November 2023 Catch Report

To the disappointment of many anglers, the weather throughout November was pretty awful with more storms than you can poke a stick at. But as always, those who were determined to put in the hours have been rewarded for their efforts, with some superb reports coming in from across different angling disciplines. Enjoy our November Catch report below!

Fly Fishing

Plenty of anglers have been keeping themselves busy with some different species whilst the rivers are closed. 

Pike fishing on the fly has become increasingly popular in recent years which makes for fantastic sport weather it be on a stillwater or on the river. If you are up to date with our catch reports then you will know that Luke Gater usually enjoys chasing wild brownies, but he has recently turned his attention to these toothy critters. 

As we write this the river levels have just started to fall, with Ceri from the fly shop reporting good numbers of small grayling and out of season trout on the Rhymney river. The The Taff is also coming into contention, with day tickets available from us for £7.50 for winter coarse on the Glamorgan Anglers stretch.

Dare Valley Trout Fishery has been producing some stunning rainbows as of late, with many creeping into double figures. Steven Howells (Pictured below)  “managed two good fish all returned to fight another day. Lot's of fish being cuaght on the lake as the fish have switched on with the cold snap.”

Fishing in Wales were joined by Charles Jardine, internationally acclaimed angler, writer and artist who has a deep connection with the waters and people of Wales. Charles also managed to land some grayling throughout the video from the Welsh side of the River Monnow.

Carp & Coarse Fishing

Our Cardiff Store manager Ventured over to Molyneux fishery for his last France trip of the year and it did not dissapoint. The storms were non stop from the get go for Rich, resulting in just 4 days of fishing out of a possible 7, which forced him in to a trip to the local pub for the first evening instead! But with some settled conditions on the second day, Coxy started to find the fish using a mixture of homemade baits and ProBaits UK TT Boilies.

With several fish already on the bank up to 38lb, this double take of commons was certainly the highlight of the trip.

Rhys Sullock also made the trip over the Channel, with this being his first session since buying a chalet on the West Coast of France. Once he had settled in, Rhys set out for his first experience on a French Public Lake, which did prove to be quite challenging. However, with his water craft and some local knowledge, Rhys was able to get some nice carp on the bank up to 30lb. The weather was extremely rough which meant that the fishing was intermittent, but once the wind and rain eased off, the carp were straight on the feed. 15mm ProBaits boilies did the trick, placed perfectly on a size 2 barbless hook.

Harry Morgan has been tearing it up on the Wharf in recent weeks, landing numerous fish over the 30lb mark. After loading his reels with a fresh spool of Gardner GT-HD, ‘Hazza’ headed over to his Syndicate for an over night session in baltic conditions. He was not disappointed, with a stunning 37lb 6oz common finding itself unable to resist Harry's boilie, mounted on his trusty Size 4 Gardner Mugga!

The day ticket waters around South Wales have also been producing lots of fish, all be it not as well now the winter conditions have started to settle. Kurt Jennings was happy to get out on the bank for a few hours and catch some small carp on his lighter set up despite the sub zero temperatures. Here's a little insight into some of Kurts terminal tackle that he used:

-Probaits Squid & Orange

-Gardner Size 6 hooks

-Korda funnel web PVA System

-6mm Manilla pellets

It's not just commons and mirrors that have been common out as of late, but a rogue grass carp has also graced the bank for anglers such as James Honey. A 72 hour session which  was timed perfectly before another huge strom resulted in this 24lb grass carp, as well as a new Personal Best at 38lb 12oz.

Ryan Dusted off the Deadbait rods for a few sessions targeting the pike. Due to the high river levels, Ryan opted for a still water venue which was a little more settled. Our smelt was without a doubt the most effective bait which most of Ryans fish fell for, including his best fish of the session which is pictured below.

