I have heard a few reports and whispers floating around about the quality of our bait. I would firstly like to apologise if anyone has had any poor bait from us, it is not on purpose but for various reasons it hasn’t been up to scratch.

We have over this last week changed our bait processes for the better.Please read on to find out what we have changed.

Blow/Red Lug – The worms are currently kept in fresh sea water at about 350 per tray. We have decided to split this down to 200 per tray which will keep the worms in better condition. We are also going to try and change the water for frequently. The pack sizes had gone down earlier in the year to 15-18 worms. This was due to our cost price and we didn’t think it fair to rise the price in the current climate.
The lug will now go up to 20 worms per packet and no rise in price. It will stay at the same price to £3.50

Rag Worm – We were currently getting around 2 large trays per week of rag worm which comes in peat. The rag can stay fresh for up to 2 weeks but the unpredictable weather we are currently having doesn’t help to keep it. We have changed this down to 1 tray per week ensuring a high quality level is kept and only the freshest bait is available. We will also be splitting the the large tray of Rag we receive into 2 smaller trays to try and keep it to its best.

Black Lug – We currently have 2 black lug suppliers which bring us the freshest bait possible. Our job is to keep it fresh for as long as possible before freezing it down. Sometimes the Black is frozen down a little late and when defrosted is flat and rather stinky. I have experienced this first hand only a few weeks ago. Although the stinky Black is a brilliant bait for certain species I understand its not acceptable to buy it as ‘fresh’. We have now changed when we freeze the Black down to only ‘properly’ fresh lug is frozen and tired ‘stinky black’ will be sold as stinky black at a reduced price.

Peeler Crab – We are currently getting around 300 decent sized peeler crab per week from Cumbria. We keep these in in great condition and only try to sell the most ready to pop crabs first. We haven’t had any complaints about the crab except the price but they are expensive for us to buy in and to be fair they are the best bait.

If you have had any problems with your bait please contact me either PM, email (chris@gerrysfishing.com), Phone 01524 422146 or pop in. I would like to hear of any problem(s) you have had with bait or anything else and hopefully try and fix them.

If you have had an issue with bait please let me know and I will give you the same amount that wasn’t up to scratch FOC. I hope that is fair?

Regards,
Chris

I have been focusing lately on trying to enjoy catching smaller & more fish. On usual beach gear most flatties, Whiting and a few other species are a lttle boring when you winch them in on a rod that could land small Sharks. Basically I have been using my Anyfish Anywhere 8ft lure rod, Shimano Aernos 4000 and 15lb braid. The rigs I have been using have been dependant on the species I have been targeting.

My first trip out was on one of our local skiers. I intended to go out for the Bass but after 45 mins without a sniff I decided to target the Flounders. I knew there were plenty about due to me disturbing quite a few on the walk out.
Anyway I changed onto a Imax Flattie rig which I have been meaing to test for a while. Its basically a small beaded flapper rig with short snoods. Boy is it effective. I fished for 1 hr and 30 minutes and caught 11 Flounders. Everyone pulled back and the biggest being 36cm.

After a bit of thought I decided to go again. Me, John and Sam from work decided to fish the Lune Estuary. We fished it on the flood and after the sucess I had with the Imax flattie rig I took a few more. Within minutes I was in.  Between us we had 28 Flounders in just under 2 hours and upto 36cm. I had the bragging rights the next day catching the most and the biggest

First fish

Biggest fish (36cm)

Sam with his first fish

John’s first fish

Double shot on the Lure rod. Great fight

My latest trip out was probably when most of you guys were wrapped up in bed nursing a hangover from a heavy Sunday bank holiday session. I dragged sam out at 5AM to fish the Hump on the 7AM tide. We had great fun but could of really done with being there an hour earlier to fish when it properly runs off. Anyway I stuck to similar tactic’s with the same set up. All I changed was my rig. I used a standard ledger rig with a long snood and a big crab. Sam stuck to blow and black lug worms and caught plenty of Dabs and Whiting and towards the end a nice looking Plaice. I stuck it out on the crab and each cast at a different distance. I missed my first big knock and my heart was in my mouth. I thought that one fish I came for and I bloody missed it. I left my bait out hoping the fish would come back and 3 minutes later it went again and I didn’t miss it. It screamed off diving and pulling my drag. After about 2 mins I got it into the shallows and we sore a Shark shaped nose pop out, I shouted “f**k me I’ve caught a smooth hound” unfortunately after we got the fish out we realised it was a Dogfish but what a fight it put out. I will never talk about Dogfish in the same way.

