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.

A Weekend of Westerlies, Weed and Escaping Bass

The 'Bay' to the Right of Stanley Embankment (A5), Anglesey, Looking North East

We set off on our Bank Holiday journey just before noon last Friday and after stopping off at Colwyn Bay promenade for some lunch called in to Anglesey Tackle Centre to have a quick chat with Gareth and pick up bait for the long weekend ahead. Needless to say after wishing for good weather it had turned a bit blustery but we were fairly sure we’d find somewhere to fish.

Our first stop was to have a go at Broad Beach, we’d been told it would be too windy to fish it but decided to give it a go anyway. It was just on the side of manageable as we fished the tide up but after a while, and after loosing a fish as it snagged me round a rock I’d previously tripped over (yes – I know!!!!), we grudgingly agreed that it was indeed far to weedy to fish.

Anglesey 1, Stuart & Wendy nil.

Saturday morning greeted us with bright sunshine and yes, you guessed it, yet more wind. After quickly working out wind direction we decided to drive down to Aberdaren, at the far end of the Lleyn Penninsula – this turned out to be one of our more stupid choices due to a few reasons;

1. We’d forgotten about the major roadworks between Caernarfon and Trefor where the speed is limited to 30 mph.
2. We got stuck behind the worlds slowest driver on one of the narrower B roads, which meant,
3. We arrived at the mark with little time till high water.
4. The wind shifted and seemed to gain in strength blowing more weed at us.
5. The weed… I’ve never not been able to wind in due to weed before and after both of us loosing gear to rafts and rafts of the stuff we made our way back to the cottage.

2 nil to Anglesey…

We woke early on Sunday, quickly ate breakfast, made our lunch and headed towards Ty Croes where we would fish the tide 2 hours down to low water and 2 hours back up. It looked a little choppy as we drove past Cable Bay but at least from the rocks weed shouldn’t be a problem. We parked up and made our way to the mark only to find we’d obviously not got up early enough! A few guys had beaten us to it, damn! There aren’t really many snag free marks here so we quickly back tracked to Cable Bay where we’d seen from Ty Croes that the mark was empty of anglers. After a short hike we got to the mark and yep, there were people there, double dammit! They’d arrived in the 10 minutes it took us to get from Ty Croes to Cable Bay.

Sod it, lets go for a walk.

We dumped the gear back at the cottage and drove to across the A5 to Penhros Country Park but after looking at the tide flooding into the bay and the lack of weed or wind, we quickly went back for our Bass gear. We spent a very pleasant couple of hours and did actually see some fish swirling on the surface, either Mullet or Bass and then it happened. BANG! The rod tip didn’t just twitch it arced over as a fish took my Peeler crab bait. I struck and I felt it shake it’s head as it dove into the rocks, then after about 10 yards of mayhem I felt it come off as it dived through the weed. I was a little upset as you can imagine and we fished ‘hard’ for another hour but to no avail.

3 Nil to Anglesey.

On Monday the weather showed us that it was not yet summer. The temperature dropped dramatically as the rain and wind lashed the island making fishing anywhere almost impossible, or at least very uncomfortable and potentially dangerous. We spend the day reading and drinking hot mugs of tea while praying for a break in the clouds that never arrived.

Tuesday dawned overcast and still windy as we bid our farewell to Anglesey until we return in a couple of months and after a final brew and slice of cake at the Penmon Lighthouse cafe we made our way home.

Did we enjoy it even though the fishing was, to say the least, a bit rubbish? You’re damn right we did. There is hardly anywhere else I know that instills such calm and rest as Anglesey and missing those few fish just makes us more eager to go back and even the score.

Let The Anglesey Adventure Begin

There have been a few reports of some good fish coming out all around the North Wales and Anglesey coastline, including a brace of Bass to one angler of 7 and 8 pounds and a Gilthead Bream so we’re off.

Everything is packed;

* fishing gear – check
* walking gear – check
* birdwatching gear – check
* photography gear – and check

At this rate I’m going to have to buy a bigger car.

