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October 2007

Blackpipe, Fri 5th Oct, High Tide 00.00 (15.0m) Mild N/NW
 
 The SWFF headed out for one of the biggest tides this year to Blackpipe at ST Brides hoping for some codling. The lads arrived 2 hours before high water with the exception of The Codfather who was doing his "turn up last minute" routine. The weather was good if a little cold and the lads arrived to find the venue packed to full capacity. First casts hit the water with just under 2 hours till top water.
 
The flood passed without much incodent, The Codfather turned up around an hour before high tide and Shane B did have one good bite but missed with the strike. The tides pull was very strong and a few crossed lines caused problems. The Codfather quickly set up and joined in the furious action or lack of it, more and more anglers were still turning up as Blackpipe was one of the only marks fishable on a tide this big in the area.
 
Into the ebb and CKK pulled in the first fish of the night, no bite or fight but a small pin whiting was attached to his rig after retrieving for a bait change. The next hour passed without any more bites and The Codfather had seen enough he packed up and headed for home. The lads fished on hoping for some form of miracle, just as it seemed all was lost Elpez2k managed to pull in the tiniest of whiting to save himself a blank too. That was to put an end to the nights fishing, the lads chatted to a few other anglers whilst they packed up and all things considered they hadn't had a bad night.
 
CKK - 1 Whiting
Elpez2k - 1 Whiting
Shane B - Blanked
The Codfather - Blanked
St Brides, Fri 12th Oct, High Tide 00.00 (0.0m) Mild S/SW
 
No report sorry.....
 
Shane B - 1 conger
Tackle Tart - 1 whiting
Sker point, Sun 21st Oct, Low tide 00.00 (0.0m), Mild N/NW
 

With some good reports of ray coming in on the WSF forums the SWFF took their first ever trip to Sker point. The lads left Newport in good time to fish the 2 hours down to low tide and a few hours back up. Problem was with little knowledge of the venue Elpez2k, Shane B and Wanner spent the first hour trying to decide where to park and in which direction to walk. In steps Andy H, an angling fanatic and hardcore match fisherman befriended by Shane B at St Brides back in the summer. Andy's given the SWFF lots of help this year and there’s no doubt both Elpez2k and Shane B owed their smooth hound catches to this man. Anyway after a quick call Andy steered the SWFF in the right direction and it wasn't long before the lads were taking the long walk to the point. By the time the SWFF had reached the point it was dark and it took another half hour for the lads to find a suitable place to fish. Eventually first casts were made with just under half hour until low water.

 

Despite the initial screw up the fishing kicked off straight away, and Elpez2k had a bite within 5 minutes of casting. The bite was missed but another came along within minutes both for Elpez2k and Wanner. A whiting of around 8oz was the culprit for Elpez2k's bite. Wanners was another whiting slightly smaller but accompanied by a small pouting. The swell coming of the sea was making life uncomfortable for the lads and time was of the essence, it wouldn’t be long before they would have to retreat and eventually call it a night.

 

The fishing though continued and so did the bites, before long Elpez2k pulled in a dogfish again closely followed by Wanner also catching dog. Elpez2k soon added a 2nd dogfish to his tally, the fishing here was keeping the lads on their feet and only Shane b was yet to catch. This was soon rectified as he pulled in a whiting closely followed by a hand sized small eyed ray. The state of the sea was now forcing the lads back up the point and making the fishing a little trickier. Still another dogfish for Wanner and one for Shane B made it a productive night for only a few hours fishing.

 
Elpez2k - 2 Dogfish, 1 whiting
Shane B -  1 Dogfish, 1 Whiting, 1 Small eyed ray
Wanner - 1 whiting, 1 pouting, 2 dogfish

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Sudbrook, Wed 24 oct, High Tide 00.00 (0.0m),
 

With the possibility of cod, the SWFF finally saw the awaited return of Buzzsaw .The boys arrived at the car park only to see a few cars parked already this didn’t look good for our duo, nevertheless they got suited and booted and headed over to the ledges, on arriving the whole area was packed, so the lads opted for the far right side of the ledges.