Sam with a Dab double shot

My first Dogfish on Light tackle.

Suprisingly not the only ones out. Martin out Shrimping.

So if you want to have a go at a bit of sport fishing you will need a lure rod rated to 50-60G capable of chucking 1 & 2oz leads. I use watch leads most of the time. A reel with a good drag. You can get Shimano spinning reels from £35 now. Some 15/20lb Braid. The braid will allow you to feel every knock and bite and let you get clean ‘lip hooks’ with nearly every fish. You can use mono but it isn’t as effective. You can get away with your standard beach caster rigs but I would advise you to tie some new rigs with much light rig body and snoods. Hooks are all dependant on what your targeting.
If your struggling or want more advise please drop me a message or pop in. I will come out with anyone who wants to give it a try as long as i’m free.

On another note you will be pleased to know we had a break in Monday Bank holiday afternoon and I caught the little beggar

The weather forecast screamed go to the 3 Master Baiters who had booked a trip with Rob Rennie on his LADY JUE III.

LADY JUE III is an Evolution 30 long cabin. She is designed to take parties of 8 with 2 crew, on long range exclusive charters. Powered by twin Yamaha 285hp turbo-charged engines through duo-prop stern drives to give speeds up to 40 kts, with a comfortable cruise speed of 25 kts. She has a state of the art Simrad electronics package and fishes 6 comfortably

Bait was collected from the various sources around the Swansea Area. However there was a distinct lack of peeler crab in our prefered tackle shops of Anglers Corner, mainwarings even the usually very reliable Gareth in Swansea Angling was struggling. Therefore the lads had to go to a source they are always reluctant to use as they seldom seem to have a good deal.

Anyway the peeler that was acquired was supplemented with some freshly dug and pumped lug. Some frozen mackerel, squid and sand eel.

We met Rob 7.30 in the marina and was informed that there was to be only one more angler that day. Steve who we had met before and a hell of a nice chap. Great they thought a whole charter boat for four anglers. A shame for Rob mind you but hey ho!

A quick discussion was had and a semi consensus was reached on the plan for the day. We’d do a bit of flatty bashing for the first few hours and see what happens from there.

New traces were tied with smaller hooks as Rob made his way to and positioned the boat near the mixen buoy on a prominent sand bar on the Mixen shoal.

So the first hour which happened to be the last hour of the ebbing tide we seemed destined to catch dogfish. When slack water arrived Rob repositioned the boat over the sandbar once more. not much action over slack water then when the water started to flood we started getting some flatties on board. A few nice Turbot for Rob, Lee and Steve. Rob lost i a nice turbot on the surface. As the trace came off a dodgy swivel was quickly blamed. Stead then got a his first plaice of the season.

Lee had a nice knock and in came Robs trace and turbot. As Rob leaned to retrieve, Lee gave a sneaky little shake and back it went. To everyone except for Robs amusement. It nearly had as much a laugh as when Ian told the story of catching a huge red turbot on this bank last year. He’d meant Gurnard and felt everyone should have known that

Fair play to the man he still kept making the tea and the sausage sandwiches we even had venison sandwiches at one point

The fishing remained like this for the next 90or so mins not great but hey ho ! Then Ian had a telephone call from his mate Simon who informed that he had heard news of a few nice smoothhounds coming in neat Porth cawl. Ian repeated this outloud for rob to here, who was obviously interested so were the rest of the master baiters, we just had to convince Steve it was a good idea. Yawwwnnn!! A bit crap here. Pheeew slow here init? Come on fish bite!! were amongst the words uttered. In the end Steve gave in and off we motored up to the porth cawl area a good 30 mins steam at 25 kts. Fair play to Rob He doesn’t mind burning the diesel.

It wasn’t long and lee was into the smoothhounds.

Then another smoothhound for Lee.

