Mumbles Motor Boat & Fishing Club

Plenty of species aboard the Oystercat today. Lots and lots of searching in the morning was slow only having mackerel, scad and a pup tope - we did spend a hour chasing bonito around offshore at oxwich but weren’t really tooled up for it so went back inshore at lunch time to put the anchor down and relax a bit.

Here we had lots of wrasse, pouting, congers and other bits.

We tried in the bream ground but only had one and a couple of scad and dogs.

Tried in the bay but that was dead, then finished the day with lots of small schoolies (was hoping for mackerel but beggars can’t be choosers!)

Our species tally was:
Bass, Black bream, Ballan wrasse, conger eel, Corkwing wrasse, goldsinny wrasse, dogfish, mackerel, pouting, red mullet, scad, smooth hound, thick lipped mullet, tope, Tom pot blenny

Sea state was a bit pants first thing and there were some quieter periods but over all it was a nice trip.

Dean Gifford

No reports this weekend - the run of great weather had to end someday! While the majority of our fishing is out of Swansea, occasionally we do have the odd trip away, some times internationally (Grand Canaria, Norway, Ireland) and some times closer to home.

We had planned on heading to Plymouth early in the year to go wrecking for the large pollack that are there at that time of the year, but unfortunately that was blown off so we rearranged for early July; this time we were blessed with the weather, if we’re honest the first day was too nice - bright still conditions saw pretty tough catching, but the over cast and breezy morning on the second day saw the fish feed very well.

Over the two days we had ballan wrasse, black bream, loads of comber, a couches bream, cuckoo wrasse, ling, pollack, poor cod, pouting, mackerel, whiting along with a few other odds and sods.

Massive thanks to Andy on Patricia Rose Charters for putting us on the fish; he worked hard ahead of the trip to get us a 2nd boat (Force 10) and made sure we had the information on what to bring etc ahead of the trip, then gave us information all day about what methods, baits and tactics would be most productive and gave great insight into where we were on the reefs/wrecks and where the fish were marking - would strongly recommend anyone fancying a trip out of Plymouth drop him a message.

Huge thanks to Tony Archer for doing all the hard work and putting the trip together/organising everything, a great trip was had by all!

Plenty of summer species on the Oystercat this weekend; we had black bream, bonito (first for the boat), bullhuss, dog fish, garfish, mackerel, scad, triggerfish, tub gurnard, red mullet (9 over the 2 days)

It was pretty cool watching the bonito busting for most of the morning on Saturday and then watching sprats getting pushed up by gillimots on Sunday.

At times the fishing was slow but that’s often the case with these bright sunny days.

Unfortunately, we did have a medical emergency onboard on Saturday which cut the day short but thankfully with the help of the RNLI and the coast guard we got John the help he needed and he is now home and on the mend.

A massive thank you to The Mumbles Lifeboat RNLI and coast guard teams for all their help, their professionalism and care provided was second to none!

Also thanks to Swansea Marina for their help in coordinating the locks and access so the emergency services could do what they needed to do.

Dean Gifford

Oystercat trip , 15th August, I didn't have great hopes for this trip with very big tides strong winds ..... supposed to be offshore so we would need to hug the coastline, so anyway off we go 1st lock out close to high water, drove around a bit looking for bass and macky and the wind I completely the wrong direction to forecasted ..... nothing . Head to the reef for Bream and actually fished quite well with good size fish coming aboard , then the tide built to fast so off to oxwich for more bass and macky now with really strong wind in the wrong direction...... nothing . So back to the start of the day to try again and now no wind at all ...... and no fish , so back to the reef for slack ..... nothing but dogs , tide turned and still no wind so went to try a trigger fish mark ..... we did get one but lost at surface, we did get a surprise catch as a cuttlefish came aboard and that was the only interesting pic to take really 😒
Cheers mark

Oystercat trip 11th Aug., what's that saying "one swallow doesn't make a summer" well I suppose 1 bream doesn't make a fishing trip either. Poor day, rough start but found some baits. Downhill from there . Gary did well to get a tope and an even bigger Smooth hound, one small huss and yes one Bream. Had to hide the knives from Alan in case he was as fed up as he seemed. Not a lot more to say other than thanks Howard for help.. John E

