Although the forecast wasn’t too bad the wind was bitterly cold sweeping down the beach from the north and by the time our black lugworm baits were in the water we were wondering if this was such a good idea after all. This was confirmed as after 5 minutes our tackle was loaded with weed and was almost impossible to retrieve. After a few more casts Wendy decided to sit it out for a while to see if the weed situation improved while I launched my baits as far a possible, setting the rod high on the tripod and hoping to keep the line out of the weed.

After a couple of hours of this, Wendy rejoining our struggle against the weed we’d had enough and just to drive home the point I lost my terminal gear on the final retrieve as the line parted under the pressure of the amount of crud on the line.

It was interesting though to be on the beach after such wild weather, there were literally hundreds of Starfish washed up with all sorts of crab including a few Hermit Crabs (I tried one as bait) and the odd Masked Crab which you hardly ever see on the beach. There were also a lot of Sea Mouse, which look like something out of a cheesy Sci-Fi movie.

It’s a shame that the conditions beat us as the report by Shacky shows the conditions and fishing improved, we probably should have stuck it out longer but after looking forward to the trip all week the weed just killed off our enthusiasm for the session and after a couple of hours we said our goodbyes and made our way home where the only cold thing I encountered was a beer while watching the TV.

Fishing is along the outside of the breakwater rocks at Seaforth Docks

After picking up our POLSAF (Port of Liverpool Sea Angling Federation) passes a few weeks ago we joined a few of the guys from Wirral Sea Fishing for our first venture fishing the rocks at Seaforth docks. As we were new to the venue we thought it better to tag along with some guys that were familiar with the mark so we met up with the guys at the designated car parking area 2½ hours before high water.

The target species was to be Cod as Kev had managed to catch a few a couple of days ago. After a quick chat about where the best area to fish was we made our way down the rocks to a place where, if we were to catch anything, would make landing a fish as safe as possible.

The bait of choice was black lug tipped with frozen peeler crab mounted on pulley rigs armed with 2/0 hooks mounted pennell style (where one hook is tied to the end of the snood line and the other is just threaded on the line futher up and hooks into the top end of the bait).

Things looked great as Wendy, on her first cast, managed to snare her first decent sized Codling of about a pound and a half, and our first of the season. This fish was obviously a River Mersey resident as it colouring was a bit blotchy so after a quick photo was released.

I was getting plagued with tiny bits that I just couldn’t connect with so I started changing baits, alternating using squid or squid wrapped lug as well as lug or lug and crab.

It wasn’t long until the Sun started to set and in the golden glow of the Autumn light Wendy managed her second species of the evening, a small Whiting.

I was getting a little concerned by this point as it looked like I was going to end up going home with another blank under my belt but not long after landing hers a Whiting fell to my lug and squid cocktail – not a monster but my first fish from this venue so I was happy with that.

We could see the guys to the left of us catching the odd fish but they were not coming out in significant numbers and a few of them seemed to be finding snags on the river bed, which is always a pain as if you are constantly loosing gear you’re spending more time messing about with that rather than fishing.

We managed to avoid snags until later in the evening when the tide started to ebb, when Wendy lost three sets on the run and I lost a couple – luckily by then it was time to go but not before the Dogfish put in an appearance.

Looking across the Mersey to the Wirral and North Wales

Once the sun set fully these plagued everyone and it was tough to keep a bait in the water long enough for anything else to find it before a Dogfish pounced on it. Now I’ve caught loads of dogfish in my time sea fishing but these fish were big, I landed 3 in total and lost a few on the way in, all of them were well above 2lb in weight so although they were only dogfish, they were fairly good specimens.

Just a darkness fell proper and I was starting to think that it was not to be, I managed to land a fresh run Cod of about a pound and a half, not quite big enough to take but a fantastic result. You could tell it was a fresh rather than resident fish as its colouring was a lot paler and it just looked ‘nicer’ – not a blotch in sight.

And that was that, first outing at Seaforth Docks for Cod and we managed to catch the target species plus a few Dogfish and Whiting. Needless to say we’ll be coming back, it’s an easy place to fish once you find a comfy rock, with good parking and being part of the docks, your car is secure.

We’ve been informed that once we get into November it’s not unusual to bag fish of 3 or 4 pounds with the odd fish of 10 pounds falling to the lucky angler. With the venue being less than an hour away we’d be daft not to go…

Sea Fishing at Seaforth Dock – Venue Information

Seaforth Docks is part of the Port of Liverpool complex on the River Mersey and you will need a valid POLSAF permit to fish here. The best fishing is anywhere within about 100 metres of the car park and the area can be fished either from the concrete walkway above the rocks (easier footing) or by making you way down the rocks (easier to land your catch). Long casts are not required, anything around the 40-50 metre mark is fine and the bait of choice is black lug with or without peeler crab.

Target species is Cod during the winter with Dogfish appearing once darkness falls. The further from the car park you go the shallower it is and you will get Whiting and Dabs if you fish here.

The area can be fished on anything up to a 26 foot tide (liverpool tide height) as weed and holding in the current becomes a  problem in anything larger. The venue is usually fished a couple of hours to hi-water and 1 hour down.

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.

Good Sized Whiting for me from Cleveleys

With the high pressure dominating the weather and the rain finally giving way we manged to get out on Sunday night for a spot of sea fishing with a few of the guys from Blackpool and Leyton Angling Society (BLAS). Along with all sorts of seasonal running about I’d picked up some Black Lug from Wayne’s Tackle in Preston which although a bit lazy saved me having to pump any in the freezing cold at Formby so money well spent.

We arrived with about 3/4 hour to spare until the start of the BLAS match so had a good chance to catch up with friends we hadn’t seen for ages. After surveying the beach from the car park for any likely gulleys before the tide covered them up while wrapping up in almost every layer we had we made our way down to the waters edge.

