July Catch Report 2024

The british summer threw everything it had at us during July, from heavy rain and wind to bilstering heat in exccess of 30 degrees. This gave anglers across the UK something to think about when it came to their angling approach. We were excited to see plenty of reports throughout July, from the usual UK species from both fresh and saltwater locations, to the weird and wonderful species that can be found abroad in countries such as Norway.

Our team has recently returned from the annual Game Fair, which was held at Blenheim Palace this year. Over the 3 days it was fantastic to see the fishing Village as busy as ever, with plenty of visitors coming to see us on the Garry Evans stall, whether that was for a chat, to pick up some tippet or to snap up one of our irresisstable show offers! It was great to welcome members of the Hardy/Greys team onto our stand for the second year running, along side Martyn Robinson from Guide Fly fishing who all helped us to provide as much expert knowledge and advice possible throughout the show.

As always, the Village was filled with exciting stands as well as some familiar faces across the angling world such as presenter and author Jeremy Wade and celebrity fly angler and author Marina Gibson.

It appears as though more an more people are targting carp on their lcoal still waters with a fly set up. As we mentioned in blogs gone by, The Glamorgan Anglers waters are ideal for this style of fishing, wish stacks of fish to be caught up to the 20lb mark. John Phillips, a lifelong friend and employee of the shop has jumped on the bandwagon and has been catching plenty of fish from the Barry Ponds, using a 9' 6" #7 set up.

July has been absolutely hectic with fly fishing reports, so this month we have attatched a link below for thge brilliant report put together by the guys at Fishing in Wales.

Carp & Coarse Fishing

Our rivers have struggled to stay at a healthy level as of late, whether they're too low or too high and coloured. Fast running rivers like the Taff have certainly fallen victim to this, however our anglers have enjoyed some quality sessions on the River Wye. 

Blake James has been enjoying plenty of sport on his stick float outfit. After a slow start, he moved down to a deeper run and started into put the feed in.  After seeing a few splashes Blake trotted his float down through the clouds of bait and was instantly into some lovely chub. The swim eventually quietened down, but that wasn't before Blake had pulled out 7 fish up to the 3lb mark.

It was great to have a catch up with the one and only Will Millard in store recently, whilst he was stocking up his tackle box of course

Here’s Will’s catch report from his recent session:

“Phenomenal small stream City action today with Jack Perks Wildlife Media!

Jack had travelled to Wales for work and the plan was to get out onto the coast for some sea species. Strong onshore gusts put a stop to that, so I picked him up a day ticket for Cardiff’s river Taff, but big overnight rains wiped out that idea too!

Come mid-morning, we were really scratching around, so I opted to roll the dice on a stretch of inner-city water that is only fishable after heavy rain. I’d fished it twice before and blanked, but our timing today was perfect. It was multi-species fish-a-chuck with chub, bream, rudd, dace, and I even a lost sea trout! We were knackered after two solid hours of hauling, so stopped for a sandwich and a drink, but when we returned to the swim, just twenty minutes later, the water had fined off a foot, the colour was gone, and so were all the fish! It was bizarre!

Big thanks to the lads Garry Evans Tackle Centres for the bait (and sound advice to avoid the coast) and huge thanks to Jack for travelling across - it was fantastic to finally get a session in together!

Bluebell Fishery has been producing some real specimens as of late. James, who has been smashing it recently! Here’s what he had to say:

“Just got home from another mega trip up to the famous bluebell resulting in 7 takes and landing 4 biggest was 32lb but who cares when they look that like mega place can't wait to get back down there in September"

Great angling James!

It has to be said that of all the Coarse species Tench are one of our favourites, so it's always great to see them featured in our reports. Around the South Wales area, there are only a handful of lakes that you can target the Tench at,  Our young emplyee Harrison has been fishing Peterstone lakes recently, catching some big bags of fish from their Pencil lake, with some stunning tench in the mix. 

