A Riot of Swans at Martin Mere, Lancashire

The tides were not suitable for sea fishing at any of our favorite marks last weekend so after a lazy Saturday we woke on Sunday to glorious sunshine. After having a quick look at the days weather forecast we decided to brave the crowds and go and give the Wildfowl & Wetland Trust reserve of Martin Mere a visit.

This is where last months BBC programme, Autumn Watch was broadcast from and as it's only a short journey from our front door after packing a flask, some snacks, binoculars, new camera and a good bird book we set off and arrived at about 11am.

Even though it is only a few miles away we've only been here a couple of times and pulling into the car park we remembered why, it was packed! We quickly entered and made our way as far from the crowds as possible.

Martin Mere consists of 2 main areas; the ornamental wildfowl section which is all fenced off and contains many different birds from around the world and the 'meres' which is where the main action is.

Every year tens of thousands of wildfowl use this area as their wintering grounds and the reserve is well know for the huge numbers of Pink-footed Geese and Whooper Swans that can be seen from the hides.

Even though we are still in Autumn the numbers of wildfowl is still impressive and as the colder months approach these number will steadily increase.

On our walk from hide to hide we managed to see all the usual suspects that are listed on the Martin Mere website but the most spectacular thing about this reserve is the sheer quantity of birds.

They were everywhere. From the smallest wading birds such as Ruff, tiny Teal and Widgeon, massive flocks of Lapwing through to the hundred plus Whooper Swans and the thousands of Pink-footed geese. It's impossible not to be moved by such sights.

We managed to coincide one of our hide visits to a feeding session where grain is put out for visiting Whooper Swans.

It was hard to believe that these were completely wild birds that only a few days ago were in Iceland. As the girl approached with a barrow full of grain they were almost climbing in to get at the food and it wasn't long until it was almost impossible to see the ground beneath the feet of so many different birds.

We saw that quite a lot of cygnets had arrived since Autumn Watch and it was amazing to watch what can only be described as a riot break out amongst the birds as they squabbled to get a good feed.

We made our last circuit of the hides and thanks to some very helpful people who let us use their telescopes we saw a Merlin perched on a fence, a Buzzard on a gate post and then right at the end we saw a Marsh Harrier effortlessly patrolling the area.

To see three species of birds-of-prey only fifteen minutes from our doorstep made the entire trip worthwhile. We'll certainly be going back but maybe when the crowds have died away and winter has set in.

Tags: birding, lancashire, marsh harrier, martin mere, pink footed goose, whooper swan, wildlife, WWT

Autumn Beach Recce - Rossall, Lancashire

After the rather unproductive sea fishing session at Crosby on Saturday night we decided to be a bit more pro-active in our search for winter fishing locations and journeyed up to the Rossall Beach area of our coastline, near Fleetwood, Lancashire.

This area fishes very well in the middle of winter when the tides are high and the wind blowing off the sea. In previous years we've had many Whiting and the odd Codling (Cod of less than 5lbs) from many areas along this stretch of the coastline, caught mainly on local Black Lugworm.

The beach is bisected with many groynes which help keep the sand in place but pose a few problems for anglers. When the tide is high these structures are almost invisible and you can easily get your lines tangled round them.

More importantly, the sand build up creates a bank which constantly shifts depending on the tides and weather and to be in with a chance of a good fish you need to know where the gaps are in these sand banks and where any deeper gullies can be found.

Thankfully there are a lot of sea fishing matches in this area and the local clubs have 'pegs' or areas marked in bright yellow so that the match anglers know where to fish from as these areas are drawn randomly for each angler before the start of the match.

This can help the pleasure angler as well as once you find a good area all you need do is find the nearest number to help you remember where you caught that prize Cod.

We took a lot of photos of likely looking places, as well as the nearest numbers so that we could identify where the images were taken and build up a map of areas to try.

We walked up to Rossall Point where there is a patch of rough ground covered in small mussels and tube-worms. On closer inspection it was clear that there were many types of wading birds present feeding in this area as it was uncovered by the receding tide.

This was a sure sign of food items being present and on a medium to high tides we think this area will fish very well using black lugworm with mussel whipped onto the hook although in the rough winter weather the area looks a bit exposed.

We will be doing a lot of fishing around Rossall over the colder months so with this bit of information we should be in with a better chance of catching a Cod to go with our chips.

Tags: beach fishing, black lug, cod, fleetwood, lancashire, mussel, rossall point, sea fishing, whiting

Cod Expedition - Saturday Night, Crosby, Merseyside.

We'd planned to go up to Rossall, Fleetwood sea fishing last weekend but the wind direction and strength played havoc with our plans so I arranged to meet a few friends at the venue known as Hall Road which is basically the sea front at Crosby, Liverpool.

