Penrhos on Anglesey as the tide floods

We’ve just returned from a couple of weeks sea fishing, walking and generally relaxing on Anglesey, one our favourite places to unwind. We stayed in a cottage at Ty Cristion which as usual was excellent and as the schools hadn’t broken up was very quiet so when we needed to just sit in the sun and watch the Buzzards circling overhead or read, our rest wasn’t shattered by the screams of “can we go to the beach now” from hordes of kids.

To say the weather was unkind would be a slight understatement as halfway through our break Anglesey and the North Wales coastline was battered by winds of up to 84mph and more rain in a couple of days than usually falls in an entire month but we still managed to get out a couple of times to wet a line, as the saying goes.

One of our favourite beaches on the island is Broad Beach (Porth Nobla) just South of Rhosneigr, where we fished a couple of hours either side of high water in darkness hoping for a Bass.

The sea was was almost flat, for once, and although it looked like weed may be a problem it only became an issue as you wound back in to re-bait.

Unfortunately no Bass were showing even though we tried every bait under the Sun (or Moon) – ragworm, sandeel, lugworm and crab, and it was looking like even Wales’ most infamous denizen of the dark, the Dogfish, wasn’t going to play until Wendy managed to land a small one then proceed to repeat the feat not much later while I was still staring at my motionless rod like a fool. Finally, about a half hour before we packed up, I managed my own Dogfish – not the target species but a fish is a fish and anything is good when you’re a bit desperate.

We had a few more trips out to various places including Penrhos to fish from low tide up, using ragworm to tempt a Bass but on this occasion even though we saw the odd small fish splash about near the surface the Bass were not to be tempted – outsmarted by a fish – again…

Before the chaos that the wind brought we had a quick go at Fly Fishing in the inland sea, a large tidal lagoon that separates Anglesey from Holy Island and although our skills and techniques are definitely improving the fish weren’t impressed and obviously found something better to eat rather than a hook covered in feathers and fluff.

Wendy snares a Three-bearded rockling at Cemlyn Bay

Another of our favourite beaches is Cymyran Bay, on the North West side of the Island, this beach has been fairly good to us in the past but our timing was off and we arrived at low water and looking back at it there really wasn’t much depth to the water. We’ve been told (local knowledge is everything) that the state of tide doesn’t really matter here, it’s more to do with the time of day as the Bass move in as the sun sets.

This was not to be and we’re now convinced it needs to be fished over high tide into darkness.

The Dogfish were quite obliging once the sun set and Wendy managed a couple of other species; a Five-bearded Rockling and a larger Three-bearded Rockling (her first) so although my tally was more Dogfish a new species was caught and a pleasant evening was spent watching the sun set over the headland.

And then the weather arrived and the fishing went on hold. In fact everything to do with outside went on hold for a few days until the sky cleared.

The wind had made the West coast beaches almost un-fishable due to the amount of weed in the water and the rains made rock fishing a little dangerous as the paths were now slick with mud so we spent the rest of our break going for walks around the island.

We didn’t get anything like as much sea fishing done as we’d hoped and for once never did any fishing off Anglesey’s  rock marks but we did, as always, have a great time and there’s always next time…

Saturday we did much the same thing except forced ( oh how tough it was!!!! ) ourselves to have a bash at the Bass entering the Menai Straights at one of our favourite locations just North East of Beaumaris. As the sun set you could certainly tell that the seasons are a bit late this year with snow still on the mountains of Snowdonia opposite us and a distinct ‘nip’ in the air – in fact it was bloody freezing. The Bass obviously thought so as well as our wonderful peeler crab baits came back in untouched so after a couple of hours we called it a night.

The following day we did much the same, a whole load of relaxing.

Towards the evening we again got ‘that itch’ that sea anglers get towards dusk and we headed of towards Cemlyn Bay, a place that has never thrown up a big fish for us but there’s always a chance.

We arrived just as the sun was setting and the tide starting to flood but damn, was it windy, blowing straight at us and making it feel even colder than the previous evening.

I’d brought my light rod but that stayed in the car and my normal beach caster went onto the beach with us. We tried all sorts of bait combinations, lug, rag, mackerel and crab but the first hour was mainly spent trying to keep our hands warm.

Finally a tell tail nod on my rod indicated a fish and I brought a tiny codling to the shore. Not long after Wendy had a more substantial bite and we both had the thought, BASS, but the tell tail glow of yellow eyes coming through the surf revealed the first of a couple of Dogfish for Wendy that evening.

