Sea Fishing & Walking in the UK

Here be Dragons

The weather here in Lancashire has been a little unpredictable to say the least over this past week. We’ve had torrential rain, blazing sun, light breezes and almost gale force winds so it’s been one of those weeks where getting out to enjoy the abundance of wildlife the area has to offer has been a bit touch and go.

Most of the migrants such as Swallows are starting to head south but still the insect life continues to flourish. One such lunchtime visit to Queens Park in Bolton resulted in some fine views of some Brown Hawker (Aeshna grandis) dragonflies hunting down butterflies over the pond, hell to take photos of in flight but a bit simpler once they settle to lay eggs.

Hiding along the pathway through the wood that grows alongside the River Croal in the park were a few Speckled Wood (Pararge aegeria) butterflies trying to avoid being eaten by the speedy Hawkers. I’ve never spent the time to look at these properly before, just seeing them for small brown butterflies, they’re a lovely looking insect with great markings and clearly defined spots. I tried to get a photo of the Small White’s to compare the Green Veined ones we saw on Anglesey but they wouldn’t stay still.

We’ve canceled our sea fishing trip for Sunday as the weather is going to be grim so we’re going to Southport Flower Show on Saturday instead to get some ideas for the back garden. The plan is get there early to avoid the crowds but no doubt we’ll stay far to long and get caught in the traffic on the way home, I’m looking forward to it though, I haven’t been to the flower show since I was a lad with my parents.

Grow Your Own Fishing Rod

Golden Bambo

Well we haven’t really done a whole lot of anything remotely sea fishing or walking related this week as we’ve been busy doing house / garage maintenance.  I’ll never, ever fit another door in my life, it felt like we must have planned, chiseled or routed the damn thing hundreds of times before finally getting it to fit and then every time it looked like there was a suitable break in the weather to remove the old one permanently the heavens would open and it would chuck it down.

But it’s done now, locks in place and painted white (although it does need another coat but I’m DIY’d out at the moment)

A somewhat more successful enterprise involved our first plant purchase for the rear garden,a Crookstem Bamboo (Phyllostachys aureosulcata ‘Aureocaulis’) and a Golden Bamboo (Phyllostachys Aurea) both puchased from a very knowledgable, local specialist, bamboo4u.co.uk.

These bamboos have been ( and still are I believe) used to make fishing poles in China where they are native but I’ll think I’ll be sticking to Carbon Fiber and Fiber Glass for mine. We’ve dug in lots of compost and feed so I hope they’ll do OK, just need one more to go between them now that we’ve seen how much space they take up.

Fishing wise I’m hoping to fish a match at Fairhaven, Lytham, next Sunday with some friends from Blackpool but the weather forecast doesn’t look so clever at the moment so I guess it’ll be a bit last minute as to whether we go or not.

Flounder for Lunch Anyone?

The 'head' of the River Douglas

After Saturday where we did all sorts of house and garden type things we went to the River Douglas just up the road from where we live for a spot of Flounder fishing with a lot of sitting, lazing, in the sun thrown in for good measure.

A Chubby little Flounder for me

As per usual for this venue I took my older fixed spool rod and reel and Wendy took her normal match fishing gear. Rigs were ‘normal’ 1 1up 1 down flappers armed with size 1 fine wire aberdeen hooks which we’ve found are easier to remove from the fish if you want to return them alive and unharmed.

Bait was Black Lug and Ragworm from Waynes Tackle on Water Lane in Preston, and was in excellent condition for bought bait and although I would have preferred to get my own Lug as we’d been busy the previous few days I just hadn’t had time.

The fishing was very slow although it was very pleasant to watch the leisure craft go past including a few intrepid canal boats that must have been making their way up to the lock at Tarleton after crossing the River Ribble. It’s only been possible to cross the Ribble recently as a method of getting from the Lancaster Canal to the Leads Liverpool Canal.

Wendy, as per usual, snared the first fish, a tiny Eel of about 8 inches which covered her gear in slime and tied her rig in a knot, it seems small ones are even more of a pain than large ones.

Next fish came to me just as the tide started to ebb, on Lug, a plump little Flounder of about 3/4 pound – nothing to shout about but a fish is a fish.

Wendy finally get a Flounder

Wendy’s rod gave a knock just as we were considering packing up for the day and she also landed a small Flounder, this time on Ragworm.

