Once again we took our 2 week summer break on Anglesey where we intended to do a bit of walking and sea fishing. The weather was exceptional and we managed to get out and about on every day we wanted too, some days though we were so relaxed even fishing seemed hard wrok – I know – even I was amazed but Anglesey does that to you, you turn up and all the worries in the world just vanish as the island casts a spell upon you.

We tried a few new locations this time round, some completely new to us, others where we’d been before but never fished.

The first was Sandy Beach where, if the conditions are right, either Bass can caught (if there’s a surf) or Smooth Hound (if it’s mirror calm). Both times we were there it was neither rough nor flat with only a slight breeze making very small waves. Neither of the target species was caught but we managed a few Dogfish which saved the blank on our first sea fishing venture of the holiday.

We tried another beach just South of Sandy Beach but again the conditions weren’t in our favour and only a solitary Dogfish was landed.

Our next session was at a well known venue near Anglesey Race Track, Ty Croes where, after having a chat at Valley baits we were prepared for the mark we knew being occupied (which it was) so we tried a new one a bit further South known as Three Points (I think). This mark was very shallow compared to the favourite Ray hotspot but I managed a few Mackerel from the fast tidal waters about 80 meters out while Wendy got a few Pollock on float fished Ragworm closer in. What made this particular trip special was a pod of Harbour Porpoise ‘fishing’ about 100 meters off the rocks – we sat for a while and watched the experts, the fact we hadn’t landed anything spectacular completely forgotten.

Afon Alaw Tidal Lagoon

A venue I’d found while looking around our maps was a tidal lagoon where Afon Alaw flows into the bay formed by Penrhos on one side and the Gorad rocks on the other. We saw plenty of Mullet cruising around but even after chatting to the local experts we still couldn’t catch any, either on float fished Ragworm or fly fishing a sand shrimp type lure. We tried all sorts but they just wouldn’t take any notice of what we were doing – they’re there though and next time we’ll be a bit more prepared.

Once again we tried an early evening stint from the Gorad rocks where we fished from a couple of hours after low water for two hours – any longer and we’d have been stuck on the rocks. We’ve always been told to bottom fish Ragworm here but the crab activity meant the baits were stripped before the fish could find them. The most exciting time was just sa the water started to flow, you could see the fish breaking the surface so while Wendy tried a few plugs I again tried the fly rod with a sandeel pattern. We both had a few follows but no hooks ups – it was good fun though and a great way to spned an evening.

A new venue for us was Porth Aels, West of Aberffraw, where the water was so clear you could easily see to the bottom of the gulleys we were fishing into. We caught a few Wrasse, Ballan and Corkwing as well as a very plump Blenny and spent a very pleasant afternoon baking in the sun watching the floats bob up and down in a mirror calm sea.

This is an area we intend to explore a bit more and it looks to have huge potential for both Wrasse, the bully boys of the rocks and Bass as they chase the bait fish into the shore.

Apparently the bay you walk past where there is ‘the church on the rock’, St. Cwyfan’s Church, is full of Mullet on calm evening so again – somewhere new to try in the future.

We had a few walks, nothing to strenuous and spotted a few likely haunts for Mullet or Bass but mainly we either fished, relaxed or fished and relaxed – perfect.

Inland Sea - perfect Mullet hunting area

Once again we stayed at Ty Cristion which was excellent and as we were fishing mostly on the North or West side of the island we got most of our baits from Valley Baits with a bit we collected on our way through to the cottage coming from Menai Angling – both excellent shops with good local knowledge.

So… did we have a good time?

You’re damn right we did, Anglesey never fails to deliver no matter what the weather does and this time we had truly amazing weather, caught a few fish and even got a bit of a tan.

Plans are already hatching for our next visit in a few months for our annual Small Eyed Ray hunt…

Wind whipping the sand along the beach at Perch Rock

Met up with a few of the guys from Blackpool and Layton Angling Society for an afternoon sea fishing match at Perch Rock, New Brighton, and to get details of how to get a Port of Liverpool Sea Angling Federation (POLSAF) permit to enable us to fish Liverpool Docks Alex Wall in time for the winter Cod season (I can always hope).