Oystercat trip 9th august Never really been lucky in my search for the silver bars I put a plan together to try to cover a lot of the known haunts of this elusive fish. After trying here, there and everywhere and covering 48 miles we came home with one keeper Bass. Trip started with a fruitless attempt for fresh baits producing one Scad for the bucket. So, into Langland where we had 15 nice size Bream, no photos as I was busy for a change. Tide picked up and then the boat ride started. Off to ledges out deep to diamond bank and back in to Oxwich across all known bank marks.. one did produce 3 bass and a catch of a few large Scad. One to Paul Dougal looked about 3 to 4 lb but bounced of the rail back into the drink. 3 tope to boat and two huss up anchor which saw us try for a few mackerel to finish and head home after a long day ..Best part probably the abundant Sausage Chilli for lunch followed by cold watermelon for desert. Thanks to Tony for all the manual support, lets see if next trip any better tues.

Another hard days catching aboard the Oystercat yesterday.

Due to needing fuel and very low water levels in the river we ended up not getting out until 8am; which was fine for our initial plan of hitting the bream grounds over slack. Weirdly the mark was pretty barren, a few dogs but none of the normal signs of bream or little pouting rattling the baits.

A hour or so later the tide had built enough to run off to some banks reserved for the small tides, here we found plenty of fish but the majority were just monster scad with just the odd school bass in amongst them. It was lovely to get the rods bending after a very quiet start, but it would have been nicer if there were more bass in the mix.

We were treated to some acrobatics from the young dolphins showing off while their parents were feeding on the same bait as the scad and bass.

We searched around a little on other banks but nothing much doing so we anchored on a different area or rough ground for the last of the ebb. Thankfully, here there were a few more signs of life and we had a few bream there. When the tide changed we moved back to the area we started on first thing and the fish had switched on, we had plenty of bream, huss, scad and a red mullet.

We ran for the 16:30 lock, but we couldn’t squeeze in so went back out for a little drift around hoping for some fresh mackerel for tea but we found strings of small scad and a tub gurnard before it was our turn to lock in.

Stunning day on the water but the fishing was tough at times.

Dean Gifford

Oystercat 1st & 2nd report

Was pretty hard going both days; we ran around a lot but mackerel, scad and bream made up the bulk of the catch along with a few schoolies, huss, hounds, a baby tope, a baby conger and other odds and sods.

While on the way back in on the Sunday it was cool to watch large shoals of sprats swimming in the surface behind the mixon, nothing pushing them up, just that’s where they were feeding - great to see so much life in the water!

Dean Gifford

OysterCAT trip 3/8/26

Well with the weather set to deteriorate, decided to rush through a short notice trip, which although up and down, proved to be an ok day.
Set out on first lock, and headed east. First stop mackerel and within three drifts we had enough for the table and fresh bait for later on in the day, plus some scad and a schoolie.
Continued working our way east, trying several different banks but the bass just weren't there, so we decided to drop anchor, have a cup of tea and a snack, and fish HW for rays, however, the rays didn't want to play either.
So, about two hours into the ebb, with only one small tope for our efforts, we decided to up sticks and head back west. On route we tried another bass bank, and here there were plenty of fish showing, and we did manage to land three keepers.
Back west, we anchored up, with Bream the target, this proved to be the best session of the day, everybody catching, with Sean particularly onfire and proving to be top angler for the day. Here we also had Huss, of course dogfish and Tony with his PB conger (only joking Tony).

Conditions perfect at the end of the day, bream on the feed, but we decided to pack up and catch the 5.30 lock.

Thanks to Tony and Steve for crewing, and everyone else who helped out during the day.

Until next time
Terry.

Oystercat
29th July
6.45 Boarding, as is now usual everyone there early.
4 boats in first lock out so off to find fresh bait with very little success.
Headed east to a small wreck where we found a few scad and mackerel ,with birds sighted working in the distance offshore we headed out.
Here we had a couple of hrs fun chasing the birds and bass.
Best bass fishing so far this season, we all caught numerous fish and ended with 19 keepers with Steve Harris 's63cm topping the day.
We then anchored up for a cuppa and bacon roll,wind and swell increased and thoughts were we might move to the bay but then the bream started to feed so we stayed with several nice fish coming aboard.
In all a great day on the water with everyone happy long may it continue.
Thanks to the crew whoever they were😂
CHEERS T.A