It is amazing the amount of information that is provided by our fantastic members all in the name of helping each other to enjoy our great sport of fishing. Use the page to see typical catch reports and use the form to sent your own catch details.
Fresh and salt water fishing is alive and kicking, within this site you will find great reports on what is happening in the Club's world of fishing. If you do not find out the fishing information you want then why not pop in to our forum where members are waiting to help or maybe you could help a fellow angler Oystercat fishing trip reports from Dean Gifford Our fishing trip today started at 7:30am. I collected the live eel and rag for the trip from Country Stores, by 8:15am we were on the boat ready for day's fishing. At first I was dubious about the trip as the forecast was for SSW winds, recently when the forecast has been for winds in this direction the actual wind speed has been much higher than forecast. This was also the reason for the large amount of rag, in case we had to tuck in away from the winds for the flatties. I should not have been so concerned, we left the pier heads to a flat sea. With the ebbing tide pushing us down it didn't take long for us to get to the first set of bass banks of the day. On the first drift Luke Hayward had a new personal best with a bass of 5lb. A few other anglers on-board had eels stolen, etc. so hopes were high. I had another couple of fish here but things were pretty slow. After 2 hours we headed further West to the Middle Helwick, again a fish on the first drift but not a lot showing on the sounder and subsequent drifts proving fruitless. We headed in to the daggers, off the worm, but as it was low water we didn't get enough drift so I took us out to the Helwick Bank to drift with worm or sandeel for flatfish. We had a steady stream of weavers - some times 2 at a time along with some dabs, mackerel, dogs and a plaice. Come low water the winds picked up and the flood tide beginning I took Oystercat back to the first bank we'd fished. The first hour was slow, but the sky began to cloud over to the West and as the front approached I was hopeful the fishing would hot up. We've been in the situation where fishing is average, then the sky grows dark, the wind starts to cut up the surface and the fish start to feed.We had a little flurry of fish and lots of missed fish as the weather front hit us, but it didn't last - with in 30mins they'd gone back off the boil. Another hour past before we tried some rough ground on the way back to the harbour. We didn't have anything there so finally headed in around 7pm. It's well known that I find it hard to go in at the end of the trip - either I'll hang on because the fish are feeding, or I'll hang on trying to find feeding fish to end on a high note, this trip was definitely the latter as I knew it was going to be an expensive trip as we'd done so many miles.Not the best trip by any stretch of imagination, 12 or so bass to 5lb, 6 of which were kept between 3-5lb so everyone had a fish to go home with.Last 2 trips have seen a big fish caught on the first drift - then the rest of the day being a washout... there may be something in that!I finally got home around 8:30pm pretty worn out - but looking forward to the next trip!! With the big Spring tides for this Oystercat fishing trip the plan was to head out onto the bass banks armed with 2.5lb of live eel from Country Stores. Unfortunately, before we got through the locks we got news that it was pretty lumpy out there, talk about being doomed. Generally, when there is swell running between the pier heads it is going to be really rough, and it was. At the Cherry Stones we were hard pressed to get the Oystercat make 7 knots as we struggled through the messy water off Mumbles Head. There was only one thing for it, and that was to head for shelter in Oxwich Bay to fish and try again for bass banks if the weather improved. Once we had feathered up enough mackerel for bait we set the anchor and fished the time away. We caught a few dabs, gurnards, more mackerel, 3 thornback rays at 10lb, some dogfish and one plaice. We tried to get out to the banks twice - first attempt got us half way before it got too messy, the 2nd attempt we got to the bank but it was unfishable. John France - Thornback Ray 5lb Lester Fulcher - 4lb Thornback Ray 14/09/13 For this Oystercat fishing trip the tides were small so we had the option to go where ever we like. I decided to edge our bets and get some live eel and some squid so we'd be able to go for both bass on the banks and in close for some general fishing on the reef. I'd sent my old man up to Country Stores, as they were the only local shop with eels, Unfortunately, this made our day's fishing started a later than I'd hoped, but you've have to have the right bait for the job. It was 8:40 before we were all on-board and heading out into a lovely flat Swansea bay. We headed offshore to the bass banks, where on arrival we had the bank to ourselves. We stopped a little way off to allow all the anglers finish setting up for sport ahead. The first drift put us straight into fish, Carl Evans opening the account with a nice little bass and thankfully this continued for the next 3 hours with multiple fish coming on most drifts. On the last two 2 drifts didn't have any fish, probably because we didn't have any live eel left. Carl Evans - Bass Keith Richards - Bass Paul Tough - Bass Luke Hayward - Bass Keith Richards - Bullhuss Paul Extrance - Bullhuss Paul Extrance - Bass at 5.5 lb Having run out of live eel we went over to some lures which yielded a few more fish - but the tide and drift had slowed right down which meant we were being pushed along the bank rather than over it so we headed over to Langland. I made up a load of chum but didn't put it down until we'd swung into the ebb tide, here we picked up a few bream, most small but a few keepers, 3 red gurnard, lots and lots of small to medium sized huss, some dogs and a blenny. We headed back in around 5pm - Pretty busy morning, followed by a relatively relaxed afternoon. We ended the day with 50 bass to 5lb 5oz, mostly small fish but had 16 keepers, a few black bream, some red gurnard, bull huss, dogs, and a little blenny. Oh well, storms coming in tomorrow so we'll see what next week brings. On a sour note, the trawler Our Josie Grace ran over the same bank system as us, unfortunately they are still allowed to trawl within the 3mile limit. Oystercat fishing off Lundy Island Playful dolphins for company Followed by a load of Pollack Dean Gifford and pollack Bevan - Pollack

