KAYAK fishing in Benllech

I was up at 6am this morning and planned to get out kayak fishing somewhere. Hughesey had got out early at 8am for a few hours and I was torn between joining him at Moel Y Don for some plugging, or going to Rhosneigr, Treaddur Bay, Rhoscolyn or Benllech. By the time I had a second breakfast (!) it was 0930, so I opted to go solo at Benllech - as I didnt fancy fishing the straights on my own after Hughesey finished early; I didnt want to fish somewhere on my own I hadnt fished before; I wanted somewhere were I could get an easy solo launch and be relatively safe paddling alone for the first time.

I arrived at benllech around 10am just after the start of the ebb, and after unloading the kayak and double checking all of the safety gear (flares, radio, mobile, gps, compass, anchor etc) I geared the yak up with my usual 12lb boat rod and shrimp rig, plus my 9ft bass spinning rod with a surface plug. I towed the loaded kayak down the slipway, much to the amusement of the early morning walkers, and over the short distance accross the sand to the waters edge. The sea still had a bit of a mist on it about half a mile out but was lovely and calm - ideal for my first solo kayak.

I paddled out 50 yds and then put a call in to Holyhead coastguard on my vhf handheld, and advised them of my paddle plan after moving to a working channel. Always a good idea, but especially when paddling alone.

My fishing plan was to try plugging over a gulley that I had had some good catches from last year fishing from the shore - with the water crystal clear and a pair of decent poloroid sunglasses on I hoped to be able to spot the target fish below me and try to learn a bit more about their habits on the ebb tide (I already knew which way they came in on the flood and when they arrived at the gulley on the flood). After a quick paddle I was soon over the spot and paddled along the gulley to another channel, just watching rather than fishing. Just a bit further and I heard the first splash behind me - then I saw the whitebait fish below, streaming past - game on! I trolled around with a shrimp rig trolling behind, and then stoped in about 4 foot of water and started pluggin with the bass rod and a surface lure.

After about another ten minutes of trolling and pluggin I decided to move and paddled to the far end of the bay right below the caravan site at Hewits. Some rock fishermen had been pulling in the odd mackeral according to another kayaker I met there, who was handlining for mackeral from a small surf kayak. After a brief chat I continued on towards Moelfre on the ebb, trolling the shrimp rig and a surface lure behind, looking for mackeral and pollack.

Nothing doing so I paddled back uptide to the sewer pipe and paddled along its length. I then decided to troll back over towards Red Warf Bay - further than I had shore fished previously. As I was on the way to Red Warf I saw loads more whitebait under the kayak, and heard the odd splash again. I stopped paddling and left the shrimp rig in the water to bottom, whilst I got working on the other rod with surface lure. I was casting towards the shore in about 5 ft of water, very slowly drifting back down with the ebb tide - on my next cast the lure hit the water around 30 yds in front of me and BANG! a large fish lept out of the water right by where my lure landed around a second after it landed - my heart jumped and I waited for the thump of the take of what was hopefully going to be my first fish on a surface lure - alas no, the fish didnt come back for the kill. I plugged away for another ten minutes into the same spot, then I heard a commotion behind me and turned to see several large fish hitting bait fish on the surface. A quick swivel around and I was casting into the zone, watching one or two more splashes and swirls. I was drifting ashore so I quickly paddled out again, trolling over the zone with both rigs behind me. ON the gentle paddle back out I saw several big fish dart past below me chasing bait fish. Another slow drift and yet another fish jumped stright behind where my surface lure had landed. Frustrated I changed to a sub surface J13 rapala, and plugged away for another half an hour in the same area. Then I lost the rapala very close in, so I took the opportunity to go ashore and stretch my legs whilst I rigged up a surface chug bug lure on the bass rod.