October Catch Report 2024

We have produced some great reports so far in 2024, but October is certainly up there with one of our best! With an epic start to the pike season well underway and some settled weather for our freshwater anglers, this months Pike, carp & coarse section is packed full reports from a variety of day ticket waters, syndicates and rivers! The sea fishing has also been extremely prodcutive along the South Wales coast with plenty of match reports and pleasure anglers also getting amongst the fish. As for our salt water lure anglers, it is clear at the bass season is far from over, with stacks of reports coming in from across the UK. Wrasse, pollock and mackerel are also still being caught in numbers! For our fly anglin community, we have included some awesome reports and videos for you to sit back and enjoy, from the still waters of Wales to the shores of the Orkney Islands! We hope you enjoy our October catch report below!

The traditional Pike season starts on October 1st, with plenty of anglers desperate to get out on the rivers and lakes to kick start there season. The reports came in thick and fast, with some quality fish being caught in varying sizes and quantities from across the country. The Wharf Syndicate is a venue well known for it's pike fishing, using either dead baits or lure tactics. Darren Bradburry got his Pike season off to a flyer, with two stunning crocs during a short session after work. 

Roath Park is another water that has been producing some cracking Pike. Although large parts of the lake are heavy with weed, Roath holds Pike to nearly 30lb for those anglers who can pick out the right spots. Lure fishing means you can cover a large area of water and try out some different lures to find what is working. However, the majority of big Pike from this venue generally fall to deadbaits as opposed to lures. 

Cardiff Bay and the lower stretches of the Rivers that feed into it have also produced some good pike, but more noticably some massive perch! The Bay has always been known to throw up big predators, but with such a small percentage of the banks being accessible to fish, the true potential of this venue is unknown. In recent weeks however, Cardiff Bay and the mouth of the River Taff has been throwing up pike close to 20lb and Perch to over 3lb.

With words spreading through the shop that the bay was fishing well, Lloyd P headed down with some regular customers to see if he could get in on the action and he was not disappointed! The Fox Rage Zander Pro shads in the ‘hot olive’ proved to be the best lures, espically in the 7.5cm version. The key to finding the big fish is to fish your lures really slow, almost bumping them along the bottom. You're likely to lose some gear in the proccess, but its more than worth it when you reap the rewards. With water clarity clearing up the conditions were pefrect, which resulted in Lloyd P landing 5 quality perch with the biggest weighing 3lb 3oz and 3 pike up to 9lb.

If you're looking for a new venue to try, then presenter & writer Will Millard met up with our Fly expert Ceri Thomas to try out a new venue. Will put together a lovely write up of Mid-Wales based water, which will give you a better idea of this hidden gem:

"I was blessed with the chance to fish a stunning wild water with my good pal Ceri Thomas and Fishing In Wales - very rarely have I ever had so much fun predator angling!

I knew Llyn Ebyr in Powys was going to be something really special, purely from the “Google Map” recce! A very remote, lily lined, and ancient glacial llyn, with scant fishing reports, and now a new, dedicated ownership, very keen to develop it into something a bit different.

I arrived at the farm access prepared for anything, and began the day settled on one of the new wooden fishing platforms. The water was clear and deep, and beautiful still, and fishing a float at 14 feet soon brought on a shoal of fin-perfect bristling perch. It’s the sort of fishing I love. A real cast into the unknown just beyond an immense ring of lily pads. With buzzards hunting overhead and fish fizzing out front, I would’ve happily sat there all day. However, we had a film to make, and much more water to explore!

Just £10 a day gives you access to both the bank fishing and a boat (a further small fee allows for electric engine hire, which I highly recommend, given the lake stretches for 20 acres - or bring your own engine, and obviously a life jacket is a must) - so it was a quick trot from my peg through an old woodland, dripping in rainwater, lichens, and goblin folklore, to get to the boat house."

"We had both dropped small pike at the net in the first thirty minutes of bank fishing, so it was obvious the predators were active - in fairness, these were perfect autumnal conditions: golden colours, a light breeze, slightly humid temperatures, and baitfish topping across the entire sheet of water. But the lure angling we experienced was phenomenal.

In the next hour and a half we must’ve had twenty takes between us - fishing replicants at varying speeds and depths - and at times, just ripping them through the baitfish shoals as fast as we could reel.

The action was frenetic, ending only once we realised we had flat-lined our camera batteries and Ceri’s favourite lure had been severed in two! After we had literally ‘re-charged’, we managed to winkle out a couple more before the sun slunk below the tree line.

There were no monsters on our day (although Ceri lost what looked like a very good fish) but the potential for Llyn Ebyr felt massive. As a beautiful peace-filled place to wet a line, it’s hard to imagine many better places in our country - and for the price, frankly, it’s a bargain.

