August Catch Report 2024

We have been flooded with action packed catch reports from across Wales and beyond throughout August, which meant it was a peasure to put together our most recent monthly round up. As it is to be expected during the summer months, the fly fishing reports have been slow and particurlary on the rivers. However, reports from our sea, coarse, lure and carp anglers have been epic! Enjoy our August catch report below.

Fly Fishing

On saturday 17th of August, our Fly shop manager Paul Miles hosted a Garry Evans open day at Ynys Y Fro resevoir, Newport. With members and non-members welcome, it was great to see some old and fresh faces picking up some fantastic one off deals whether that be on tippet and leader, or rods and reels!

A combination of warm temperatures and low water levels has meant that the rivers have been suffering as of late, which has had a huge impact on the quality of fly fishing on rivers across the UK. During the occassional window of oppurtunity, there have been a few fish caught during August, but it is no secret that fly anglers are looking forward to cooler conditions. 

On a mission to discover some new waters, Ceri Thomas found himself fishing for wild brown trout on the Aberyswyth angling club lakes. Armed with his trusty Vision Onki rod suited for stillwaters, Ceri managed to locate some stunning Wild brownies wheighing up to 2lb 12oz. Is this a water that you have tried before? If not, we highly recomend you do.

Alan Parfit was joined by the crew at Fishing in Wales in an attempt to catch some wild brownies at Nant-Y-Moch Resevoir. In the video, Alan displays the perfect way to catch fish on loch-style patterns using the cast and walk style from the bank.

Sea Fishing

Our sea fishing reports have been fantastic from across the board during August, with a wide range of species being caught, with the Welsh shores producing some fantastic fishing. 

The smoothound reports have continued to pile in, with no real signs of them moving off as of yet. Popular marks such as Aberthaw have been producing good weights of fish, providing that the conditions are right. Located between Gilestone and Font-Y-Gary on the South Wales Coast,  Aberthaw is a rough Ground mark that is up there as one of the best in the country for targeting smoothounds throughout the summer and is easy to distinguish thanks to the Offshore Turrets, as pictured in the background of the photo below, during an epic Hound session for regular customer Ali Herbert. Ali has been sea fishing for 2 ½ years now and his angling ability has come on leaps and bounds, ticking off numerous species in a short space of time. However, smoothounds has always been a fish to elude Ali, so he joined up with well known local guide Gareth ‘GG’ Griffiths to tick them ticked off of his lift. With the conditions near perfect, it was written in the stars for Ali to land his first hound, which is exactly what he did! The pair went on to land numerous fish during the session, which is often the case when the hounds are on the feed.

Nells Point has been producing some quality rays, before we had the 50mph gusting winds and terrential rain that is! Kaden Kopp, who has fallen in love with his Sea fishing over the last year or so, had a fantatsic session on the Point with his Father. After picking his Century T900 up from our Cardiff store, it was only right that he got out to try and christen it with some fish. Enjoy his Youtube video below, where he lands some big rays inclduing a new PB.

The bait fishing around West Wales has been very consistent in recent weeks, whether that be targeting wrasse and pollock or Tope and Bull Huss. St Davids Head and surrounding areas have provided great sport across all of these species. Big fish baits loaded onto Pulley Pennel rigs are a go to approach, with some big Tope and big Bullhuss both falling victim to this tactic as of late, especially during the night. Johnny Briggs had this lovely, dark Huss fishing just north of St Davids head on a deep rock mark.

During the same session, Mr Briggs kept himself occupied by catching plenty of Wrasse on his light set up, fishing with rag worm in close. A light float set up worked well throughout the session, but a nice easy approach can be to set up a 3 way swivel, with a rotten bottom length of line to a small lead, with a hooklength sitting off the side of the swivel with a size 6 hook. Once the lead hits the bottom, lift the line up slightly so that the bait is suspended, which also allows you a strike quicly before the wrasse make a dart for cover.

Simple, but very effective!

In recent years, soft plastic lures have certainly taken the bass fishing world by storm, however this year it appears that metal jigs, slow jigs especially have been working wonders for our saltwater lure anglers, particularly across rock marks. Granted, certain lures on the market such as the ISP seekers or Abu Garcia Toby's have been extremely popular for many years, but slow jigs such as the HTO YoYo's have been some of our best sellers throughout 2024, whether that be for bass, pollock, wrasse or a combination of the 3! As we have mentioned in previous reports, these lures can be extremely effective thanks to the jigs fluttering motion as it drops through the water collumns, making it irrestible for predators that are close by. 

As you can see below, this method can be deadly for all species of fish that are found along the Welsh coast. Lloyd P had all of these species during the same session.

In recent times we have noticed a huge improvement in the bass fishing from the Welsh coastline, this could possibly be to do with the wind churning up the water and creating a bit of colour in the water, enticing the bass to come on the feed. Well whatever the reason is, our good friend Lee Harrison has certainly been making the most of it with some clonking bass over the double figure mark!

Due to the dull, gloomy and coloured water that we have in the channel, it is often best to use brighter lures, such as yellow or orange soft plastic lures with plenty of tail movement can be deadly. Lee is always chopping and changing during his sessions to try and find the fish, such as the 'Neon Nibbler' bomb squads from Lazy Lures.

