In typical sea fishing style after a beautiful day on Saturday I arrived at the Venue know as Rossall Hospital nr. Fleetwood and it was chucking it down. As this beach is very exposed the gullies change location so while I was waiting for the rest of the BLAS crew for our 3rd match of the season I had a quick look up and down the stretch of beach we’d be fishing.

The best of these gullies was already occupied but looking North I spotted a likely looking spot so once everyone arrived I made my way to where I remembered seeing the break in the sandbank – remembered because in the short time I was waiting the sea had completely covered the sand and was breaking against the shingle.

Eight of us fished this match, the first leg of the beach cup, and it was hard going – at least for me.

Although there was a good surf on, a Bass like surf, no Bass showed – we didn’t expect any as it’s a little early but it would have been nice. The main species that was coming out was Dab and Flounder but the only thing I was catching was a few rays of sun.

Although the sun made me feel a bit better Tom, fishing a few yards North of me after having a bit of trouble with his reel came over for me to witness his Dab – I was pleased for him – at least a little bit…

The tide was ebbing quite quickly now so, using just Black Lug to try and keep my bait streamlined, I launched a bait as far as possible. Needless to say the cast went a bit wrong as these things always do when you’re under pressure and as Shacky called ‘all out’ I wound in thinking of my first ‘blank’ of the season only to find a fat Three Bearded Rockling firmly attached to my rig with half a large Black Lugworm down its gob. Possibly the greediest fish in the sea but I’ve never been so relieved to see that little Rockling.

As well as Dab, Flounder and Rockling an undersized Plaice was caught. Everyone caught something and had a good natter so once again thanks go to the Blackpool and Layton Angling Society guys for a great morning and hopefully I’ll do a bit better at our second visit to Fairhaven in a couple of weeks.

Not a wave in sight - lets hope the fish don't notice...

Sunday dawned bright and clear and although I’d been out the night before and lost an hours sleep due to the clocks going forward I arrived at the chosen venue, Fleetwood Channel, in plenty of time for the 2nd BLAS sea fishing match of the season.

Nine of us fished into the estuary channel of the River Wyre a couple of hours down to low water and a couple of hours back up again using predominantly peeler crab as bait with the odd try of Lug, Mackerel or Squid.

Once again I was first in with a fish, a plump little Flounder of 33 cms which went safely back then, as per last week, I had to wait ages for a second while people either side of me caught but eventually I did catch another Flounder of 31 cms which was a relief – I was starting to think that I was only being allocated one fish per match by the sea fishing gods.

A few other species were caught such as Codling (all undersized), a Plaice (again undersized) and a Long Spined Sea Scorpion (I think) of 20 cms. Almost everything was caught using Peeler Crab which seems to be the only bait of worth at the moment.

Flat calm on the River Wyre estuary looking towards Knott End

Great weather, good company and some fish – if there’s anything better I’m not sure I know what it is…

While chatting we did notice a bottle floating by and when it was washed up next to us we found it was a genuine message in a bottle, with a wax sealed cork. After struggling to get the paper out we found a note written by someone called John on 25/9/10 and thrown in the sea at Aberystwyth – which is an ‘up the coast’ journey of about 175 miles.

Not a genie in a bottle but still, a little bit different.

Next week proper beach fishing from Rossall – time to break out the long range stuff.

Morecambe Bay, The Bay Between the RNLI and the Yatch Club Tower

There had been a report on one of the fishing forums covering the North West of the UK that a few Plaice had been caught up at Morecambe, nothing huge – up to a couple of pounds, but as the weather forecast for today was good I nipped down to Crosby to dig a few Blow Lug after work on Thursday and we braved the traffic and ventured North. Along the M6, through Lancaster and an hour or so after leaving we arrived at Marine Road Central, Morecambe at about 10:30am.

A Small Flounder For Me

We were a bit early as you can see from the top photograph so we had a bit of a walk while waiting for the tide to reach the bottom of the shingle.

It didn’t take long for the water to reach us and with the sun shining on the mountains of the Lake District in the distance we cast our baits into the bay and waited. And Waited then waited some more. A few other people turned up to fish but it was definately a day for fishing rather than catching. I managed to land a small Flounder on frozen Black Lug and Wendy had a bite, although we think it was just crabs picking the mackeral tips of her lugworm baits, but most of the baits were coming back in untouched.

No Plaice for us but it was worth a try, maybe the fish are starting to feed on the crabs that should now be starting to peel, maybe they were somewhere else today, who knows?

But what a lovely day to be out and what a great view of the Lake District and the mountains over the other side of the bay. Morecambe is definately going through a face lift at the moment and it was good to see how clean the place (pardon the pun) is but I don’t think we’ll go back for a while.

We tend to like fishing where the only thing you can see is sand, sea, sky and rocks, not that we’re anti-social you understand…

Morecambe Marine Road Central - The Yatch Club Tower

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.

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.