I never make New Year resolutions…I can’t see the point really as no one ever seems to keep to them. That said I do, as always, set myself a few targets. This year’s priority was to find and fish some new marks.

Marks are a very personal thing. I’ll happily fish in amongst a crowd of anglers, but my preference is for solitude with just my long term fishing buddy Clive for company. We love rock fishing, so I spent a fair bit of time recently studying Admiralty Charts and Ordnance Survey maps again to highlight a few potential spots. Some use Google Earth, but good as it is, you can’t judge the access ground properly and can dismiss potential marks all too readily, so it’s back to good old Shank’s Pony for me!

One mark I fancied for cod was on the north coast of Anglesey. It proved to be a longish walk, but we found access down to the rocks easy enough. However the rock structure was that horrible knife edge ridge configuration that is uncomfortable to stand and fish off. Undaunted we found a spot that had access to sea level. This is important as come autumn I fancy this spot to also give me a chance of big conger and possibly a shore ling.

The chart said the depth was about 18-metres and the ground rough all the way out. I also look at the ground configuration I’m fishing from as this often follows on underwater, so what you see is what you’re fishing in to. This was exactly the case with rising rock pinnacles out to the left, shelving rock ledges  a much deeper channel between 60 to 90-yards out, then shallowing ground out at maximum range, but a nasty rising ledge right in front of us that we’d have to bounce any big fish over.

I also watch the surface of the sea as this also gives me a lot of information. The tide, showing as rippled surface water in the channel with a rougher chop over the shallowing ground, was two hours before high and flowing left to right. It ran through the deeper channel strongly. Then about an hour before high it switched to flow right to left and ran even more strongly. It eased over high, and then went left to right and back to right to left. This quick and persistent change of tide flow can often indicate a good fishing mark, but the downside is that they take longer to learn with the necessity to fish both neap and spring tides, all wind directions and a range of weather conditions.

Fishing as a team and casting varied distance, we quickly established that up to 40-yards out there was no tide run at all, but go 70-yards into the channel and it ran like a train. That suggested the cod would be in the channels, and the conger and huss, come autumn, in the slack water alongside the channel edge. The pinnacles over to my left would carry wrasse and huss when the time came to fish for them.

It was not the best of weather really with a bright blue sky, a faint east wind, but a warmish winter sun just taking the edge of an otherwise very cold day. The sea was still well coloured after all the recent storms and gales though. We’d fish through the afternoon and just in to the dark as that was all the time we had.

Our first few casts found the seabed rough and snaggy. This was just what I was looking for. If I’m not losing leads and gear on a rock mark, then it’s a fair bet the fishing will be average at best.

I put a pulley rig out armed with a single 5/0 loaded with mackerel and squid. This just as a tester to see what, if anything picked it up. I went for a 2-hook rig on the other, one hook baited with mackerel, and the other with frozen black lug. This went out in to the channel. Clive went out with two singe hook rigs and we settled down to discuss the mark, but intently watching the rod tips.

Clive was in first with a gentle “tap, tap” on the rod out in the channel. Hitting the next pull he quickly announced it was no monster and slid in a small codling about a pound on the lug. Two casts later he added a dog and then missed a cracker of a bite when the rod tip pulled hard over once, the line fell slack and he hit thin air on the retrieve. His lug bait was slightly ripped at one end, but not mangled.

In the conditions I didn’t fancy my chances with big baits, so switched to a two-hook rig with small size 6 Kamasan B940’s on. I also added a single luminous green bead above the hook, just to add some attraction. This went out with a mix of mackerel and worm on. The bait had only settled a few seconds when a doggie took the fish bait.

Still with the cod in mind, I changed the mackerel for a tiny slice of bluey and re baited with lug on the other. I really rate bluey as a cod bait, yet few think fish baits any good. I stayed with this tactic for the next few casts.

With the baits out in the channel all had been quiet, but I noticed a twitch on the rod tip. Ignoring the tip I watched the line as its way more sensitive. I could see a fish was gently taking the bait, but waited until the line tensed before picking up the rod. The fish signalled on the rod tip and I set the hook. There was a little weight with this and I felt the “nod, nod”, so typical of a cod.

The fish stayed down deepish and I felt the lead bang the rocks a couple of times. Closer now I was conscious of the ledge out in front of me. I started to work the fish higher in the column and managed to bounce it over the top of the ledge without mishap. It surfaced just out from the rocks and Clive grabbed the leader to steer the fish ashore. A nice plump codling I guessed to be a little shy of 3lbs, but with the little size 6 hook baited with bluey neatly embedded in the scissors. This single fish suggested the mark was worth more effort, especially on a rougher night with a southwest to west wind whipping in.

We fished on down the ebb with little effect, only adding a few more doggies, and I snuck in a greedy shore rockling on the 5/0 pulley rig as dark set in. I think if the tide had been flooding we’d have caught well.

It’s unlikely we’ll fish this mark now until June/July when we’ll bring the wrasse gear as the ground just seaward of the ledge is perfect for them and it’s been little fished as far as we can tell. Come September through to Christmas we’ll give it some hammer for the huss and conger, which I think will show best on the smaller neaps. On the autumn spring tides we’ll fish it for the cod, and I’m expecting a few decent ones to come out over the course of next autumn as the current 3lbers will be nearer 5lbs, but with the chance of a double amongst them.

I reckon it will take us two years or so to fully learn the whims of this new mark with the said species in mind. But its time well spent and I’m convinced it will produce big fish. We’ll see, and I’ll relate my successes and failures in future blogs!