December 2023 Catch Report

We hope you all had a merry Christmas and a happy New Year, but we also hope that you have managed to get out on the bank as much as you hoped throughout the festive period. As you would probably expect, The reports have been less frequent in comparison with other months of the years as a result of a variety of obsticles. With the weather we have had recently, it has resulted in the rivers being barely fishable for the most of December, but our sea anglers have also been affected by the amount of freshwater coming through, especially along the Bristol Channel. Having said that, there have still been some fantastic fish caught across the UK, so enjoy our last monthly catch report of 2023.

Fly Fishing

Once again Grayling, Pike and stocked Trout lakes have kept our fly anglers busy as they eagerly await the beginning of the 2024 Fly fishing river season. 

Luke Gater, who is a regular feature in our fly fishing section has been one of the most active fly anglers around during December, with numerous catch reports being posted on his social media pages. The River Wye has been producing some pristine Pike, when the river has been fish able that is and Luke has been there to pick them out at the right time. Some of his best sessions have been on the Hereford Stretch, as you can see in the video below.

When the rivers were up and coloured, Luke switched over to his local still water syndicate to target the Pike. A short two hour session was long enough for Luke to do a couple of laps and snag a few Pike, landing a jack and this lovely double figure fish. Both fish were caught on his Black Newt fly which he had custom made!

Carp & Coarse Fishing

When it comes to river fishing, The winter period around December and January tend to be dominated by grayling reports above anything else. This winter has been no different, with the lady of the stream providing lots of good sport for anglers around the UK!

Ryan Healey has had an enjoyable campaign so far on his local river with his fishing partner Steve, using the stick float method to target grayling and also the occasional chub. Due to the low treeline and large amounts of shrubbery along the banks, the guys have been using shorter rods than usual so that they can access the most remote parts of the river, which is often where Ryan and Steve have been rewarded the most. 

During their sessions the local robin has also taken a liking to the lads maggots, often landing on the butt section of their rods and feeding from their hands! You can see this like in action by heading over to our YouTube channel by clicking on the photo below.

With the main rivers in flood for large parts of December, the Feeder stream that runs through the heart of Cardiff really came into it's own, as it tends to keep much steadier water levels. Maggots and worms can be a deadly approach on the feeder, as Lloyd has discovered over the years. Feeding small handfuls of maggots over his hook bait, Lloyd's session got off to a flying start, with a brace of healthy looking chub on the bank! 

Once the swim had gone quiet, Lloyd moved swims in an attempt to find some decent perch that had been spotted cruising around recently. A change of tactic worked a treat for Lloyd, using just two split shot to jig double red maggot through the swim which resulted in a stunning Perch around the 1lb 6oz mark. Target achieved!

The Perch angling, particularly around South Wales has been superb as of late for both River and still water anglers with Worm or prawns being the go to bait of choice.

Andy Neal enjoyed a fantastic day on the River Wye landing 4 stunning Perch during his session, all over the 1lb mark. Despite his impressive hall, Andy was left speechless after losing another monster fish which he claims would've eaten the ones he had already landed! We have recently started stocking the Milo rod range that Mr Neal has been using on the River this winter, so feel free give us a call if you would like to know more.

Fishing In Wales were joined by Korum's Kev Clarke at White Springs Fishery as he guides you through his approach to still water Perch fishing. In the video below, Kev provides a detailed insight into his bait strategy, rig set ups and the specifics locations he stargets for a successful session.

Our very own Alan Hamblin has also jumped on the bandwagon and headed for a bit of winter perch fishing. Al chose Riverside fisheries, based in Caerphilly as his venue for the day due to his previous sessions on the lake producing some stunning fish. Set up with his new Korum compact bait waiter set, Al chopped up a mixture of lobworms and earthworms which he fed over the top of his hook bait to draw in his target species.

The fishing was slow in the first hour with only a couple of skimmers taking a like to the worm hook baits, but just before Alan was thinking of swapping tactics, the Perch suddenly came on the feed. From this point on, the fishing was prolific with some fantastic perch being landed with the best fish stretching to just over 40cm.

The carp fishing has been good around the south Wales area, with some big fish being put on the bank from some of the best waters around such as The Wharf and the Birch.

6 year old Blake James is becoming quite the angler as we head into 2024 as his catalogue of catches grows bigger and bigger. Take a look at some of his best fish from December alone,which took him to over 100 fish for 2023 on the Birch Syndicate. What an achievement, well done Blake.

Lamby Lake has also produced some stunning fish towards the back end of 2023, despite the fishing being relatively slow as of late. Luke Price had some lovely fish in his recent sessions, which included his target fish which tipped the scales at 26lb 4oz.

James Honey was another Lamby member that was on the fish during the festive period. He had a lovely session which included 6 fish landed from 6 runs with the biggest fish being ‘lumpy’ 37lb 12oz.

Anglers on The Wharf Syndicate have been rewarded for the efforts with some mega fish being put on the bank to cap off an amazing year. Some of the smaller fish have also started to make an appearance, such as the mirror caught by Harry Morgan (Pictured below). Here's what ‘Hazza’ said about his recent success: "Floating up and down the lake following the fish, i've managed to pick off 8 decent carp in about 10 quick over night sessions between going to work. This 17lb mirror is the smallest out of the 8 i've had but welcomed as always.

This zip linear caught by Callum Woodward is one of our favourite fish we have seen from the Wharf during December. Callum was over the moon to break his blank streak with such as lovely fish, just 20 minutes after putting his rods out!

