11/4 @ Penarth

[keana]

Weekends seem to be impossible to find time for fishing these days so I looked on the BBC weather centres 5 day forecast last week to check out a suitable day for going out in the boat midweek. Out of all the days, tuesday (yesterday) looked best. So booked myself a day off work, went and dug some quality King Rag, got the boat fuelled up and shipshape ready to go. Checked the forecast the day before, light westerly winds with the possibility of rain. Turned off the computer and rubbed my hands together as if to congratulate myself on picking the right day to take off. Opened the curtains on tuesday morning to find the tops of the trees at the end of my garden bent over almost touching the trunk of the one next to it. The wind was SSW Force 5-6 gusting to 7 and judging by the clouds, rain was iminent. I sometimes cant believe these people in the met office actually get paid for predicting(guessing)the long range weather. It is rarely correct and i`m beginning to treat it with some trepidation.
Just as well I didnt throw my beachcaster away when I bought the boat. Although it was only low tide at midday, I wasnt going to waste my day off and set off for the Ranny armed with 2x beachcasters and my luverly King rag, oh and some black lug that I froze after some kind gents had given it to me as they wound up their last session a few weeks ago.
I ended up fishing about 4 hours of the flood tide from low tide up. First knock came after about an hour and a small codling appeared on the beach. Missed a couple of knocks then (small stuff just grabbing a piece of loose worm I think and dragging it) until another small codling decided to commit suicide and was lifeless by the time i`d reeled in not even knowing it was on there. That was it really. I had bought a fivers worth of rag to supplement what i`d dug and used that on my other rod but didnt even have a knock of any description on that stuff. It must have been that crappy farmed stuff that they charge the same price for. Anyway, I gave what was left to a young lad who had just set up next to me on the beach. He was saying that he has been catching codling to 3-4 lb on Sully island and would have been there but for the wind. Another guy reckoned the Friars and Nells points in Barry were producing the same but he wasnt there because of the weather too.
Well my 2 codling will be that much bigger when someone else catches them again in the future. Quite a disapointing session again but at least I didnt blank and it was quite enjoyable just to be on the beach again even if it did chuck it down for most of the day.