Our annual September visit to Anglesey coincided with some truly horrid weather this year – payback for a beautiful 2 weeks in July maybe. In fact it was so bad that our first nights sea fishing was cut short, the wind and associated weed was so bad that even huge leads couldn’t keep the baits in the water for any length of time. It doesn’t look it in the photo above but trust me, it was horrid.

Saturday, according to the weather forcast didn’t look so bad so we arrived about 2 hours before high water and made our way to the small ‘bay’ formed by the bend in the ‘river’ between Holy Island and Anglesey proper. There were a lot of anglers fishing the beach to our left but with the tide racing in and out on such a flat beach it can be a bit of a hassle moving all the time, and since we were on holiday, we wanted something easy.

Actually we always fish this spot – it’s been good to us in the past and once again it didn’t let us down. As normal there wasn’t much action during the flood and realistically the weed was a bit more of a problem than we anticipated but we wanted to get there early to get our favourite spot.

Once the tide started ebbing the weed vanished and fishing began in earnest. An hour into the ebb my rod gave the tell tail bend, which just kept going, and I struck into what was obviously a good fish. It put up a fair scrap in the surf but eventually a lovely female Small Eyed Ray was beached, weighed at 9lb 3oz, photographed and returned to fight another day.

Unfortunately that was the only fish of the weekend and once again the weather came down, making fishing impossible for the rest of our trip but after a few days on Anglesey even the weather can’t stress you out.

A wonderful island with great fishing which we will continue to visit as long as we are able, in fact we’re already planning next years visits.

After the thankfully non-eventful journey down, unpacking more gear than would supply an Amazonian expedition and a trip to the local supermarket to stock up on food and beer we decided on an easy venue for our first nights sea fishing, hoping for Bass and armed with some fantastic peeler crab as bait from Menai Angling we arrived at Cemyln Bay a couple of hours before high tide.

The wind was a bit unpleasant and it looked like everyone had the same idea as us as Cemlyn is fairly protected from the weather. The fishing wasn’t great to say the least but we managed a few dogfish, no Bass this time…

The following few days we gradually ‘turned off’ and proceded to soak up the sun and think of nothing more taxing than ‘what shall we have for lunch?’ The weather was fantastic so we just relaxed for a few days, making the most of it.

Tuesday was a day for fishing though so with the wind in the East we elected to try a rock mark called Ty Croes, where the Anglesey race track is. On arriving at the car park there were a few cars there already but stupidly we made our way down to the rocks only to find all the available spots taken – I’m sure there are more but we don’t know the Ty Croes area well enough to find them. Plan B was put into action, go back to the cottage, chill out some more then fish Broad Beach, just South of Rhosneigr a couple of hours either side of high water into darkness.

This proved to be a great move, as we were entertained the whole evening by a contant stream of dogfish. Not the target species until I spotted the classic bang of a Bass bite on the rod I was fishing with peeler crab relatively close in and reeled in my first Bass of the year. At about a pound and a half isn’t wasn’t a monster and it swam away safely to terrorise more tiny sea denizens.

We also managed to catch a few whiting but by about midnight we’d had enough and happily made our way back to Bodedern.

The following day dawned bright and cheery once more so it was another one of those chilling out days, it’s amazing how doing nothing but relaxing can tire you out…

We did go for a stroll around Penrhos Beach and found a couple of likely looking marks to try during our summer visit as well as finding an old boat house, complete with rusty rails leading down into the sea. It must have been here ages but was long abandoned and was now just a remnant of ages past.

Thursday the weather turned a bit unpleasant but we couldn’t complain and continued to do more relaxing…

Friday was to be our last full day on Anglesey so after picking up some more peeler crab bait from Valley Baits and having a chat about likely venues we made our way to Cymyran Bay where, instead of walking over the dunes to the sea we went right and fishing a pool in the ‘river’ that separates Anglesey from Holy Island. The tide blasts through this channel and we would only get a a couple of hours either side of low water to fish it but it was worth a try.

Fishing down to low water we got a few bites but nothing to get excited about but once the tide turned and we moved ‘up’ the ‘river’ a bit to stop being cut off the place went nuts. Although we didn’t connect with anything, and I’m not entirely sure why, we both had some thumping bites for at least an hour, after than the weed and tide became too much of a problem. Why couldn’t we connect with the fish? Maybe the hooks were to big for a bait, maybe weed masked to points – I’ve not idea – but we’re definitely going back either armed with crab again or, after being to actually see the fish on the surface, armed with the fly rods and some Sandeel ‘flys’ as hopefully by summer thats what the Bass will want.

No fish from this venue but damn – it was exciting…

Saturday dawned with mixed weather so we packed the car and had lunch at the refurbished cafe at RSPB South Stack where the cliff top flowers are stunning and the cliffs are covered in breeding sea birds of all types.

Once again Anglesey didn’t disappoint and we came home relaxed, a little sun tanned and with a few fishy stories, we’ll be back in a couple of months and we’re looking forward to it already…

It pays to take note of the high water mark...