After that the tide had ebbed so quickly and so far that there was a stretch of mud between us and the water so not wanting to retrieve our gear through all the gloop we packed away and spent a whole 10 minutes driving home for a mug or two of tea.

Not sure why the fish didn’t show today, there were a few other anglers along the river and they didn’t seem to be having much luck either so we’ll put it down to ‘one of those things’. The crabs should be moulting again soon so I expect our next river sea fishing trip will see us using peeler crabs as bait.

Only time will tell if it’s any more successful but as is often said “that’s fishing”.

Goodbye Visit to Penmon

"Dipping Your Toes"

Penmon Lighthouse

And then it was time to come home.

After packing the car and leaving Ty Cristion behind until late our next visit late September we spent a few hours at Penmon where we had our lunch and our fairwell slice of cake from the café, The Pilothouse.

This was one of the best holidays I think we’ve been on, not due to any spectacular sea fishing achievements, but because we got to do all the things we say we’re going to do instead of fishing 24/7 for nearly 2 weeks. Walking, bird watching, just plain old relaxing and watching the world go by – and fishing obviously – it was fantastic!

I’ve only been back at work 2 weeks and we’re already looking forward to going back to the island at the end of September, hopefully to bag a few Small Eyes Rays, but if we don’t get them we know that Anglesey will once again be the venue of a great break.

Scoping Out South Stack

"Hiding in the Daisies"

As the wind continued to be a bit blustery we decided to go and visit South Stack lighthouse with the cameras and spotting scope to see what bird life we could find. This time we climbed down the cliff path (all 400 steps of it) and went across to the lighthouse where the Lesser Black Backed Gulls still had chicks.

The views back towards the cliffs of the sea birds coming and going were astonishing and we saw all sorts of birds including Guillemot, Razorbill, Herring Gull, Lesser Black Backed and Greater Black Backed Gulls, Kittiwake, Chough and finally managed to get views (although a long way off and not suitable for photography) of Puffins.

The above juvenile Kittiwake was just sitting by the path, not a care in the world, and with the abundance of small fish in the sea below who can blame him.

It was a struggle to get an in-focus shot of the gulls as they flew past, I never realised just how fast they are until I tried catching on on camera. After spending a few hours just watching the busy cliffs and sea below we trudged back up the cliff, stopping at every bench we could find to catch our breath and continually looking at the cliffs as we ascended a path (yep – all 400 steps going up as well) that seemed a lot steeper on the way up than it was coming down.

Lonely Razorbill with Guillemots

It was well worth a visit but undoubtedly the star attraction of the South Stack area are the cliffs down which the path runs, the lighthouse island is good for sea watching and during the spring and summer has an RSPB presence on it, but if you want to see the birds keep stopping on the way down and just take a few minutes to wonder at the huge number of birds nesting on every conceivable ledge.

Walking Cemlyn Bay to Carmel Head

Racing the tide infront of The Skerries

As the wind continued to be a little severe we sacked sea fishing off for and went for a walk along the cliffs between Cemlyn Bay and Carmel Head. The scenery was stunning, with great views of ‘The Skerries’ over the sea to the north west.

There was an amazing variety of wildlife on show not least being a huge number of Green Veined White butterflies, feeding on the cliffs out of the wind. At least I think that’s what they were – I don’t think ‘Small Whites’ show the veins in their wings as much (I saw some today in Bolton in the park) and ‘Large Whites’ are, well, larger.

We past a couple of huge concrete / stone pillars called “The White Ladies” which are used as a navigational aid as when they are lined up with the marker on the small isle offshore, “West Mouse”, help get a bearing into Holyhead.

As well as the usual sea birds we saw a juvenile Buzzard but as per usual it stayed just out of camera range – damn thing.

The walk was about 6.5 miles and was fairly easy going and easy enough to navigate, although the paths are a bit vague towards the end of Carmel Head. We started at a car park just east of the National Trust owned farm of Mynachdy, headed north east(ish) to Hen Borth then went anti-clockwise along the coast to Porth y Dyfn, came back over Penbrynyreglwys, and headed along the track, through the farm and back to the car park.

A Windy Visit to Red Wharf Bay

Looking west along Red Wharf Bay

Again the wind played havoc with our sea fishing plans and to make matters worse it was one of the few days of ‘proper’ rain we had during our stay on Anglesey so we went for a drive around the eastern side of the island, mainly the Llandonna / Red Wharf Bay area to see what we could see.

