Bloody Weather!

Hasn’t the weather been bloody awful!? I’ve lost three boat trips and four boat reviews on the trot, and that’s just in the past five weeks.

My shore fishing is just as bad too. Living on the Welsh coast and facing due west sheltered marks are few and far between, plus the beaches have been crammed full of weed, day in, day out. The sea swells have been too big to get on most of the rock marks, plus they’re as slippy as hell with all the rain and just not safe.

It’s said to have been the wettest June since proper detailed records began way back in 1914. There’s so much freshwater spewing out of most of the estuaries that the salt levels have dropped and the crabs stopped peeling inside the estuaries, so the better bass were early moving out on to the offshore reefs after the sandeel.

Charter skippers have obviously been hit hard with many days lost, but it’s the smaller tackle shop owners that have been dramatically hurt regarding financial turnover. If we’re not fishing, they’re not selling bait and accessories. It’s even harder for the small tackle shops right on the coast where the holiday trade is so vital to swell the coffers to get them through the long winter season. So far, tourists are as rare as good governments in most coastal regions.

A mate, and keen small boat angler with a Warrior 165 has been to sea just twice so far this year, and this seems typical for a lot of small boat owners. Not good for moral, is it!

You remember just after Christmas, was it the Met Office warning us of one of the hottest summers on record and there was panic setting in regarding potential hose pipe bans in some parts of the country? I wouldn’t put money on it now, though technically there is still time for some summer.

My guess, if we get any decent prolonged weather, it will be an Indian summer in late August and more likely September, which would be about right as I’ve a crippling work schedule then and my fishing time will be very limited.

That might be the silver lining though for many of you. Indian summers can bring outstanding fishing and literally save your summer season. The water temps hold up that little bit longer and the crabs peel in greater numbers late in to the year. Mackerel stay tighter to shore later than normal too, keeping bigger predators inshore and still within casting range. For example such conditions often see a late run of small-eyed ray, plus some of the year’s biggest sole can be caught right through to late November in appropriate areas, and on the west coast the tope and bream hang around longer.

What also helps is that with good weather late in the year, and the longer nights, it means the fish don’t travel too far from the low water mark by day, so you’re working to a bigger audience of general fish that tend to stay closer inshore, especially on the more overcast rainy days when light levels are low and less light penetrates through the shallower inshore water. They then move back on to the beaches quickly as night falls!

A really hot spell in early September can also induce a massive crab peel over the first set of spring tides and this will bring the bass back inshore in huge numbers, especially inside our smaller estuaries.

Keep your eyes on the weather charts and maximise your time if that fine hot spell does materialise.