Win Some, Lose Some

Despite it being kid's holiday season I'm back out west, in the camper in a field five minutes from the beach for a eleven quid a night. Not bad eh ?

I was aiming to increase my species count as it's coming up to prime time now.

Tides are building, high water around dusk, just about perfect. First hour passed without any bites, then a couple of knocks that resulted in a tub gurnard. Only a litlun, but another species added.

Shoals of whitebait were being harried by predators so a light spinning rod was set up and very quickly I was catching some big mackerel and the occasional scad. Lovely.

As dusk approached I started catching dogs, pout and the inevitable, hideous, slimy turds that are strap conger. After a stream of these creatures I had a different kind of bite and as I wound in I was convinced I'd got a big sole. Twenty yards out it went solid. Snagged. Bastard !

Snapped off, cheesed off, I called it a night.

Next day I was back in glorious evening sunshine on an almost deserted beach. In southern England. In August. I'm glad people don't like walking.

First cast with a huge fillet of mackerel, hoping for a undulate or small eyed ray and within a couple minutes the rod tip pulled down and sprung back. Great start, the rod hooped over in a satisfying curve with just the odd thump on the tip in typical ray style.

As the fish appeared in the surf it had changed from a ray to a bloody great bass. Well chuffed !

Cracking fish. I think I'd swap it for a big sole though.

Down In Da Hoooodzzz

Bit of urban fishing. Not really my thing at all, but there's some monster thick lipped mullet feasting on the tasty turdy titbits.

We head to the shite pipe, in the heart the rundown city, where feral yoofs roamed unhindered by the feds. 

Actually, it's that run down there's nobody at all about and the interesting aroma from the pipe probably discourages 99.9 per cent of the population from coming within a mile of here.

There were loads of mullet about, cruising around, swirling and generally sticking two fingers up at us. I drip fed bread mash for a couple of hours but no interest whatsoever.

We did have some ridiculously small flounders though. We were hoping for a goby or anything to add to the species list.

Back to the south west in the camper on Friday, standby for some proper reports.

Can't wait.

Magnificent Muddy Marshland Mullet Magic

Should have been a red top sub editor eh ? Although I'm not really suited to it as I'm not obsessed with house prices and immigrants, coming over here, etc, etc.

Anyway, mullet. Plenty of thin lips about, I've been having short sessions fishing with Conc and Baz.

Last night Baz tried fly fishing for them for the first time. Picked a most unsuitable day, cool and windy. Very few mullet visible.

I had a nice keeper sized bass on maddies on a tiny hook, Conc had another eel( his third eely evening in a row, lucky bloke ) anď Baz pulled a rabbit out the hat ( sorry, mullet not rabbit ) in the shape of a 4lb 5oz thin lip which took his shrimp like fly as soon as it hit the surface and led him on a merry dance

Incredible fight on a light five weight rod, took him seven minutes to get in. He was well chuffed, as we all were for him. What a fish to get you off the mark.

On Sunday me and Conc fished on another cool evening. No mullet showing, so we fished slightly deeper water with popped up maddies or ragworm.

Plenty of fish about though, two good mullet for me, best one 3.5lb ish. Two mullet, a keeper bass and two eels for Conc, although he was using two rods, one of which was ludicrously over powered for fishing on a tiny river. To be fair, the bass he had lifted the rod butt off the ground as it took.

I almost forgot, I had a flounder too.....

So, some pretty decent, social fishing in the past week, really enjoyable stuff. I'm having another go tomorrow in what is forecast to be lovely weather. Can't beat the summer.

Bringing it All Back Home

First bit of looooocal fishing for ages and ages. I dug some maddies, found some mullet and started fishing at low water on a warm summer afternoon.

Plenty of mullet about, loads lined up in very fast, shallow water in the run off from a deepish pool. They looked well catchable, very active and tightly packed together.

An hour later and biteless I had a re think.

The trusty baited spinner had failed to get any interest whatsoever, as had trotting a sub surface bait over the shallows. 

I popped up a small harbour rag on a static rig and a few minutes later had a decent take resulting in a nice thin lip of around 2-2.5lb. 

I can't say they were really having it but I ended up with three thins and a one inch long bass, so a decent enough afternoon. Very enjoyable and species no 49 in the bank for 2021.

Got to catch a thick lip now. A bit more difficult but I know where and how. Just got to time it right.

End or the Tour

 Well, when I say end of the ( camper ) tour, what I really mean is, end of the spring/early summer tour.

The late summer/autumn tour will be different, probably shorter trips. Maybe.

The species hunt has ground to a halt. I think I'm on 48 now and many of the species remaining will need proper targeting. The good news is that the next three or four months will be the best time of year.

Late August and sole, various gurnard, mullet and wrasse species, huss, garfish and scad are all on the radar and are all well catchable given reasonable conditions.

Couple of pics from the north west coast of Wales. Yet another stunning bit of coastline.

You can see how rammed the beaches were. Or not. Admittedly, it was a bit of a trek to reach these spots but it keeps everyone away. Says Meldrew.

Few weeks work and I'm off to the south west somewhere, just for a shortish trip.

Toodle pip.

Shhhhhhh

Keep this place a secret, it's the new "Best Place In The World".

Parked in the camper five hundred feet up on the cliffs, facing Ireland, with Anglesey to the north, Snowdonia to the east and the broad expanse of  Cardigan Bay to the south.

I can see all of it in an amazing three hundred and sixty degree panoramic scenic extravaganza. Like the purple prose ?

Getting down to the rock marks is, err, challenging. The type of place where official advice would be "don't fish alone or in bad weather, wear a life jacket, approach with extreme caution, etc".

To be fair, the speed of the tide race is frightening. If you fall in you're not getting out. Well, not alive anyway. Best not fall in then.

It's taken a bit of time to get to grips with what happens with the tides. They constantly stop and start and fishing when it's slack water seems a waste of time, for pollack and mackerel at least. But when the water starts flowing the fish usually switch on immediately.

Yesterday evening I had some very big mackerel and a few pollack,  which hit the metal lures right on the edge of the main flow. One after another for an hour or so until the flow slackened.

After a killer trek back up the cliff, I cooked and shared them with another bloke in the van parked up next to me, just as the sun set over a clear sky and flat calm sea.

Another perfect day.

The Wild West

Somehow I've never spent much time in Wales, so next stop from the Wye valley was "somewhere" ( yet to be decided, I just stop when I see somewhere I fancy usually ) in Wales.

Somewhere turned a out to be Ynyslas, near Aberdyfi. Great place, park up right on the beach and about about a mile from the Dovey estuary.

Saw plenty of fish, right close in the breakers, bass or mullet, but I couldn't catch them.

After a couple of days I pointed the van north, got to Porthmadog and then headed west to the extreme tip of the Lleyn Peninsula. What a place.

Amazingly good weather. Warm, sunny, pretty much windless.

The fishing was quite hard, but plenty of pollack and a few wrasse and mackerel. I've eaten fish most days so looking forward to catching feck all so I can have a change of diet.

It's proper wild out here, with surprisingly few people once you get away from the access points, despite it being mid July.

Might be here few for a while longer I reckon.