Colwyn Bay
One of if not the easiest venue for fishing in North Wales – Colwyn Bay. Park up and you are on the fishing mark. Perfect for less able anglers, well pretty much everyone. Fishing is possible from the boot of the car so no carrying of tackle is needed, you can sit in the car during poor weather and watch for bites.
The entire promenade is railed so you can use a Tripod or you can rest your rods on the rails. It’s your call depending on personal preference and how light you want to go.
There is free parking here for now too, as of Sept 2019 there are pay and display machine being installed further up the coast. Hopefully these machines will not make is this far down the promenade.
Colwyn Bay fishing venue is a high and low water mark, admittedly it mainly gets fished at high tide and weather permitting it can get very busy with Anglers. The last two weeks of August and first week of September every man and his dog tuns up as the mackerel shoals move in to shallow waters. They can be caught in great numbers here at times. 2019 the Mackerel seemed to give the area a miss. No large shoals came close in but you could still them there but further out. You can tell easily if the are around by the amount of bird activity on the water.
The prime spot for beach casting is said to be just by the arches. Colwyn Bay promenade is not bad fishing though many do think it has declined slightly in more recent years. This could be down to the new beach a little further up towards Rhos on Sea, this new sand is covering the old worm beds. The fish will come in to the area when hunting food, the new beach has reduced the available food source. Though during winter this doesn’t seem to bother the hordes of whiting who descend upon the areas coastlines. They will eat anything and everything and can make for a busy session in what tends to be a slow time of the year for anglers.
At low tide worm can be pumped in decent numbers for fresh bait or there are tackle shops close by in Rhos on Sea, Rhyl or Pensarn. You will be fishing on to a sandy bottom so there should be no tackle losses. Gripper leads from 4 ounce will hold the bottom fine here unless there is a strong wind up.
Lug Worm, Rag Worm and Mackerel baits work well here. There is no need for large specialist sea fishing rigs here at high tide. Simple 2 hook flapper or Loop rigs are fine as the venue doesn’t seem to produce larger fish. Low tide try a larger pulley rig with peeler or failing that a large squid bait.
Fish this mark in summer and you can get the obligatory dogfish, Plaice, Dab and school Bass. Just watch out as Lesser Weavers will also make an appearance. Feathering can get you Mackerel particularly around late Autumn and early September. Colwyn Bay fishing in winter tends to be a Whiting fest. These whiting can be used as baits for much larger species but not at this venue. You do also get Codling as well Rockling in this section of the coast too.
There are toilets a little further down the coast but these are not in walking distance…neither are the icecreams in summer. In the second picture you can see how busy it get when the Mackerel are in, everyone waiting on the incoming tide.
Species: not exhaustive
Whiting, Dogfish, Mackerel, Dab, Lesser Weaver, Plaice, Bass, Lesser Weaver, Dab
In my opinion anywhere along this section fishes quite similar, with little reports of any larger fish coming out. Try peeler crab at low water during summer for a surprise Smoothhound or two.
Direction to the Promenade, Colwyn Bay LL29 8ED.
This venue is really easy to find, it’s 30 seconds off the A55. A decent fishing mark which plenty of anglers use in both summer and winter. I think it’s limited on fish species and is a bit hit and miss. However it remains popular due to its ease of access, you will often find people fishing out of campervan.
https://goo.gl/maps/qPxV2uPPZBE2
Fishing Colwyn bay on an incoming high tide going in to darkness may give you an extra edge.
Tight lines, live tide times below.
Check out our online shop at www.halenfishing.co.uk Terminal tackle of all types and sizes, if you can’t see it just ask and we will try and stock it. Check out the the home page on here for any promo codes.
