Barry, Neil and I decided to take a trip to Wales this year to check out the saltwater fishing. After last years trip to Jersey to fish the bass festival with Barry wining the 'best fish to a visitor' category we decided on a more relaxed affair and Wales seemed just the ticket. With breathtaking scenery to die for and reports of excellent fishing opprtunities abound it sounded perfect, we decided on Pembrokeshire and booked a guest house just outside the town of Tenby for a long weekend stay.There are all manner of marks to fish from expansive Atlantic storm beaches, to deep water rock marks and everything in between. We really were spoilt for choice and the hardest thing was knowing where to start! Everywhere looked really fishy!
We took advice from Keith, the owner of Tenby Angling Centre, who put us on to a few reliable spots and supplied us with all the bait we needed to put us in with a good chance. He recommended a couple of rock marks for during the days and some beaches for after dark. There were apparently a good few smoothounds around aswell as the usual bass, flounders and occasional ray on the beaches. The rock marks sounded fantastic and offered the chance of huss, spurdogs, conger, wrasse, pollock and all manner of toothy critters.
As it turned out it was the rocks that produced the best of the fishing over the weekend for us, in particular a couple of marks on the beautiful stretch of coastline close to the sleepy little village of Manorbier. It was here that we started on the first day armed with a couple of wraps of locally sourced ragworm, sandeels and fishbaits.
Barry was after the toothy critters and put out large fish baits while Neil was deep spinning sandeels looking for a pollock. I on the other hand chose to fish the ragworm with wrasse and a whole host of mini-species in mind. On my first cast I was getting taps on the rod tip straight away and after a few minutes had a nice looking wrasse of around a pound diving for the sanctuary of the rocks. A good start indeed with a lovely, colourful and obliging fish.
Due to the nature of the mark, tackle losses were high. It kind of comes with the territory and is to be expected. The fish do love the rough stuff as it offers many kinds of food and sanctuary for all. I fished a simple rig using a 3 - way swivel with a weak link to the lead on the vertical eye and a short snood to a strong 2/0 hook on the horizontal eye. This way when the lead got snagged it was simply a case of replacing this as opposed to remaking a whole new rig.
I proceeded to catch a string of wrasse one after the other with very few under a pound and a good average size. They really do fight hard in their effort to get back to their hidey holes. It's hit and hold fishing at it's best. Tight clutches are the order of the day because if the fish takes any line then it will invariably make it to ground and then it's game over.
It was'nt long before I had a real brute of a fish on that scrapped all the way to the surface. It was the biggest wrasse I have ever seen let alone caught and pulled the scales round to 3lb 11oz! To say I was suitably chuffed is an understatement and the obligatory photo was taken to remember the moment.
Barry and Neil were not doing so well on the other baits and soon switched to the ragworm to get in on the wrasse action and it was'nt long before they too were into fish. It soon became apparent that there must have been literally hundreds of wrasse deep down below us as we all continued to get bites almost every cast. The potential of the mark for wrasse was immense and there must surely be a few seriously large specimens to be caught given the time. It was exciting fishing and we all thoroughly enjoyed it as was so different to anything we were used to back home.
The next couple of sessions we fished were on the beaches. The first night we spent on South Beach at Tenby which produced a few school bass for us all and a lone flounder for Neil too - all on lugworm we had brought with us. The fishing was rather uneventful, ordinary and a little disappointing really. Nothing to write home about.
The following morning we made the trek to Ginst Point at the far end of Pendine Beach which is an immense atlantic storm beach. The prospect of fishing in the surf at a wild and remote location seemed very appealing but the reality was rather different. The weather was diabolical with continuous rain and howling westerly winds, not to mention a roaring and messy surf. We tried our luck for the bass with razorfish whose shells littered the beach in their millions but failed to even get a bite. It was hard, physically demanding fishing and after a few hours of getting soaked and completely covered in sand we retreated along the beach and back to the car with our tails between our legs! You've got to love this fishing lark!
So with two poor sessions in a row we needed to get into some fish and fast. Keith recommended we try our luck around the back of Tenby harbour that evening from the rocks by the new lifeboat station and bandstand. It was lovely and calm round there as the rapidly dropping breeze was coming over our shoulders. A welcome relief after having had all the cobwebs blasted away earlier at Ginst Point!
We tried floatfishing rag and sandeels, legering cockles for the 'apparently' present black bream and sandeel for the outside chance of a ray. Yet again this session also produced a blank. The water was really too still and calm for my liking and morale was dropping fast.
After a good nights kip, our final morning dawned and we decided to head back to Manorbier for another go on the deep water rock marks. We were instantly rewarded with wrasse, pollock and a few blennies for our efforts. This turned out to be the best session of them all with plenty of fish being caught - all on the ragworm. Barry tried his luck with big fish baits once again but there was no interest at all. Perhaps fishing here after dark would have been more successful with this approach, I think a return visit will have to be made one day to test out the theory.
Neil also tried his luck with a multitude of lures for the pollock and bass but unfortunately they did not seem that keen on his artificial offerings.
I seemed to be having all the luck with the wrasse as a real lump of a fish fell to my rod once more. I heaved it up from the depths with it scrapping all the way onto the rocks, it seemed even bigger than the 3lb 11oz fish from the first day. We popped it on the scales and they settled on 4lb exactly, I was yet again over the moon and shaking with all the excitement. My kness had turned to jelly! It was a stunning fish with beautiful markings and colouration - my new personal best. A fine specimen that I won't be forgetting in a hurry.
The british record wrasse stands at a smidge over 9lbs. It's hard to imagine how hard a fish of that size would dive for cover, it would probably pull your arms out of their sockets. The 4lb fish fought like a tiger and a creature twice it's size. Very impressive!It was a trip of mixed fortunes and the sessions at Manorbier were definitely the high points by far. It's always tricky fishing somewhere new and strange as it is knowing your marks thoroughly that aids successful fishing. Taking all that into consideration we did ok really with an excellent start and finish to the trip. Knowing what we now know, a return trip would be great. As I mentioned earlier there is some serious potential on those rock marks that definitely requires further investigation and I don't think it will be too long before we are back looking for bigger and better fish.