With the bass clearly on the feed, it comes as no surprise to see that the Gower peninsula has been fishing really well. We've loved seeing the youngsters getting amongst the action! Ieuan Meade popped in to see Andrew at our Newport store for some advice, a new lure outfit and of course, so more lures to add to his collection before heading West with his son. it's fair to say the father and son duo christened their rod properly, with some lovely bass which were all well in size.

Carp & Coarse Fishing 

If you're looking for a new venue to challenge yourself on, then Farlows lake could be the place for you and it has been fishing really well. Farlows lake is “steeped in carp fishing history as one the original gravel pits of the colne valley” with some of the UK's “finest, dark & scaley specemin carp.” Their aim is to become the number 1 day ticket water in the UK, and after seeing the results of Blake and Wayne James' trip to the venue, it's clear to see that they are on the right path!

Blake had a dantastic few days on the lake, with the highlight being this proper belter going 29lb 9oz. This one was certainly worth slipping on the Vass waders for a water photo! As always, Blake was using his trusty Squid & orange probaits boilies, with the mathcing pop up as his hook bait on a size 4 hook. 

There were also some big tench and bream like dust bin lids to the net, which provided a nice variation to the species throughout the session. It is certainly worth adding Farlows to your list of venues to try if you haven't already.

The Syndicate lakes around Cardiff such as The Wharf and The Birch have been producing some good fish as always. This new 30 pounder from the Wharf which weighed 32lb 6oz is just one example of the fantastic stamp of fish that are coming out from the lake at the moment.

As for the Glamorgan anglers still waters, a mixture of coarse fish and carp have been coming out from across the different lakes. Surface fishing with either a floating pellet or bread has proven to be the deadliest technique, but also the most exciting. There aren't many sights that get you on the edge of your seat more than a biscuit disappearing under the surface as a hungry carp scoops it up! Hunter has ben enjoying plenty of action on the Barry Ponds, catching plenty of carp up to double figures. The Fox bolt bubbles are the perfect set up to use for this type of fishing.

It has been really encouraging to see Cardiff Bay producing some quality Perch again, on both float or lure method. The Bay has always been known for it's good head of perch up to 4lb but it has been relatively quiet this year, however some of our customers have been working tirelessely to find some of the better fish, with some great rewards. Drop shotting is a great method to use on this vast open water, but young Isaac, pictured below, has been catching some quality perch using a worms under a waggler float set up. His father Neil had this to say about the session:

"A proper urban stripey this one taking the scales round to 2lb 8oz and measuring 42cm, a new PB for my lad.

These urban donkeys are not easy fish to track down and this bad boy is the culmination of lots and lots of hard work, effort, frustration, blanks, ‘wasps’, early mornings and homework."

Angling's equivelant to Tom Jones, Andy Neal has been tearing it up on the match scene recently, weighing in some serious weights!

"Sunday and Chard for the last round of the individual league. The fishing currently is the best I’ve ever seen as theres now a big element of silvers and pole/whip fishing. You can compete with huge bags of roach, skimmers and perch or gamble and target bream.. or both… 40-60lb winning weights make for thought provoking day! You can feed plenty of bait and get responses to it… right up my alley!

Being in the mix going into Sundays last day I was kind of pleased to draw 16… this holds good numbers of skimmers and roach but could leave me wanting if the bream rock up on their usual haunts further up!

4 whips, 2 short line rigs and two feeders was assembled. Balled it at the start and dropped onto the short feeder… that 35grm Silent V3 is ridiculous… hook a skimmer and the harder you pull the more it bends… you just feel like hook pulls are impossible! Beautiful!

Anyway… caught 37 skimmers on feeder and 16lb of perch and roach on whips (in an hour!) for a total of 53lb. 2nd in match behind Dangerous but more importantly the 1 point I needed. This managed to secure the league win must say a huge thanks to Derek for his 1 point contribution

Saturday was the Welsh national teams of 5 at Redhill. I naturally put myself on the best section of the best lake . It was a full house and with almost every peg in we thought a difficult match was ahead… uh no! Yet again Redhill fished its rockers off! What a venue it is!

I mostly wrestled with units throughout the day and weighed a very satisfying 185lb. This only good enough for 3rd as two brilliant displays by Gareth Boycott and Scott Worton deflated my puffed out chest!

Simply great fishing with loads of weights. Everyone caught and a superb day took clean out by the cray twins again… the Gronow boys literally own fishing in Wales atm! Well done fellas!

On the team front a big shout out to Gav, Eggy, Ryan and Bob. Some serious performances from very average pegs got us 2nd on the day.

I loved this day a lot! Don’t get to fish matches like this with all the local lads very often… I spent most of the day laughing! That is definitely what it’s all about!"

The River Taff / Dock Feeder canal has continued to produce stacks of silver fish, especially when there is a bit of colour in the water. Anglers such as our very own Lloyd Prytherch have found that fishing the maggot is certainly the most effective bait to use, whether that be on a stick float or feeder set up. From Lloyds vast experience on this water, he's found that although you can catch fish by setting up in one spot, roving up and down the banks will result in finding more fish. As you can see from the photos below, there's a variety of fish to catch from roach, rudd, gudgeon, barbel and much more!

We hope you enjoyed our August catch report, to be featured in next months catch report, feel free to send in your catch reports with a brief description to our email or in the comments section for this blog. Make sure to keep yourself up to date on our social media platforms for daily content.

For tips and advice, don't hesitate to get in touch and we will be more than happy to help!