A Few Days West.

Just arrived back from a few days family holiday in Pembrokeshire, (with a spot of fishing of course), as usual conditions were not that good, but a few fish were caught and a great time was had & that is what counts so all in all it was a great week.

First trip out I met up with Simon & Jeff Clapham who both fish the local area alot, as well as Rhod who is gradually getting infected with the bass plugging bug. Conditions seemed reasonable other than a grayish water (a colour I don't like at all for plugging), the four of us gave it several hours and managed to blank on a mark that had been producing fish in numbers the previous week.

Not too bad but no fish showed.

The following morning I tried the same mark with Rhod with the same result (although the water colour was better). Next day I tried a different mark for a couple of hours and the fish finally showed and I managed 5 fish to 47cm, which was a confidence boost after the previous two days (needless to say).

This schoolie took a Feed Shallow.

No great size but great fun!

Now knowing where the fish were to be found, I set out to the same mark the next day with Hywell, Simon & Jeff (who I had told about this mark before but they had never fished). We knew it would be a short session as you only get about 2 hours before the tide pushes you off the rocks. The fishing was good again - Hywell caught schoolie as I did (at 38cm) - Simon managed a 47cm and a 58cm fish (so we were quite happy).

A dirty car helped as mobile coverage was very patchy ;)

Simon & schoolie.

Plenty of laughs were had.

Jeff with a fine rock caught bass.

Hywell & Jeff outside the mystery machine!

Next day I met up with Steve "hound Dog" Payne & Mark (Tide Dale), and we decided to fish a reef mark but conditions were way too calm and clear and I was blessed with yet another blank!

Way too calm & clear (but pretty).

Early next morning I winkled a small fish out from the edge of a surf beach with a topper (thanks to the advice of a nine year old kid I had seen fishing the surf the previous evening lol).
Not to be beaten I headed to a low water mark the low tide to find the clearest water I have ever seen in Wales so I wasn't hopeful. A Z-Claw fished slowly over the kelp managed to draw the fish out, and I ended up catching 4 fish to 49cm!

Beautifully coloured rock caught bass.

The Z-Claw did the trick in gin clear water.

Following a family day out (with a quick evening session which produced a schoolie), I headed to the mark we had been blanking on to find Simon there kitting up for a skishing session (find out more about skishing at http://www.jerseybassguides.com/ )........ I must admit its the first time I have ever seen someone pouring anti-freeze down by the wedding tackle to get a wet-suit on (much to my amusement). I blanked from the rocks for an hour or so and left but Simon managed 4 fish!

A surprise meet!

Simon covering the outer reef.

Oi get out of my way diver boy!

Fish on (?)

Who's catching who?

True to form the last days weather was awful and the marks that had been clear were very dirty & 2 schoolies were all I managed (the only 2 casts that I didnt have a lure covered in weed!).

Also found a gill net while there (very professionally laid out on the point between Broad Haven and Settlands Bay - I was under the impression that both ends of a net must be clearly marked with name address and telephone number (this one wasn't), fortunately for the netter I didn't have a knife with me (or I would have cut his anchoring rope).

A well laid gill net.

This net must have been 100 yards+ !

To sum up, I had about 14 or 15 fish in 7 sessions (although some of the trips were quite short). Had a great time (well the fishing could have been better but it was a family holiday so I probably got the balance about right.

Looking ahead to next week I hope to fish the Gower coast with Jeff & maybe get a quick trip in to Dorset (time permitting), so keep an eye on this space.....

Thanks for reading and tight lines to all.