 

First casts were made with black lug and confidence was quietly high, high water approached so Shane B sent out a fish bait for a late conger which did result in a small bite but the culprit was probably a pin whiting. Another 30 minutes passed and saw Shane B back on the cod baits, suddenly the Saw shouts I'm in and proceeds to beach a quality flounder of roughly a pound and a half, the Saw was now buzzing, and quickly rebaited and cast again. This had Shane B in a quandary, stick it out with the cod fishing or switch to a light rig and drop on the inside line for a small fish to evade the dines, this move paid off and 2 minutes after he was unhooking a late silver ell around 12 oz.

 

The boys to our left had started getting a few codling but none for the lads, so with the tide now gone they called it a night, Buzzsaws enthusiasm was back and he’s asking about next weeks fishing.


Buzzsaw  1 Flounder
Shane B  1 Silver eel

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Langland Bay, Sat 27th Oct, Low Tide 02.05 (0.0m) Str S/SW
 

Elpez2k, Wanner and The Codfather headed out on the last night of summer hoping to hit some late bass. The Codfather has been desperate for a bass after a 2 year drought, and some prime peeler was acquired in preparation of a trip west. The lads set off late from Newport, the low water time was early hours and the lads still arrived around 3.5 hours before low water. The tide was a spring and they knew it was going to be hard work fishing a relatively unknown beach. Still the lads set up and first casts were made around 11.pm.

 

The fishing didn't start well, there was very little rip from the tide but the wind was very strong and the clatter of rod rest going over could be heard from the start. The first round of casts resulted in 2 massive clumps of sea weed for Elpez2k and Wanner while The Codfather escaped the weed but reeled in with no fish or bait on his hook. The tides was retreating down the beach at such a pace that 15 - 20 minutes would see your rig washed up on the shore line, so the re-baiting and casting process was a quick affair and kept the lads busy.

 

The lads fished down to around 2 hours before low when Wanner and Elpez2k noticed the area they were fishing was very shallow and snaggy. They decided to move to the left-hand side and try and make the most of a night that was quickly turning sour. The left side was far better and both Elpez2k and Wanner were kicking themselves that they hadn't taken the extra 5 minutes walk at the start. As the lads were setting back up The Codfather finally had a good bite, a quick strike but the fish had already given him a slack liner. Chaos reigned as he tried to reel in the slack line wrapped around his tripod, only to find the fish was gone by the time he had untangled himself.

 

The fishing continued but only one other bite was to occur, Elpez2k was to receive it using some flattie tactics but no fish at the end of the line to leave the lads fishless with around an hour till low tide. The Codfather gave up after loosing yet another rig and took a box snooze. Elpez2k and Wanner fished on until low water battling to see who could land the biggest ball of seaweed. Elpez2k was in the lead with a cracking 20lb specimen until Wanner dragged in a real monster around 10 yards from being beached Wanners multiplier and its reel seat parted company, leaving the lads to play tug of war with the remaining line only to land a clump of seaweed the size of the monkey on Mumbles pier. With that the lads headed home around 4 - 5am none of them knew  exactly as the clock change had happened sometime that night, probably around the same time as the lads regaining sanity and thinking "what the f**k are we doing here"...

 

Elpez2k - Blanked
Wanner - Blanked
The Codfather - Blanked

Mumbles, Sun 28th oct, High Tide 08.40 (14.0m) Mod S/SW

 

Shane B and Wanner decided to give the Mumbles pier a bash they were not disappointed. First cast and Wayne is into a doggy quickly followed by another, meanwhile Shane B looked on as his tips were lifeless but he was confident of the sport improving as the run died off and low water approached.

 

As predicted it was relatively quiet till around the last hour of the ebb when Shane B hits into his first pollack of the day around a pound very welcome. Next Shane B hits a late season mackerel on squid strip followed by a small pouting then another pollack this time a pound and a half. The pouting start to come thick and fast now around 20 odd pout later, Wanner hits into a nice bite, to his surprise he’s got a codling of around 7oz things were looking good. Next was Shane B with a small school bass of around half a pound followed by some stunning pollack, some well over 2lb then a small ballan wrasse. Wayne was now into the pouting, Then Shane B hits into a new species which seemed to resemble a shad of some description, followed by Wanner with a double hit of the same.