Oystercat fishing trip report for John Elvins

A gap in the weather prompted a trip for the members down to St Christopher’s Knoll targeting rays and dabs.

2 small eyed rays and a nice 10.5lb thornback ray were caught, as well as about a dozen Dab. We then went into Langland Bay to try for any late bream that could still lurking there, no such luck just plenty of Dogfish and a few Gurnard.

Then it was out on to the ledges to finish, where a few Bull Huss. up to 10lb. were caught and a few keep-able gurnard.

On the look-out for sporty fish

Photos of the angler who had the two top fish

- Guess who?.

Howard Griffiths 21lb smoothhound a personal best

John Elvins with 8lb bass

Skipper Dean Gifford Reporting

A few guys (members) from work have been on about coming out on a trip for a little while - this finally came into being on the 20th of July. After a long period of high pressure and low winds I'd hoped the trip would be sea smooth seas and bright sunshine; as the weather often does, its turned for the worst with 15mph Easterly winds gusting higher!!
A leisurely 10am start saw a everyone tackled up and ready for the trip - with 70 or so crab we headed to the Swigg to get some fresh mackerel before running over to Sker to put the us on some hounds.

At the Swigg Buoy for the first drift.

Jenny with her first mackerel.

Tom's Red Gurnard

On arriving at Sker, the hounds were very accommodating providing sport from the first drop.

Skipper Dean with a monster poor-cod

We ended the day with a good old fashion mackerel bash with every one having a few mackerel to take home for tea. Big thanks to Ossi and Richy for helping out throughout the day and making it a success. They can't wait to get out again.

Your fishy tales

We really want your fishy tales for our Club website. Caught a good fish? Tell us where and how and add a picture. Lost a good fish? Share the tale with our members – you might even get a few commiserations! Been on an interesting fishing trip? Make us all jealous!

To submit your fishy tale simply use this form. The system will email us to tell us that you have sent a new tale so we can add it as soon as possible for you.

Please give as much detail as possible e.g. venue, time, date, weather/state of tide, bait, other, every little helps.

Individual catch Reports

From your catch reports we would hope to publish individual catch reports in table format as shown below.

Date	Mark	Name	Catch Details	Photo

Report from Mike Davis

Nothing much to report in the last few weeks.Tried Langland a few times no bream just dogs and small codling. I did have good tope in July and August, just waiting for weather to settle down. Next trip will be for cod.

Thanks for the warm welcome when I joined the club.

(Mike used the above form to send in his report)

Dean's catch report cont...