well last week wasnt one of the most productive on the walls but the boats private and charter had fared much better, as a result I did a bit of scouring back on some reports this week to fill in some gaps and maybe put a bit more info up and out there so bear with me if it comes out in a bit of a jumble.
Monday was a case of very much like the weekend that it followed with fairly low catch rates and little to report on the walls other than the easts back up plan of target any plaice on the sand and both walls see what is on the feed down the sides in the cloying heat with a lone report of a 5lb bass!
Tues ticked around and a bit of nagging on facebook and a look at the boat page & a peek at Robin Howards (biff1) reports (bad eh 🙂 ) saw the standard plaice to be had but mainly undersized with the boats reporting some decent bass to be caught in the bait shape or manner but some good sport also on the lures that also produced dome pollack on the eastern side of the marina.
The higher bays saw a sole or two and there was an increase of the tiddlers like blennies and gobies, oddly Ive not noticed many bullheads(scorpion fish) so far this year.

The crab activity is beginning to slow but are still quite evident but the sizes now are a fair bit smaller than previous weeks and it seems to me that lures are getting “ghost” knocks again either form possible squid but more likely Cuttle venturing in closer to the wall.
Come wed am early one boat on his way out reported plenty of mackerel all about the entrance and that the bass fishing for the boats locally has been good for the last week or more with a catch by end of day of cuttle, bass tope and plaice. On the walls the bream reports increased with the bend on the east definitely showing results over the high and low marks. Over on the west mid wall and extension were also seeing bream results. Oddly there have been a fee eels also being caught in the clear water. The afternoon proved a bit too bumpy to handle the lures on the boat n took the afternoon off.

Thursday saw reports of pollack bass and lots of bait fish over on the lure boat front, over night on the walls there had been bass low on the east and flurries of mackerel mixed with horse mac skinny plaice, bream on both walls in “usual places”.
Once or two concerning reports of people parked on the east fishing for bass and then taking them to the car to then “fish on” which does raise questions about their parking there in the 1st plaice and possibly how many bass did they take.
Ive been reliably told that the security will increase checks down there and possibly start the process of “the ticket/fine is in the mail” so please, avoid parking on the east side as i’m sure no one reading this wants an £80 fine in the post. As to the bass, one of the messages said … “yea, IFCA will be sending a regular patrol onto the marina.

Friday morning if reports are put together seems to have started with a mini fish frenzy with the walls seeing plenty of mackerel landed comfortably before 7am ! likewise the early run for a lure boat remarked similar with bream, plaice gurnard and bass bashing their lures pre breakfast ! a promising start but on the walls that keen beginning slowed into the seemingly usualy pattern for the currently scorching days of everything to now go slow, those in the known bream slots ticked over a little bit likewise those over the sand on the east saw a few mostly small plaice…
Highlight of the day to be honest was the multiply fly overs of a Korean Jet formation team putting in some practice prior to their shows at Fairford this W/End just gone.
Friday night though tough for many showed the chalk and cheese factor the heat can have with in some spots fishing ok but in the dark most people thought it was dead as there was little fanfare or daft excitement at night that a catch can produce as ppl forget that they are in a residential area!. 7 & 6lb hounds were reported with a few smaller also, dogfish you sandpaper arms showed in the morning, a few eels remarked upon as well as sole, bream, mackerel & horse mackerel , wrasse and even a tope got mentioned coming in at @ 9lb with some reasonable bass in close on the east. I also heard of a decent flounder though I didnt see what size.

The weekend arrived with a LISA meet booked on the extension as mentioned in an earlier report and the heat of the day went to town on the wall baking people and seemingly the fish as well that very definitely didnt want to play with the exception I guess of a few bream on the extension and rockier areas of the east. The night was a fair case of a bust also with the meet clocking up some bream eels a mackie and one horse mac ! other than that it was a case of tiddlers down the side or go home ! many did!. The boat side fared a bit better with skippers knowing their marks and finding fish for their customers be it plaice bream or bass. Saturday did see a couple of lobsters of which one was returned , the other was fate unknown.
Finally Sunday came along with the breaking light seing caught a 7lb smooth hound with a poor prior night reported Sun didnt hold much of a promise but there had been a few mac in with some horse mac but the day on the wall settled down to be a long hot slog much as the previous week had been. Robin out early with a crew came across a pod of dolphins between the piers playing catch with an unfortunate mullet and their trail of passing was quite evident in the water. This followed by a seal sighting showed why a 180 was needed and a new search of sea was called for well away from the playing dolphins!.

I lack news from Sunday night on the wall so have little to say there but, if you have managed to read this far amongst the loads of text n little to say, not only have you done well …. or just cut to the bottom I will end with a heads up warning but it does come with a little bit of decent news.

As posted on the home page Tuesday has had a high heat alert and Dave has taken a precautionary route and decided to close both walls and the shop at ll am. Not only as a duty of care to the staff working in the shop and the duty wardens on the wall in that heat. But there is also the matter of duty of care to wall users, there is little to no shade on the walls and can act like heat traps hence the decision to close the wall and shop.

At time of typing the shop will open 7am to 11am
the wall plan is to open about 6.30am till 11am, as said at time of typing as it may be a case of getting the wall open a little earlier than that so keep an eye on the home page …

The good news ?
wall charge for Tues has been reduced for 1st rod to £3 for Tues only
Thats it for now , over n out
F