CRICCIETH, GWYNEDD
Pay a visit to this popular Welsh venue that offers year-round fishing for a wide variety of species
Famous for its castle overlooking the town and its association with the politican Lloyd George, Criccieth is now a popular holiday destination where you can find plenty of good all-year fishing.
The castle was built around 1230 by Llywelyn ab Iorwerth, but became one of the controlling ring castles of Edward 1st after his successful conquest of Gwynedd. The town grew up to support the castle’s garrison. Former Prime Minister, Lloyd George came from nearby Llanystumdwy on the Lleyn Peninsula.
The town’s beaches also offer consistent fishing for a variety of species, with easy parking and minimum walking involved. The fishing is for 12 months of the year too, although the best of the action takes place between May and December.
In season, you can expect bass, flounders, turbot, dabs, whiting, dogfish, huss, rays, mackerel and garfish.
These beaches face south and will take on a good surf during southerly and south-westerly winds.
Ideal conditions are a steady wind up to Force 4 from either the south or south-west, especially Force 3-4 for the bass and huss.
As is the case with much of this coastline, the water is often clear and invariably fairly shallow, so night tides always fish better than those in daylight. The exception would be when lure fishing for bass, when sections of these beaches can produce some very good fish, especially in the autumn.
CRICCIETH EAST BEACH
This is situated on the extreme east side of the town. There is a public pay-and-display car park, with additional parking on the promenade. The beach is on the left, accessed by the steps at the end of the seawall.
Fishing low water in front of the seawall steps with the wooden groyne on your right sees you casting over cleanish ground, which is good for bass when using surface popper plugs or shallow divers because the bass work through the surf.
You can fish this mark with beach-casters, too, because you’re fishing over mainly clear sand out to long range, and this is good for winter dabs and whiting, and there have been the occasional late spring/early summer thornback rays caught here. Best fishing is the hour before low water and for two hours back. Don’t stray too far to the left or you’ll hit rougher ground and start losing tackle.
Most anglers prefer walking further left another couple of hundred yards to very rough ground. This produces bass from April to November to lures, but is worth fishing at night in a surf with crab baits, with May and June, and then late August to late October the best times. Bass appear on all tides, but rising spring tides are best. This can produce fish from low water right up to high water.
Walking further past the rough ground brings you to a shingle-backed surf beach with fairly clean ground in front of you. This is a good autumn and winter venue for whiting, dabs, dogfish and flounders at night. Again, the occasional ray shows, but you do need a good cast to reach them.
The best of the fishing is over the spring tides from low to high, especially if you want to try for a ray, but smaller tides fish well in the winter for the whiting and dabs. Spring tides and flat calm conditions bring mackerel in close over high water off the surf beach.
BANK STREET BEACH
This is a shingle-backed beach directly in front of the main promenade wall, positioned between the east beach and the stone jetty. You will be casting off shingle on to clean ground for the first 100 yards or so when walking to the right towards the stone jetty. The ground then gets a little rougher as the beach begins to bend around towards the jetty.
This is a good autumn and winter mark for whiting, dabs and dogfish, with summer school bass, dogfish, small turbot and flounders taken. This beach produces fish on all sizes of tide, but is best on the bigger spring tides fishing low to high. Distance can be key, so use 4-6oz beach casters and 6500-sized multipliers with 15lb mainline and a shock leader to maximise your casting range.
During summer spring tides, shoals of mackerel work this bay over high water, with garfish in close that can be caught on small spinners or small slivers of mackerel on size 6 hooks fished behind a bubble float.
Weed can be a problem after gales on this stretch, but it tends to ease the two hours either side of high water.
THE STONE JETTY
Clearly seen from the east side promenade and car park. Off the inside front of the jetty there is a little broken ground, but this can get covered in sand during calm weather.
There is more permanent rough if you cast to the far right, but this offers little advantage. Casting 50 yards straight off the end of the jetty gets your bait on clean sand.
It fishes best over low water on neap tides, but for the last three hours of the flood tide and over high water on the spring tides. A consistent mark for winter whiting and dabs, it can also see an occasional thornback ray taken, though these tend to be smaller fish (under 5lb) that show in May and June.
Over high water in summer during hot, calm spells, the mackerel move in and can be caught by feathering or spinning. Bass are also caught fishing at close range. This is a good spot for garfish from May to August.
WEST BEACH
Head west along the West Beach promenade, and as the road swings to the right there is a car park on the immediate left.
You can fish in front of the beach steps here, and this puts you on much rougher ground, with spots to fish either between the groynes, or walk well to the right past the last groyne on to the shingle beach.
This is more selective fishing, with bass the main target when fishing peeler crabs from April to early July, and again from late August through to November. A simple sliding paternoster with a size 4/0 hook works well. Use a weak link to the lead weight. A bass rod and 20lb line is perfect for the close-to-medium-range casting and will handle the rough ground too. Bass can also be taken on surface poppers and shallow diving plugs through the same periods. Low to high water is the best time, though the better bass fishing is from low to mid tide on the flood.
The same ground also produces a few huss, not many, but some good ones into double figures. These are taken at night when fishing big fish baits directly in the rough ground at medium range. The huss fishing is not consistent, but takes place from April to June, and again from September through to Christmas. Fish pulley rigs made from a minimum of 60lb line and use size 6/0 Viking-type hooks. Fish standard 4-6oz beach-casters and 25-30lb line, 60lb shock-leader, with a weak link to the lead to combat the snags.
Both the bass and huss like a little surf and swell running over the rough ground, with a south-west wind the best. A little colour in the water is also good when seeking bass.
CASTLE ROCKS
West of the town, and still part of West Beach, this clean, sandy beach mark, is under the castle, and has nearby parking.
It offers a little deeper water than the previous marks, especially at range, and is an all-year-round venue fishing over clean sand.
The occasional thornback can be taken at night in May and June during spring flood tides. A second rod fished close in picks up small turbot, flatfish, dogfish and bass. Midsummer can be quiet, but the best fishing is from September with the arriving whiting, followed by dabs, and individual good-sized bass caught until November. As the whiting ease off, the numbers of dabs increase and stay until mid-March.
Fishes best for whiting and rays in calm, settled conditions, but you need an onshore south-west wind and a good surf for bass. Night tides are best. Fish either side of low water through to high.