May Catch Report 2024

It seemed as though summer arrived over night in mid may, with the weather switching from windy and cold to hot and stuffy, to the delight of most anglers it must be said! We have recieved loads of awesome reports across all disciplines.

With the river fly fishing season now in full flow we've seen stacks of great reports from a long list of rivers and streams. Our fly fishing expert and guide Ceri Thomas has been getting into the dry fly action on the River Usk. The Airflo Superflo Ridge 2.0 4weight fly line has been doing the business for Ceri, just look at the line lay on this snake cast!

Some our Staff members and friends of the shop have recently returned from a memorable trip to Denmark, targeting sea trout and needlefish. Although the majority of fishing was done using lure of float fishing tactics, Ceri, who is mentioned earlier in the report felt inclined to take a fly fishing outfit over as well! Sadly, the Sea trout weren't playing ball on the fly, but they did manage to land some stunning Garfish, which thanks to their thin, streamline physique put up one hell of a fight on light tackle. Keep a look out for the full Denmark blog coming soon!

In other news, We are delighted to announce that Garry Evans will be attending the Game Fair once again, which will take place at Blenheim Palace this year. We anticipate that this could be one of the GAme Fairs best shows yet thanks to the fantastic location and setting that Blenheim provides. We hope to see lot's of you visiting us on the Garry Evans stand between the 26-28th July.

Carp & Coarse Fishing

As the temperature increased throughout May, many carp started to spawn which saw the temporary closure of most lakes around the Country. With the majority of syndicate waters closed, Roath Park become a popular destiantion for those anglers that couldn't wait for their lakes to re open. Now open to the public, Roath Park lake is 30 acres located in the heart of Cardiff which holds a fantastic head of Pike and also some fantastic Carp. Harry Morgan managed to kill some time before the Wharf re opened and landed two of his target fish during the session, Casper at 29lb 12lb and this unique ball like carp at 25lb 6oz.

The Welsh Ladies Carp Team took on Scotland and England in this Years Tri Nations, located at Naysbury Resevoir, England. Team Wales headed into this years match as defending champions, however they were up against a strong english side on home turf who had plenty of experience on this water.

 Rhian Bomber, an experienced angler and former Team Wales Captain wrote this report post competition:

2024 Home Tri Nations.

What a weekend! It’s been tough, emotional, challenging, plenty of mental battles but you know what, after the barriers we are facing as a team over the past 2 years and more sore in the past few weeks, we were determined to show up and give it our everything.

We came into the match as last year’s winners, but it wasn’t our time this year. Carp Team England Ladies and Carp Team Scotland Ladies kept the pressure on throughout the 48hrs and increased the lead in each section.

Congratulations to England taking the gold this year and to Scotland for taking the silver in this match.

Regardless the outcome, I couldn’t be more proud of this team. You give it your all and that’s all I could ever ask of each and every one of you.

Thank you Charley Bunce for leading us into this years home Tri nations and my fishing partner Evie Morgan for sharing these moments with me.
 

Sea Fishing

March and april saw the usual plague of Dogfish during that stage of the year, but with warmer weather, cleaner water and the arrival of Smoot hounds they tend to thin out. This allows anglers to chase their target species more effectively and we have received a range of great reports across a multitude of species.

Smooth hounds are at the top of the list for most anglers when fishing during the summer months due to their hard fighting attitude and stunning appearance. Rough ground marks tend to produce the better sessions on the hounds, however they can also be caught over clean ground with marks such as Morfa beach and Sker Point being renowned for holding big packs of hounds. Accessible via a 25/30 minute walk, Sker Point is a fantastic mark for targeting not only smooth hounds, but also bass, eels, huss and much more! It's also a great mark to fish on various side tides and wind conditions, as certain ledges, especially on the left hand side are fishable at any stage of the tide.

 Kaden Copp has been fishing flat out as of late and has managed to find a few smooth hounds for himself. Testing out his new Fireblade GT and Penn Casting Special, he managed to pick out a few with best going 7lb 5oz. As always, the majority of fish have been caught using either peeler crab or prawns whipped onto short pulley rigs with a dongle.

The ray fishing has continued to impress us as they show no sign of moving off, especially the small eyed's, blondes and spotted's. Ogmore is a fantastic area for targeting most ray species at this time of year, which you can fish on various marks from the beach towards the estuary and car park all the way down to the Ogmore Deeps, Andrew Davies and John Fishlock are two anglers that are familiar with the area, so they decided to head down for a session over low tide on the small tides. The fishing was chaotic to say the least, with a total of 18 Rays,turbot, hounds and of course dogfish! Andrew has been enjoying plenty of success using 2 hook loop rigs, which have allowed him trial lots of different baits throughout the session. As well as the faithful squid, crab and bluey, Andrew found great success using prawns especially for the rays and hounds.

Our Summer Smooth hound competition kicked off on May 5th, which also includes an optional Bass Pool. These competiitons are another good way for us to keep up with all the catch reports and it appears as though there are plenty of bass around. Roy Tapper, a local angling Wizard was first to enter our Bass Pool with a lovely silver bar weighing 3lb 15oz.

They may not be everyones cup of Tea, but there have been plenty of congers coming out as well. With plenty of matches taking place at St Brides, Newport, it's always likely to see lots of Eels which has certainly been the case! Dragon mania and The St Brides open were fished on consecutive days on the 11th and 12th, both matches being won with Conger eels. Shaune Moore, who quite frankly could catch fish in a puddle at the moment, carried on his rich vein of form with a second place finish on the Dragon mania saturday and 1st place on the sunday.

Lloyd prytherch from our mail order has been trying out the Drift Shads which have arrived with us in the White body and red head pattern. Fishing around the Borth area, Lloyd had stacks of pollock and schoolie bass on 15g shoal shad model fished in shallow water. With the a bit of surf around, the bright body and tail movement of the white shad was Ideal for fsihing in these conditions.

Every now and then we get a welcome catch report from our friend and former employee Jakes Jones, who is rather annoying with his constant catch reports off the shore! As of late, he's been catching some Southern Bluefin Tuna, in amongst the salmon. Jake has recently joined the Samson team, a brand that he has been fond of for some time and he has had plentty of success. On this occassion, the 115g Slim minnow has been doing the trick. It took all the drag on Jakes Penn Slammer to get this tuna in, it took off like a steam train!

We hope you enjoyed our May 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!