I’ll leave a link to the Fishing in Wales website with the details of how to book a ticket in the comments below. You must pre-book here as the friendly farmer/new owner Luke, wants to keep the special wild atmosphere of the place, and access is directly via his working farm too!

Watch out for the film later this year.

Llangorse Lake has also been producing some good Pike and perch, despite some dry spells throughout October. Located in the Brecon Beacons and surrounded by endless wildlife and scenery, Llangorse is one of the countries most popular destinations for Predator fishing, which also provides anglers with the ability to fish from one of the lakes rented boats. The venue also hosts a series of Kayak competition throughouts throughout the calender year, drawing in some of the best predator anglers in from across the UK to test their skill set. 27 pike and 43 Perch were caught and our good friend Joe Shaw was part of the action, here is what he had to say.

"Class day at @llangorselake for the SWKA predator hunt, I completely blanked for the day however @laurie smashed it with this Pike early on in the day, taken on one of his own home made crank baits.. top marks son. Fishing was tough but what a lovely place… top marks to Ed And Andrew for organising the event. See you in March for the next one."

Llangorse is also a favoured venue for Lloyd Thomas who works in our Cardiff store, who has had plenty of success at this venue for many years. Sadly this time round, Lloyd didn't manage to land anything special but the Jacks managed to keep him busy from start to finish. 

“The big girls sadly weren't on the feed this time, but there was plenty of sport to be had on the lures as the jacks were takign a liking to the big lures. The beauty of Llangorse that it offers different areas to fish over with deep areas which are perfect for trolling big lures and deadbaits, or shallow weedy areas which you can target the fish using lighter lures or top water tactics.

It is best to cover as much ground as possible on this venue to try and suss out were the fish are. The jacks didn't seem put off by the size of lure being presented in the deep water, with the Westin ‘Ricky the Roach’ and 'Shadteez' proving to be deadly. With the water up and coloured, the orange roach patterns proved to stand out in the merky water. The outcome proved to be the same as we fished over the shallower parts of the lake, but using lighter lures this time, using a stinger hook instead of a jig head to keep them high in the water. The Shadteez or Fox Rage loaded pro shads are perfect for this approach."

Make sure to give Llangorse  try if you haven't already and feel free to get in touch if you would like any further advice.

Coarse fishing on the rivers has proven to be rather productive throughout October as well. The River Wye has produced some fantastic all round coarse fishing, from barbel and chub to trout & grayling. Despite some terrible weather throughout the month, stretches such as Monmouth saw some big fish gracing the banks. Blake James has been landing some big barbel up to 12lb 6oz and chub over 5lb, using method feeders and Probaits Squid & Orange boilies which the fish can't resist!

During the days where the Rivers are in flood, the Taff feeder stream has provide some fantastic sport for our staff and customers, as the levels don't fluctuate nearly as much as the surround rivers like the River Taff & the Ely. A simple float set up, small hooks and a pint of maggots can result in a huge bag of fish.

Our store manager Richard Cox is one of those anglers who has been down to get a bend in the rod, opting to fish the lower section of the stream which provides a superb background for your session with Cardiff Castle as the back drop. Within a few hours Rich landed what must have been close to 100 roach and chub, with the biggest weighing around 2 1/2lb, as pictured below. The feeder is also home to grayling,barbel, pike and many other species so it is well worth a try if your local river is un-fishable! Float fishing tactics or feeder tactics can both work well on this water.

In the carp fishing world, our staff and customers have been having some memorable sessions around Wales and even further afield. Rich dusted off his Carp fishing tackle and headed over the bridge for a 48 hour session on a Syndicate water he had been invited to fish. With the conditions looking good, Rich's hopes were high and this reflected in the results! Throughout the session Coxy landed 8 fish up to 20lb, the perfect way to get him back into the swing of things.

James Dixon has been putting in the hours on his Syndicate water over the past few months and his efforts have certainly been rewarded with this special fish. ‘Leney’ is a stand out fish from James' syndicate which originates from a strain imported by the Donald Leney in the 1940's and 1950's. 

Sunday 27th saw the Annual Colin Cook memorial match take place on East Cardiff Dock, also known as the Wharf. The fishing proved to be more difficult than it has been in previous years, which could be down to the match taking place later in the year. The fish appeared in pockets throughout the match with Clive Roberts fishing beautifully on the whip from start to finish giving him a total weight 42lb 9oz. Tony James, pictured below had a slow start to the match, but finished with a busy last 2 hours to give him a weight of 34lb 2oz. As a close friend of Colin's from a young age, it was great to see Tony recieve his trophy for his efforts, the smile says it all!