With the sea almost flat we cast our Black Lug tipped with Mackeral baits into the darkness. It wasn’t long until the Whiting started to show, small at first but getting progressively larger throughout the evening. We swapped baits around a bit to see what else was there, using Squid to tip the worms or just on it’s own and managed to catch a few small codling (all undersized) as well as a just in-size Dab for Wendy.

Small Codling for Wendy

Moving up the beach as the tide continued to flood the fish just kept coming and one one occasion I felt my bait get ‘hit’ twice while winding back in to re-bait only to find a couple of Whiting had jumped on the bottom and top hook of a Pennel bait that was hopefully going to catch me a Cod.

It was one of those nights where no matter what bait you put out you were going to get a Whiting or two, regardless of what end tackle was used, the trick was going to be if you could manage to catch an in-size fish before the small army of little ones found the bait.

For once I was the lucky one and managed to come second in the match, admittedly out of only eight people but still, after not being out for a while it was good to catch anything and getting a few ‘points’ was a bit of an added bonus. Wendy, although catching the same number of fish as me, only managed one in size, the Dab, but still, 9 fish each more than made up for our freezing extremities.

The major revelation of the evening wasn’t anything to do with sea fishing though, as we’d be fishing from 6pm till 10pm we’d bought some food flasks and loaded them up with soup. Why we hadn’t done this before is a mystery as we usually take sandwiches but with it being a little chilly we thought something warm would be better. It was probably the best idea of the weekend.

Hot soup, a roll to dunk in it and a few fish being caught – who cares what the weather’s like…

A Fleetwood Cod

After checking out the weather we decided on joining some of the guys from Blackpool and Layton Angling Society (BLAS) on Blackpool North Wall to fish in a competition. On arriving (after driving through some sleet!) the choice was made to move the match to a more sheltered venue at Fleetwood, known as the Cadet Base, where the Sea Cadets have a building as the wind and hence the surf was too fierce.

The match was started at 8pm and scheduled to finish at 11.30pm. Wendy and I had been looking forward to the first Cod sea fishing session of the season and on my third cast I managed to snare a plump little codling of 1lb 12oz (42cm long), using a big lugworm as bait.

The weather stayed fine for most of the evening except for a very heavy hailstorm halfway through the session. I was the only one to catch a Codling but a few large Whiting came out as well as a small Rockling.

Two Whiting for Dave

The top rod of the evening was Dave who was managing to pull in Whiting 2 at a time towards to end of the match using big chunks of Mackeral as bait.

The top bait for us was Blow Lug as we were primarily after Cod but we experimented with using Mussels as well which seemed to catch Wendy a few fish. It’s difficult to know if this was due to the Mussels or not so we’ll keep trying until we figure it out. The top bait for the night and the match was fresh Mackerel.

To catch the first Codling of the season during the first Codling session was great and it’s currently being prepared and cooked for tea – fantastic!

Three different weather websites are giving almost the same forecast of strong westerly winds dropping slightly on Saturday night with no rain. The tides are going to be high and the peak of high water is at about 9.30pm. Westerly winds, lo-pressure and a night time high tide – a Cod hunters dream on the North West coast.

We’ll make the final choice tomorrow after checking the weather so hopefully on Sunday I’ll post a few pictures of some Cod!

Autumn Colour

With it being the Guy Fawkes celebrations during last weekend we didn’t get out sea fishing or fell walking as we spent a very enjoyable time at my parents.

I did manage to go out on Sunday with my father, his two labradors, my youngest brother and his girlfriend. We went for a gentle stroll around Beacon Fell which as always was wonderful while Wendy and mother prepared a feast for our return. A very relaxing weekend.

There have been some signs in both Lancashire and Merseyside that the cold weather is finally bringing the Cod and the larger Whiting down from their Northern summer feeding grounds with Cod up to about 3 pounds being caught around Fleetwood and a few almost the same size coming out of the River Mersey in last weekends sea fishing matches.

Hopefully next time we’re out I’ll be writing about Cod and chips!

Rossal - Looking North

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.

Number 144

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.

Fishy Features

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.

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”.

Seacombe Fishing Mark

Last Sunday (24th Sept.) was the first match of the WSF (Wirral Sea Fishing) Winter League held in conjuction with a BLAS (Blackpool and Layton Angling Society) match, held on the Wirral side of the River Mersey along Seacombe Promenade.

We met up at 9am to sign in for the match which, considering it was the first of the season, had a good turnout of about 50 hopeful anglers. After making our way to our chosen mark and getting set up the shout went up and we all cast our baits seaward.

Myself and Wendy weren’t expecting much but we were hoping to get a few Dabs close in on frozen lugworm and squid as we’d always done quite well using this tactic in the past.

But then the heavens opened, and I mean it hammered it down constantly for about an hour. The forecast had been light rains so thankfully we’d packed waterproofs but even we weren’t prepared for thunder and lightening. As the first bolt struck 50 anglers stepped smartly away from their rods which remained exactly as they were until the storm past about an hour later.

Seacombe, Wirral

Modern rods are about 13 foot long, made of carbon fibre and are excellent lightening conductors!

Then the sun came out. It was like a different day and everyone was busy changing baits regularly to try and catch a few fish and get an early lead in the league.

Unfortunately no one told the fish we were having a match and only about 10 were caught in four hours by 50 people (a few Dabs, Plaice, Flounder and undersized Codling and Whiting) – not a good start.

Wendy and I came in joint last – with about 40 others! At this time of year it is difficult to fish the Mersey as the summer species have moved out and the winter fish have yet to arrive so those that caught fish did very well.

We did get some excellent views of Liverpool across the river, where you can see all the famous landmarks.