September Catch Report 2024

This months round up of angling action is packed full of awesome catch reports from across a huge range of species and angling disciplines, from the shores of both the UK and abroad. The sea fishing reports have been outstanding from both shore and boat anglers, from gurnard and mackerel to Bullhuss and bass! The end of the river trout season provided us with some cracking reports, as well as those fishing on still waters. We also have some encouraging reports in our coarse and carp section, with some great still water reports and finally some quality action on the Rivers, thanks to some steady water levels. We hope you enjoy this months edition!

Sea Fishing

With the water temperature reaching their peak, the bass fishing continued to produce across the UK coastline, with boat anglers doing extremely well in particular. Areas stretching from Pendine to Caldy Island around Tenby have been producing not just a quantity of bass, but also quality.  

Ceri headed out with a friend at Saundersfoot, armed with a Box of lures and feathers. He landed around 20 bass, with plenty of fish from 45cm to 55cm in the catch as well as the usual schoolies. Most came to sandeel lures, such as Drift fishing eels in white and the Westin Sandy Andy.

Pembrokeshire has also been in fine form recently, with a good stamp of bass and pollock being reported. As always, our good friend Joe Shaw from Catch & Cook kayak fishing has been out on the water and he is delighted see some better fish around. This is what he had to say about one of his better sessions during september: 

"Finally the bass seem to have switched on for us.. it’s only taken all season

Superb session last night with regulars Colin and Laurie. I think we ended up with at least 7 bass, with a handful of nicer fish all going to Laurie and on his own home made topwaters lures.

We ventured to a new stretch of the coast having had such bad results on our own patch for most of the season, and it paid.

Nothing out of the ordinary species wise.. the usual bass pollack and wrasse showing, but we had some cracking action from the start with myself landing a chunk of a pollack about 6.5lbs in very very close, thought I’d snagged until it let loose and have an almighty scrap.

We honed in on the bass over shallow bouldery ground next to steep cliffs… with sandeel V2 taking a few but the most successful lure of the day was Laurie’s topwater, hand carved and painted recently.. top marks!"

The 9th of september was the last day of our 2024 Summer smoothound competition and it's fair to say the action went right down to the wire! Our smoothound winner was almost certain to take 1st place ever since his 10lb 6oz entry back in august, however Joesph Gamlin decide to leave it down to down to the final day before landing a winning bass for our bass pool! This stunning bar of silver, caught at Ogmore weighed in at 6lb 4oz and a clear winner. Well done Jo, great angling! We will be running a winter Cod competition, so keep your eyes peeled.

The Gower Peninsula has been absoluelty teaming with life and action, much to the delight of both Lloyd's from our Cardiff store. After a weekend of settled weather, the whole eco system was on display with birds diving into huge shoals of baitfish, seals popping up to say hello all over the coastline and of course and of course, plenty of fish! The lads chose Worms Head as their venue of choice, a fantastic mark which offers a variety of marks over deep water, shallow water, clean and rough ground. The left hand side of the coarseway offers plenty of gullies and surf over low water and is well known for producing plenty of quality bass. 

Sadly, the surf was a little too high on top of the already massive spring tides, so the Lloyd's headed over to the ledges on the right hand side of the island with a gameplan in mind. The water on the North side of the island is much deeper which allows you more room to experiment with different lures and with mackerel busting everywhere, the boys knew they were in for some great sport! Metals such as the HTO YoYo's, Shore jigs and Westin F360's proved to be deadly as the mackerel were on the feed from the very first cast! On a light lure rod set up, around the 10-30g these stunning little predators are awesome fun to catch, in the absence of the bass and pollock!

A relatively cold start to September resulted in the majority of smoothounds moving out to deep water, but also an improvement in the ray fishing was noticeable along the South Wales coast. Along this stretch of coast, marks such as Friars point at Barry, Ogmore Deeps and Witches Point can be prolific for small eyeds, blondes, spotted's and thornbacks. In the video below, expert angler and TronixPro team member Mario Asprou headed over to Withces point to show case how good the fishing can be at this time of year.

Far away from the coloured waters of the Bristol Channel lies the Orkney Islands, a picturesque location known for its quality sea trout and brown trout fishing. Ceri visited the island along with Alan Parfitt and Lyn Davies, with coastal sea trout the main target, along with opportunities to fish for loch trout and pollack from dramatic rock marks. Ceri said of the trip: 

"Finally back home from another full-on angling adventure, fishing the remote Island of Hoy, Orkney, for coastal sea trout and brown trout. This magical, wild place drew me back for a return visit, and didn't disappoint.... Some great memories were made over 6 action packed days of fishing, in fantastic company. Hoy is a truly epic location and this trip will live in the memory for a long time to come. "

The beauty of fishing this amazing part of the world is the variety of species that you can catch. Ceri finished his trip on 18 sea trout caught in the saltwater, a big loch brown trout (pictured above) and a number of small pollack and brownies. Coalfish also figured in the catches. The trio of anglers enjoyed some fantastic sport catching these fish mostly on light spinning gear; there was no doubt that the Westin F360 inline lures proved to be absolute fish magents! 18g in bright colour patterns such as the one in the photo below appear to be irresistable in these waters.

Llangennith has been fishing really well for the golden grey mullet and schoolie bass. Small rag worm on size 2 or size 4 hooks have proven to be deadly when fished in the surf. The beach faces constant winds as it faces west, which has helped to build up the ebaches reputation for providing fantastic surf all year round. This attracts not only surfers but also plenty of anglers. Brendan Davis had an action packed session when he headed down there, catching plenty of mullet using this method, all around the same sort of size as the one pictured below.

For more information on Llangennith Beach, click on the link below.

