September Catch Report
The month of September provides anglers with the opportunity to target a wide range of species across all angling disciplines. With summer drawing to a close, it allows anglers to target species that are around in numbers through the warmer months, but also allows anglers to turn their attention to the species that become more present as the winter months approach. For instance, sea anglers have been catching plenty of sea bass and smoothounds which are traditionally found during the summer months, whilst targeting species such as blonde rays or even an early run of Cod, which tend to arrive during the autumn. Throughout December the fishing appears to have been reasonably good across all disciplines, despite the below par weather conditions and water levels. The following blog will guide you through a taste of angling across Wales & beyond, with an insight into what tackle is being used!
Coarse & Carp
The Birch is a highly regarded syndicate water located between Newport and Cardiff, renowned for it's stock of specimen carp, as well as various other species such as Pike to 30lb.
Blake James has been having great success on the Birch recently, using ProBaits Squid & Orange boilies to land numerous quality fish including his new Personal best, tipping the scales at 34lb 7oz, pictured below:
Due to the lack of rain over the past few months, the rivers throughout Wales have suffered massively, therefore impacting on the quality of fishing due to low water levels. Despite this, there have been some good catch reports from the River Wye in between the splattering of rain. After visiting us in our Cardiff store to stock up on end tackle, Rhian Bomber had a superb session on the Wye, landing numerous barbel along with some specimen chub!
With the mild temperatures holding throughout September, anglers across most venues still had the opportunity to target carp on the surface. Part time staff member Harrison Aubrey took full advantage of this tactic whilst fishing at one of his local waters, Canada Lodge & Lake. Using a Nash bolt machine and a single floating pellet on a 10' surface rod and reel setup, Harrison landed 10 carp during his session, with the majority pushing into double figures.
Sea Fishing
There have been countless catch reports from the Welsh coast throughout September, from goby's and triggerfish, to shore caught Tope and double figure bass!
Pembrokeshire is well known for providing great fishing for bass, pollock and wrasse whether it be on baits or on the lures, amongst plenty of other species! Jake has been targeting the wrasse in recent weeks from rocky marks, using the new TronixPro Banzai bass rod to send out ragworm or peeler crab baits. The 2-4oz casting weight of the Banzai bass allows you to cast a heavy enough lead to get far enough out, whilst also providing brilliant bite detection in the tip section. Jake is holding a nice Ballan Wrasse below.
Amongst other species, The south Wales coast produced some fine Blonde ray’s throughout September. Long pulley rigs, baited with squid, sandeel or blueys are up there with the most popular baits used to target the blondes as well as other Ray species. The Sand spit at Lavernock is amongst the most popular marks for producing these powerful rays, weighing up to 20lb plus. Anglers have most of their success fishing over low water on large tides, as it means they are able to get further out across the sand bar. Andrew Hutching pictured below with 1 of 4 blondes caught during a session on the spit.
Spinning
Freshwater lure fishing may have been partially compromised throughout September due to low water levels and or algae growth, but this hasn't stopped some anglers from finding their target species. As for the bass fishing, it has been fantastic all through the summer, with a mixture of soft and hard lures being used to tempt bass, pollock and wrasse of all sizes. Metal lures from HTO and soft plastics from Savage Gear have been in high demand in recent months.
The summer may have drawn to a close, but the sea bass still appear to be nailing the lures. Plenty of marks along the Welsh coast are still holding plenty of hungry bass, with a mixture of lure styles, sizes, colours and patterns proving to be affective! As seen In the images below, our store manager Richard Cox has been using the Savage Gear ISP Seekers, especially in the white pearl silver to land some stunning silver bars.
Andrew Hawkesley, our Newport store Manager is known for his trips to far flung, exotic locations in the search of quality fish of all shapes and sizes. His most recent trip to the Seychelles was no different, with a range of species such as Tuna, Red snapper, Dorado and even rays being the reward for his efforts. Andrew's set up consisted of his trusty popping rod paired with the new Penn Spinfisher VI spinning reel loaded with heavy braid, allowing to him target powerful fish using a range of big lures. Keep an eye out on our Facebook page for an in-depth catch report from Andrew's trip.
The freshwater lure fishing has proven to be difficult due to heavy weed and algae growth as a result of the warm conditions. However, small soft plastic lures fished on a light lure outfit have allowed anglers to find pockets of clear water to avoid the snags. Lloyd has been catching small, aggressive Perch by the dozen, using a mixture of Fox Rage micro soft plastics. Lloyd's favourite pattern in recent weeks has been the UV Micro tiddler Perch.
Fly Fishing
The end of September marks the end of the river trout season, so plenty of anglers have been out in order to squeeze in their last few sessions. Into October some of the wild lakes are still open untill the 17th, whilst beyond that rainbow trout lakes and fisheries will come into their own.
The Welsh World's fly fishing team, which included our staff member Ceri Thomas are fresh home from the World championships out in Spain. Despite the difficult fishing, Team Wales managed to finish 15th out of 23, and 2nd out of the home nations, hot on the heals of England who finished just two places above them.
Steffan Jones, owner of FishTravel.co.uk spent some time exploring sections of the River Cothi, West Wales. Despite this being a new water to Steffan, he was able to get amongst a healthy head of brown trout, with the biggest fish pushing 20 inches.
We hope you enjoyed reading the first of our monthly reviews, for a chance to be featured in the October review, 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.
Tight lines, Garry and the Team