good red gurnards up to specimen weight, as it happened the red was the remaing species of gurnard that we needed, he also said that herring and the odd scad as well as the usual species were being caught, this was enough for us to fire up the engine and head off in their direction, couldn't miss the charters really, there must have been eight of them grouped together in an area covering about a square mile, a combination of the Rhyl and Rhos charter fleet, we found a space and started our drift, a few minutes into the drift we started to pick up a few reds, undersize at first but it didn't take top long to get one to size, then Frank had the telltale bite or should i say vibration of a herring and sure enough two herring came onboard, this area also holds a few huss so for the first time today we decided to stick the hook down and out went various baits targeting huss and a few crab baits on the chance of a smutt to save us the trip over to Rhyl were they are prolific at the moment. We ended up giving this mark far to much time without taking the huss or smutt so the final plan for the day was to call at the Calcium wreck to pick up a poor cod on the way to the smutt mark off Rhyl, loads of poor cod on the calcium but try getting one to size, we were also taking a few pout but we had already taken them off the Dublin, we were fast running out of time and having to be back at the slipway for five it was now apparent that we would have to give the smoothie mark a miss we would just have enough time for a drift just off the new windfarm in the hope of picking up a plaice then a sprint for home, no plaice but a good quality dab which would secure us the heaviest flatty pool.

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Bob with a nice tub gurnard

Back at the slipway Lady M had a fairly good day catching twelve species which included a bass taken out of the murky waters off Llandulas which took the heaviest fish pool, their twelve species and 56 points was enough to win them the day, Bass Hunter was a close second with ten species and one specimen giving the crew 52 points, O2B@C took third with eight species giving them 42 points and Hanna Lou was fourth with five species and 32 points, young Lewis Brownson won the junior prize so well done Lewis.
Thanks to all who took part, i'm sure the fishing will improve and maybe we will have a few more boats at the next match in a fortnight.

Tightlines

Posts : 855 Join date : 2008-02-10 Location : Sunny Rhyl

We headed to the Little Orme at the start, also hoping for Wrasse but as Gary said, the water was far from ideal. We fished close in to the rock face for a while, where the only fish we had were undersize and not Wrasse.

We made a quick dart to try for a Bass, so with lovely crab baits on 3/0 pennels we dropped down and were into Dogs from the word go. This continued with no sign of a Bass but Adam and then I had a Common Smut each.
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Time for a drastic rethink, so we headed out past the windfarm and to a couple of marks off Rhyl where we had been told there were summer species starting to show including Herring and Launce.

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First stop was the Calcium, to find Simon anchored up on Suveran II, so we slotted in a couple of hundred yards away and fished there, hoping he would move on so we could jump on the wreck.

Sadly we got fed up with the micro Dabs and nuisance Whiting before he moved, although we did pick up a Tub here and a Codling that was just under size.

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The fishing was so repetitive that we decided to head further out to where the majority of the Rhyl boats were fishing and try for the other Gurnards and maybe a Huss.

The fishing was pretty similar here, with a few more Dogs coming aboard. We tried feathers and shimps for the Herring but apart from a couple of strings of Mackeral for Dan, we just got more Whiting on these. Adam did manage a Grey to add to our tally.

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We were half way through now, and another move was called for. Out we went to the Dublin, where Bass Hunter was fishing when we arrived. A few drifts later we had picked up a Poor Cod and Ad had managed a couple of Ling on a shrimp rig, one of just under 40cms and the other wasn’t far off at nearly 60cm.

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We stayed here for a while, while Bass Hunter headed off to where we had just come from, and we were soon joined by Lady M and Hannah Lou. Once we had our Pout, we had a drift away from the structure hoping to pick up a Red or a Huss but to no avail.

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Time was ticking on now, so we headed back to near the new windfarm to try for a Plaice and a Weever. That sadly didn’t pay off so next and final stop should have been the river mouth at Llandulas but on moving inshore we decided that there were unlikely to be any fish in the horrible brown slop we were going through so moved further out again beyond the algae and tried for a Weever for the last 45 minutes.

Sadly, it was time to head in before we got one, so after a bit of fun trying to get the boat out ( thanks Bob!!! ) we weighed in and it was time to head home for a beer.

It was a belting day, even though the fishing wasn’t fantastic. It was nice when the breeze got up around dinner time ( as forecast ) as this took the edge out of the sun, and I managed to smear enough suncream on me to stay unburnt.

See you all on the 6th June for the next one!

» Colwyn Bay match 23/10/21
» Winter match 4. Colwyn Bay. 28/02/09.
» Leg 9. The match that wasnt. Colwyn Bay.
» Winter match 1. Old Colwyn. 21/02/09
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