Best wishes for the festive season!

We had some fantastic fishing this year, notably a vast improvement in the ground fishing over more recent years. Thornback Rays were plentiful through July and August, reaching sizes of 15lb, some of the best ray fishing we have seen for many years. Compared to 20-30 years ago there is very little commercial activity in our area now and the stocks of the larger species of ground fish are recovering and becoming more plentiful.  Bull Huss were thick on the ground and with a few tope which mixed things up a bit.   The best tope was about 40lb and the little sharks are always fun to catch and release.  This year we have been calculating their weight from their length and girth measurements so they are less stressed when they are returned to the water.  A few spurdog were also caught on a couple of days this year.

A fine 35lb tope

As mentioned earlier in the year, the season was slow to start due to the exceptionally cold water temperatures at the beginning of the year, caused by the harsh winter. The mackerel were about 3 weeks late but when they did arrive we had a very good year for them and fresh bait was very rarely a problem. They didn't hang around at the end of the season though and made a quick exit early on in October.  

The summer was exceptional weatherwise with many calm days which enabled us to fish considerable distances from Conwy exploring the offshore wrecks. Pollack fishing was very good at times in May and June but tailed off a little after that. We saw a good stamp of fish on some days up to 10lb in weight. Cod were conspicuous in their absence this year after promising signs last year. Coalfish were caught along with the odd ling on some days.

One notable trip was a three day trip to Ireland. We travelled over to Wicklow through the Menai Straits, fished wrecks on the way over, had a day fishing out of Wicklow and then fished on the way back on the third day. Some exceptional pollack fishing was realised on the trip back with many fish in the 6-12lb bracket and one 14lb and one 15lb. It was a fun trip all round with a good 'craic' ashore in Wicklow where the locals made us feel very welcome.

Whales and dolphins were seen on numerous occasions this year. We now see Bottlenosed dolphins quite regularly in the Great Orme and Conwy Bay area. We sighted Minke whales on three occasions and we saw one instance of one completely jumping out of the water and breeching. It gives us confidence that there are plenty of feed and fish around to attract these large cetaceans to our coast.

It was great to see so many new faces this year, trying sea angling out for the first time. The ground fishing will hopefully continue to improve in 2014 allowing even the most novice of anglers to have a fantastic chance of a catching a big ray, tope or huss.

On line booking is becoming more and more popular with many people buying vouchers for their friends and family as presents. Please don't hesitate to give us a call if you have any questions about buying vouchers online.

We'd like to take this opportunity thank all our clients for their custom throughout this year and wish you a very happy Christmas and tight lines in 2014.