Barmouth

Barmouth could almost be described as a shy port. Shy in the sense that it's never really voiced it's virtues to the angling public despite years of consistent catches of quality fish. It's main customer base was always the Midlands and Liverpool. But that's been changing over the past few years. It seems one of angling's best kept secrets has finally got out and anglers from all over the UK now make annual trips to enjoy, what can at times, be exceptional fishing.

WHEN TO FISH
The season starts around late March with the first trips targeting the thornback rays. These are available in good numbers with fish averaging between 5 and 8lbs, but bolstered by much bigger fish over 12lbs. Most seasons fish approaching 20lbs are reported.

April sees summer species moving back inshore. First come the tope and mackerel.
The mackerel appear over the close in ground around the second week. Not in great numbers, but enough can usually be caught to give adequate fresh bait supplies for the day. Numbers get slowly better through May, but from mid June bait should be easily available. They'll stay in dwindling numbers right through to early November in mild years.

Tope show in mid April over the outer sandbank marks. A few fish for the initial couple of weeks, but by May and in to June the numbers caught are staggering with daily catches between eight anglers frequently exceeding 30 and even 40 fish, a figure only equalled by Barmouth's near neighbour ports of Aberdovey and Aberystwyth. The tope average 30lbs, but 40lb fish are taken daily, and fish over 50lbs have been taken.

May also heralds the return of the black bream. This is another underrated fishery here and in my opinion ranks better than the English Channel fishery. The bream are resident over the Sarn Badrig reef, a shallow rock and boulder reef 4 miles north-west of Barmouth. The fish run up to 2lbs average, but fish to over 4lbs are occasionally caught. Their numbers peak around July when the very biggest fish occur. They disappear with the first real September gales. The bream are joined by trigger fish from July to September.

With the reef being shallow, even drying out in places on big spring tides as much as 12 miles offshore, the pollack tend to be smaller sub 2lbers, but May into June sees a run of bigger fish to double figures from the distant marks.

June onwards gives the opportunity for monkfish close inshore. These fish used to be quite numerous here and pick up ray baits, but the inshore netting has had an effect on the monks and nowadays you really need to specifically target them to have a realistic chance. There's a secondary run of monkfish from August through October with July a quiet time.

Shark! An emotive word and rightly so. Porbeagles come within range by about late June staying until early August. Most fish are within the 100lb mark, but much bigger fish are hooked and lost when tope fishing.

By mid August, the whiting shoals are starting to work shorewards on their early autumn migration. We can't lay claim to whiting of the calibre seen in the English Channel, our fish rarely go over the pound, but there's plenty of them.

As for general catches, bull huss are a year round target with up to a dozen per day about average in peak season with fish to 16lbs likely. All the gurnards are resident between May and November, garfish and scad occur from May to September, dabs are there all year, a few codling are taken, usually in the early part of the year close inshore and from the reef, plus the ever present dogfish which can be a pain in the bait box!

Being mainly reliant on the tourist industry the last charter trips are made in October before the onset of the real winter storms.

TACTICS
Because the sandbank marks off Barmouth are so reliable, most of the fishing is done at anchor with normal downtide fishing tactics. You'll catch more fish if you get a few small baits down behind the boat as well as the bigger fillets. This way, you'll start catching a few gurnards, dabs and whiting, which creates an area of feeding activity and this, in turn, pulls in the bigger predators.

The tides are fairly slack, even on springs, so uptiding isn't an advantage, but that said, there are days when whacking a bait uptide well away from the other baits will get you extra fish. It's also worth a try when amongst pack tope, as often the odd bigger female is lurking around the edges of the pack and won't mix it with the rest preferring to feed alone. It's also good for picking up bonus thornbacks.

Only when after mackerel, or the codling and whiting inshore will the skipper elect to drift. The other exception is after gales when the thornbacks are scattered. Then it can pay to take a steady drift across the banks locating scattered fish as you go.

When breaming on the reef, choose a lead weight just heavy enough to stay on the bottom in the tide run, but light enough when you lift the rod against a tight line to push the lead backwards and downtide. This allows you to bounce the bait away from the boat and to locate the bigger bream which tend to be at the back of the shoal. Also, fish a short trace of just 2ft when the tide is running, but up to 6ft when the tide is slack and the bream higher off the seabed

TACKLE
A 20lb class rod and reel will handle all the usual species up to and including the tope, but less experienced anglers might prefer a 30lb rod and reel for the extra strength if keen to get a good first tope on board. There are few snags, so just let the tope run and fight until they tire.

The uptider can be pressed in to service for redgilling for pollack, but anglers familiar with the fishing here prefer a carp rod and 10-12lb line.

For the bream on the reef, take a light 9ft spinning rod casting about an ounce and team it up with a small fixed-spool reel taking about 200yds of 6lb line. This is also a useful weapon against the smaller bottom feeders when bigger fish are in-between meals and slow to feed.

The preferred tope rig is 5ft of 60lb mono to a swivel, then 18ins of 50lb wire ending in a Mustad Barbless Viking 79514 size 6/0. It's also worth using a short 15ft leader of 50lb mono to the main line as the tope will roll if held hard during the fight.

For general bottom fishing for rays, huss etc, go for a sliding ledger with the main line running through a swivel and connector for weight attachment, tie a swivel to the main line, now finish with 3-6ft of 40lb line and one of the new Mustad Barbless Viking 79514's size 4/0 to 6/0.

When drift fishing, I prefer a sliding lockable boom to take the weight which allows a much longer trace up to 15ft or more to be used. This gives a more natural movement to the dragging bait and gets the weight out of the field of vision as a fish strikes.

Bream move up and down in depth as the tide quickens and slows, therefore bream rigs need to be adjustable regards hook length height. I do this by tying rigs about 8ft long and using an Avis Boom locked in place between beads and telephone wire. The phone wire can be coiled around the mono tightly to form the lock stop. Steady finger pressure allows the booms and wire to be moved up or down the trace until the depth at which the bream are feeding is found. Hook length strength needs to be 12-15lbs and the best hook is a Mustad 3261 Aberdeen size 6, though some of the shorter shank carp hooks are also good.

Weights from half an ounce through to 8ozs cover 90% of the fishing. In fact, a few ounce weights get you through a days bream fishing, with a few 5oz weights, both plain and grippers handling the bottom fishing and uptiding. Only occasionally will the 8oz leads be needed. A couple of 1lb weights might be worth carrying if you're pushing well offshore on a long range trip.

TIDES
The tides out from Barmouth are light running , even on the biggest spring tides. Only on the reef can the tide really push, and then it's only for a short time.

For the rays, huss and general bottom feeders, the size of tide doesn't matter. Good catches occur most tides. For the tope and bream, then the medium height to spring tides tend to give the most numbers, but not necessarily the biggest fish. You'll still catch on neaps.

Likewise the sharks, I'd go for spring tides by choice, but still fish the neaps if the weather looks good for long range trips.

BAITS
The early season thornbacks are best targeted with a cocktail of mackerel and squid.
For the summer tope, rays and huss you'll do better using half a fresh dab or whiting, as opposed to relying on mackerel. Mackerel strips are good for the whiting, dabs, dogfish, and gurnards. Bream take strips of mackerel, squid and sandeel, also cockle, peeler crab chunks and worm baits.

The codling and pollack are mostly caught on Hokeye feathers, though Redgills and Twister type rubber worms also pick up the pollack.