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.

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…