Sea Fishing

Although the cold weather is starting to settle in, the blonde rays are still around in numbers it would seem. Whilst fishing the Lavernock Sand Spit, Ali Herbet landed two Personal Best Blondes in the space of two casts, with the biggest weighing just shy of 13lb. The Spit is a fantastic mark which is exposed at low tide and well known for being one of South Wales best Blonde Ray marks. Fishing the Spit on big tides allows you to have longer on the sand before you get cut off from the beach. The gusting wind made the conditions a little challenging for Ali, but this didn't stop the fish from feeding. The first fish fell for a Sandeel & anchovy wrap, before the second fish fell to a squid and sandeel wrap.

Friars point located in Barry is another mark thats up there with the best for catching Rays all year round, especially blondes. Father and Son Duo Richard & Steve Sheppard had a red letter session there at the end of the month, landing 5 spotted Rays and a small eyed, including 2 PB's up to 12lb 9oz. Like many anglers at the moment, our anchovies were the bait that came out on top. Team Sheppard uploaded an in-depth video of there session to their youtube channel, which you can watch below.

It has been great to see the younger generation persevering during the colder spells, just like Osian has been (Pictured below). For weeks and weeks now, Osian has been trying really hard to catch his first Ray and his efforts were rewarded with this lovely small eyed ray caught at the Ogmore Deeps.

With the change in conditions it allowed for popular marks such as Cardiff Foreshore to produce lots of fish. Amongst the cod and bass, the Whiting have also showed up in great numbers with the odd thornback Ray being caught as well. During a pleasent evening session towards the end of November, Rob Cole was landing double shots of Whiting on the Foreshore on 3 hook flappers, using rag worm for bait. Fishing alongside Rob was John Fishlock who landed this lovely 7lb thornback on our Anchovies, which appears to be the best ray bait around at the moment!

The Cod fishing reports along the Bristol Channel have been rather encouraging so far. There have been plenty of fish caught around the 3/4lb mark from the shore, with the odd double figure fish thrown in the mix from marks such as The White Light, Barry. Drew Abraham has been doing really well on his local mark, with several nice Cod falling for his bait including the one pictured below, weighing 6lb 7oz.

The consistent reports of cod has helped to build up our 2023/2024 cod competition leaderboard, with enough entries to cover all of our prizes on offer already. Lee Jones, a well rounded angler from Cardiff is currently top of the leaderboard with his fish weighing 6lb 12.5oz, which is pictured below. Fresh black lug worm or dug rag worm appear to be the baits that are doing the business at the moment.

The annual Cardiff Bay Yacht club cod competition took place on sunday 13th, and we were delighted to see that it went ahead without any cancelletions due to the weather. The conditions were not ideal but there were some nice fish caught throughout the day, just like Shane Boxalls 3rd place fish as pictured below. Here's what he had to say:

"Well what a day out on our boat " Fish Reaper" myself and Tarick Cruise took part in the Cardiff bay yacht club cod comp. Out of 86 boats and 231angler I came 3rd with a 4.9kg cod. I'm absolutely buzzing. Been fishing this comp for a good number of years now and this is the first time I've weighed in. Thanks to all the committee and staff at CBYC for a really well run comp. Looking forward to next year already"

For anglers like Andrew Hutchins, the cod fishing in the Bristol Channel doesn't quite cut it, so he headed out to the stunning Norweigen Fjords for a week. hutcho enjoyed catching a range of species including Haddock , Cod & Dabs using Asso classic up to 80lb and Asso ultra for his mainline and rigs. The Dabs couldn't get enough of Andrew's ragworm whilst the cod and haddock took a liking to fish baits such as mackerel, all baited on the trusty dongle rig.

Across the 11 sessions and 10 species, the highlight of ‘Hutchos' first Norweigen trip was this whopping Halibut which weighed in at 48lb 5oz. Due to the size and power of these fish it was essential for Andrew to use a strong, reliable mainline like the Asso Ultra in 25lb. The low diameter also allowed him to fill his spools with more line, which was important on the deeper marks which took almost 2 minutes to hit the bottom! Although the constant easterly winds made the fishing conditions challenging, Andrew's efforts were most definately rewarded throughout the trip.

