June Catch Report 2024

With the Bristol channel fishing well, the Carp spawned out and the river season back open, June promised to be an actioned packed month and it certainly didn't dissapoint. In honesty, the fly fishing appeared to be a struggle in some areas, which could be down to a range of different factors. Despite this, there were still plenty of awesome reports from both still waters and rivers across the country. As for our sea anglers, the usual summer suspects like hounds, rays and bass are being caught all over the place, with the added bonus of huge shoals of mackerel appearing along the South Wales coastline!

Fly Fishing

The sewin reports have been scarce to say the least this season, but reports like the one below from Rob Redman show some promise for our rivers. Reporting to Fishing in Wales, Rob had this “magnificent 29 inch fresh run fish, from a North Wales river, taken on a 25mm blue widow Waddington”.

Towards the end of June, the river levels across a number of rivers became extremely low. However, whilst we were still getting some rain earlier on in the month, both grayling and Trout appeared to be well on the feed. One of our regular customers Damien is an experienced lure angler, but he has started to really enjoy his river fly fishing on the lower stretches of the Taff, landing plenty of grayling and some nice brownies as well. He has been fishing the lower stretch of the Taff on the Glamorgan anglers stretch, which runs from the M4 Bridge at Coryton down to the Red Bridge in the heart of Cardiff, below Sophia Gardens cricket stadium.

After a bit of fly fishing insipration from his colleague Ceri Thomas on a recent trip to Denmark, Our store manager Rich decided to give it a go for himself. After some guidiance and advice from the lads in our fly shop, Rich got himself kitted out and headed over to one of the local Glamorgan Anglers Ponds for a practice run. On a sunny Monday afternoon, the fish were well on the feed and very obliging towards the flies Rich was presenting. Withing just a couple of hours, Coxy had landed a handful of fish which all put up respectable battles for their size, making for some exciting sport on the fly gear.

Carp & Coarse

June, a month that is highly anticipated as it marks the beginning of the river coarse season. Whilst some anglers struggled to get their barbel campaigns off to a strong start, others were delighted to get their first fish of the season on the bank. If you follow our catch reports, then Rhian & hunter will be familiar faces  and in this months edition, they showcase how to get off the mark in the river season in style. Here's what Rhian had to say about their session:

"Barbel season has just opened and very rare I fish the beginning of the season but headed out yesterday to target the barbel for Hunter to get his first one. Hunter was off to a flying start within the first half hour, I hooked into a train of a fish but sadly I couldn’t stop it . Plenty of club to be had and 5 moves later up and down the stretch of the Wye and I was in "

The River Taff got off to a tough start on the barbel, but the brown trout, grayling and chub made for some great sport in the meantime. Lloyd Prytherch from our Cardiff store knows the River Taff like the back of his hand, catching numerous specimens and species during his time. He too has struggled on the barbel, but the size of trout and chub he has been catching have been extremely impressive. A simple stick float method with a mix of hemp and caster fished over a double maggot hookbait, you can't go wrong. 

It has been business as usual for anglers on the Syndicate waters around South Wales, despite the temporary closures on some waters due to late spawning. The Wharf has continued to produce quality fish upwards of the 30lb mark. Callum James recently smashed his PB, by catching the fish that broke his PB Last year. ‘Brannas Pet’ was captured by Skippy at 34lb last year, but when he weighed the same fish after capture this year the fish was tipping the scales at 35lb. A 10mm CC Moore Live System on a size 4 Gardner Mugga did the business.

The Birch syndicate has also been producing some stunning fish post-spawning. Once again, Blake James has been leading the way under the watchful eye of his father Wayne. During one of his recent session, Blake managed to bank 6 lovely carp which all fell to a size 4 curve hooked baited with the trusty Probaits Squid & orange boilie, a deadly set up!

We had a fantastic write up come through from some of our regular customers after their recent trip over the bridge:

"A great week with the annual speci lake trip up at westmoor farm, with Jay being the first off the mark at 40lb 4oz then it was my turn a few minutes later with a pb of 43lb 8oz and James got in at last knockings with a 38lb fish, great company lovely place and a pb to can't ask for more cheers lads."

Some stunning fish in the photos below, it has to be said!

Sea Fishing

Well the sea fishing scene is certainly creating lot's of interest at the moment, with a huge list of species available to target along the UK Coastlines. One species that are a favourtie for lots of anglers thanks to their hard fighting nature is the smoothound. During the summer months these beautiful fish arrive along our coast in big packs to feed on what ever they can find, mainly crab, prawns and other fish baits. This summer we set up a Smoothound Competition that stretches from the New Severn Bridge to Knab Rock in Swansea, with some cracking prize money up for grabs. However, we think we may have already found our winner. Andrew Davies landed a fish of a lifetime whilst fishing Sully Island, tipping the scales at 20lb 6oz! Despite the smoothound being known for taking crab and prawn baits, this monster was caught on a 2 hook flapper rig with rag worm.