As BLAS matches aren’t exactly serious I elected to alternate casting fairly close in with a two hook rig baited with frozen Lug / Squid or Sandeel sections for Dabs or Whiting with another single hook up and over pulley rig baited with Sandeel or Squid for Thornback rays.

The wind was a lot stronger than forcaste, blowing down the estuary, out to sea which endeavoured to cover everything in sand, I’m still finding it in my eyebrows the following day after having a shower.

The fishing was poor with only Kev and Simon managing to catch anything of match worthy note; a Whiting and Dab to Kev and a Mackerel to Simon, the first I’ve heard of coming out of the Mersey. I managed a half decent Whiting that was just to small to count plus a few other ‘pin’ Whiting while the other guys had similar results to me.

So, after a run of blanks, although my fish didn’t count in the match, I did finally manage to catch something.

Llandudno, North Wales

So what else did we do last year? Not a lot of sea fishing or fel walking that’s for sure. We did manage to suprise my father though which is a task in itself. For the past few years he has been entering the Three Castles Welsh Classic Trial with a friend, Bill. He works as the navigator and Bill, the proud owner of the car – a beautiful bright red Triumph TR5, is the driver.

This year (2008) we arranged to go down to Llandudno but we took company. Every year Dad and Bill go for 4 days leaving my mother and their dog, Megan – a black lab, behind. So – we picked up mum and Megan and took them to see the finish of the rally.

Three Castle Rally, TR5

Did we suprise my father?

I think we can safely say yes – it’s not often we can ‘get’ him, although how we’re going to top this one i’ll never know.

Once again the weather was stunning and after a good chat and a look at the cars we meandered our way back along the promenade only for me to spot a few guys fishing for Mackerel from the shore. It looked like they were doing fairly well and every so often a flash of silver and blue / green could be seen as their prizes were beached.

If there is anything quiet as frustrating a watching fish being caught when your tackle is almost 100 miles away I’ve yet to discover it. We left them too it, another great day in Llandudno and managing to suprise my father – priceless.

A couple of Spider Crabs

We had been looking forward to going sea fishing in South Devon since we booked the cottage this time last year. Alas – things we not to go as we’d hoped.

We managed to find the local tackle shop which I’d found on the internet and initially they seemed very helpful, with all sorts of information on where to fish but in our eagerness to catch we were blinded by our own enthusiasm.

The first place we tried was Beesands, a very steep slopping beach, we didn’t know what state of tide to fish it or really what bait to use so we took everything… and caught 2 spider crabs in 4 hours!

We tried all sorts of places but most of the rock marks we were pointed towards needed climbing gear or a helicopter to reach the water.

One of the nicest places we fished was Prawl point but after being told the water was deep we were a gain disappointed to find casting out only landed your bait in very shallow water.

A Wrasse for Wendy, Start Point

Wendy did manage to catch a couple of small Wrasse but again, I had nothing.

Another problem we encountered was the lack of bait in the area. The quality of the frozen bait was not up to the standard we are used to and with the weather being so bad there were no Sandeels available.

It became apparent after fishing at another very beautiful area in the Kinsbridge Estuary called Mill Bay but not getting any fish that the information we were getting was also not of the standard we were used to in Anglesey – we were not getting any details on tides to fish, conditions or tactics and we were getting a bit frustrated by this point.

Eventually after nearly two weeks of no fish and watching a few people trying for Mackeral off the beach at Torcross, where we had a very good sea food diner, I resorted to trying for Mackeral. Finally I caught some fish!!!

Finally - two Mackeral

You could actually see the Mackeral about 10 feet from the edge of the sea so it wasn’t skillful fishing by any means but I was desperate to catch.

We tried a few other areas but eventually just decided to enjoy the rest of our break without doing any more fishing.

So what went wrong?

I think we are so used to getting valuable local advice from the tackle shops in Anglesey, North Wales and the North of England that we assumed we’d get the same standard of information from the ones in Devon. We were wrong and a valuable lesson was learned.

So – what now! Well next year we’re hoping to go to South West Ireland but we’re staying at a place that specifically caters for the needs of the sea angler, with local guides, a boat, bait and tackle and as much information as you could ever need – I hope.

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!

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!