The Pike angling across the UK has been steady, despite the undesirable conditions towards the end of 2023, With murky conditions and high river levels.

South Wales region of Pike anglers recently held their first junior fishing event in collaboration with Caerphilly Angling Club. Held at the Semtex lake in Brynmawr, 7 keen young anglers braved the elements despite the wind, rain and fog! Sadly, the fishing was just as tough as the conditions suggested, however Stuart and Daisy Dowdell were the star of the show with the only Pike of the day around the 4lb mark. This provided the perfect opportunity to demonstrate proper unhooking and handling techniques.

Glamorgan Anglers Club, another of South Wales' popular fishing groups have also been busy throughout the Winter with competitions and events. On Sunday 17th they held their Glamorgan anglers Junior Christmas cup at Treoes Lake, Bridgend. This lake is known for having a superb range of species from silvers, skimmers, big carp and pike but also some huge perch. However, as the carp did not appear to be on the feed, most of the young anglers opted for a waggler approach to try and pick out some silverfish.

We were delighted to see that one of keen young clients Hunter came out on top with the 1st place trophy and a bucket full of fishing goodies, after weighing in plenty of silver fish despite the tough conditions.

Blake James swapped his carp gear for a spot of trotting on the River Wye whilst the levels were just right. Accompanied by angling ace Kev Clarke who appeared earlier in the blog, Blake caught countless grayling and even some out of season trout during a short window of opportunity.

Sea Fishing

In the absence of the illusive Cod, it has been fantastic to hear lot's of Whiting being caught across the UK. Rag worm appears to be the best best way to target them at the moment, although the bigger fish are taking fish baits such as mackerel strips. Shaun Moore has been on a bit of a roll in recent months when it comes to competitions, with plenty of top 3's and a few wins thrown in there as well. In those competitions whiting have helped to build up Shaun's score cards, but he has also picked up some lovely Pouting as well which is always a welcome sight. Whilst fishing the Cardiff Sea Anglers Christmas Competition, Shaune picked up a 2nd place finish with 3 pouting for a total weight of 0.95kg.

As we illuded to earlier in the report the cod fishing has been relatively slow, but there are still some fish being caught from shore and boat anglers.

One of the best fish we have seen recently was caught on a Cardiff Based charter boat called Tunnara, skippered by Salvo. Even if the fish aren't feeding, there is always fantastic entertainment on board with Salvo with plenty of laughs and also some home made Pizzas cooked on deck. However, the highlight of the trip for a group that travelled down from London was this 13lb cod, caught on squid and black lug as the start of December!

Anthony James had some nice cod for the pan in the plummeting temperatures, using lug worm and squid.

The Christmas Club competitions are a great excuse to get out on the beach, even if motivation is low during the cold winter months. South Wales Sea Anglers held their Christmas comp along the Cardiff Foreshore, where 36 anglers participated. Supported by Sakuma Fishing and various other businesses including ourselves, there is always a fantastic spread of prizes up for grabs. In his post match report, Club chairman Robert Cole said that the fishing was hard as most anglers were plagued by pin whiting from the get go, resulting in just 16 anglers weighing in. However Rob added that “we did manage to see a nice codling of 47cm” and "some cracking flounder from Chris Equall and Lee Jones up to 41cm!

When there have been gaps in the weather the Foreshore has been producing plenty of fish, especially whiting. John Fishlock and Rob Cole, two local anglers who have grown up on Cardiff Foreshore had a great session just before the turn of the Year, catching their target species including whiting and thornbacks. Although the unicorn fish (cod) didn't show up, the lads had some big whiting up to 33cm and even a nice Thornback weighing 5lb 4oz. 

Throughout 2023 it has been an absolute pleasure to support Reel Minds CIC. We recently donated a Penn Wrath reel for their end of year awards which was won by on of Reel Minds most valued members Robert Murphy! The full rewards report can be found on the Reel Minds Facebook page.

 A huge shout out goes to Dave Williams and everyone that helps to run the club, we look forward supporting the club further and seeing more progress in 2024. 

Spinning & Lure Fishing

Although lure fishing along the British coast is often seen as at its best during the summer, there are still plenty of fish to target even during the winter. Joe Shaw who runs Catch & Cook kayak fishing spends a lot of his winter exploring Pembrokeshire's rocky marks, using a variety of jigs and soft plastic in the hope that he can find some eager fish. Mackerel, Garfish, Pollack and Wrasse are amongst the species that are still being caught, all Beit nothing of any real size.

Joe has struggled to pick up any decent sized Bass yet this winter, so it's the big pollack that have been giving him the best scraps so far. If you have caught Pollack before, then you will know the excitement when connecting with a big pollack when it takes it's first aggressive dive towards the nearest shelter it can find, whether that be kelp or rocks. The fish below did exactly that, smashing Joe's metal jig on a deep rock ledge before he was able to turn it's head and apply some pressure.

As we mentioned earlier on in the report, the Perch fishing has been superb towards the end of 2023, mainly for those anglers using bait techniques to target them. However, anglers such as our dispatch manager Lloyd Prytcherch have had success on soft plastic lures as well. Once again, Lloyd has been having his success from the Taff Feeder stream which starts its journey downstream from Blackweir before disapearing under Cardiff City Centre just after the Lady Bute Bridge. The access to this stream is somewhat limited during December whilst the Christmas lights display is on in Bute Park, however the upper stretch is still perfeclty fisheable.

We hope you enjoyed reading our final review of 2023, for a chance 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! Happy New Year!