Then another. Everyone else were getting a bit grumpy by now. Then Rob and Steve was in, finally Ian got one which coincided with Lees 4th Smoothhound!

Stead started to panic a bit now. fish were coming in right left and centre.

This nice smut for Rob at almost 12lb

By now Stead was nearly crying especially as he was being ribbed mercilessly. He finally asked Lee to put the bait on for him. Which he did. The bait hadn’t touched the sea bed when bang! A lovely bite for stead. Ha ha ha Stead laughed as he reeled it in. Get the camera ready he shouted as the fish neared the surface. Just as the leader knot was leaving the water off it came. Laugh!! Well the boys nearly cracked their ribs they laughed so hard. That was until we saw the veins popping above Steads eye. Ooof he’s close to flipping. so down to business. It wasn’t long before Stead was finally in but By now lee was on about 7fish and ian about 5.

a relieved Stead with his first ever smoothhound.

He soon had his second

This continued until the slack water at hightide and we all changed tactics to try and catch an eel. We had run out of crab for the smoothhound by now anyway. Ian had a strap conger then this one which is not too strappy.

The smoothies kept coming to all baits, squid, mackerel and worm all caught Smoothhounds. Each angler had both types of , they do know that they are identical genetically but until its clearer they are calling them separate species on their species list for the year.

As the tide started to run a bit harder a few cod came aboard all the while the smoothhounds continued to feed hard.

This nice fish was last aboard by now it was 6.30and time to set off home.

A rough gestimate was that the 5 anglers had over 45 smoothhounds aboard that day mostly 8 or 9 lb fish Lee probably the most with around 12 -14 ian 11-13 . and the others around 6 – 8 each

Smoothhound fishing in Swansea South Wales

My plan was to finish work on Sunday and get down to Throbshaw Point and to take Black and Blow Lug to Target the Plaice and Flounders. Just before we finished for the day a few guys who were fishing a match on West End Beach came in and they were good enough to ‘lend me some crabs’. This got me rather excited because I could smell BASS.

Anyway I headed down and got onto the left hand side of Throbshaw point at about 6.30pm. The wind was blowing straight on with a few rolling waves. I thought, this is definitely a night for Bass.

Sam came down to see how I was going and while I was baiting my second rod up I let him wind my Vercelli rod in. First fish, a small Plaice.

After unhooking the small Plaice and plopping him back in I set upon using the Century HPR Super match. I put my first cast out at about 70 yards with a 2 hook flapper and 4 oz lead. The rod tip compressed well through the cast with no bite.
Within about 2 minutes of my bait being out I had a good few knock which could only be from a decent flounder. BTW the tip on this rod is phenomenal, which im sure is down to the quick recovery produced by the HPR technology in the rod.

I was continuing to get to many bites on both rods so I decided to focus my attention on the HPR and wound my Vercelli in. After a few more harder casts to push the rod and a few more smaller flatties, things died down. On the plus side, Angling Addicts very own Kev turned up with my old rods for a little bit of fishing.  He caught a few small flatties and a nice double shot.

By this time I had got a little bit distracted by the perfect conditions for a few shots instead of watching my tip. I’m positive I missed bites but I think I was worth it, only just.

After my photo shoot I decided to trying something a little different. I fixed my lure rod up with a Imax flattie rig and a 1oz watch lead mould and see how it went.
after about 10 minutes I got BANG BANG BANG…….

Unfortunately I forgot my scales and measure so I can only estimate at about 2 1/2 lb. After this fish I caught a few more Flounders and a Dab topping off a cracking evening fishing.

Back to the Century HPR Rod. The easiest way to sum up this rod in one word is effortless. Its main attribute is the very quick recovery produced by the HPR technology. It is just at home picking up small flattie bites as it is hitting a 6oz lead out with a big winter cod bait.

It is 13ft 6″, equal section and casts 125-200G and comes complete made in Fuji KWAG guides and with a Century Reducer, Bag and adjustable reel seat.

  I truly believe this is the next step forward in beach rod design and its that good, I have ordered one myself, Its just a shame they wont sell me the Demo

Low water was 11.30am-ish so we plumped for a lie in and a leisurely launch around low water in readiness for the flood. We dragged our yaks down the hardcore path that runs down the side of the stone jetty to the shrimp boat moorings and prepped them prior to launch

The forecast was as expected, light easterly winds and blazing sunshine,superb weather for a bit of spotty bashing

We got on the water just as the flood started so it was with minimal effort that we paddled down to our chosen destination. Paul was in first drop with a small flounder…..

