Useful Info
Navionics
Not one just for the boats, Navionics allows you to zoom in on the potential fishing marks you will be tackling from the shore. It’s gives lots of information regarding the terrain you will be or are fishing and also the depth. This allows you to tarvet deeper water fish from the shore with a bit more confidence, you can see deep water close in towards the north west of Anglesey. Great as its free to use, give it a go and let us know what you think. Find it HERE.
Tide times
There are plenty of websites offering tide information, I usually just type “tide time (name of place)”. One site I do like is tides4fishing, once you type in the name of the place you can scroll down and see tide times clearly for the entire month and beyond. I have been using it for over a year now with no problems. Find it HERE.
Forums
There are a few forums about which cover the north west / north Wales area. Some cover the entire country. These can be a goldmine of information particularly when it comes to fishing reports. It can show you when/which venues are producing fish, what baits are working well etc. It comes in handy after the long lull in fishing during the winter months as you can see when things start picking up.
Don’t be worried about asking questions on the forums as we all have to start somewhere, most of the members are genuinely helpful and nice people. One question to avoid …..are the mackerel in yet when it’s still April!
http://sunnyrhyl.forumotion.com
It’s a smaller niche forum with anglers from the north of Wales and beyond, a great set of people too, really helpful and friendly. Sign up and get involved. I’ve been to the Christmas meet up at Pensarn for the last two years, great fun.
Another local forum with a good group group of anglers, regular fishing reports too. Mersey and north Wales reports are covered well. A whole host of other information is available. Take a look you won’t be disappointed.
http://www.worldseafishing.com/forums/
A forum covering the whole of the UK, catch reports and other information going back over 10 years, a real treasure trove of knowledge. The north west section is a little slow with new info but the north Wales section has regular fishing reports.
http://www.anglingaddicts.co.uk
The lack of reports for the fylde coast and further up on worldseafishing is filled by angling addicts. Regular catch reports to help put you on the fish in the northwest. Blackpool to Fleetwood gets some great coverage with some fun reports.
Water temperature…
The water temperatures usually peak around our north westerly shores on the 18th of August. The staple winter catches tend to be Whiting, Dabs and Cod. This is usually October to April, the fairer weather species tend to start showing up towards the end of May and heading back in to deeper water at the end of September. 2018 was a little different with bass and rays being caught around North Wales, I also noticed an increase in the amount of pouting around. I caught two which is a first for me, quite a few other fishing reports had them as catches too. This is something new as I havn’t seem much mention of them in the previous year’s reports..
Mackerel arrive in huge numbers to our shores and can usually be caught all over by the end of July, they are usually gone by early September except for a few lingerers. I find a lot of the mini species become harder to find around this time too.
As social media starts to encroach on traditional forums for up to date info it’s worth joining a few groups on Facebook. This will help get you up to date information on the more popular venues.
Minimum Fish sizes
| Species | Scientific name | MCRS in UK waters* |
|---|---|---|
| Anchovy | Engraulis encrasicolus | Whole area, except ICES division IXa east of longitude 7° 23′ 48″ W: 12 cm or 90 individuals/kg.ICES division IXa east of longitude 7° 23′ 48″ W:10cm |
| Bass | Dicentrarchus labrax | 42 cm (1) |
| Blue ling | Molva dipterygia | 70 cm |
| Cod | Gadus morhua | 35 cm |
| Haddock | Melanogrammus aeglefinus | 30 cm |
| Hake | Merluccius merluccius | 27 cm |
| Herring | Clupea harengus | 20 cm |
| Horse mackerel | Trachurus spp. | 15 cm |
| Ling | Molva molva | 63 cm |
| Mackerel | Scomber spp. | Whole area, except North Sea: 20 cm.North Sea: 30 cm |
| Megrim | Lepidorhombus spp. | 20 cm |
| Plaice | Pleuronectes platessa | 27 cm |
| Pollack | Pollachius pollachius | 30 cm |
| Red Sea Bream | Pagellus bogaraveo | 33 cm (2) |
| Saithe (Coalfish) | Pollachius virens | 35 cm |
| Sardine | Sardina pilchardus | 11 cm |
| Sole | Solea spp. | 24 cm |
| Whiting | Merlangius merlangus | 27 cm |
Recreational fisheries, including from shore, in ICES divisions 4b, 4c, 6a, 7a to 7k are limited to catch-and-release only during 01 February to 31 March and 1 November to 31 December 2019. From 1 April to 31 October 2019, not more than one seabass may be retained per fisherman per day.regardless of size.
- Recreational Bass fishing
More information is available on the official government website found HERE