Sea Fishing

The Match South Wales match scene was blessed with some big competitions throughout October, starting with the big one, The Barry angling festival incorporting the 43rd Garry Evans Sea Masters Final. With the limits between Cold Knap Point and teh Steps at Fontygarry, there are often some big bags of fish caught with blonde rays being the main target. With a huge list of prizes and cash up for grabs, including £500 of vouchers and a Penn fixed spool reel donated by ourselves, the Barry Angling Festival is a date that anglers always save in their calenders. Once again, it was our good friend Dai llewellyn who came up with the goods to grab 1st place. He has proven to be an absolute machine on the macth scene in recent years, especially around South Wales. This is what he had to say following his record win:

"I'm gonna start by saying what a superb community we have, thank you to everyone as you are all equally as important as the angler next to you.

What can I say, today I equalled the prestigious Sea Master Championship record winning it, and also the Barry open for the 4th time. I had some good luck and some bad luck but importantly made some fantastic memories with a lot of great people. I won't bore you with the details.

Conditions were horrible so well done everyone for taking part, competing, and doing your best. Huge thanks to all the organisers who make it all happen.

I'm exhausted, another incredible day."

The following weekend saw the South Wales Sea Anglers (SWSA) hold their annual Cardiif Foreshore Open, another match that is known for drawing a bit crowd. The majority of anglers tned to fish for as many bites as possible in an attempt to rack up their weight little by little, usually catching pouting, whiting, eels or bass but therr is always the chance of a big conger, cod or thornback so it always makes the results rather interesting. Here's the report from SWSA chairman Rob Cole:

A cracking turn out today of 96 anglers. The weather stayed pretty good but the fishing was hard work and the angler had to work hard for the fish . Most of the fish were caught on the flood with conger eels being the main catch . 26 anglers and 4 juniors weighed in back at the Splott Cons with 61 people coming back to the weigh in enjoy the food and comeradery. A huge thanks to all our sponsors and all the staff at the splott cons none of this is possible without your support.

Huge thanks to the stewards on the day especially Tyrone Berry .

1st place was local angler Nigel Putbrace Cardiff sac with a brace of conger eels at 6.84kg netting him £300 from computer world Wales (Shaune parsons)and heaviest bag of £84 and the Robert Radman shield.

2nd place was SWSA club angler Alex Jamieson with a conger and a pouting at 3.44kg netting him £200 from (Rob Radman) plus £84 for heaviest conger .

3rd place was Chris Stephens from Tata steel with a conger at 2.92 netting him £100 from SWSA fishing club .

Juniors

1st,2nd3rd place sponsor was Ozzy Osmond from Paul Osmand haulage. 4th place sponsor was Leighton Cauchi with a tackle voucher.

1st place was Lawson Gamlin with a mixed bag fish at 1.08kg Lawson comes from a long blood line of anglers in his family with his dad and grandad well known anglers in south wales.

2nd place was caylum stickler from SWSA son of Robz Rigz with 0.50kg of mixed fish .

3rd place was Alfie Fender from SWSA with 0.27kg

Also with a mixed bag of fish .

4th was Benjamin Winston with 0.16kg and a mixed bag of fish .

Well done to all the other anglers that weighed in a cracking effort from everyone.

Our club celebrates 17years on October14th and we are into our 12th year on the shore comps .

Our committee would like to thank everyone who has taken part as members and guests over the years we hope you enjoy the rest of the season this year with 2 comps left to go and have a great Christmas.

The fishing along the Bristol channel has been very hit or miss recently and understanably so with a combination of terrible conditions throughout. However, a massive set of tides produced some really good fishing for the Rays, huss and others species. With the big tides, it allows low water marks such as the Sand Spit at Lavernock to uncover for a long enough period of time to be fished. 

Kaden took atdvantage of these tides and managed to land some quality fish on our fresh bait and terminal tackle, it's fair to say he has been putting his new Century T900 through it's paces.

"Headed out for a early morning start with Gareth Griffiths, Dean Booker, Chris Stokes, & Luke Winton plenty of fish between us all including Blonde Rays, Spotted Rays, Bull Huss, & some of the usual dogfish. Caught my PB Blonde Ray absolutely buzzing using your Sandeel & Squid. Plenty of laughs & banter cracking session "

Cold Knap Beach has been producing some fish towards the end of October, which is always nice to hear as it is one of South Wales' most popular venues due to it's ease of access and comfortable fishing, if you don't mind pebbles that is! Squid & fish bait cocktails have proven to be deadly on the Knap at the moment, especially when they're fished on slightly smaller hooks like a 2/0 or 3/0 as apposed to big 4/0 or 5/0 which are often more popular. 

Our new Garry Evans X TronixPro hoodies have made their way on to the beaches, with Kaden (mentioned above) getting this awesome snap on the Knap last week of a spotted ray!