This venue can throw up some good fish but needs an onshore wind so with the wind blowing up to 20 miles per hour left to right (Southerly) our chances weren't good but we managed to find a space and launched our lugworm baited rigs into the night. We soon found that the Cod were not in and all either myself or Wendy could manage were a few tiny Whiting of about 6" long. We heard that a larger fish had been 'lost' while bringing it over the promenade railings but no-one we know saw it.

So not a very good start to the winters Cod fishing but we're still waiting for a major drop in temperature. That should bring the Cod and the larger Whiting in. Good to be out though and like they say, "If you haven't got a line in the water, you'll never catch a fish".

Tags: cod, crosby, hall road, merseyside, sea fishing, whiting

Water, Wetlands and Wildlife

As BBC's Autumn Watch came to an end last week, and what a fantastic series it was, I trawled through the internet to find a few relevant websites.

WWT, The Wildlife and Wetlands Trust
The UK’s only specialist wetland conservation charity and home of Martin Mere, the location of Autumn Watch.
The RSPB, The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds
Working to secure a healthy environment for birds and wildlife which helps create a better world for us all.
The Mersey Basin Campaign
Helping improve water quality in the rivers and waterways of England’s Northwest and encourage high quality waterside regeneration.
National Trust, Formby
Offering miles of walks through the woods and dunes. One of the last places in England where visitors may catch a glimpse of the rare red squirrel.
Red Deer Research on Rum
One of the star attractions of this years Autumn Watch was watching these magnificent animals in such beautiful surroundings.

Plus a couple of new sea fishing 'blogs'

Seaforth Sea Fishing
A new website designed for north west sea anglers. Through the months there will be pictures and reports on what is caught and where.
East Anglia Sea Angling
A blog by Ian, who lives in Norfolk, recounting some of his sea fishing experiences.

Tags: birding, lancashire, martin mere, merseyside, RSPB, sea fishing, wildlife, WWT

RSPB Leighton Moss and Arnside Knott

With the forecast for a very warm day for this time of the year we decided to go and have a look round the RSPB reserve at Leighton Moss, Lancashire, just north of Carnforth.

As promised it was a fantastic day and we spent the morning wandering in and out of the hides watching the many species of wetland birds that visit the reserve in the Autumn and Winter.

The reserve is famous for having the most northerly breeding Bitterns and once again we managed to see one of these rare birds standing sedately on the edge of the reeds - no doubt wondering what all the fuss was about.

We'd spotted on the map of the area an area called Arnside Park so in our never ending quest to find the perfect viewpoint to have lunch we made our way to the car park at Arnside Knott.

After making the short but steep ascent to the top we were greeted with one of the most amazing views I've seen. Looking to the east the Arnside viaduct can be seen spanning the River Kent and to the west the River Kent can be seen opening up into Morecambe Bay.

Unfortunately the weather was to hazy to get many good landscape photographs but I'm assured that from this vantage point you can see the mountains in the Lake District, Snowdonia in North Wales to the south and Yorkshire's Three Peaks to the East.

After managing to tear ourselves away from the views we headed down from the Knott summit into Arnside Park itself.

The scenery throughout our decent changed constantly from the rugged scrub at the top through low sparse wooded areas until finally down into a fully fledged deciduous woodland just changing into it's autumn colours.

The decent ended at Hollins Farm and from there we walked in a clockwise direction from Far Arnside, around the coast passing Park Point, Arnside Point and Blackstone Point until we arrived at New Barns Bay.

The area is beautiful and very well kept with a very well maintained, well sign-posted footpath running all around the coast.

Considering how popular Arnside is with visitors the woods surrounding the area seemed almost empty. We only saw a couple of people in the woods on the two mile section we walked and it was great to be away from all the noise and commotion of the main roads and towns.

Autumn was evident where ever we looked with the Yew trees in full fruit and acorns from the many Oaks littering the forest floor.

Mushrooms and other fungi were sprouting from the decaying wood and the leaves were starting to turn a wonderful shade of gold.

Eventually we emerged from the woods and after a short while found our way to and area called New Barns where, much to our surprise there was a sea fishing match just ending.

While having a quick rest we spoke to a few of the people that were leaving the area to find out what, if anything, had been caught (we never pass up an opportunity to learn about a new area to fish).

As we suspected they were mainly catching Flounder and apparently this time of year, October and November, is this best so maybe I can convince a few of our friends in the club to hold part of the estuary cup here next year.

Even if we don't catch, the views alone are worth the journey.

We climbed our way back up to the car park then after a final look at the area made our way back home. Another great day out and another beautiful area in the North West discovered.

A few more images of the area.

Tags: arnside, arnside knott, birding, lancashire, leighton moss, photography, river kent, RSPB, walking

Southport Beach, Merseyside and a Few Links

This week we've not been sea fishing or walking at all as we've been replenishing our supplies of gear that has either been used up or lost over the past few months.

