It started on Friday night with talk of what to do and where to go. Plan made, we promptly drank far too much and stumbled onto the moorings a bit later than we'd planned. We started by making the 19 mile trip over to Bardsey.
As you can see, the water was like a mill pond or "flat as a witches t*t" as we say in the Black Country.
As ever, we saw the puffins out and about as we neared the Isles of the Gulls off Aberdaron bay.
I'm still learning Bardsey, but the first drift was a beauty. We all hit into fish on lures and feathers. John had the best with a 3.5lb Pollack. However, by the second drift, we were already losing the tide. We moseyed around, North to South and back again, but we were reduced to scratching for bits really. We decided to move on to our planned second mark.
This time, the lure rods were to play second fiddle as we started to target the "angry fish". Down went the big baits and we were all into fish from the off. Colin was straight into a Huss, which spit the hook at the boat. John and I followed suit and had a Huss each - John's was a good double. Next drop I was pleased to get into the prime target; Tope. Not huge but at around 25lb, a good start.
Colin was in next, great fun on a 12-20lb class rod.
Again, it was a beautifully conditioned fish. I took a pic of it coming in ....
...... which was just as well, because I dropped it at the gunwhale
In the meantime, the big baits continued to produce some decent Huss. We also cast out much smaller Squid baits in the hope of some Bream. However, we couldn't get past the dogs on the day and eventually gave up.
Not long before the end, John also made contact with a Tope.
All too soon, it was time to head back ashore to punish our livers with more beer, red wine to wash down a most welcome takeaway.
it had been a good day. Surely Sunday couldn't be as good ....