Fishing News
With life getting back or some sort of normal it feels like sea angling in the Bristol Channel is back to normal and better than what it was before in many ways.
The past month here on the good old Bristol Channel shore has seen some fantastic catches and lots of anglers fishing the beaches. The Smooth hound fishing has been impressive , albeit in localised
pockets . But locate them , and boy are you going to have a bit of fun if you can keep up with it . Hooking one every cast when they are in numbers competing for food and you
will be up to your eye balls in it . Thank god it's only for a few months of the year other wise we would just take it for granted . Down here in the Minehead area the small eyed ray numbers have been good with a cracking average size of 6-10lb being almost seen on a daily basis by local and visiting anglers. This is great to see after their numbers and size were in a horrible state a few years ago. Those targeting the bass are finding some fantastic sport with good numbers on the shallow Sandy beaches. With the odd one popping up in catches throughout. The Dover sole are now a target species in the upper reaches around Clevedon Portishead and Burnham.The good old Thornback Ray are to be had
from Clevedon down to Watchet from many high and low water marks.
Bull huss have also been a regular feature in catches from the beaches at Minehead down into the North Devon coast.
Those wishing to knock up the species count can fill up the score card this coming month as the summer species really thicken up . The Porlock and Bossington area down to Ilfracombe hold countless opportunities for the weird and wonderful.
For the month ahead we can expect to hear of some fine specimen hounds pushing the 20lb barrier and beyond. A few nudging the 20lb have already been landed along the Somerset reefs.
The Ray and bass fishing will continue to provide some consistency to catches throughout the channel.
The bass will continue to show on the sandy beaches over high water on the main and the reefs over low water are also favourable.
You will find good sport for the Thornback rays when targeting then on the mud while the small-eyed and spotted rays favour the low water Sandy beaches around Minehead. They can also be regular catches on the spring tides over high water on Minehead gas works, golf links and town beach on a calm sea.
Anyway that's it for this month so.. Tight lines and happy hunting.
