Mid Grounds Thursday

[keana]

Locked out at 0900 and headed against the tide towards Newport and the English/Welsh Grounds. The forecast was for westerly winds force 4/5 decreasing to force 3 later. Dropped anchor at about 0945 in some 45ft of coffee coloured water, a couple of hundred metres from the edge of the sandbank. Armed with squid and mackerel, the first baits went down about 5 minutes after dropping anchor. Within a couple of minutes my Abu Suveran uptider started nodding and in came the first Thornback Ray weighing in at about 5-6 lb. Then a steady string of strap Congers in the 4-5 lb region started to plague us but at least we were catching fish. Then a rather vigorous tug on my rod indicated a much better fish. As I heaved into it I realised this was a bit bigger than the strap congers we`d been catching. Eventually after a good scrap, the fish making numerous `runs` and stripping yards of line from my reel, the fish appeared through the murky water. Another conger it was, but its staring, viscious looking eyes and the shaking of its rather large head, indicated that this double figure beauty wasnt about to be landed easily. How right that was to be, as its razor sharp teeth cut through my line as if it were cotton and swam back to its lair at the bottom of the channel. I seem to be losing a lot of congers this way lately so with that in mind, and the absence of any wire to make stronger traces, I opted for some 50lb mono for my hook length. in an attempt to arrest the disappearance of my 4/0 Vikings.
Onwards we fished, with Dave (Miffie), my fishing partner for the day, hauling in a small codling to go with our numerous dogfish and congers. Not bad though, we`ve only been fishing for a couple of hours and so far we have managed four different species, not that we were on a species hunt, but it all makes for interesting fishing.
The slack water over low tide slowed things down a bit with the chance now of making a brew. But the kettle falling to the deck and cups falling over told me that despite the forcasters assurances of decreasing winds, they had actually got it entirely wrong for the second time in a week for me and we were forced to return prematurely against a strong flooding tide and a wind that had increased to about force 6.
Bringing the Warrior 165 to a halt just inside the `North Cardiff`, we dropped anchor in the relative shelter of Penarth head. The obligatory dogfish started to come aboard, along with the fifth species of the day, a small whiting.
Just as we were about to pack up for the day, my uptider started nodding with some gusto. Not another dogfish thats for sure. It felt like another decent conger. Unfortunately, I didnt get to see it because though because even my 50lb breaking strain wasn`t enough to secure this beauty. Not that i`m saying the fish would have been over 50lb, but just stressing the need for some more secure wire hook lengths to try to bring a few of these elusive beasts to the scales.
We locked back in to the barrage at 16.45 after a thoroughly enjoyable day out in the channel.

[the boss]

sounds great, im dead jeolous mate.

[lazy hooker]

Cracking day out andy

john

[tommy a]

Well done chaps - conger bonking is just about my favourite fishing - but I always use wire hook lengths to get the buggers up. Get them to the surface, weigh them and let them thrash off down to their beds again - right good fishing and purely for the sport !!!!

[Fishing Forum Admin]

sounds great fun well done

[KKYum]

Originally Posted by keana

Locked out at 0900 and headed against the tide towards Newport and the English/Welsh Grounds. The forecast was for westerly winds force 4/5 decreasing to force 3 later. Dropped anchor at about 0945 in some 45ft of coffee coloured water, a couple of hundred metres from the edge of the sandbank. Armed with squid and mackerel, the first baits went down about 5 minutes after dropping anchor. Within a couple of minutes my Abu Suveran uptider started nodding and in came the first Thornback Ray weighing in at about 5-6 lb. Then a steady string of strap Congers in the 4-5 lb region started to plague us but at least we were catching fish. Then a rather vigorous tug on my rod indicated a much better fish. As I heaved into it I realised this was a bit bigger than the strap congers we`d been catching. Eventually after a good scrap, the fish making numerous `runs` and stripping yards of line from my reel, the fish appeared through the murky water. Another conger it was, but its staring, viscious looking eyes and the shaking of its rather large head, indicated that this double figure beauty wasnt about to be landed easily. How right that was to be, as its razor sharp teeth cut through my line as if it were cotton and swam back to its lair at the bottom of the channel. I seem to be losing a lot of congers this way lately so with that in mind, and the absence of any wire to make stronger traces, I opted for some 50lb mono for my hook length. in an attempt to arrest the disappearance of my 4/0 Vikings.
Onwards we fished, with Dave (Miffie), my fishing partner for the day, hauling in a small codling to go with our numerous dogfish and congers. Not bad though, we`ve only been fishing for a couple of hours and so far we have managed four different species, not that we were on a species hunt, but it all makes for interesting fishing.
The slack water over low tide slowed things down a bit with the chance now of making a brew. But the kettle falling to the deck and cups falling over told me that despite the forcasters assurances of decreasing winds, they had actually got it entirely wrong for the second time in a week for me and we were forced to return prematurely against a strong flooding tide and a wind that had increased to about force 6.
Bringing the Warrior 165 to a halt just inside the `North Cardiff`, we dropped anchor in the relative shelter of Penarth head. The obligatory dogfish started to come aboard, along with the fifth species of the day, a small whiting.
Just as we were about to pack up for the day, my uptider started nodding with some gusto. Not another dogfish thats for sure. It felt like another decent conger. Unfortunately, I didnt get to see it because though because even my 50lb breaking strain wasn`t enough to secure this beauty. Not that i`m saying the fish would have been over 50lb, but just stressing the need for some more secure wire hook lengths to try to bring a few of these elusive beasts to the scales.
We locked back in to the barrage at 16.45 after a thoroughly enjoyable day out in the channel.

Hi
I've been loosing quite a few decent conger recently on 50lb traces so last time I went out I upped to 100lb and typically didn't get a decent fish all day! Lost some really good ones off Mid Cardiff over the last month.
KKyum

[pingu]

sounds a great day out still

dave