With the Dogfish feeding I changed to a single hook pulley rig as they can really mess up clip down multi hook distance rigs as if you don’t see the bite they’ll swallow the bait and you’ll end up cutting the hook off rather than trying to remove it – the hook will eventually rust where as removing it will almost certainly kill the fish.

I lashed a big crab onto a size 2/0 hook and placed the cast just behind the breakers, or my approximation to that anyway – it was dark after all. A few minutes later and thump! the tip arches down and then springs straight as a fish picks up the bait and runs with the lead – this had to be a Bass! But no, another Codling, slightly bigger than before but still no monster – back he went and after a final coffee we left Cemlyn and headed back to the cottage.

And that was all the fishing we did – we were just far, far too relaxed to clamber over rocks or do anything remotely strenuous over the few days we were on the island but that was exactly what we both needed, a few days doing nothing at all.

We did do a bit of exploring and I’ve a few photos to download yet but they’re on the other camera which is currently under a load of other stuff.

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.

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.

Sandwich Tern returning to chicks with a Sandeel, Cemlyn

We arrived on Anglesey with two weeks of doing anything except work in mind and thats exactly what we did. Sea fishing, walking, photography and bird watching, Anglesey has never disappointed us and these past two weeks have been no exception.

Sunday started with blue skies and after discovering that there was a supermarket just up the road from where we have stayed for years we made some sandwiches and went for a short walk at Cemlyn Bay to see if the Sandwich Terns were still there. As you can see from the above photo not only were they still there but they were still flying backwards and forwards feeding their young.

There were hundreds of them and even when we walked around the headland you could still hear them calling and see them diving into the sea in search of Sandeels.

Cemlyn Bay, Anglesey

The bay itself is fairly steep and covered in shingle rather than sand which keeps away all but the most hardcore sunbathers so we almost had the place to ourselves. As you can see – hardly a ripple in site and we decided to come back later and have a go at fly fishing in the sea for the first time, more on that later.

Six Spot Burnet Moths on Ragwort

All along the edge of the beach and cliffs the Ragwort was flowering and covered in both the moths and caterpillars of the Six Spot Burnett (Zygaena filipendulae), the caterpillars look identical to the Cinnabar Moth ones I’d spotted in Bolton during the previous week (yellow and black stripes) but where the moths have a red stripe and a dot the Six Spot Burnett has six spots on each wing. Sometimes the simple beauty of our countryside and wildlife amazes me and this first proper day on Anglesey was turning out to be one of the best yet.

A small whiting for me

Later that evening we came back to Cemlyn for a spot of sea fishing.

The fly fishing, although not a total disaster proved a bit troublesome in the evening breeze but we’d brought our light beach / bass gear with us and as the sun set cast a couple of juicy crab baits to the ‘gutter’ formed where the shingle meets the sand which in theory is where food is washed by the tide and hence the fish are to be found.

A lad fishing down the beach from us told us his father had had a few Bass there the previous evening but as per usual this was not ‘last night’ and the Bass didn’t show for us or him.

I managed to save a blank with a greedy little Whiting then a darkness settled we made our way back to Ty Cristion.

The main part of this is finally getting the rear garden, which floods all the time, paved with sandstone so we can actually do something with it rather than just watch the weeds get ever taller. This should hopefully be finished this week so we spent all yesterday painting the fence before the new stone is laid.

I did manage to get out during lunch a few times in Bolton and wander round Queens Park where there has been a huge hatch of Common Blue Damselfly (Enallagma cyathigerum), Large Red Damselfly (Pyrrhosoma nymphula) and a few beautiful Banded Demoiselle (Calopteryx splendens).

Common Blue Damselfly

Can you tell I like Damselflies?

There is a great website for The British Dragonfly Society which I always go to so that I can positively identify what species I am have seen.

On the fishing front, although we’ve not been out, we have purchased a couple of fly rods each. One for heavy / salt water and the other lighter for lakes etc. They all arrived this week with new reels, lines, flies, everything!!!! I was just like Christmas. There are few things better than getting a load of new kit to try out and it took a lot of willpower to do the DIY. I’ll write a new entry about it all once the rest of it gets here and we’ve had chance to play with it all.

And just to close this post I’d like to say how much we’ve enjoyed Springwatch this year – there’s been great chemistry between the presenters (Chris Packham had some big boots to fill but I think he did very well as a replacement for Bill Oddie), some fantastic photography and stories, and I’ve learnt a few new things about the wonderful wildlife in the UK. To say we were jealous of  Simon King filming at Cemlyn Bay, Anglesey, would have been a slight understatement – we’ve fished there (and caught Bass) , seen those Terns and chilled out almost exactly where he was sat – the jammy bugger!

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.