Our annual September visit to Anglesey coincided with some truly horrid weather this year – payback for a beautiful 2 weeks in July maybe. In fact it was so bad that our first nights sea fishing was cut short, the wind and associated weed was so bad that even huge leads couldn’t keep the baits in the water for any length of time. It doesn’t look it in the photo above but trust me, it was horrid.

Saturday, according to the weather forcast didn’t look so bad so we arrived about 2 hours before high water and made our way to the small ‘bay’ formed by the bend in the ‘river’ between Holy Island and Anglesey proper. There were a lot of anglers fishing the beach to our left but with the tide racing in and out on such a flat beach it can be a bit of a hassle moving all the time, and since we were on holiday, we wanted something easy.

Actually we always fish this spot – it’s been good to us in the past and once again it didn’t let us down. As normal there wasn’t much action during the flood and realistically the weed was a bit more of a problem than we anticipated but we wanted to get there early to get our favourite spot.

Once the tide started ebbing the weed vanished and fishing began in earnest. An hour into the ebb my rod gave the tell tail bend, which just kept going, and I struck into what was obviously a good fish. It put up a fair scrap in the surf but eventually a lovely female Small Eyed Ray was beached, weighed at 9lb 3oz, photographed and returned to fight another day.

Unfortunately that was the only fish of the weekend and once again the weather came down, making fishing impossible for the rest of our trip but after a few days on Anglesey even the weather can’t stress you out.

A wonderful island with great fishing which we will continue to visit as long as we are able, in fact we’re already planning next years visits.

Our final sea fishing trip to Anglesey this year coincided with what was hopefully to be a run of Small Eyed Rays feeding up in the shallows of Cymyran Bay ready for winter and although the weather forcaste looked a bit rubbish we still took every single piece of fishing gear we owned to make the most of our time on the island.

We arrived on the Island just after lunch after stopping off in Liverpool to get our POLSAF permits sorted so we can fish Liverpool docks, and after doing the normal ‘on arrival’ food shopping grabbed some bait from Valley Baits in the form of some Black Lug, Sandeel and Squid made our way to Cymyran Bay to have a quick sea fishing session for a couple of hours either side of high water.

Although the wind was fairly strong and blowing at us which is not ideal by any stretch of the imagination we still thought there may be a chance of a fish or two, and with a bit of surf running even into the ‘bay’ formed by the bend in the channel between Holy Island and Anglesey proper I set up two rods; one with small size 1 hooks baited with either strips of Squid or Black Lug for Bass and the other with a large 3/0 hooks baited with Sandeel for rays.

The weather managed to stay clear but the fish didn’t turn up until about 1½ hours into the ebb when the rod armed with the small hooks and baited with squid strip gave a violent jerk then a typical slack line bite, indicating a fish had picked up the bait and was running towards the beach. I quickly wound down into it thinking ‘only a small one’ until I managed to get it to the edge of the beach where suddenly it locked solid as the fish got caught in the backwash.

All you can do in this situation is hold on until the the wash brings it ever closer, then once beached make a grab for it, hopefully before another wave turns up. Thankfully Wendy was very adept at this and the first and only Small Eyed Ray of the session was landed – a lovely 7lb 8oz female which after a quick photograph was safely released.

It goes to show though – even a small hook can land a big fish and it’s worth noting that it’s always worth using good quality gear and strong hooks – the rig that caught this fish was only armed with Varivas Semi Circle hooks – size 1 but they certainly did the job even if the rig suffered by having a few of it’s beads shattered, easily fixed though. Typically the rod aimed at rays caught nothing…

The following day the weather was truly dismal so our next session was Sunday night, same place, same state of tide but this time into darkness.

The weather was a bit kinder with hardly any wind and we glad we got there early as the beach to the left of our chosen spot was packed with anglers. Apparently lots of rays had been caught off the flat beach on the ebb but fishing a tide down on a flat beach is tough, always having to cast at maximum range and move to follow the tide out then 10 minutes later do it all again as your bait is only in inches of water. Not my idea of fun and the little bay we were fishing in almost guaranteed a decent depth of water for a couple of hours after high water.

We had high hopes as darkness usually helps beach fishing but again only one Small Eyed Ray was landed, another female weighing 5lb 5oz, this time on a beefed up two hook rig armed with size 3/0 Varivas Semi Circle hooks baited with Sandeel about 2 hours into the ebb.

We also caught Whiting and a small Flounder but this was to be my weekend for catching Small Eyed Rays with non falling to Wendy’s rod although we were casting the same distance using the same baits and almost identical rigs.

Monday was even windier and forcaste rain so we decided against fishing although we did have a look at a mark called Lily Ponds which looks promising for the future but I’m not a big fan of fishing rocks in 25 mph wind and rain, fishing is great, but not great enough to take that sort of risk.