The bass fishing has been fantastic during November with the average stamp of fish being well over the 45cm limit. Most of these fish are being caught on baits as apposed to lures, with baits such as worm, squid and crab proving to be amongst the most popular choices.

Chris Butcher caught this 51cm Bass during the SWSA club competition between Penarth and Sully. The conditions were not ideal on the day which resulted in less anglers than usual, but Chris was delighted to land this lovely bar of silver on our dug rag worm, which was enough to secure him 3rd place in the match.

As we mentioned above, lots of bass have been coming out over the 45cm limit which has made our winter bass pool very competitive. Despite lots of entries, Jon Henson is currently in 1st place with this lovely bass which tipped the scales at 4lb 12.5oz.

Reel Minds CIC is a fantastic organisation that aims to improve people’s health through fishing. Over the weekend, the group headed down to Chesil Beach:

So Friday night we set out with a small group for a special cod trip to Chesil beach. We arrived in the dark at 6pm just as the wind had dropped but there was still some surf and swell to contend with. For many of the boys this was there first trip to Chesil.

First cast and the dogs were out in force with some of us bringing in triple shots. The swell and surf was proving difficult for some of the lads to deal with as they struggled to cast far enough - in particular Robert Murphy who was becoming frustrated at being buried in the shingle and losing rigs.

A quick pep talk and a change of equipment as we lent him a long and light conti rod and some simple rigs and he was away catching his first Chesil fish - a doggy. With his confidence renewed his casting improved and was catching fish every cast.

Everyone caught fish into double figures and 3 of us managed cod. Dave 6lb6oz, Byron 5lb7oz and Jason 5lb4oz.

We fished right the way through until 11am the next morning whilst having an hour or 2 Kip each on the beach.

Species caught cod, pouting, whiting, conger, dogfish, Huss and poor cod.

It was a great effort by everyone and we had so many laughs, can’t wait for the next big trip.

‘There’s more to fishing than catching’

Lure Fishing

The Pike season is now well underway and the reports have been flooding in. As with every winter the Pike begin to slow down in the lower temparatures and begin to feed  more sporadically. With this being said, it is no surprise that lots of Pike are currently being caught on big lures fished on a slow retrieve. Darren Bradburry's recent sessions including a new PB is a great example of this tactic, here's a brief summary of his Wharf campaign so far: “I've been on a bit of a roll this season so far. The Wharf's average weight seems to be going up (or my luck is) and I was lucky enough to catch my new PB at the start of November at 14lb 8oz. Every fish has been caught on the same lure this season, The Fox Rage orange Catfish replicant, so it came as no surprise that my new PB fell to the same pattern. ” It's fair to say Darren was chuffed with this stunning fish which tipped the scales at 24lb on the nose!

It has also been a successful start to the season for some of our staff members, both past and present. Lloyd P has been making the most of the short windows of light before work, covering alot of ground with a selection of soft plastic lures. As the weather has stayed fairly mild until recently, this particular public lake is still crammed full of weed which is why the smaller & lighter lures are a must. The Westin "Ricky The Roach" lure

Ceri Thomas has been down to West Wales on a rare calm day and caught a few nice bass to 45cm and several bonus garfish, using the Westin F360 lures fished on the Penn Spinfisher 3500 reel, which we have on offer. The rod Ceri uses and rates highly is the Savage Gear Parabellum CCS travel, 9'2'' 4 section, throwing 7 - 24g, which has a lot of finesse and is ultra-lightweight. We can get these in ‘order on demand’ from our suppliers, they are a cracking rod for light lure angling.

This session provided Ceri with the ideal oppurtinity to create a detailed review on the new Kinetic X5 Waders which is available to read in our Blogs & Tackle reviews section. Ceri has been using the X5's for a few months now and he has been extremely impressed, due to their toughness and durability in the sea.

We hope you enjoyed reading this months review, for a chance 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!