If all goes to plan (which I doubt) the weather will stay as it is and produce a slight surf to bring the Bass in but be gentle enough to flatten the sea on the western side of the Island to give us a chance for some Thornback Rays.

And while we’re on the subject of Bass… what is it with people calling them “Sea Bass”, is there some type of land or air Bass that I’m not aware of? It’s a Bass! All the other varieties are called a ’something’ Bass, the European one is called a Bass or if you want to be pedantic it’s full name is European Bass or Dicentrarchus labrax, also known as Morone labrax.

I guess it’s to avoid confusion with some of the American varieties such as Large Mouth Bass which live in fresh water. Sorry – it’s just a pet hate of mine that things get renamed for no apparent reason, or at least non that I can see (don’t even get me started on Marathon vs. Snickers)

Hopefully the next entry will be full of images of huge fish or if not, at least some good scenery.

Formby Bank Holiday Bass Hunt

Pumping for Black Lug, Formby

The call went out to all like minded fools (I mean sea anglers) that Kev was going down to Formby Point, Merseyside for a Bank Holiday Bass hunt. I didn’t need much encouragement although getting up at 4:45am so that I could have breakfast, make a flask of coffee  and load the car before arriving at the Lifeboat Road car park did make me wonder at the state of my sanity.

The foolhardy few that woke to the sound of the dawn chorus just starting up made our way on to the beach and proceeded to pump up some Black Lugworm which was to be the bait of choice. Throughout the morning we would keep getting Lug as the tide pushed us up the beach so bait was as fresh as it could possibly be.

We knew that we were pushing it to get a Bass as they don’t usually show for about another month at Formby but the weather forecast was good and it beat watching bank holiday TV or fighting through crowds of tourists to get wherever you needed to go.

The method is to cast out then keep moving backwards until you see the gully behind you filling up, then you can either cross the gulley paying out line as you go, or wind in and cross the gulley then wait for the tide to fill it enough so that it’s fishable. The Bass travel up the gulleys that run parallel with the beach as these are where the water is deepest, and the food items they are searching for end up.

The Worlds Smallest Flounder

Our predictions of it being to early were correct and the only thing caught was a very, very small Flounder in about six hours of fishing but were we disappointed?

Not really – it was a long shot at best but as the saying goes “you’ve got to be in it, to win it”

We left the beach at noon, just as the numbers of day tripppers started to get unbearable.

One great thing was that I ‘tested’ by new Scierra breathable waders / boots combination – wow – what a fantastic thing these are, they weigh nothing, are fully waterproof, ‘breath’ so you don’t sweat and since you are wearing proper boots are comfortable to walk in.

I wish I’d bought some years ago and I expect they are going to make my fishing a lot better this year as they will allow me to fish places I’d previously been unable to reach. Hopefully Wendys’ will arrive this week to give her time to test them before we go to Anglesey.

Fishing The World Wide Web

So here I am after having one of those days that I’d rather forget caused, I think, by a stomache bug that went round work last Friday. I’d planned to go out yesterday but I just wasn’t feeling up to it and have taken the day off work today to get myself back to normal.

But, as they say, every cloud has a silver lining and I’ve done a bit of searching on the internet for bits and pieces about sea fishing and angling in general. The internet has certainly changed the way we gather information about our hobby / sport and with a few quick google searches I’ve come up with a couple of gems.

I was searching for “Bass Fishing” and although I usually stay away from youtube links as they’re normally a bit dodgy I came across this film, made in 1947 by Van Campen Heilner, it’s not up to date by any stretch of the imagination, or even in the UK, but it was good just to sit back and watch this film of fishing from half a century ago.

The other main thing I managed to find today was Dave Lumb’s Specialist Tackle. Now I don’t usually link to tackle dealers but Dave makes custom rods and gear for most freshwater fishing and I expect he could make rods for salt water plugging for species such as Bass and Pollack, but the main reason Dave’s company took me by suprise is it’s only about 2 miles from my house and I’d never even heard of it!

