Tywyn for tope

[johnlegg]

Just spent a great weekend camping at Tywyn.
Arrived Friday night just a little behind Marc at Ynysymaengwyn Caravan and Camping Park. Very nice facilities, I’d highly recommend it.
While I was putting up the family mansion, aka big tent, Marc headed off for a little recon of the area coming back as the sun set with his bait for the following morning having had a fun couple of hours hitting the whiting and mackerel about half a mile off shore.

Saturday morning Martin, Marc and I set of to fish the up tide 8 till 12.30.
We headed from Tywyn to the reef (3 miles) and anchored in a channel that looked promising. But it was over an hour before Martin and I caught our bait. (Thanks Marc for offering to share your mack). With the bait caught I set my tope rig and just 10 minutes later one hit. I had him on for a very exciting 10 minutes (much more fun off a yak than a boat) before he won the fight by pulling the wire trace apart. I was gutted. As Marc said in his post he hit 2 and lost them.

I consoled myself after that with Black Bream and listening to Martins screams as he lost his rod over the side for a dog.

We headed back to tell our tales of woe, and Marc needed to head for home. The wives taking pity on Martin and I gave us a second chance Sunday so we headed for the tackle shop and Martin replaced his rod.

So on the Sunday morning with fresh trace wire and a feeling of confidence we headed back to the same spot. The blood was pounding as I dropped my anchor in anticipation of 3 hours tope fishing only to realise I was drifting away from the mark. Pulled up my anchor to check and only the shaft was there. The bleep bleep thing had snapped. The only place I could get the anchor remains to hold fast were the kelpy shallows where I spent the rest of the time trying for tope with no luck ( I just couldn’t hold over the deeper trench). Lots of bream, macks, bull huss, dogs, etc..

On the way back in I found myself surrounded by a shoal of feeding bass, and me without a rod set up for them. Martin, who was trawling for bass, was too far inshore and missed the whole thing.

Disappointed about the tope, but the fishing was good, weather and company great.
Will be going back again.
















This is what the tope i lost did to my trace


P15 full of water after a bad sea on saturday


If we had put to sea here we would have saved
are self's 4 miles


What remains of my ankor

[Marc Jones]

Definately do that one again, especially as we can short cut the paddling (them Prowlers are so quick - just console myself I'm paddlin a boat designed for 2 & there's just me in it! ;D )
Did you ID that fish...I never looked it up?
Great day - next time they will not get away....hopefully!
I'll call you, got the whole weekend, maybe Monday as well, need to know about camp sites...
Tight lines!
Marc ;D

[hursty]

Braver than me holding that greater weever!! As you say much better launching down the river although it can be a shade exciting in a wind!!

[starvinmarvin]

The river changes quite drastically at different states of tide, when running lower watch out for the large rocks spread across from bank to bank as you round the corner towards the sea, getting pinned against them isn't much fun.

Oh and watch of for all the Dog P@@, tons of the stuff where that picture was taken of the launch spot.

Like you say a great place to fish.

Holding a weaver... it's madness, shake them off at the side of the kayak, much safer.

Sm

[candwr]

Ignorance is bliss!! He didn't know what it was - if he did he would have put it down pdq!!!

It was a brilliant venue - I'll be looking at going back but this time I will keep hold of my rod!!

John - what goes swish swish crack?

[johnlegg]

Yes I broke my new fly rod . A fladen maxximus 10ft .
I called fladen today and they are going to send me a new part

The weever I landed on Saturday was ok , not to frisky so he didn't get me , but the 2 I landed on Sunday were smaller, I didn't touch them but they still got me one in each hand. I never learn ;D

[nifty]

Hi John,
I just logged on to reply to your post and noticed your PM. I'm really sorry that I missed it before because I would have liked to help you out.
It looks as though you found everything though including the Tope and well done to you boys, it's a pity they escaped but it seems you enjoyed the first run which is the best bit, really gets the adrenaline going. It happened to me a couple of times the other week even though I'm using 7ft of heavy mono and I think I'm now going to add a 20ft leader of 50lb line to the end to try and avoid any repeats. The only thing I'm concerned about is the leader knot picking up a load of weed and jamming in the tip ring with the fish still a long way out. It could pose a few problems trying to free it.
As for your traces if you make them up yourself, if you put the wire through the eye of the hook twice and then form it like an overhand knot before crimping it tight, it does help to take the strain off the crimp and so far I havn't lost any through the hook pulling free.
The paddle from Tywyn is a fair old slog especially against the tide and we normally launch down the river and try and time it to head out at dead H/W when the river stops backing up, if you try to get out too early then it's hard work and we often have to get off and pull the yaks down the last couple hundred yards.
I try and then fish the ebb which has produced the most fish for us and seems more consistent. There are two fingers of reef north of the river with a gulley in between and if the gulley doesn't produce then a paddle over the tope of the second ridge and anchor up tide of the far side will often get you into the fish.
The mackerel do seem hard to come by around there until you get in to deeper water, so I tend to take plenty of frozen from Barrys tackle,and to be quite honest they seem to work just as well as fresh and save all the hassle of chasing about looking for bait and missing the first part of the tide,which is often the best time with runs we've found not so frequent during the full flow of tide.
Those weavers are very common on the feathers up there and i'd recommend shaking them off in future with the forceps as I once saw a charter skipper K/O'd when he got stung by one and the ILB had to come and get him and get him ashore to a waiting doctor.
Well done anyway, it sounds as though you had a great time and some nice piccies as well.
I look forward to seeing you up there sometime and I think a few of us will be going soon for a bash so I'll have to remember to read my pm's
Stuart.