The majority of anglers tend to call it a day on the bass fishing over the winter months, but this doesn't mean that there aren't some fish to be caught! As long as the conditions play ball, there are still plenty of bass, pollock, wrasse and even mackerel to be caught from both the shore and the boats. Lloyd Thomas and Lloyd Prytherch both took the trip down west during the middle of October, to see if the could find a few fish on the lures and my goodness, they were in for some awesome sessions. Over a two day period, Lloyd P managed to land over 35 bass up to 55cm. He's been putting in the hours around the New Quay area and most of his luck has been on soft plastic lures, with the white & red head Drift shad proving to be deadly in these particular conditions. Using his Majorcraft triple cross allowed Lloyd to change over to some heavier lures to find the fish in deeper water, when fishing on some rock marks over high water.

Lloyd T only had a one day window to join Lloyd P on the rocks and although the weather was less than ideal, they both managed to land some solid fish on a new mark, around the Fishguard area. The heavy winds made it extremely difficult to use most lures, so heavy jigs such as the HTO YoYo's and the Catch & Cook Ammodyte's gave them the best chance to cover as much water as possible. As the water clarity was relatively milky, the brighter colours such as the Whites, silvers and oranges were more effective.

For those angelrs looking to pleasure fish at the moment, there are plenty of species on the feed from conger eels, pouting, whiting to name a few. Andrew Davies enjoyed a lovely session with his friend Brandon (UK shore Cod record holder) on Sker Point. Although it is often associated with The smoothound fishing during the summer, Sker point can be really productively in the Autumn for a variety of species. Andrew and Brandon caught some nice rays and congers as well as a rock pool full of pouting! 2 hook rigs with either rag worm or fish baits such as mackerel or blueys proved to be deadly.

The Reel Minds charity organisation have continued their fantistic work with multiple fishing trips last month along the Welsh coast. Dave who runs the organisation has opted to take the groups to Friars Point recently, with the chance of catching different species and easy access.

"With a bit of a westerly and plenty of drizzle we decided to get a bit of cover and fish the left of Friars. Things started fast with one of the lads dropping a fish first cast. Then on my first cast on the big baits a nice bite and I lifted into what felt like a monster eel. Unfortunately after just a few minutes of battle it bit through the hook length. Luckily I had a dongle baited up so out it went and within minutes I was into another smaller eel approx 9lb. Then it went dead. I had a couple of small Whiting but the lads couldn’t muster a bite."

It's great to watch and support the growth of this fantastic chairty as it continues to help people to get back out into the community. If you would like to learn more, click the link below:

https://www.reelminds.org.uk/

The Canary Islands have continued to be a fantastic destination if you're looking for a fishing trip abroad. The variety of fish that can be caught from either the shore or boats is extremely impressive. Steve Tucker is an experienced angler in this part of the world, so he has plenty of first hand experience of the prolific fishing that their Canary's have to offer.

His recent holiday saw Steve fishing on the rock marks of Fuerteventura, using a selection of lures and dead baits. 

The highlight of the trip was this cracking Snapper around the 20lb mark, which took a liking to Steve’s locally caught fresh bait loaded onto a Sakuma Fishing 2/0 circle hook. If you can, using freshly caught bait is the most effective way to catch these predators.

Fly Fishing

Ceri headed over to the the Isle of Hoye in the Orkney Islands with his good friend and fly fishernman Lyn Davies, for what turned out to be an unforgettable trip! Lyn has put together a fantastic video on his Youtube channel, showcasing the amazing coast line and Lochs that the Islands have to offer for both lure and fly fishing. 

The guys had plenty of success on their lure outfits, using the Penn Spinfisher 3500 reels loaded with 8 strand braid and had plenty of fish, but there were also some lovely fish which fell to the fly fishing tactics.

Enjoy the full length video below:

On a water much closer to home, Hwyel Morgan has been bank fishing the Llyn Clywedog Trout Fishery. Exploring the endless oppurtunites that the 615 acres of Welsh Resevoir has to offer, Hwyel demonstrates how you can get yourself amongst the fish on this fantastic water.

Alan Hamblin, who you will normally find cracking terrible jokes in our Coarse shop, but recently he decided to break out his fly fishing gear for a bit of still water rainbow trouyt action! Alan headed over to Ynys Y Fro resevoir, Newport. Ynys Y Fro is owned by Newport Resevoir fly fishing assosiation and both of their waters have been stocked with quality rainbows in 2022/2023. With this in mind Al headed over for a few hours and with the conditions almost perfect, he was into a fish within a handful of casts! The Blue flash Damsel's proved to be deadly from start to finish.

We hope you enjoyed our October 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 on Facebook and Instagram.

For tips, advice and tackle information, don't hesitate to get in touch and we will be more than happy to help!