Once a year I decamp from Sheffield with the rods for a week of Sea Fishing. I am no expert at Sea Fishing but I generally like to fish for things I can eat! There is nothing better than fresh fish you have caught yourself. It's delicious, free range, and most of all it's sustainable fishing.So we arrived at Dinas Head in North Pembrokeshire to find two beautiful bays either side of the headland. Dinas is also on a few miles away from Newport Sands. The sands are a large expanse of darkish fine sand, at each end of the sands there are rocky outcrops. The river Nevern also flows down the sands where it joins the sea close to the rocks on the left hand side of the beach. It was here I decided to start to fish as the tide starts to flood the river swells and the rocks become submerged. This seemed like a cracking spot for Bass fishing. Sure enough a good few hours before the tide started to flood I was joined on the rocks by a local who had arrived to target the Bass.
He told me that just as the tide starts to flood, with barely enough water to cover their backs, the Bass start to move up the channel. The best ways to catch them are using peeler crab, sandeel or spinning. I had my big box full of different lures and spinners so as the tide flooded in I started to spin through the shallows. Unfortunately despite two evenings on the rocks I didn't have any luck.
The local on the rocks didn't have any luck fishing his peeler crabs either. We did however see huge mullet rolling right under our feet. From my limited experience of Mullet I didn't even bother to try and fish for them as they can drive you crazy!
After being unsuccessfully with the spinners I popped to a local tackle shop in Fishguard next to the Tesco Express near the harbour. I purchased some frozen squid, sandeel and mackerel for bait.
The next evening I returned to the rocks just before the tide started to move in and rigged up a squid with just a small lead to hold the bait on the sandy bottom. I cast the squid a few feet out and waited as the tide flooded over the bait. After 5 minutes the rod arched over and I pulled in to a fish. It didn't feel like a Bass and sure enough as the fish surfaced, it's mini shark like appearance told me I had caught a dogfish.
Unfortunately every bait I cast in over the next few evenings was snaffled almost instantly by ether dogfish or crabs. I had a few peeler crabs which the dogfish wouldn't take but I couldn't get a take from a Bass.
One of the locals did manage a couple of small bass using live sandeel fished under a bubble float but I just kept getting hammered by dogfish, Although doggies are edible I decided to return them as I had my heart set on a Bass.
After becoming slightly disheartened with catch dogfish every 5 minutes I had a try from the beach on Dinas head but again, didn't have any bites.
Overall Dinas Head and North Pemrokeshire is a beautiful part of Wales with lots of fishing opportunities, If I had had more time there I am sure I would have connected with something other than a Dogfish!
Useful links: http://www.pembsrt.org/pembsangling/
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