If you only have time for a short session, Fishing for carp on the surface is always a great way to spend a couple of hours and get a bend in the rod. Throughout the summer months, pretty much all the coarse fishing lakes across ther UK are suitable for targeting carp on the top. Around South Wales we are spoilt for choice with the likes of Peterstone Lakes, Dyffryn spring, Hendre lake which are stuffed full of fish! Our Newport staff member Ben Beal has been enjoying some great sport on his local lake, Pentwyn. With a number a of accessible pegs and only £5 per day ticket, Pentwyn may only be 1 acre in size but it holds a strong head of carp, as well as other coarse species such as tench, bream and big perch.

Ben has been using the Fox bubble float kits, with a section of Gardner HD floater line (12lb) to a size 10 Korda hook packed loaded with bread. Mr Beal has been catching plenty of fish up to the 10lb mark.

Lloyd P has been trying out another of South Wales' day ticket waters, Canada Lake Lodge.  The back drop of this stunning wedding venue holds a 5 acre lake which was once full of big trout, but now holds Carp up to a whopping 39lb! Lloyd caught some lovely fish throughout his session just like the ones in the photo below.

Sea Fishing

The first week of July saw the Welsh junior shore team make the journey up to Scotland for the home internationals. There were some fresh faces in the team this year with 3 debutants, including a regular customer and extremely talented young angler Max Worsey. The Weslh team were able to bring home a bronze medal, with a strong 2nd place finish on day one and a 3rd place finish on day three. With plenty of cinfidence and experience gained, we are very excitied to see how this young team get on in next years home internationals in Ireland.

The smoothhounds continued to show along the coast throughout July, with a noticable amount of double figure fish being landed. Although the numbers didn't appear to be as strong as in the early season, with baits such as devon peeler crab, prawns or even rag worm, the chances are the Hounds weren't too far away.

We had some great entries into our Summer hound competition, like the one below from Joseph Gamlin which weighed in at 13lb 2oz. This was caught on a frozen peeler crab during a competition at Burry Port.

The rays seem to have stuck around all summer, especcially the smalled eyed's and spotted it seems to us. Rod builder and South Wales one man trawler Dai Llewllyn has had some stunning Rays during the short windows of oppurtunity he has had recently. Here's what he had to say about his recent sessions:

“I’ve had almost 400lb of fish in the last week on my Anywhere Match Pro mk2. And most importantly to me it’s been a joy to use.

I’ve used it on all types of ground, with lines from 12lb to 25lb, casting leads from 4oz to 8oz and it’s handled everything the bristol channel can thro at it.

If you’re looking for a capable rod, look no further. “

Swansea Marina is teaming with life, providing anglers with the perfect excuse to whip out the drop shot gear for some really good sport. Rhian, Hunter and Dave headed down with their Ultra light 1-7g set up and had stacks of lovely schoolie bass.

For those angelrs heading over seas to the shores of Norway, it's fair to say the fishing has been pretty epic recently.With endless species to target from both boat and shore,  Norway is one of the most popular destinations for anglers going abroad. James Luff has recently returned from his first trip over there and it was without a doubt a trip he will never forget. The week started off brilliantly for James Cod over 20lb to the boat. As the trip went on, the list of species started to build up, with halibut, wolfish and Plaice all of a good size and providing some fantastic sport on his new Boat outfits, which consisted of Westin W3 travel rods and Penn Squall 30LW reels.

However, these fish were all blown out of the water by this astonishing angler fish, which looks like something out of a horror film! After a long, heavy fight to get the beast up from the depth, James was shocked to see what he had landed. A new Camp record and a fish of a lifetime. 

A group of our customers have recently returned from a memorable trip over to Ireland, fishing for Bass Pollack and Wrasse from the shore. Before setting off, the Mal and his mates popped in to get themselsves suitably kitted up. This meant new spinning rods that were capable of throwing lures up to 80g, matched with the Penn Spinfisher VII reels for salt water protection and Heavy drag systems. Alot of the coast line is covered in heavy kelp so soft plastic lures can work extremely well, with whites and yellows proving to be very affective. 

In news closer to home, the bass fishing has been very productive, with reports around the Gower area being particularly good. John Howcroft is a good friend of the shop who absolutely loves his Bass fishing down towards the Loughour Estuary where he keeps his caravan. With the conditions warm and clear, John headed out to christen his new Westin W10 braid in style with this stunning bar of silver, caught on a white soft plastic lure.

We hope you enjoyed our July 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!