Found Some….

The featured image this week is someone taking a selfie of his ray, full tripod on timer on the end of Sker Point. If you are looking at this on your phone or haven’t clicked on the title Joe will still be casting in the sunset.

Sker

And before you think it, no it isn’t the same fish in every photo.. I even cracked a smile in one or two.

 

I got chatting to a lad at work and he happened to mention he does a but of sea fishing. To cut a long story short a few weeks later at Darren’s suggestion we agreed to meet at Sker Point in Porthcawl.

Park by the golf club car park, £3 for the full day but you cannot get in until 7 am as there is a barrier to stop motorhomes finding a free sleepover for the night.

As usual it is a fair walk, distance wise, however right up to the point it is all well maintained concrete and boardwalks. I got there a bit before Darren and picked my way out to the end across the jumble of carboniferous limestone which has rested there since the Silurian period.

The marks on the end were already taken so I set up facing back towards the bay and managed to get two baits in the water before Darren arrived with some Peelers he had picked up the day before.

I had hoped for Rays for which I would have been perfectly happy with  squid , sandeel  and mackerel but as there was a chance of hounds I asked him to get me a dozen.

It was not long before the start of a constant trickle of bites lasting most of the day. First fish was a smalleyed ray on squid mounted on a pennel pulley rig.

Darren landed a strap conger that destroyed the two hook flapper rig as it would its way round and up the line. He did not seem best please with the snotty little bait thief and was glad to get it off the line and back in the water.

Not long after the turn of the tide a had a second run, not much of a run really just a few short clicks before I picked the rod up and wound down to another smalleyed ray, much the same as the first one.

The Point at Sker is a low water mark and as the tide turned I looked the other anglers who were more familiar with the mark for advice. I haven’t fished here since 2011 and did not fancy my chances of outrunning the surging tide over the sharp pinnacles and plunging holes. As the first of the waves crested the rocks in front of us we moved to higher ground further inland.

During the short walk up I saw a little butterfly size ray being landed and just looked for a spot flat enough to stand and cast from, easy access to the water for landing and high enough not to get swamped by a rogue wave. Ah well two out of three will have to do.

We were into fish from the first cast and the rays kept coming.

I think I found a channel or gulley at distance as every cast for the first couple of hours resulted in a fish or a fuck up and I lost count of the bites I missed and the fish I landed.

I was not feeling much love for the peelers and although they were good crab they did not seem as appealing to the rays a a fish bait.

After several strap congers Darren hooked into  a better fish which kited around the rocks before he landed it. Finally the crab had given a result.

I had a strange shy bite which I waited to develop, but it did not it just sat there and shivered. Whatever it was did not have any more time and I lost patients and struck in to it causing a massive hoop in the rod. It felt a massive weight and slowly it shifted, hanging deep right up to the submerged rock ledges in front of us. It turned out just to be a Thornback and I can only guess that it had laid on the bait and buried itself in the sand.

I had a few more misses and a few more smalleyed rays and another small thornback but no monsters. Just after highwater it went quiet, it was then time to pack up and fek of home for a Sunday Roast.