And talking of dealers – we’ve a new one opened up in Southport called Tony’s Tackle, I had a quick look and it looks promising, it’s on Rufford Road (B5244), Southport

A Very Odd Year – Part 1

Pollack for Wendy

Not entirely sure why I stopped blogging, a few other things going on but no particular reason but I’m back now and hopefully I’ll get some more fishing done and some walking done. So without any more mumbling what have we been doing fishing wise.

Well, to be perfectly honest, not a whole lot, we went to Anglesey for a week at the beginning of June and stayed at Ty Cristion, was fantastic.

We didn’t really catch much but as it was going to be the end of September when we had our main summer break we needed a week’s break just to get away.

Anglesey is a fantastic place and the weather was stunning. I don’t know how we manage it but once again it was shorts and T-shirts weather and we spent almost as much time just relaxing in the sun as we did fishing.

We caught a few of the usual suspects. Namely Dogfish, Wrasse, Pollock and an early Spider Crab and as always, I was out fished by Wendy although I did manage to grab a few Bass from a beach we’d always tried but never before had any luck at.

A Sunset Bass

Cemlyn beach is the seaward side of an important nesting site for many types of seabirds which, as we waiting for evening to fall and to start fishing, were a fantastic sight to see diving into the bay after fish. We fishing an hour before and an hour after dusk using simply gear and peeler crab as bait and managed to snare a couple of Bass before the dogfish turned up – at which point we left.

We fished to the right of the bay, just in front of the car park, casting no further than 20 feet out.

As usual we either got bait ourselves or from Gareth at fishing4u who’s website seems to change more than the weather on the island. If your thinking of going to Anglesey fishing I thoroughly recommend giving the forum a look and maybe popping into the shop at Menai Bridge.

A Long Rest From Blogging

Small Whiting

Well… that was a bit of a long gap between posts, I don’t know what happened or why I stopped but I guess it was something to do with the the fact that we haven’t really been fishing properly since last summer. We’ve dabbled a bit but I think we were both a bit run down after the disappointment of our Devon trip and just couldn’t get motivated. But thats all over now!

The tackle has been cleaned, line replaced on the reels and all those bits and pieces you loose either while fishing or down the back of the sofa have been replaced.

Our first venture of the year was to Anglesey during the first of the May Bank Holidays in search of Bass where we stayed at Ty Cristion Holiday Cottages. As it happens we we’re too early even though May has been one of the hottest on record the proceeding months hadn’t been warm enough to encourage the Bass to move up the coastline to North Wales.

Wendys' first Turbot

We had a fantastic time though – the weather and countryside we fantastic and although the bass didn’t show up we managed to snag a few fish, one of which was Wendy’s first ever turbot. We’ve already booked another weeks visit for later in the year.

My latest fishing trip was a bit of the spur of the moment thing with a few of the lads from wirralseafishing.co.uk and involved a quick drive down to Formby. Once again Bass were the target but as I couldn’t get down to the beach in time to gather some black lug for bait I purchased some from our local tackle dealer, Waynes Tackle, Preston, which as usual was very good quality.

I arrived about 2 hours after lo-water to see a group of about 12 intrepid anglers eagerly awaiting a bite. After the usual banter I was offered more fresh black lug than I have seen in a long time – the bait collection by the guys had been stunning and I beleieve Dave W managed to get over 100 in about an hour.

Quickly setting up I joined them as the tide gradually pushed us back up the beach, filling in gullies behind us. This is why when fishing here it is essential to go with a group and preferably wear chest waders – there have been many cases where people have been cut off by the incomming tide and safety is much more important than anything else.

A Formby Bass for Kev

As per usual (how does he do it) Kev was the first into a fish, a Bass of just under 2 pounds caught on peeler crab.

As darkness fell it was starting to look as though this was to be the only fish caught until, to our left, we spotted Shaun playing a similar sized fish in the surf.

