With the gear only just cleaned from our Anglesey visit the weather looked spot on for a touch of sea fishing at Formby Point, Merseyside. The strong Westerly made for some impressive looking surf as I arrived on the beach to meet up with Kev and Chris, Kev had already had one small Bass and Chris a Flounder of 1lb 9oz so things were certainly looking hopeful.

Unfortunately for me that’s all they did, look… Even with the freshly pumped Black Lugworm that Kev supplied I couldn’t manage a single fish not matter if I cast far out or close in and the only other fish landed during the session were a couple more Flounder.

It may actually have been too windy although that does seem a bit unlikely for Bass, a fish that’s hunts in the surf, but we think the main problem was the speed the tide raced in with the wind behind it. It didn’t really give us much chance to fish the gully’s that run along the beach as we were constantly on the move as the tide flooded.

A smaller tide would give you more time to fish the (hopefully) more productive areas on a beach that is otherwise a featureless expanse of sand.

Warning: The tide races in here and all along the North West coast, take waders and be careful of the gullies filling up behind you – it is not a beach I’d confidently fish on my own unless I was going for a high water down session.

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.

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.

An Early Start Sea Fishing at Perch Rock, New Brighton

Once more the urge to get up at stupid o’clock overcame my common sense as it does with a lot a sea anglers as I made my way South through Liverpool and under the Mersey to meet up with a few of the guys from the Wirral Sea Fishing website at Perch Rock, New Brighton.

The target species for this sea fishing trip was Thornback Ray as a few had come out of the mark in previous weeks. We would be fishing two hours down to low water then a couple of hours back up into fairly deep water, at a range of anywhere between 50 yards and ‘as far as you can get it’ using either simple pulley or ‘up and over’ rigs armed with 3/0 hooks and baited with Sandeel and Squid wraps.

Signs were good as Richie landed a small Thornback Ray of about 3 pounds to a Mackerel and Squid wrap (just to be different) but appart from a solitary Whiting to Joe that was the only fish we saw with the crabs stripping the baits almost as soon as they hit the sea bed.

A hour into the flood Kev and I called it a day as the weed became to much with the fast current as the sea flooded into the River Mersey so that’s another blank for me. Still, it was good to get out on a beautiful morning and put faces to a few names from the WSF forum. We heard later that Joe went again on the following low tide but during darkness and caught a fish of about 5 pounds – usually the light level doesn’t affect the Mersey due to the colour of the water but who knows – maybe next time I’ll fish it into darkness.

Dawn breaks over a mirror like River Mersey

Sea Fishing… it brings out the nutter in some people and last weekend I joined the crazy crew as a few of us arrived at the mark known as The Rock Channel at New Brighton on the Wirral Peninsula, Merseyside at 4:15am. Yes, you read that correctly just past 4 in the morning, I’d left the house at 3am arriving to meet a few of the guys from the Wirral Sea Fishing forum after driving South through an eerily quiet Southport and Liverpool.

This was my second assault (and probably last attempt for the year) on The Rock Channel to try and catch a Smooth Hound so after a quick chat we got suited and booted, waded across the gully and about 30 minutes later were fishing into the last of the ebbing tide as the sun rose over Seaforth Docks on the other side of the River Mersey.

The weapon of choice was a standard pulley rig armed with a Varivas 3/0 Big Mouth hook and baited with peeler crab. It didn’t take long for a greedy little Dab to somehow get it’s mouth round the bait and register the tiniest of bites. As the sun rose this was to be the standard scenario for the trip – the bait would hit the sea bed and a few minutes later the rod would give a little twitch and hey presto – another Dab – there must be hundreds of them.

Considering how many anglers turned up by the time the tide turned, if the Smooth Hounds were there, someone would have caught one but for some reason, even though they’ve been there for the past couple of weeks – they weren’t there on Sunday and after looking at the forums today – the results show they’re not there today either.

Maybe they’ve had their fill of Crabs out of the Mersey estuary this year, maybe with it being a big tide and the weather being so hot recently the waters too warm at low tide as it empties a lot more, maybe we were all just a bit crap… who knows, I know some of the guys I was with are very accomplished anglers and helped develop / discover this mark and they don’t why the smoothies weren’t there either so it just goes to show…

You can be in the right place at the right time, armed with the right bait and have fantastic local knowledge but if the fish aren’t there you’re just plain out of luck.

Anglesey for a couple of weeks in a couple of weeks so I doubt I’ll be out sea fishing till then as I’ve a load of stuff to get ready, although I may just sneak in a trip to the River Douglas to see if I can snare a Flounder or two or maybe go to Mere Beck and have a practice fly fishing before attempting to catch a Bass on the fly on Anglesey.

As I was driving through Liverpool the weather changed dramatically for the worse and by the time I exited the tunnel on the Wirral side the rain was bouncing almost as high as the car windows – I was starting to think maybe I was a little mad to attempt this until I arrived at New Brighton prom. to be greeted by a few more like minded fools. We were there now – rain wasn’t going to stop any one sea fishing with the chance of a smoothy in sight.

