Hunting for a big blonde in Wales

Today we are taking a trip with our Alan to Wales, have you got a fishing break booked? Alan is on the hunt for big blondes!

So, the time had come for Carl Golding and I to head to Wales after it was postponed last year due to the Covid lockdown. We were having doubts we would ever get there as; Carl’s car died the week leading up to our trip. The weather forecast was shocking for the first four days.

Having to slightly change our plans by reorganizing the pickup point to meet Carl. We finally got under way at 8.3oam bearing west towards The Bay Caravan Park at Lavernock, near Barry. Heading into high winds and heavy rain along the M4 we knew the Saturday evening tide would probably be a no go. We got settled into our chalet we booked for the next 7 days, first job was getting our baits into the freezer from our cool boxes; making sure we had the best baits ready to go.

Against the forecast, rain and wind dropping off, we grabbed our gear and headed to white light in search of a big blonde, what we found was snag heaven and the whole venue covered in angler’s litter, enough to fill a small skip! All we managed to catch was lost gear and a few small straps. It was nice just to get out and wet the lines despite lack of fish and the snags.

Steve Perry and Rob Stammer were ‘up for’ the Saturday night through to Sunday night, they did invite us to join them, but with weather forecast and being exhausted from the long day we passed on it and stayed in. As it happened the weather did totally the opposite and we could have joined them.

Sunday morning, we woke to driving rain and strong winds so again sat on our hands making sure everything was ready for a low water stint that night on the spit. Rigs of choice where 5-foot pulleys armed with 4/0 or 6/0 Cox and Rawle specimen extras. Baits of choice were either large sandeel or sandeel squid wrap.

The rain stopped and the wind eased, so we headed out and met up with Steve and Rob on the ledges waiting for tide to drop back. Carl and I did not walk too far along, Steve and Rob walked another few hundred meters. Second cast and I had a nice pull down resulting in a great 17lb3oz blonde, sadly that was only ray. Carl unfortunately never caught one, it was his target as never snagged one from the shore. As tide flooded in, we got pushed off, we had quick catch up with the others who were heading straight back home, they managed three blondes between them.

Monday morning was more rain and wind, but eased in time for a daylight hit on the spit again. This time with Dean Booker. Things looked good until the weed turned up and boy did it turn up, so we all ended up leaving with no rays on dead low. Carl and I headed to Friars for high water hit. Things were slow with wind howling over the top of us, then just before high I managed two small eyes of 6lb3ozs and 7lb9ozs that again was it, we saw no more rays and Carl’s blonde was still eluding him sadly as we headed home for a few hours kip.

Tuesday morning at 2 am we headed out to Ogmore deeps for an early hour high water session, after our first choice mark on Friars was already busy, again it was a tad windy. I was straight into the rays nabbing 4 to 6lb12ozs and Carl had a couple of good straps. But was not long till the wind pushed the waves hard against the rocks causing huge amounts of heavy spray covering everything, even me when having a phot taken.

With an hour till high water we knocked it on the head as it was getting a little dangerous. That evening saw us back on Friars for high water, as the low water marks were weeded up. Again, the spot was slow on the ray front until an hour after high when I latched onto a 13lb blonde, closely followed by Carl with his first ever blonde weighing at 7lb6ozs, so he was really happy.

Wednesday saw us at the spit for another go but weed was still there on mass so we headed straight for Ogmore. The wind had started to ease, so we hoped enough to calm the sea down. I managed 7 small eyes to 7lb6ozs, Carl managed a 5lb’er and a good-sized strap. All was going well until the tide started to rip through, full of weed and debris, an hour after high we had had enough.

We woke up Thursday with Carl not feeling very well, I said I would stay to make sure he was okay, but he insisted I went. Headed for Witches with hardly a breath of wind, it looked very good with a flat calm sea. Again, I was straight into fish, but as the tide flooded not only did a few anglers turn up but so did a huge swell. My target of the week was a double figure small eye, mid-way through my session I had a new pb at 10lb3ozs, I ended up with 9 small eyes before the swell forced me off the rocks at high water. When I got back to the chalet Carl had got worse, so I made the decision to come back to blighty early.

Hard week but still managed to find a few rays, I ended up with two blondes and 22 small eyes and a personal best. Carl ended up with his personal best blonde and one small eye. Such a shame Carl got ill as fishing picked up day on day as the week went on. I know if fished even better on the Friday tides but is what it is. I do know one thing fishing in Wales hauling rays up steep rock ledges by hand you need strong tackle up to the job. We will be back.