We did manage to get out to Southport yesterday where we bought a new pair of binoculars from Waddington Photographic small enough to stuff into a rucksack so that we can take them wherever we go.

As the weather has been so grim over the past week I've been doing a lot of 'surfing' so below are a few websites or articles that I came across.

RSPB purchase 170 hectares in wetland project
This is great news for the area and is only a 10 minute cycle ride from my house, an RSPB reserve at Hesketh Out Marsh, on our doorstep, fantastic!

A couple of websites for the avid bird watcher in the North West;
Dee Estuary Birding
A great resource for all things avian around the River Dee (between North Wales and the Wirral)
Another Place...Birding the South Sefton coast
All the birding news from the South Sefton Coast

Henry Gilbey - Worldwide Fishing Pictures
Henry is a sea fishing addict and a great photographer- the images on his website are amazing. Henry can also frequently be seen in action on Discovery Reel Time.

Tags: crosby, hesketh out marsh, merseyside, photography, pier, river dee, RSPB, sea fishing, southport, wirral

Long Weekend on Anglesey - Sept / Oct 2006

The weather forecast was great with occasional showers and a light wind blowing onto the beaches we intended to fish as we arrived for our final sea fishing trip to Anglesey this year. We were staying at Ty Cristion again and after unloading the car and settling in I made a quick phone call to Gareth of fishing4u.co.uk and we set off for a secret mark well known to the local lads for big Bass.

Unfortunately it must have been so secret the Bass failed to find us but we did manage to catch a couple of Silver Eels each - not the target species but at least we caught, and we were treated to a magnificent sunset looking towards Holyhead.

Saturday - today was the day to get serious. The wind was blowing onto Cymyran Bay beach, behind RAF Valley and we arrived to see a perfect surf.

We both cast out some lugworm baits about 60-80 meters into the waves and the wait began. And we waited and then waited some more. We changed baits constantly and tried a few Ammo frozen Sandeels but the only thing making the rods move was the wind and the surf.

It was one of those situations where you know there must be fish there but a surf beach is a huge area for any fish to find your bait amongst all the other tasty morsels washed out of the sand.

Today the Bass just weren't playing. It did give me a good excuse to take a couple of photos of the house right on the edge of beach. What a fantastic place to live!

After about an hour of no action Wendy suggested we move a little nearer to the house and fish into the bay formed on the bend of the river between Holy Island and Anglesey.

I'd seen a report on one of the fishing forums of a large ray being caught here the previous weekend although I wasn't sure exactly where on the beach so a quick change of tactic followed.

To say this proved to be a good move would be a huge understatement. We were only casting our frozen Sandeels about 60 meters into the calmer water when after about 1/2 an hour Wendy started reeling in.

She went quiet - a sign something was up! Then the rod arched over as she brought to shore her first ever ray. It was a male Small Eyed Ray and went to the scales at 5lb 8oz. She then proceeded to repeat the feat with two more at 5lb 2oz (female) and a huge female fish of 8lb 10oz.

I was starting to get rather alarmed by now. Don't get me wrong, I was happy for Wendy as all of our fishing is a team effort but now I wanted a fish, any fish.

And then it happened. The rod gave a little twitch, then another and then arced over as if it was never going to stop. I struck into the fish and knew instantly it was a big one.

Rays don't generally fight much but they are hard work to pull through a rolling surf. As soon as it sensed the shore it started to fight back but I wasn't letting this go even if I had to jump into the sea after it.

Wendy helped me beach another beautiful female Small Eyed Ray which weighed in at an amazing 9lb 7oz.

We stayed for another half an hour but left as darkness fell. What a day!

The following day we intended to do a bit of rock fishing but the forecast was for rain so like madmen we went back to Cymyran.

The surf was a little higher and it rained almost constantly for 3 hours but this didn't seem to deter the fish although it did test our waterproofs to (and past) the limit.

The tally for Sunday was; Me - 2 Smalled Eyed Rays (at 4lb 8oz and 6lb 10oz) and a couple of small flounder, Wendy - 1 Small Eyed Ray at 5lb 2oz and a small Plaice.

Another fantastic day - who says anglers are mad?

Monday came far too quickly, it's amazing just how quickly you can relax on Anglesey and we didn't want to go home so we went up to South Stack.

We ended up staying there for a couple of hours; reading, watching the sea, having a stroll then having lunch.

A perfect way to end an amazing weekends sea fishing where Wendy caught her first ever Ray after 2 years of trying then proceeded to catch 3 more, and I caught my biggest ever (by a long way) shore caught fish. Anglesey - what an fantastic place.

Tags: anglesey, beach fishing, cymyran, flounder, north wales, photography, plaice, sea fishing, small eyed ray