Hi-water arrived and still only 2 fish between 12 anglers – it wasn’t looking good until I spotted a slight knock on my rod. I waited a while, saw it bounce again and struck into the fish.

After the initial pull on the line it it went ‘light’ and I thought I’d lost it. I kept winding in, hoping against hope that a nice shiney Bass was running towards me, eager to see that glint of silver in the beam produced by my light.

Finally the fish became visable, a lowly Flounder, but a fish is a fish and it saved a ‘blank’. First outing in a long time, was it worth it for only 3 fish amongst a dozen anglers? Damn right it was!

A Flat Formby Flounder

It’s fantastic to be in good company, on a beautiful clean beach with the prospect of a fish or two.

I’m fired up ready for a week on Anglesey soon so look out Bass, here we come.

Formby Point – Search For Lug Then Hunt The Bass

Formby Point Sunrise

After seeing on the internet some stunning Bass coming out at Formby Point and a huge 9lb 12oz fish being caught at Crosby during the previous week I arranged with a few friends to meet up at the car park at the end of Lifeboat Road at 6.00am – yes, that’s 6 in the morning! It was a struggle getting up in time to meet the guys but once on the beach, looking back towards the sand dunes, the dawn greeted us in spectacular fashion.

We set about pumping some Black Lug out of the area, which looks a lot easier than it is. There’s a great article on the wirralseafishing.co.uk website which explains the technique involved in getting these worms, which can sometimes be over 12 inches long, out of the sand.

Wading Angler (wader angling?)

Once we’d all got enough worms for the first cast we waded across the last of the gulleys and cast a bait out, hoping to catch that early fish while we pumped some more bait.

As the tide turned it became necessary to continually move backwards after casting out as the beach is very flat and the sea races in at a speed which can (and has in the past) catch people out. This is why we all had chest waders on. It’s very easy to underestimate the depth of the water in the gulleys behind you and even though we knew what we were doing, on a couple of occasions the water did actually come up to my chest.

This is not a venue that should be fished in this way on your own!

We continued our retreat from the advancing tide, searching for bait and casting out at every opportunity but the fish didn’t show. As all good anglers we put this down to many factors, some of which may actually be true. The tide was too high or the bait wasn’t in the water long enough. There wasn’t any surf and my favourite for the north west coast – “when the winds in the east the fish bite least”.

Wreck of the Ionic Star, Formby

As a side note, due to the unusually high and hence low tides the wreck of the Ionic Star was completely exposed – usually you can only see a part of it sticking up out the sea. I’ve had a quick look around the internet and more information on wrecks in the area can be found here where organised wreck walks can also be arranged.

Formby point is a beautiful area and well worth a visit if you are in the area. It’s undoubtedly one of the cleanest beaches I’ve even been on and where else can you have miles and miles of golden sand almost to yourself! The area is run by the National Trust who have more information on their website here.

Anglesey July / August 2006 – Part 2, Sea Fishing

Small Bass for Wendy

After the long hot and wind free July we were looking forward to some lazy days fishing from the rocks on Anglesey. Alas the weather gods had a different plan for us and after lazing around in the sun on, of all things, Sunday (what else…) we woke on Monday to rain and a strong Westerly wind which dented our plans a little so we did a bit of walking instead.

After a while, I’m not sure which day we meandered over to our favorite spot of the year, a mark called ‘flagpole’ near Beaumaris where we found shelter as the wind was blowing over our heads.

The bait we took was frozen sandeel but no bites were forthcoming so i had a rummage around the rocks and found 2 crabs and, almost exactly the same as in may, Wendy managed to land her first proper Bass, only a small school fish but as you can see she was very, very pleased. I didn’t get a bite but this fish more than made up for it.

Ballan Wrasse

Our next attempt at a few fish was Ravens Point on the west side of Holy Island. Here the water is very deep and although the weather didn’t look to promising, with quite a swell on the sea I tried a bit of bottom fishing for rays or even dogfish while Wendy as per usual got the first fish, a sizable Ballan Wrasse on a small hard crab.

