I’m not getting much time to fish again at the moment, but I was recently back in Plymouth shooting a product video for Pure Fishing. Most of the day was spent in front of camera talking about new rods and reels you’ll see in the autumn, but we did manage a couple of hours fishing, catching pollack to 5lbs on Gulp Alive lures as well as some decent conger to 35lbs on deadbaits. It was shame we only had a few drops on the conger as they were feeding well and I think we’d have had some really big ones over 40lbs as the tide eased off.

Next trip was off the shore at Pwllheli for bream. I wasn’t that confident as for me the weather patterns and sea temperatures are all wrong for the bream to be inshore so far this year and the boats are not doing well either. I wasn’t far wrong! My mate and I caught four between us, 2 small postage stamps and two fish either side of a pound. We’ve had as many as 20 fish there in previous years at this time of year but I’ve heard of very few being caught so far. We both had to hit maximum casting range to find them too. We were surrounded by other anglers and they all blanked, so for once the ability to chuck a long way paid off.

That same trip was a nightmare for interruption though! We had dogs swimming in the water, people swimming under our lines, power boats and jet skiers blasting about just offshore, but then along came the kayaking angler. Talk about “all the gear and no idea”, this guy was tooled up with two rods, big landing net on the back of the Yak, was wearing a Bush type hat and fishing waistcoat. He paddled right in front of us about 50yds out exactly underneath where we were casting too. We were putting leads a genuine 130 plus yards on the day and he must have seen the splashes and heard them while he was still a good way off and outside the danger zone. No offence intended to sensible, considerate kayakers, but this is the third time this year we’ve had strife with fishing kayaks when shore fishing and had to stop casting. In fact they are proving less considerate than most surfers and windsurfers. It gets your goat when it’s your own kind that causes you problems by being totally inconsiderate. I’m also hearing about a minority of kayak anglers selling bass in the Tywyn area of Mid Wales, around Harlech and off South Wales. Definitely not people I’d choose to have a pint with!

I went up on the Lleyn for a short pollack session, and what a let down this proved to be. I’ve fished the Lleyn area for nearly 30-years now, and I’ve never seen it fishing so poorly as it is at the moment, generally speaking. The ground fishing is slow and the quality of the pollack and the wrasse are nowhere near usual quantities, compared to what they should be. No idea what the reason is, but I hope the autumn brings better fishing. Most anglers report "hit and miss" mackerel fishing too. I’m also hearing this is much the same situation in many parts of the UK currently, but I do think the autumn once we get into September will fish very well.

Whilst on the Lleyn I was disgusted to see huge amounts of rubbish on many of the marks. This is also far worse than I’ve ever seen it before. Undoubtedly its anglers rubbish as we’re the only ones that use newspaper to wrap worms in and carry squid boxes and frozen mackerel wrappers. We carried off three full carrier bags and disposed of it ourselves. What really hacked me off was that some twit had packed all the rubbish up in to one bag and tied it up, then left it on the rock, too bloody idle to carry it away with him. I’d be ashamed if I thought these anglers were members of WSF! How would you feel if somebody tipped his rubbish in your garden…then think on and take your rubbish home before we all lose access and the right to fish not just the Lleyn, but fishing marks throughout the UK!!

Rant over…I’ve also had a couple of short sessions close to home bagging common gobies and also a silver eel to take my annual species tally to 30! Given I’ve been struggling for time to fish I’ve managed to average two new species with each session fished, so I can’t be too down hearted. I’m hoping to get a few days off in the next few weeks to go ray fishing, plus I’ve a week in Ireland on the horizon, so plenty to look forward to!