We have heard of some awesome sessions on the hounds from marks such as Sker, Morfa and Aberavon in recent weeks. However, further up the Channel around the Cardiff area the stamp of fish being caught have been of a good size. Drew Abraham has been putting in some hours on his local mark on the Cardiff Foreshore and it's fair to say, he has been reaping the rewards. This 13lb 2oz hound is the pick of the bunch and provided Drew with an awesome scrap on the rocks! It also puts him in the money on our Smoothound leaderboard.

If you are a member of any sea fishing forum around South Wales, then it will come as no surprise to you that there have been huge shoals of mackerel showing all along the coast, as far up as Penarth! The Barry Knap has been prolific for catching Mackerel in recent weeks, with anglers bagging up to 100 mackerel in a short session. It's not often that we get big shoals of mackerel this far up the channel, so there is no surprise that anglers have gathered down the Knap in their hundreds to get a piece of the action. The obvious method for catching these tasty little predators is to use mackerel Feathers, with silver flash rigs being amongst the most popular patterns. Pictured below is well known local angler, expert and rod builder Dai Llewllyn from Angling ambitions custom Rod house, who has been joining in on the mackerel trend!

Often when the mackerel move into an area, it means that predators like bass that are further up the food chain are not far behind. Dave who runs the Reel Minds group took advantage of this theory, landing this stunning bar of silver weighing in at 5lb 8oz. Once the novelty of catching dozens of mackerel had worn off, Dave decided to try something different and try for the bass. Using his freshly caught mackerel, Dave put one mackerel head and guts bait out and one with the tail section in close. Not long after both traps were set, the stunning bass pictured below picked up Daves tail bait and took off with it!

The Tope fishing seems to be improving year on year in Wales, for both shore and boat anglers. Along the Pembrokeshire coast, Tope can be caught off a number of marks if the angler is willing to put in the time and effort to target them. However, it is easier to target them from the boat and they can be caught along most of the Welsh coastline. Danny Curtis landed this beauty whilst out on the boat with his mates. 
After losing a fish of a much bigger size that bit through his wire, Danny was chuffed to land this one which tipped the scales at 33lb.

For anglers further along the Coastline in pembrokeshire, the lure fishing has been extremely kind to them recently. Although the bass seem to be a little shy around the St Davids area, the Pollack and wrasse are providing plenty of sport for bait and lure anglers.

A group of our staff and customers headed down for a day on the Kayaks with Joe Shaw from Catch & Cook Kayak Fishing. The action was non stop from the off, with our very own Lloyd Prytherch landing his Personal Best Pollack within the first half an hour. Sadly, Lloyd couldn't keep it on the Kayak long enough to weigh it before it slipped back into the water, a quick release you could say! Using a variety of slow jigs and soft plastics, the group had plenty of fish as the day went on, with Joe's helper Laurence landing the fish of the day weighing 9lb 10z Beauty (pictured right below).

With a day spare after the kayaking, Rich and Lloyd decided to spend a day on the rocks around St Davids. The target for the day was a cuckoo Wrasse, which both chaps achieved. Ragworm is a deadly way to target any wrasse species but it can be really exciting to catch them on the lure, thanks to their aggressive nature. We have found that slow jigs in bright colours are extremely affected for the wrasse,making sure that you are prepared for a strike at any moment to avoid being dragged straight into snags! A lure that Lloyd and many of our customers have been huge fanas of in recent months is the HTO YoYo jig, particularly in brighter patterns as shown in the photos below. Depending on the depth of water, the 18g model allows for control in shallower areas, whereas the 38g model gives you the ability to cast further distances and cover more water when required.

The Gower area has also produced some good bass fishing as of late. Although the average stamp of fishing have been relatively small, this doesn't take away from the sport that they provide on the lure rods. A long term customer of ours, John Howcroft spends most of his summer at his Caravan, which allows him to spend plenty of time chasing the bass. After picking up a new spool of Westin W10 Braid to try out, John headed out in the sunny conditions and christened his new line with this lovely bar of silver, caught on an all white soft plastic. 

According to reports, there have been plenty of fish hitting the lures around the Gower area, so get yourselves out there and catch some fish!

We hope you enjoyed our June 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!