
We hope you all had a merry christmas and a happy New Year, now let's get into this months blog! 🎄December began with some of the most impressive storms in recent times, which hindered the fishing conditions across the most of the UK, which comes as no surprise! Having said this, we still recieved some fantastic reports throughout December across all angling disciplines.
It is common knowledge that the cod fishing around the Uk has depleted drastically, particularly along the Bristol Channel. With this being said, it was a joy to see the first entry into our winter cod competition, which was entered by Shaun Moore. This 2lb 8oz codling was caught during the SWSA club competition, which took place on Sunday 8th.
Despite the weather warnings, the club managed to keep the competition on by shortening the limits to the rover, so Shaun opted to fish Knap point. This proved to be a wise choice, as a codling and a conger eel gave him a total of 139cm, enough to take 1st place!
We have also heard of the odd double figure cod being caught from marks along both sides of the bristol channel, including popular South Wales Mark, the Cardiff Foreshore.

A huge well done goes out to Daniel Winter, an extremely poromising junior angler who has come on leaps and bounds in a matter of months! Daniel took 1st place in the Junior section with an extremely impressive mixed bag of 10 silver & green eels for a total of 468cm.

Even as we enter the depths of Winter, there still seems to be a strong number of rays that are sititng along the Welsh Coast. There have been some big blondes caught in recent weeks from marks such as Ogmore Deeps, Sully and Newton Point.
Andrew Davies has been having plenty of success with our squid and anchovies, presented on a 4/0 Sakuma Circle extra hooks on a dongle rig. Cold Knap beach has proven to be as productive as anywhere, pulling out some big blondes throughout the month.

Cardiff Foreshore has been producing the odd thornback as well, mainly in the week or 2 building up to christmas. Shaune Parsons landed this lovely fish during a christmas catch up session with some friends,on Christmas eve morning.

The Boat fishing has been a little hit or miss across the channel, thanks to a handful of factors, with the main one being a huge Lack of Cod showing in the Bristol Channel. With this being said, the Charter Boats such as The Sea Leopard, Tuskar 2 and Escape Charters have been finding other species such as congers, rays and pouting to name a few. White Water Charters, skippered by the highly regarded Andrew Alsop has been doing really well to put their customers on the fish, even during the baltic conditions at the start of the month.
Rob Cole who runs the South Wales Sea Anglers club took a group of anglers from his club out for their monthly trip on White Water and they rewarded with an enjoyable day of fishing. Here's what Rob had to say about the session:
"SWSA monthly boat trip Great end to 2024 but an even better start to 2025 , the boys teamed up with John and Izzak Beck for a great day out on board WhiteWater Charters skipperd by Andrew Alsop. A constant flow of fish throughout the day nothing huge but as long as we were catching I don't think it mattered great banter and some hot grub and coffe. Spurs, Blonde rays Thornback rays Bull Huss and Congers Eels showed up and so did the weather, a clear but cold day with some breath taking views you could see for miles . Alot of anglers say you can't fish theses big tides but with the right gear on board and a few good tips from your skipper you can well done skip
Let's hope it's a kick start for the rest of the year. The pool was won by Izzak with a nice conger well done"
.jpg)
Pike & Predator
We have enjoyed seeing our customers chasing the illusive Zander as of late, a fish that has a reputation for being very picky and hard to catch. The Gloucester Canal is one of the best Waters in the UK for targeting Zander, with endless miles to fish for these predators with dead baits or lures. As we mentioned earlier, Zander are alot harder to target than Pike and Perch, which often means that you will need to make some subtle changes to your approach and tackle. Using fluorocarbon leaders instead of wire traces can often be the difference between catching fish and blanking. Small lures around the 7.5cm size, such as the Fox Rage zander pro shads are a good lure to start with, or lures of a similiar size and shape.
Damien has been having plenty of success on various stretches of the Gloucester Canal, using a selection of small lures.

Dead baiting has proven to be a more effective approach for some of our zander anglers recently. Scaling down your tackle will prove to be crucial for the Zander when fishing for them on the dead baits. Blake James has been getting to grips with the zander fishing for the first time this season, and he has been learning something new each session.
He has fished a handful of different sections on the Gloucester Canal, using fluorocarbon hooklengths and small hooks to pick out a few small fish. The canal proved to fish alot better as the conditions were settling.

The Pike reports have been flooding in throughout the festive period, regardless of the conditions across the UK! Storm Darragh may have put a halt to the fishing for a few days, but anglers such as Wayne James were straight back out on the bank on the hunt for a big croc. This big Birch Syndicate Pike fell for one of Wayne's ledgered dead baits and tipped the scales at an impressive 20lb 4oz.

Bosherston Lily Ponds is a venue that has been producing plenty of pike, mainly on the lures. Based just a few miles from Pembroke and a stones throw away from the coast, Bosherston is a stunning location to target Pike all year round. Some anglers argue that due to it's high level of weed and lily pads cover the water, deep winter is the best time of year to fish for the Pike here, as the vegatation dies back and allows you to cover more water.
Olly, pictured below, is one of our most enthusiastic junior customers that we have the pleasure of serving most weeks (or days!), with a passion for all disciplines of angling. This year, Olly has really enjoyed his Pike fishing and he has had numerous sessions down at Boshertson. Despite having regular success, most of the fish Olly has caught have been relatively small, so he was ovr the moon to land his new PB during his most recent session, which weighed 11lb 6oz.
You can find more information about Bosherston Lily Ponds by clicking on the photos below.

