Pembrokeshire, Milford Haven.

The Mackerel Landing

Milford Haven is on the north bank of a large natural harbour that serves the oil and gas industry. It is reached by the A4076 from Haverfordwest if travelling south or over the Cleddau Toll Bridge on the A477 from Pembroke Dock if heading west. The Marina is well signposted, at the bottom of a steepish hill you will need to turn back sharp left and follow that road until the junction where a right turn will get you onto the road along the containing wall of the dock. There is plenty of free parking alongside between the road and the wall.The venue is good for disabled access and fishing can be done from the back of a car along the sea wall or from a wheelchair on the Mackerel Landing ( so called as it was built to service the Russian ships that once worked the area hoovering up the shoals of fish).
There are signs saying no unauthorised access affixed to the landing, I have yet to see anyone take any notice of them..

Fishing from here is over fairly clean ground although you will lose some tackle to snags stones and seaweed. The yellow post with a cross on top, in the above picture under the middle of the sailing ship,marks a large cube of concrete ( 8' cube maybe ?) that will snag tackle. Legering fish or worm baits will get pout, codling, dogfish, eels, whiting, bass, pollack , wrasse and flatfish. In summer float fishing for mackerel and gar is the most popular method.

The sea wall provides a handy rod rest; although if you do this be aware that a bass is quite able to flip your rod over the wall. Fish can be caught right up to the wall so distance casting is not required.

The Lock Pit.

If there is no boat traffic you can fish into the lock pit for mini-species or if you are optimistic a conger eel. Bait and tackle can be obtained from Anglers Corner which is on Pill Road, on your left and visible from the main road if coming in from Haverfordwest. ( opposite junction with Coombs Drive...... tel 01645 698899).
There are no facilities at this venue, there is a Tesco supermarket not far from where you turned off the road to skirt around the marina and some bars and cafés have appeared in the new buildings that have sprung up around the marina.
If you are prepared to put in the effort, soft or peeler crabs can be found on the beach to the left, seek them out among the weed covered rocks but put the stones back how you found them if you move them.

Tides Times for the next seven days

Lure fishing, spinning and feathering.

a selection of lures.

When fishing with a lure the intention is to fool a predatory fish that your lure is a small fish, and therefore edible. Most lures have a bright reflective surface to flash in the water imitating the flash of light on a fishes scales, the lure is shaped to move about in the water on retrieve the motion giving vibrations that the predator will mistake for the movement of a prey fish.
Lure fishing is done with a lighter rod than that used for 'beachcasting' unless you count 'mackerel bashing' with feathers as fishing. Feathering refers to casting out a string (or set) of 'feathers'. Once they were white chicken feathers whipped onto a hook, now they are likely to be made up with metallic tinsel, beads or plastic mini-fish rather than feathers. The feathers are attached to the mainline, a suitable casting weight added to the end and the whole lot cast out toward the horizon. The feathers are then allowed to sink for a predetermined time and then retrieved using a 'sink and draw' action. Assuming you are facing the sea and your feathers are fluttering down though the sea, pull the rod around to the side causing the feathers to 'dash' towards you, let the feathers flutter down again as you move the rod back to point to the sea whilst winding in the slack caused by the pull you have just done........repeat until the feathers are back with you. Very often the fish will hit the feathers as they sink, not on the pull. repeat the exercise until bored, tired out or you have enough mackerel for your needs. There is a knack to the technique, sometimes the shoal is working near the surface and a quick retrieve is used to keep the feathers up near the surface, not allowing them to sink too far; at other times the fish may be deep hence the need to count down the initial drop time allowed so that you can replicate the cast if you hit the shoal and catch fish. The cunning angler will laze about until others start catching nearby, then leap into action having noted the distance and drop time used by his more energetic neighbour. If you catch mackerel keep them cool ! People catch dozens, scores, even hundreds, put them in a plastic bag in the sun and carry home mushy fish that have already started to decompose. Take a cool box or bag with freezer blocks or frozen plastic bottles of squash or fruit juice, (delicious and refreshing as they thaw out ). Take only as many as you realistically need. Please don't catch them just for fun, if you handle the mackerel to unhook it and throw it back it will probably die due to the damage your hand or cloth has done to its scales and skin.
Use a shock leader when feathering to prevent a snap-off and to avoid maiming those near you. A shock leader is a length of heavier line about 7 to 10 times the numbers of ounces of the weight you use in pounds breaking strain. For example 4oz weight, 30 to 40 lb line; the line should be long enough to give you say 8' hanging from the end of the rod and half a dozen turns around your reel.

