WEST WALES
MILFORD HAVEN
is is the predominant port in West Wales and as a deep water harbour is used as an oil terminal and sometime navy port. e Irish Sea is well known for its amazing shark and more recently for “celtic” bluefin tuna. e boats from Milford have been responsible for some seriously big blue sharks over the years. ere are a number of charter boats available with a range of angling opportunities. ere are launch sites available with a range of tidal access. Black bream, rays, coalfish, smoothhound, bass and spurdog are regular catches.
Charter Boats:
Atlantic Blue, Andy Truelove - 07768 935681 Haven Boat Charters, Dave Hancock 0777 4294959 / www.haven-boatcharters.com Bang Tidy, Jimmy Lemon - 07428 162600 Excel 2, Dave Tidy - 07774 294959
Celtic Wildcat, Nick o’Sullivan - 07970 540940 Lady Jue, Rob Rennie - 07831 805100 Lady Gail II Fen Duke - 07970 540940 White Water Charters, Andrew Alsop andrew@whitewatercharters. co.uk
WEST WALES
Cardigan Bay covers a huge area of West Wales from Fishguard to Porthmadog and the Llyn Peninsula in North Wales. e variety of fish here is huge: everything from the many wrasse species, pollack and cod to the rays, big bull huss and record breaking tope, not forgetting some of the best bass fishing in the UK.
Starting at its most southerly ports of
St Davids (St Justinian) and Fishguard there are numerous launch places for private boats as well as a couple of established charter boats. Padrig Jones (Blue Shark Charters 07779 646635 / www.fishing-pembrokeshire.co.uk) operates out of St Justinian Harbour (near St. Davids) and Fishguard harbour to the north. He offers a variety from mackerel trips to wreck and shark trips. Cardigan Bay has many wrecks and is close to the Celtic Deep (renowned for its exceptional sharking). Moving north from the rugged Pembrokeshire coast the seabed changes to a much softer/shallower terrain.
e picturesque town of Ceinewydd (New Quay) has enormous variety to target. Two boats operate out of “Cei’ as the locals call it. Skipper Winston Evans (www. newquayboattrips.co.uk), a local legend, operates his vessels for the tourists in the warmer months offering mackerel trips and dolphin spotting. e other boat is Epic Fishing (www.epicfishingtrips.co.uk) skippered by Tim Harrisson – a modern, fast, catemeran offering everything from mackerel and gurnard up to some epic bull huss and 60lb-plus tope in early summer. As the season goes on the sarn (an ancient underwater causeway ) offers decent black bream with the chance of a 3lb.
Aberystwyth offers very similar fishing to Ceinewydd – the sheltered marina is ideal for launching and there are a couple of charter boats. Not far north from lies the beautiful Aberdyfi on the Dyfi Estuary, a very popular spot for the many tourists who visit in the summer and where you will find two of Wales’ most experienced skippers. Mathew Rickard (www. bassfishingwales.com) is the youngest of the two and he specialises in bespoke guided trips including surface lure fishing for bass. Charlie Bartlett, skipper of Mikatcha (01654 710869) has been operating from Aberdyfi for decades and offers everything from inshore tope, bream and bass plus wrecking for pollack and cod further out in St George’s Channel.
Further north are the harbours of Barmouth and Harlech/Shell Island, and these two harbours have one boat operating out of each: Warrior and Western Flyer. ey offer very similar fishing to Aberdyfi.
At the top of Cardigan Bay is Porthmadog which is home to Enlli Charters (www. enllicharter.co.uk); Enlli is the original name for Bardsey Island. Enlli’s experienced skippers are husband and wife team Tony and Jayne Bruce.
ey operate from Porthmadog or Pwllheli (further west on the Llyn Peninsula). ey offer everything from inshore fishing for tope, bass, black bream, smoothhound and huss to longer range trips to Bardsey.