The Glamorgan anglers club waters have also been producing some Pike, particualry from Treoes lake, Bridgend. Young superstar Hunter picked up 1st place in the Junior competiton for the second year running, his mother Rhian wrote the following:
“He's taken the throphy for the 2nd year in a row at the Glamorgan Angling Junior Fishing competition. Well happy with his pike. Absolutely amazing club to be a part of, really do a lot to get juniors on the bank fishing. Can't thank you all enough for putting on these events. ”
To top off the day, there were hot dogs and warm drinks on offer, which went down a treat by the looks!
If you're looking to join a coarse fishing club around the South Wales area, then it is worth putting your name down for a spot in the Glamorgan anglers Club, who not only offer a fantastic range of waters and species to target, but they also put on fantastic events for juniors and adults all year round, just like the one in this report.

Carp & Coarse
Garry enjoyed a trip to the River Test at the start of December, to target a range of coarse species. The River Test is renowned for being home to big grayling, perch and especially roach, sometimes over the magical 2lb mark. Acoompanied by his good friend John Ball and a local guide, the (not so) dynamic duo had a fanastic few days on the river, ticking off all of the species on their list. Despite the clear and frosty conditions, John and Garry caught some lovely perch, roach and rudd, but the highlight of the trip was a big grayling which tipped the scales at 2lb 3oz.
Maggots, hemp and caster appeared to be the most affective approach, with John opting for a centrepin approach, whereas Garry chopped and changed between his float and ledgering gear to pick out the fish! Even when the fishing is a little on the slow side, the scenery along the River Test will never disappoint you.

The Birch Syndicate has continued to fish well, with some of the lakes biggest fish gracing the banks. As always, Blake James has been putting in the hours and reaping the rewards. We loved reading this catch report from one of his recent sessions on the Birch:
“36hrs done on The Birch Syndicate 4 runs 4 landed well happy with that result anouther great weekend on the bank with my old man and the boys
Fished a fairly hevly baited spot with the Pro Baits UK squid orange and milk protien with matching wafters and as always they couldent resist
The freespirit 10ft helical spm making easy work of the baiting up with the cross wind
LND Sharps size 4 curves nailing them with the point having a little dab of zesty orange rust bust before going out just to make suer the point stayed in perfect condition !
Anohther few belters for the album with the biggest of the bunch going 28lb 4oz and a truly stunning fish “
.jpg)
Grayling, as the known as ‘the lady of the stream’ provide agnlers with some great river fishing action during the cold winter months, with this december 2024 being no exception to that. The river Taff in particular, has been fishing its socks off, with anglers losing count of how many fish they have caught in a session! Richard and Lloyd P from our Cardiff store had a red letter session on the upper section of the Glamorgan Anglers section on the River Taff, just before the christmas break. Coxy landed around 40 grayling over the course of a few hours on the fly, but Lloyd also matched his session using a stick float method and maggot. Lloyd has been using size 16 hooks and double red maggot, fished under the new Drennan Titatium trotters, which are the perfect float for this.

We have some surprising staff reports of carp being caught on the top recently, which may come as a surprise to some! With steady temperatures in early December, with plenty of sun in parts, the Carp in Barry Pond (Glamorgan anglers club) were more than happy to take baits off the top. Mr Cox had some belting carp up to low doubles, with some fish highlighting their pristine markings in the winter sun just the the common pictured below.

When the carp have been playing hard to get, the day ticket waters at Peterstone have been producing some good bags of silverfish. The bites are few and far between, but the fish will eventually come on the feed if you can consistently feed magotts over a small area. Pinkies can also be a brilliant bait to use for the silvers at Peterstone, as demonstarted by Wayne James, who had these pristine roach during a frosty morning session on the Pencil lake.

Fly Fishing
As you can imagine, the fly fishing reports have been a bit on the slow side as of late. With that being said, grayling have kept the river anglers busy, as well as pike on the fly and the stillwater trout fisheries.
Ceri Thomas from our Cardiff store & Fishing in Wales has been loving his grayling fishing at the moment around South Wales, the fish below measured at 45cm and just over 2lb and took a shrimp pattern. Both the Taff and Rhymney have fished well for Ceri whenever levels have been favourable, with our customers also reporting lots of action.
With a high number of grayling around this year, the fishing should continue to be good untill spring. Euronymphing is the most effective approach - we have plenty of grayling flies in the shop as well as materials to tie the extra heavy bugs that are sometimes required in winter.

On the fisheries our local Ynys y fro reservoirs with the Newport Fly Fishers have been fishing very well, with plenty of good quality rainbows being caught. The venue is stocked often (9000 fish in 2024!) and is exceptionally well run. The reservoirs often fish best with static flies, fished under bungs at this time of year., or with lures such as hothead damsels. Below: A typical Ynys y fro trout, always an awesome stamp to these fish.
The TATA game anglers reservoir (Eglwys) at Port Talbot is now cooling down well, allowing rainbows and browns to be stocked once again through the winter months. It opened for members and day tickets on 19th Decemer. Initial reports are that the reservoir is fishing very well, with some well conditioned fish being caught.
Dare Valley at Aberdare is proving to be the place to head this winter for extra large trout, with big rainbows, browns and tigers being caught regularly. Below: some cracking Dare Valley trout caught in December.
Down the M4 the lower Lliw reservoir at Swansea offers good trout fishing for stocked rainbows, with day tickets available from the local angling club, South Wales Fishing Society. The venue is tricky to fly fish, but it is a multi method, so almost anything goes from spinners and worms, to flies fished under bubble floats. Ceri visited the venue a couple of weeks ago with Alan 'Parf' and tried some alternatives to fly fishing. Check out the video below, which runs through the various alterative methods for stocked rainbows!
We hope you enjoyed our December 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 on Facebook and Instagram.
For tips, advice and tackle information, don't hesitate to get in touch and we will be more than happy to help!