We left Anglesey on Tuesday after calling in at the Pilot House cafe at Penmon Point already talking about our return visit in the Spring of 2011. Not that we’re addicted you understand…

Rainbow over Penmon Lighthouse - right place, right time, not the best photo but lucky eh?

Plas Cymryan - Is this the most perfect place to live?

We spend the last weekend of September on Anglesey searching for Small Eyed Rays and any other denizens of the deep we could find.

Unfortunately no one told the fish that our reason for being on the island was to catch a few of them and the two times we ventured out we didn’t even have a bite – let alone manage to land anything of substance. As it was we weren’t that bothered, we just needed a little break before the mayhem that is the run up to Christmas and if you can’t relax on Anglesey there is something wrong with you.

Perfect bait placement - now where are the fish?

As well as trying at Cymryan we had a go for Bass in the inland sea, which is the large body of water separating Holy Island from Anglesey proper but the only fish we saw were a few small Bass or Mullet jumping wherever our baits weren’t.

So that’s it for Anglesey this year – we’ll be back chasing Bass in the spring but until then it’s eyes to the weather as we hope for a few winter storms to bring in the Cod up here in Lancashire.

Looking Across the Inland Sea Towards Holyhead

The weather forecast was great with occasional showers and a light wind blowing onto the beaches we intended to fish as we arrived for our final sea fishing trip to Anglesey this year. We were staying at Ty Cristion again and after unloading the car and settling in I made a quick phone call to Gareth of fishing4u.co.uk and we set off for a secret mark well known to the local lads for big Bass.

Unfortunately it must have been so secret the Bass failed to find us but we did manage to catch a couple of Silver Eels each – not the target species but at least we caught, and we were treated to a magnificent sunset looking towards Holyhead.

Cymyran Bay - A Fine Surf

Saturday – today was the day to get serious. The wind was blowing onto Cymyran Bay beach, behind RAF Valley and we arrived to see a perfect surf.

We both cast out some lugworm baits about 60-80 meters into the waves and the wait began. And we waited and then waited some more. We changed baits constantly and tried a few Ammo frozen Sandeels but the only thing making the rods move was the wind and the surf.

It was one of those situations where you know there must be fish there but a surf beach is a huge area for any fish to find your bait amongst all the other tasty morsels washed out of the sand.

Cymyran - A Fine Place to Live

Today the Bass just weren’t playing. It did give me a good excuse to take a couple of photos of the house right on the edge of beach. What a fantastic place to live!

After about an hour of no action Wendy suggested we move a little nearer to the house and fish into the bay formed on the bend of the river between Holy Island and Anglesey.

Small Eyed Ray from Cymyran

I’d seen a report on one of the fishing forums of a large ray being caught here the previous weekend although I wasn’t sure exactly where on the beach so a quick change of tactic followed.

To say this proved to be a good move would be a huge understatement. We were only casting our frozen Sandeels about 60 meters into the calmer water when after about 1/2 an hour Wendy started reeling in.

She went quiet – a sign something was up! Then the rod arched over as she brought to shore her first ever ray. It was a male Small Eyed Ray and went to the scales at 5lb 8oz. She then proceeded to repeat the feat with two more at 5lb 2oz (female) and a huge female fish of 8lb 10oz.

I was starting to get rather alarmed by now. Don’t get me wrong, I was happy for Wendy as all of our fishing is a team effort but now I wanted a fish, any fish.

And then it happened. The rod gave a little twitch, then another and then arced over as if it was never going to stop. I struck into the fish and knew instantly it was a big one.

And a Small Eyed Ray For Me

Rays don’t generally fight much but they are hard work to pull through a rolling surf. As soon as it sensed the shore it started to fight back but I wasn’t letting this go even if I had to jump into the sea after it.

Wendy helped me beach another beautiful female Small Eyed Ray which weighed in at an amazing 9lb 7oz.

We stayed for another half an hour but left as darkness fell. What a day!

The following day we intended to do a bit of rock fishing but the forecast was for rain so like madmen we went back to Cymyran.

The surf was a little higher and it rained almost constantly for 3 hours but this didn’t seem to deter the fish although it did test our waterproofs to (and past) the limit.

The tally for Sunday was; Me – 2 Smalled Eyed Rays (at 4lb 8oz and 6lb 10oz) and a couple of small flounder, Wendy – 1 Small Eyed Ray at 5lb 2oz and a small Plaice.

Another fantastic day – who says anglers are mad?

South Stack, Anglesey

Monday came far too quickly, it’s amazing just how quickly you can relax on Anglesey and we didn’t want to go home so we went up to South Stack.

We ended up staying there for a couple of hours; reading, watching the sea, having a stroll then having lunch.

A perfect way to end an amazing weekends sea fishing where Wendy caught her first ever Ray after 2 years of trying then proceeded to catch 3 more, and I caught my biggest ever (by a long way) shore caught fish. Anglesey – what an fantastic place.