She then proceeded to catch a mackerel and it was looking little desperate for me so in desperation a got out the feathers and had a bash until I got one as well. At this point the rain came down and it started to become a bit precarious on the rocks so as the heavens opened we made a scramble up the rocks, back to the car.

It was beginning to look more and more like I wasn’t going to catch anything of quantity or quality as the holiday progressed and to make matters worse the wind picked up even though the rain stayed away.

In our quest to find calmer waters we ended up doing an afternoon / early evening session at Llanbadrig on the rocks to the north side of Anglesey. The scenery here is stunning and the church itself is well worth a visit as it tells the story of St. Patrick being wrecked on ‘Middle mouse’ and later founding the church.

It was a good job the views were good because the fishing itself was grim although I did manage to break my duck with a couple of dogfish.

Pollack for Wendy

As the sun dropped and it looked like packing up time Wendy had a last ‘chuck’ with a Storm rubber sandeel and even though I’d done exactly the same, in the same spot only half an hour earlier, managed to snag this lively little pollock.

You can see by the look on her face that she was a little bit chuffed. As the sun set we made our way back up to the church where we watched some other people fish on the rocks below for a while (thankfully they weren’t catching either so I didn’t feel to bad!) before heading back to the cottage.

A new day dawned, still a bit breezy but sunny so we planned another session to the flagpole as we’d managed to acquire a score of peeler crabs. Bass lookout – here we come!

The weather was perfect for this venue and again, what little wind there was was over our backs so it felt calm and hot. We tried everything but even though we were getting bites we just couldn’t hook into anything until I managed to hook this little fellow – finally – a Bass – although not the size we wanted so back he went.

Small Bass for me

We watched the boats drift by, also fishing for Bass I think and continued to miss bites all afternoon but the bigger fish just weren’t there and the only fish we saw was the small one in the photo to the left. I think the reason we kept missing the fish was due to the fact we were after the big ones with size 3/0 hooks and the only fish there were to small to get their mouths around the bait properly. Unlike our May visit where the mouth of the 2lb+ fish could have swallowed a tennis ball.

Throughout the holiday we also fished a mark called ‘Whitebeach’, park where it says Fedw Fawr an walk east (right on the map) over the field and down to an old quarry, where the swell made fishing almost impossible but once again Wendy caught a Mackerel and I blanked. We did see a couple of Porpoises chasing some fish though – only about 100 feet or so out so that more than made up for the lack of fish.

We even tried Llandona beach, fishing the high tide into darkness with freshly dug lugworms from Sandy beach (the best lug digging beach on the island) but after an hour of fighting with the weed on the line we gave up.

So overall the fishing wasn’t very good and we’ve put it down to a couple of things; the massive change in the weather for the beginning of August and our increased knowledge of the area. This may sound odd but where as when we first started fishing any fish would do, we now tend to target specific areas for specific species of fish and this method inevitably leads to either good days or bad days – unfortunately we had more of the bad than good but did we enjoy ourselves, you bet we did. Will we do it again – oh yes!

Plan F – Cymyran Bay, Anglesey

Cymyran, Looking Between Holy Island (left) and Anglesey Proper (right)

Plan F was Cymyran Bay, behind RAF Valley. The road to the beach is, to say the least, a little bumpy, but the end result is worth it. Cymyran Bay is almost unknown to most people and hence was almost deserted when we got there.

We made our way to the deep channel between Holy Island and Anglesey proper and cast in our large crabs baits. We know the Bass cruise this channel when the tide turns so we waited in anticipation. Unfortunately thats all we did, wait, wait and wait some more.

Incoming Tide, Cymyran

Eventually the incoming tide pushed us of our spot so we moved back a bit but by then the current was to strong and the weed was becoming a problem so all in all Sunday was not a very fishy day at all.

But who can complain with the scenery Anglesey presents at every turning. I’m sure this spot will throw us a fish or two eventually but that will have to wait until next time…