If you're fishing for a mixture of fish at the moment, the fishing has been pretty productive, Scott Brown has been out on the South Wales coast to try out his new set of Anyfish Anywhere Tournament match Pro II’s.

“Thought I would get out and try the new rods

Bit different from my Grand Prix pro rods but nice rods to use

Had a few fish so far and the rods sit lovely in the tide with a great bite detection

I Think they will grow on me ”

Top darts Scott

Ogmore has been fishing particurlay well as of late, with a range of species being landed. Using fish baits such as squid & sandeel or squid & anchovy have proved deadly for the rays, especially when fished on a long 5ft pulley rig. John and Andrew had plenty of rays using this approach, but also managed to pick up a baby tope and some gurnard, which appear to be around South Wales in numbers this year!

Mal Entwistle also headed down to Ogmore in the hunt for a few fish. Despite his pals trying to persuade him that this was a huge dogfish, Mal was absolutely over the moon to land this fantastic bull huss. It's fair today it put a bend in his Century T900! 

When fishing around the Ogmore area and in particular Ogmore Deeps, it is crucial to check the size of the tides, swell and wind direction in order to stay safe on these marks.

Carp & Coarse fishing

With plenty of heavy rain across the UK it was a relief to see the rivers with some water in them again, resulting in a resurgence in the barbel fishing. The river Wye fished extremely well on stretches such as Monmouth, a club owned stretch that starts just above the Rowing club. Blake James landed this specimen at last light from this stretch on Probaits Squid & Orange, tipping the scales at 10lb 14oz.

The barbel fishing has also seen a slight improvement on our local River, the Taff. However, it has been the non stop reports of grayling, trout and chub that have been impressive as of late. Whether it be fly fishing, method fishing or stick float fishing, the fishing has been superb.

Take young Olly Jones for example who has a passion for any method of fishing has been catching some stunning fish from the Glamorgan Anglers stretch of the Taff. Using a maggott feeder on this stretch of the Taff has proved to be a deadly approach for Olly, landing some lovely trout and grayling, just like the one pictured below.

Hazel Court Fishery has been producing some stunning carp lately. The mixed coarse fishery located in Llysworney is a complex of 6 lakes which holds a range of coarsse species such as bream, carp, tench, perch, rudd and also has a specialist Catfish lake! Harrison Aubrey from our Cardiff store has been testing out the waters on their specimen lake recently and he's sent us in some awesome reports, with plenty of carp to bank with the ones captured below being the hihglights of his session.

Bluebell Lakes, located in Peterborough has been producing some quality fish recently from across their different lakes. Known as one of the most prestigious Carp waters in the UK, Blue bell offers 5 specimen carp waters with a range of pegs available to target fish from 10lb all the way up to a whopping 59lb 9oz. Like on any big carp water, the fishing isn't guarenteed to be prolific, but that makes it all the more reqarding when the alarm sounds! After a quick visit to our Cardiff store to stock up on some end tackle, James Honey made his way up to Blue Bell in the hope of landing some of the complexes stunning carp.

“Got home yesterday from a long and frustrating trip to one of the best day ticket waters in the UK. We decided to set up on swan at Bluebell Lakes one of hardest waters on the complex but the rewards was there to have. Had a screaming take as the sun came up resulting in this torpedo of a mirror I definitely went home a happy man with not many people catching on this water.”

Darran Park Lake is a venue that often features in our reports and appears to be be gaining popularilty as the months go by. The recent capture of the lakes first ever 30lb carp is an example of why that is! Rhian & Dave who are close friends of the shop have put countless hours into making the lake one of the best mixed coarse and carp lakes in the area.

"Well it’s been a long time coming and the work the club have made to get this to happen has now rewarded us here’s Sam with pat at 30lb4oz this morning all the fish are really piling on the weight this year and the lake is just getting better and better well done Sam awesome angling "

The Glamorgan Anglers waters have been producing some stunning tench recently, regardless of size. Rhian Bomber managed these 2 beautiful, dark fish during a short session on her favourite of the lakes. It didn't take long for Rhian to work out that the fsh were feeding at distance and when a ProBaits TT boilie was presented, it was game over! 

On the peg next to Rhian, her partner Dave had a fantastic mixed bag of fish which made for an action packed session. Once again David was using ProBaits TT, which resulted in carp, bream and grass carp with the fish pictured below being the best of the session.

For those that were fortunate enough to escape to the French Countryside during September, the reports appeared to be superb. Karl Thomas has just arrived home after an unforgettable family/fishing trip of his own.

The highlights of the trip were a 37.8lb mirror, a pristine younger stockie & a fascinating albino catfish, certainly one of the lakes most sort after fish! If you’re looking for some holiday inspiration, You can read the full report from Karl and the family’s trip on ‘Les Deux Lacs’ page.

Fly Fishing

September marks the final month of the trout season on the rivers, so we often get plenty of reports from anglers trying to squeeze in their last sessions. Despite the rain, some keen anglers got in on the action on the river Ebbw, with YouTuber Luke Gator making the most of it. Below, Luke's video of his final river session of the season, as always a great watch.
 

River fly anglers attention now turns to grayling, which can be found in abundance on our local rivers, the Taff, Ely and Rhymney. For guidance on grayling fly fishing, check out this latest blog from Fishing In Wales on the subject. Below, a truly stunning Rhymney grayling. We have effective flies and tackle for this species in our shops, as well as expert advice.



For the rainbow trout fisheries, we are hearing great reports from Ynys-y-fro Newport, Clywedog reservoir and Dare Valley Aberdare. Below, a cracking fish from Dare Valley which must now be the premier ‘big fish’ venue in Wales. 

We hope you enjoyed our September 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!