December catch report

The temperature's plummeted dramatically during December, making the fishing conditions extremely difficult for most anglers around the UK. Despite the freezing temperatures we received some fantastic catch reports across all angling disciplines with some specimen fish being landed. Enjoy reading our December catch report below.

Fly Fishing

As always Luke Gater has been sending in plenty of catch reports from his recent trips. Check out his latest YouTube video at Avington below!

During the prolonged cold snap, grayling fishing was fantastic on our South Wales local rivers, the Taff and Rhymney both producting lots of fish between 1lb and 2lb on the fly, to nymphs fished deep. Ceri with a few examples below, all caught on a 3.8mm Tungsten pink bead Hare's ear nymph, fished on a Greys GR80 Streamflex+ 10' #3, a great rod that we currently have on offer!

Fishing In Wales' Ceri Thomas & Welsh international angler Terry Bromwell visit the upper river Severn in Mid Wales, in search of some winter grayling on a cold winters days. At Llanidloes, the fishing is fantastic value at £6 per day!

The lakes have been tough to fish due to ice for a week or two, however the bigger venues such as Ynys-y-fro have been fishing well and Tata Game angling Eglwys Nunydd has just been re-stocked with over 2000 fish, so looking promoising for January.

Carp & Coarse

Our store manager Richard Cox recently returned home from another trip France chasing specimen carp.  Most of Rich's success came on Sticky Baits or Pro Baits products throughout the week, putting some quality fish on the bank with the biggest one tipping the scales over the 35lb mark. 

During a large period of December, the freezing temperatures meant that many anglers resorted to targeting Grayling, also known as  “the lady of the stream”. As reported in the fly section above,  Ceri spent some time targeting them on the fly, whilst other anglers also used maggots fished under a stick float. 

Mario fancied a change of scenery during the cold temperatures, so he swapped his beach casters for his trusty Drennan Acolyte float rod and headed down to the River Rhymney, armed with a pint of maggots. Within a few casts, Mario's float started to go under as he located some stunning grayling, including the one pictured below.

A stunning snap from Will Millard, whilst fishing the Town stretch of the River Taff which heads down towards the Principality stadium in the centre of Cardiff. After his good friend Aaron visited us in our Cardiff store to collect their bait for the session, it turned out to be one of the best grayling sessions that the duo have ever experienced. 

Here's what Will had to say bout the session: “ I lost count of how many we caught between u, but it included every class from the wee yearling fingerlings to a wonderful fish of 2lb on the nose…. it's fair to also say we must've missed at least 100 bites too…!”

If you are interested in fishing this stretch of the River Taff, day or season tickets can be purchased from our Cardiff store.

David-Sean was accompanied by his friend Adam, a few days prior to Christmas for a short session at Grange Springs Fishery. Although the conditions were close to freezing this didn't stop the lads from finding a few fish. 

Armed with Pro Baits Squid & Orange wafters topped with maggots, David and Adam landed numerous fish, with two carp over the 20lb mark on the bank within half an hour! 

Well known carp angler Alan Blair is pictured below with little gem caught from Darran Park lake, located in Rhondda Cynon Taff.

Sea fishing

Although the cod fishing is not what it once was many decades ago, there have been plenty of catch reports from the Bristol Channel throughout December.  Anglers around the Newport area have had some fantastic sessions of up to 16 codling all around the 2.5lb - 4lb mark, which is perfect for the plate!

However,  Anthony King is one of few anglers who's efforts have paid off with the result being a double figure cod. This one weighed in at 17lb 3. 3/4oz, a new personal best for Anthony and a fish of a life time off the shore! 

It appears that every winter there seems to be more Bass being caught, especially up and down the Bristol Channel. After popping in to our Cardiff store to collect some rag worm, this customer headed down to a local South Wales mark in search of a silver bar.

South Wales sea angling club took a few of it's members out with Andrew Alsop, the skipper on White Water Charters, a charter boat that goes out from Milford Haven in the summer and Penarth during the winter. The fishing proved to be tricky but throughout the day there was some nice fishing caught, including some lovely codling.

Our young staff member Ben Beal is pictured below with his two best fish from the trip.

Spinning & lure fishing

Joe Shaw is an extremely experienced lure angler with vast experience along the coast of Pembrokeshire. Joe is a kayak fishing guide through his business Catch and cook, but he also loves to spend some time chasing big bass, pollack and wrasse from the shore.

During a gap in the weather, Joe headed out on the rocks of West Wales. Using a mixture of lures including his own ‘head chef’  soft plastics Joe landed 6 bass during a short session, with the fish pictured below weighing just under 8lb.

Darren Bradbury has put countless hours into his lure fishing around Cardiff in recent months, catching plenty of pike and perch along the way. 

The Perch that is standing to attention below is one that finally broke the magical 2lb barrier for Darren, landed on one of our small soft plastic lures from our Cardiff store. You can browse through our range of predator lures by clicking on the image below.

Now. this catch report which we received over the Christmas holidays is one that strays slightly from the cold, wet and windy shores of the Bristol channel, or even the slippery banks of the River Taff!

Matt couldn't resist taking his lure gear out to the Caribbean whilst on a family holiday over Christmas and New year, even managing to get himself on a few boat trips whilst he was there. This Barracuda was the highlight of the trip.

We hope you all enjoyed our December catch report and thank you all for your support throughout 2022. We look forward to seeing many of you in 2023!

  Don't hesitate to send in your catches to be featured in our next monthly edition.  Make sure to follow us on Facebook & Instagram for daily updates.

Tight lines.