If you need some fresh bait quickly then feathering has a place, it is not sporting. To enjoy catching mackerel, catch them one at a time; use a lighter rod an ounce or two of lead depending on the casting weight of your rod and a spinner, artificial eel or a wedge, (see illustration above.) The spinners and wedges come in various casting weights and sizes although you can use a light spinner on a three foot long trace and put a drilled bullet weight on your mainline to give you the required casting weight and therefore the range you need. The sink and draw technique can be used or a steady reel in, although when reeling changing the retrieve speed gives the impression of a wounded fish and can increase your success rate; keep working the lure right to the waters edge, the fish will chase the lure right to the beach and I have seen mackerel take a lure as it starts up the shingle, right out of the water.
Fish other than mackerel of course will take a lure, pollack, gar, scad, and bass are regularly taken by this technique, use small feathers and you may catch herring be aware that the line these are tied with is not suitable for hard casting, you will need to cut back on you casting weight..
Loosing spinners and wedges can be expensive, a cheap and effective method is to just use a strip of mackerel or gar, the shiny belly bits are best, hook it once through one end (or as shown here) and use it with a ball weight as described earlier. Sandeels can be fished this way although I find that whipping them on with bait elastic is worthwhile.

Feathering is quite rightly banned on most piers for safety reasons, spinning should only be done if you have sufficient space around you to safely cast. Many piers and structures are too high above the water to spin effectively as the angle of retrieve brings the lure to the surface too quickly.
In rocky weedy areas a spinner or wedge is an expensive way of finding the rocks or weeds, in these circumstances use a shallow acting popper lure and the help of someone with you to show you the technique as it can't really be learned from reading about it.

Cornwall, Porthkerris.

Spinning for mackerel or pollack, Porthallow in the distance

Porthkerris is a disused quarry site on the Lizard between Porthoustock and Porthallow, take the B3083 from Helston past RNAS Culdrose then onto the B3293, past the dishes of Goonhilly Down and then onto the B3294 down into the village of St Keverne, turn sharp left after the red telephone box, and head for Porthallow... look out for a sign for Porthkerris, it has a picture of a shark and a big black arrow on it. From here the road narrows, yes narrows even more!, proceed with extreme caution, there are few passing places and driving off the road is not an option. You have to pay to park and to fish here, currently £2 parking and £1 per person fishing.

Rock ledges, Porthkerris.

At the bottom of the hill there are toilets and, in season, a snack bar. You will need to pay here, or if you are an early riser, someone will find you as you fish and collect payment from you. There is a small beach here which is used for other pursuits such as diving and swimming, fishing is done from the rock ledges which are reached by driving out to the left. Fish from any of the accessible ledges but take care when the rocks are wet. this is not a venue for small children but should be suitable for sensible older children. The rocks give access to deep water close in. Mackerel are the main sport here, and the litter left by those 'anglers', whose experience is limited to the slaughter of these fish, spoils a picturesque spot.

The 'disabled' spot.

At the far end of the car park there is a disabled wheelchair sign painted onto a block. Disabled wheelchair users will however be disappointed, access down the slope and across the rocks to a small rough concrete flat area (located behind the concrete pump house*) is not suitable for even a rough terrain chair. It is possible for persons walking with the aid of sticks and or crutches to negotiate the distance by care and patience. This spot is about the only flat spot to stand on, most of the rocks are sloping giving rise to sore ankles by the end of the day. If you are on this spot and able-bodied please give it up to someone who needs it.
Float fished fish strip or sandeel will catch mackerel, gar, pollack, wrasse and maybe a bass; bottom fishing over the rough will get thousands of wrasse, blennies and other small species with a chance of dogfish or gurnard. Congers are sometimes caught on big fish baits at night.

*The pump house supplies sea water to the new building within the car park area which processes the water to get sea-salt for the food-faddist; all salt comes from the sea, the supposed inferior salt from Cheshire mines being from the sea millions of years before man polluted it.
For your bait, the nearest place is a large angling shop in Helston, Atlantic Fishing Tackle in Wendron Street (just by a car park), that sells bait including ragworm and lugworm. Tel 01326 561640.

Tide Times for the next seven days

from 'disabled spot', but not for wheelchair users

A tip when using mackerel as bait.

If you are using mackerel as bait, your carefully cut strip or fillet will not stay fishlike after you have cast it out. The fish bait tends to slide down the shank of the hook and lie, doubled over, in the bend of the hook..... not looking a bit like a fish but obscuring the hook point. To overcome this I tie a double overhand loop in the end of the line and put the hook on as shown below.

The piece of fish bait, I've used a piece of paper to demonstrate, is hooked through and back again and the small end put into the loop that holds the hook.

The loop is then pulled up tight trapping the small end and preventing the strip sliding down the hook. If you want to be doubly sure then a few winds of bait elastic around the small end and the hook eye will do the job.

The technique can also be used to keep sand eels on if you are float fishing or 'spinning' with them.