We packed up at 3.15pm & got back to the berth by 4.15pm right on time for his mother & father & sister waiting for him in the marina (fully expecting him to be green & miserable) instead they found him fit & well with a bag of fish for the frying pan.

The locks in Swansea Marina were closed for maintenance so I took the chance of heading up to Cardiff aboard Lady Jue. The trip was just my self and Nigel Ellerton along with boat skipper Rob, the weather forecast as poor with ENE winds gusting 20mph plus. The main objective was to get out there and have a few hours relaxing fishing. We boarded The Lady at 7am and headed straight over to Aberthaw as the shore offered plenty of shelter, even so we had plenty of wind chill so Rob kept our spirits high with plenty of hot tea and sausage sandwiches.

As the day progressed we headed up to finish the day off Sully. I thought I'd had a nice big blonde ray but turned out it was another thornback which was punching above its weight.

 

Cod comp 4 Jan 2015

Along with many other Swansea based boat fishermen, the week or so running up to the cod comp was spent watching pressure charts and differing forecasts trying to predict if the comp was likely to go ahead or not, so the necessary bait and tackle can be sorted.

Thankfully the forecast was good enough for the comp to go ahead, 6:40am Sunday saw me arrive at the boat to find everyone had already arrived and set up, all that was left was to slip the ropes and join the flotilla of boats ready to exit the Tawe lock. 

Still dark we crept up through the pier heads and followed the stream of 'Running Lights' heading South East towards Sker. I'd hoped to fish on top of a lump of rock that often yields a few codling and large numbers of smooth hounds in the summer, but found it was already occupied. I searched around to try and get on another feature further up the line but that was also taken.

I had to fall back on fishing a little way off the rock in a small gully that runs along with the tide. After a few dog fish we Saw the first few codling of the day, mainly small but a good sign. Paul and Nigel picked up a few fish that were over 3lb so at least we had something worth weighing.

As the tide strength weakened the fishing slowed up with only doggies taking the worm baits. Unfortunately we'd had problems with the cooker all morning, I finally got it working around slack water, teas were welcomed and sausage sandwiches more so by the near frozen crew on the port side of the boat.

When the tide turned, my side got the cold easterly wind - with not many fish of any type coming on the flood, the cooker again giving up the ghost and swell and chop combining making it pretty sloppy. The next few hours were pretty bleak.

I decided we'd call it a day around 4pm, which was welcomed by all; this meant we'd make it back with plenty of time to clean down and make the weigh in also would mean we'd be able to travel at 17-18kts in day light instead of 10 or so once it got dark.

A few of us attended the weigh in, it was nice to see all the prizes satisfied. From talking to a few people it was clear most fared fairly similarly to us with a few codling in the morning, then a pretty slow afternoon. We ended the day with 10 codling, biggest being 3lb 8oz caught by Paul Eaton, this got him 18th place. Not exactly the nicest day to be afloat but glad we got something in the prizes!