We waded across the first big gully about 2.5 hours before low water and set off along the bank to a spot about 1/2 mile from the shore. The sand bar and gully has changed a lot since last year and although the initial gully was over waist high the bar was clear of water which made things considerably easier than last year when we were wading knee deep for the whole treck.

Reaching the spot I baited a pulley rig armed with a big 3/0 hook with some fantastic peeler crab bought from Blackpool Angling Centre on Saturday morning and cast out eager for my first hound and waited patiently. It’s a good job anglers are patient as this was repeated many times for the next 2 hours with only a few small Dabs and a Whiting coming out – somehow managing to get the huge hook in their mouths.

Further up the bar one angler managed 4 Smooth-hounds and he was only a hundred meters or so from us but for me and my friends today was not to be a smooth hound day. Non were caught to the right of us, nearer the ‘beach’ so maybe the channel was slightly deeper where he was, we’ll know where to go next time though.

The trouble with fishing this spot is it changes every year with the sands and channels shifting all the time so the first few trips are a bit ‘hit and miss’ until you find where the deeper water is and hence, where the smooth hounds are feeding.

We called it a day about 1/2 hour after low water as the tide races in at this venue and it’s dangerous to stay any longer, sea fishing is great but it’s not worth taking risks when they’re easily avoided. In a couple of weeks the water should have warmed a little more, the tides will be ideal and we’ll know where to set up stall so hopefully, I’ll be out again and just maybe I can catch my first Smooth Hound.

Avocet at RSPB Marshside, Southport

As the weather has been so good this week we went for a quick walk to RSPB Marshside, Southport, to see if we could spot the Avocets and chicks that have started breeding on the marshes in recent years. As per normal we took almost every piece of optical equipment we owned assuming the birds would be miles and miles away.

Shock of shocks! There birds were on the rapidly drying up pond as close to the road as they could possibly be so our walk quickly became a good excuse for me to practice with the Canon EOS 450D I purchased a couple of months ago. The chicks were to far away to get a good photo but I managed to get a few others.

Although I prefer the top image of the Avocet it was a tough decision as the reflection of this other one and the birds profile go together so well.

Black Tailed Godwits being boisterous in their summer plumage.

After spending some time just watching the birds from the hides at the reserve we walked round the old sand reclamation plant where I did my best to take a few photos of the smaller birds that seemed to tease us where ever we went, eventually getting a shot of a male Linnet in the evening sun. I tried to get a few photos of the young rabbits but they were just too fast – even though there seemed to be hundreds of them.

After driving past the sands works so many times it was great to walk round it for a change. The amount of birds, animals, grasses and flowers that thrive on the marshes in the area is astounding and I’ll bet most people who drive past have no idea of the fantastic diversity on their doorstep.

Sometimes something as simple as grass can make an impact. Looking towards Blackpool in the distance.

Even more grass - I like the vibrant green vertical stems on this one. Camera practice - adjusting depth of field.

The 'Rock Channel', low water a mile past the 'T' Groyne, Wallasey

Just how fantastic has the weather been this past week?

I’ve never walked our local River Douglas so much, nor seen so much wildlife – from Arctic Terns flying up the river searching for fish to Painted Lady butterflies ‘dancing’ in the evening sun, it’s just been magnificent.

I’d been looking forward to giving the ‘Rock Chanel’ a go for years and now that I’d finally got some decent chest waders from Scierra I set off at 7am Sunday morning, armed with peeler crab as bait, to meet up with a few of the guys from wirralseafishing.co.uk at on Kings Parade, Wallasey, in front of the ‘T’ Groyne. Our target was to be the early summer run of Smoothhounds, we knew they’d caught a few from the boats in the area we were to fish although obviously further out. It was going to be big fish or blank.

The trek to this mark needs to be experienced first hand, it’s not nick-named ‘The Long Walk’ for nothing. It starts off as you wait for the tide to ebb enough to get across a deep gully that will give you access to what will become a sand bar bar running about a mile and a half out towards the far horizon. We managed to get across with inches to spare from the top of our chest waders then slogged through knee to waist deep water or soft sand to the end of the sand bar for about 1/2 hour – it felt like years and I was absolutely knackered by the time we got there.

Just a quick safety note here: Chest waders are essential and you need to pack up fishing and leave an hour after low water – the tide floods quicker than it ebbs and where we were fishing you wouldn’t be able to see it coming in behind you.

Looking NW from The "Rock Channel'. Not a soul in sight - perfect...

We launched our crab laden 3/0 hooks into the rapidly appearing channel and waited…

And waited…

And waited some more. As the sun beat down on us I was thankful that I’d brought a few cans of pop to drink and that my waders were breathable – some of the guys had full rubber or neoprene waders – how the hell they managed in the 25°C heat I’ve no idea.

If the Smoothhounds had of been there we should have caught almost straight away according to Kev, who’s had them (with photographic evidence) and an hour after low water we packed up and headed back.

As we got nearer the ‘beach’ where the sun had attracted a horde of people it was good to see the life-guards getting people off the bank and warning them of the incoming tide, most of whom would have been swimming to get back to shore an hour later.

So, no hounds yet but they’ll be here soon, and when they are I’ll be doing the ‘long walk’ once again to get them.

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.

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.