A few of the guys from wirralseafishing.co.uk had a sea fishing session at Cymyran Bay last weekend. The tide was very high and unfortunately Shaun hadn’t fished the mark before and parked in an area that flooded. I’ll let him explain…

I wasn’t going to admit to this but in the interests of letting you know the dangers of not knowing an area very well (I’ve only ever fished here over low water) …this was an hour or so before high water… imagine if I’d been catching fish and stayed with Kev and the lads. Luckily it started and I was able to drive onto dry land… The result was an hour and half of bailing out and red-raw hands from wringing out a towel to top off my blank.

Thanks for the admission mate – just goes to show you can never be too careful.

Our final sea fishing trip to Anglesey this year coincided with what was hopefully to be a run of Small Eyed Rays feeding up in the shallows of Cymyran Bay ready for winter and although the weather forcaste looked a bit rubbish we still took every single piece of fishing gear we owned to make the most of our time on the island.

We arrived on the Island just after lunch after stopping off in Liverpool to get our POLSAF permits sorted so we can fish Liverpool docks, and after doing the normal ‘on arrival’ food shopping grabbed some bait from Valley Baits in the form of some Black Lug, Sandeel and Squid made our way to Cymyran Bay to have a quick sea fishing session for a couple of hours either side of high water.

Although the wind was fairly strong and blowing at us which is not ideal by any stretch of the imagination we still thought there may be a chance of a fish or two, and with a bit of surf running even into the ‘bay’ formed by the bend in the channel between Holy Island and Anglesey proper I set up two rods; one with small size 1 hooks baited with either strips of Squid or Black Lug for Bass and the other with a large 3/0 hooks baited with Sandeel for rays.

The weather managed to stay clear but the fish didn’t turn up until about 1½ hours into the ebb when the rod armed with the small hooks and baited with squid strip gave a violent jerk then a typical slack line bite, indicating a fish had picked up the bait and was running towards the beach. I quickly wound down into it thinking ‘only a small one’ until I managed to get it to the edge of the beach where suddenly it locked solid as the fish got caught in the backwash.

All you can do in this situation is hold on until the the wash brings it ever closer, then once beached make a grab for it, hopefully before another wave turns up. Thankfully Wendy was very adept at this and the first and only Small Eyed Ray of the session was landed – a lovely 7lb 8oz female which after a quick photograph was safely released.

It goes to show though – even a small hook can land a big fish and it’s worth noting that it’s always worth using good quality gear and strong hooks – the rig that caught this fish was only armed with Varivas Semi Circle hooks – size 1 but they certainly did the job even if the rig suffered by having a few of it’s beads shattered, easily fixed though. Typically the rod aimed at rays caught nothing…

The following day the weather was truly dismal so our next session was Sunday night, same place, same state of tide but this time into darkness.

The weather was a bit kinder with hardly any wind and we glad we got there early as the beach to the left of our chosen spot was packed with anglers. Apparently lots of rays had been caught off the flat beach on the ebb but fishing a tide down on a flat beach is tough, always having to cast at maximum range and move to follow the tide out then 10 minutes later do it all again as your bait is only in inches of water. Not my idea of fun and the little bay we were fishing in almost guaranteed a decent depth of water for a couple of hours after high water.

We had high hopes as darkness usually helps beach fishing but again only one Small Eyed Ray was landed, another female weighing 5lb 5oz, this time on a beefed up two hook rig armed with size 3/0 Varivas Semi Circle hooks baited with Sandeel about 2 hours into the ebb.

We also caught Whiting and a small Flounder but this was to be my weekend for catching Small Eyed Rays with non falling to Wendy’s rod although we were casting the same distance using the same baits and almost identical rigs.

Monday was even windier and forcaste rain so we decided against fishing although we did have a look at a mark called Lily Ponds which looks promising for the future but I’m not a big fan of fishing rocks in 25 mph wind and rain, fishing is great, but not great enough to take that sort of risk.

We left Anglesey on Tuesday after calling in at the Pilot House cafe at Penmon Point already talking about our return visit in the Spring of 2011. Not that we’re addicted you understand…

Rainbow over Penmon Lighthouse - right place, right time, not the best photo but lucky eh?

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…

Plas Cymryan - Is this the most perfect place to live?

We spend the last weekend of September on Anglesey searching for Small Eyed Rays and any other denizens of the deep we could find.

Unfortunately no one told the fish that our reason for being on the island was to catch a few of them and the two times we ventured out we didn’t even have a bite – let alone manage to land anything of substance. As it was we weren’t that bothered, we just needed a little break before the mayhem that is the run up to Christmas and if you can’t relax on Anglesey there is something wrong with you.

Perfect bait placement - now where are the fish?

As well as trying at Cymryan we had a go for Bass in the inland sea, which is the large body of water separating Holy Island from Anglesey proper but the only fish we saw were a few small Bass or Mullet jumping wherever our baits weren’t.

So that’s it for Anglesey this year – we’ll be back chasing Bass in the spring but until then it’s eyes to the weather as we hope for a few winter storms to bring in the Cod up here in Lancashire.

Looking Across the Inland Sea Towards Holyhead

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.

Cymyran Bay - A Fine Surf

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.

Cymyran - A Fine Place to Live

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.

Small Eyed Ray from Cymyran

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.

And a Small Eyed Ray For Me

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?

South Stack, Anglesey

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.

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…