Dydd Sul 15fed Mawrth - Dociau Port Talbot yn taro i fyny

It was back to the Principality for a "knock up" at Port Talbot Docks. I booked in quite early in the week and there appeared to be little interest mainly due to the weather forecast. The forecast did improve and a few more added there names to the list giving us 8 in total.
Given the quality of the breakfast at the draw, the fishing and access I do find it a bit strange that more people don't give it a go.

As Clive Branson was fishing I messaged him to bring me a couple of bags of Gold Medal Black Bream Mix (2 for £5). It's a lovely mix and does appear to bring fish into your swim, a lot of the guys who fish Port Talbot use it now.
I had already done my feeder mix the night before which was 1.5 kg of the above mix with 1 kg of dark fishmeal. The other spare 0.5 kg of black bream was mixed with leam on the dock for balling in.

Steve O'Mara done the draw for everyone to reduce any cross contamination, he also done the draw for the ''golden peg'' worth £50 which was peg 16, a great peg. One of the last to book in, Jan Van Mazyk had that one!

As there was only 8 of us we were well spread out from peg 1 to peg 20 so huge amount of room and you could sneeze and cough your heart out.

I did fancy anything from 16 onwards but was drawn peg 6, one I have had a few weeks ago and I done OK from it.

When we got to the dock the level was up a bit and probably due to a ship coming in at some point. The ship was actually docked alongside the cement work opposite our pegs.

Where I was a lot of anglers fish behind the boards but I like to get in the water, it takes a while to set up the box due to the rocks on the bottom and there is only a small ledge but once your in its much more comfortable.

I had the whip with me but never set it up due to the stiff breeze so 2 feeder rods it was. Both 30gram feeders one with size 12 B560 and the other a 14 in the same pattern. 20 turns out on one, 15 on the other, simples.

We were fishing 10 til 4 today as the afternoon forecast was favourable so no rush. Last week there was a few 30lb plus weights so needed a few proper bream.

9 balls went in on the short line and I started off on the longer line with 4 maggots on the size 12 just to see what was about.

After the first hour I only had about 4 small skimmers and a roach so things were looking hard. The anglers to my left and right (they were the only other 2 I could see) also appeared to be struggling. 

At this point I decided to put on half a dendra worm tipped with a caster and sit it out to see if there were any better fish around, I had been putting chop and caster through the feeder.  It seemed to do the trick and a run of better skimmers followed but the action was far from hectic.

2 hours must have went by and any action there was slowed so I came in on the short line with the 14 hook. Just double dead reds on the hook and had a bite immediately. There were no bank walkers so it was hard to judge how it was fishing. The guys left and right were not catching a lot and the fish they had were the same stamp as mine.

It was a case of swapping lines and baits just to get a bite but they were hard to hit.

The scales came from end peg 20 where Alan Godrich was leading with 22lb odd. 

Mine weighed 19lb 15oz

 End peg 1 Mick Fraser had over 25lb so won the match.

The view was there was a high concentration of salt in the dock after the ship came in and then went back out. 

Not a bad day though for the middle of March and the weigh sheet shows everyone had a few fish.