"Alone and grounded" - Afon Nodwydd Estuary, Red Wharf Bay

After a while we moved ‘up’ the coast a bit to the section of the bay nearest to Pentraeth where I got out and had a look around while Wendy watched me (and read) from within the car as I battled the elements.

Little Egret, Red Wharf Bay, Pentraeth

It took me a while to notice them but I spotted a few Little Egrets searching for food in the small river near the car park so I quickly grabbed the camera and after much swearing and watching the little buggers fly away from me, managed to get a reasonable photo.

It was only after getting back into the car, a little windswept to say the least, that I noticed the Egrets were all down the river as it meandered it’s way toward the sea through the beach.

Typical.

Anglesey – it never ceases to amaze you with it’s wildlife.

Easy Sea Fishing at Penrhos Country Park

Penrhos beach - North of the coastal park

The wind continued to blow and showers were forecast so we elected to try somewhere with a bit of shelter. We’d been for a walk around the coastal park at Penrhos and had seem someone fishing north of the car park, just where the clay cliffs start so we parked up, donned waders and waterproofs and got going.

Weed was a bit of a problem initially as the tide ebbed from right to left and the wind blew the same direction, but once the tide turned everything became a little calmer.

A small Bass for me

This was another one of those infuriating sea fishing sessions where you know there are fish there, made even more so by the fact we could see birds diving for bait fish and we even saw a few fishing jumping, but no matter how hard we tried or what method, we just couldn’t hook into anything.

And then, while sitting and having a coffee, I noticed a slight bump on my rod but thought nothing of it as the weed and wind had been doing that all day, until it happened again – a tiny little knock.

Could this be a fish?

I wound in even more weed to find my smallest Bass yet attached to the bottom hook of my rig, a whole ragworm dangling from it’s mouth.

This was to be my first and only Bass of the hoiday but we’d found a new venue and got a fish out of it in conditions that in all honesty were probably best suited to sitting in the pub and having a pint. It doesn’t look very windy on the photo but believe me, it was blasting along the beach and after a while we called it a day as not only was the weather worsening but the tide was pushing us away from the deeper water.

An Evening Walk at Cemlyn Bay

Cemlyn Bay Lagoon

As the wind got up to ‘dangerous’ speeds and made a lot of our favourite marks unfishable we decided to have an evening walk around the headland at Cemlyn bay. This is turning into one of our favorite spots as it seems to be virtually deserted and area is blessed with wildlife of all types.

The last bit of daylight lights up the cliffs at Hen Borth

We picked up a book on circular coastal walks around Anglesey, “Coastal Walks Around Anglesey” which is very good and the short walk we did started at the western (left) end of the reserve, wound it’s way along the coast in an anti-clockwise direction to Hen Borth then headed inland and back along seldom used country lanes.

Dramatic sunset at Hen Borth

We timed it perfectly, for a change, and managed to get to see the sun set over the Irish Sea just as we headed inland. Even this small section of lanes was wonderful in the evening light and all sorts of insects made an appearance as the light began to fail.

This small spider is a female Candystripe (or Polymorphic) Spider (Enoplognatha Ovata) I think although I’m willing to be corrected, and was guarding her eggs which were in the base of the roled up leaf.

A lovely stroll of only about 3 miles or so but still well worth a visit if you’re in the area.

Finally, a Black Bream from Pwllheli

A Small but pretty Black Bream from South Beach, Pwllheli

After a few days of chilling out, walking and catching up on some reading in the sun we ventured of Anglesey, over the other side of the Llyn Peninsula to have a go, once again, at Pwllheli south Beach, target: Black Bream.

My first (small) Black Bream

After a long, long wait, and trying far out, close in, big baits and small baits I finally managed to capture this beautiful little fish on a size 4 hook using ragworm with a strip of squid as bait.

Looking at the size of this little fellow it was evident that size 4 hooks had been too big and we’d have been better scaling down to size 6 or even 8. We tried this but the tide was starting to ebb so we called it a day after a few hours. Only one fish but one I’ve been trying to catch for years.

So now that I’ve caught this years target species, all be it a very tiny specimen, it’s time to thing of a new challenge – probably Small Eyed Ray in September / October.

The only thing that put a dampener on the day was that even on such a huge beach with hardly any one on it, people still let their dogs crap and kids swim unatteneded right in front of us – maybe we’re famous or something but I doubt it – it’s more likely that people are just ignorant.