 

The next 2 hours saw the boys hit into more tidy pollack 2 good wrasse and another late mackerel, plus another shad, all in all a good day for both.

Wanner - 2 Dogfish, 2 Pollack, 1 Codling, 3 Shad, 10 Pouting, 1 Ballan wrasse.
Shane B -   9 Pollack, 31 Pouting, 1 Bass, 2 Mackeral, 1 Shad, 3 Ballan wrasse.

Cold Knap, Tues 30th Oct, High Tide 12.00 (0.0m) Light W
 

The SWFF headed out hoping to get some action at Ogmore deeps, some good reports had been coming in with late ray and good sized conger showing. Shane B and Buzzsaw left earlier than Elpez2k, Wanner and CKK and as Elpez2k and his mob approached junction 35 they had a phone call to say the deeps were packed. The lads diverted and met up with Shane B and Buzzsaw at Porthcawl only to find the pier and sea wall packed at old Iya-But-Bay. The lads took the short drive to Hutchwyns point, then Rest bay but none of these marks seemed inviting in strong westerly winds. In the end the lads bit the bullet and headed back to Cold Knap, the whole saga had been too much for Buzzsaw and he headed home. Elpez2k stopped on the way into Barry to get sausages for the bbq, outside the shop the lads witnessed an extremely entertaining bitch fight that went on for several minutes.

 

The lads arrived at Cold Knap with around 45 minutes until high tide; they quickly set up on the left-hand side of the beach. First casts hit the water around 30 minutes before high water and the action started quickly. Within 10 minutes of casting Elpez2k missed a clonker of a bite, Shane B followed up 5 minutes later with a good knock resulting in a conger of 4.5lb. Meanwhile CKK had landed the first whiting of the night and Wanner had also missed a bite. The fishing continued up till high tide with the odd bite for most of the SWFF and another pin whiting for CKK. Elpez2k unpacked the bqq and the now famous SWFF hotdogs were unpacked ready for cooking.

 

High tide and the action picked up a little just as Elpez2k put the hotdogs on the bbq. CKK had a monster of bite that led to a glorious battle. As the fight continued Elpez2k landed his first fish of the night, a smallish doggie being the culprit. Just as Elpez2k landed his fish CKK could be heard shouting in the distance for assistance. Wanner run to his aid quickly followed by Elpez2k, led there in the surf was a stunning small eyed ray. The fish was quickly weighed and just tipped the 10lb mark on Elpez2k's scales, the lads decided to confirm the weight with Wanners scales only to find it weighed just over 9lb. CKK's scales were unpacked and showed a reading of 9.5lb. Now this may seem a lot of fuss but Shane B set a challenge of a double figure fish for the SWFF at the start of the year, the lads decided to go for an average over the 3 weights and gave CKK 9lb10oz just short of the challenge but a new biggest fish of the year and a fine specimen. Next problem was Elpez2k's dodgy camera, in the end only phone pics were taken before the fish was released to fight another day. While all this had been going on Elpez2k's legendary SWFF hotdogs had suffered 80% burns due to a dodgy turn over by Shane B. Elpez2k quickly performed surgery and removed as much of the carbon deposit as possible but 2 maybe 3 sausages lost their lives.

 

The next 2 hours provided the SWFF with the odd whiting or dogfish. Some slightly charcoaled hotdogs were consumed, but even Wanner only managed one. Just after midnight and the lads decided to call it a night and head for home. A good night despite the way it started and a new biggest fish and PB for CKK.

 

CKK - 4 whiting, 1 dogfish, 1 small eyed ray
Shane B -  1 conger eel,  2 whiting, 1 dogfish
Wanner - 2 whiting, 1 dogfish
Elpez2k - 1 dogfish

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