We were fishing with frozen black, which seems to be the top bait for plaice in Morecambe bay, along with blow lug and thin strips of squid. Two hook flowing traces with 2/0 fine wire aberdeens and Jagsy’s salmon egg beads.

It was a fish a drop, with quite often double headers coming out

The weather was glorious, like the proverbial millpond…..

We’d anchored in the middle of the channel initially and as the tide flooded decided on a move inshore and further up to try and intercept the plaice as they moved onto the banks

Unfortunately we’d only just anchored up after our move when without warning, the weather took a quick turn for the worst with the winds swinging round northerly and freshening markedly. It was hard to believe that only a few minutes separated these pictures…

We decided to head back as we weren’t sure whether it would get worse, and the sea had got pretty sloppy. As I reeled in prior to upping anchor I pulled in a decent fish which vindicated our move, pity we couldn’t hang around to get a few more

Sod’s law or Friday the 13th, take your pick, by the time we’d negotiated our way back, the wind began to die down and the sun came out again, so we opted to fish on and drop anchor near the shrimp boats as one had just come back in and had dumped his bycatch and riddlings over the side…

It proved fruitless, with only pin whiting coming aboard

It was a shame the freak weather intervened on what was otherwise an excellent day with good company 

WATCH THIS SPACE

Btw. If anyone is interested I have 2 Century Tip Tornado Super Match Low Diameters for sale to fund my HPR purchase. £200 each and they are minters. PM me.

Since the last report I have had four more sessions at Cemlyn with varied results.

Monday 2/4/2012 – fished 8.00pm till 2.00am weather was fairly calm and cold. But there was a bit of swell. I arrived just after high tide and decided to try plugging of the beach to start with. I had a wander along the beach and caught this little bass – first of the year and my first ever on a lure..

As darkness fell I set up my ledger rods using a variety of baits – rag, sandeel, mackerel black lug and squid. Rag was once again the best bait but all except mackerel caught. However, tonight it was just dogs and whiting. Getting a bit board of this I decided to have a go at floatfishing, Cemlyn is a steeply sloping pebble beach. I had bought a float that I can put a glow stick in for £1.00 at a car boot sale on Sunday so I gave it a go. After half an hour or so another first for me -

Dogfish on float, again it was rag that did the business. Left at 2.00am with frost on car.

Wednesday 4/4/12 – the day started off blowing a gale and sleeting. I was unsure where to fish because there were galeforce winds blowing straight in to cemlyn. I left my mums at 7.30pm and headed to Point lynas – too windy and rough so I headed to the Menai straits (Moel why Don) which was sure to be sheltered – Oh no it wasn’t!! So off to Treaddur bay bingo nice and sheltered so headed to Porth Dafarch and fished there. After an hour of so (it was now 10:00pm) I realised that the beach was extremely shallow and I was only fishing in an foot or so of water. By now the wind had dropped to only a strong wind so I headed for Cemlyn – having travelled round the world to get there (well Anglesey at least). However, glad I went to cemlyn as I had a couple bore bass and missed a few cracking bites. The surf was up and cemlyn fished well

Thursday 5/4/12 AM – Took Nick to Cemlyn to fish the morning high tide with a bit of left over bait I had. The wind had dropped a lot and bites were few and far between. I took some pics of Cemlyn, which would be an excellent beach for a match, there is plenty of room and similar ground right along the main beach.

Nick did a bit of plugging but to no avail,

I avoided a blank with this little flounder.

Thursday PM – Wind had dropped completely so headed to Llaneilian to fish of the rocks. Plenty of bites and caught 6 dogfish and 5 whiting between 8:00pm and 10:30pm. Getting fed up with dogfish and whiting, I decided to move on to …..thats right Cemlyn – what a waste of time!! It was flat calm, even the waves could hardly manage to lap on the shore. There were three others fishing on the beach, and no one including myself even had a bite. Packed up at 2:00pm and home to bed.