Mostyn. March 2012

This year, I have decided to fish some local venues around North Wales and the North West of England.
My first trip of 2012 took me to the popular mark of Mostyn, North Wales.

Having read about the mark on various websites and after a feature in Sea Angler Magazine, it was time to go Flattie bashing.
I took a mixture of two and three hook flapper rigs, with different types and styles of attractors, different hook sizes and a good selection of bait.

Having never fished this mark before, I found it extremely easy to find, after-all, it's not difficult to miss a 4,450 tonne cruise ship, or The Duke of Lancaster to give it it's official title, sticking out above the surrounding waste land.

The ex-cruise ship, The Duke of Lancaster

After a short walk I arrived on the banks of the Dee estuary. The tide was just starting to turn, which gave me a few hours before high tide.

I set up two rods, one with a two hook flapper rig and a 4oz plain lead, the other with a 3 hook flapper and a 5oz grip lead.

I mixed the baits on each hook to see which bait would work better. Unfortunately, I could not get any fresh lug for love nor money, so I had a mixture of frozen baits; Black Lug, which was used on each hook as the main bait, then for tipping off I had Mackerel, Mussels and Razor Fish.

I cast the plain lead and rig into the channel just in front of where I was fishing from. This would allow the bait to move around, find a gully and hopefully attract the fish with some movement.
The grip lead was cast onto to the opposite sandbank which was now been eaten by the tide.

After a 10 minutes or so, and countless twitches on the tip, which was obviously crabs, I reeled in the plain lead to find what I already knew, that the crabs had stripped the hooks. I reloaded the hooks and recast in the same area as before.

After swapping and changing baits, I finally got a decent tap on one of the rods. I left the bite to develop a little while longer until the tip curved round to the right. As I struck, I could feel an almost dragging resistance. After a quick burst of frantic winding I finally saw the fish break the surface.

I beached the little fighter and had landed a perfect Plaice.

First fish, a 1.6lb Winter Plaice

Having weighed, unhooked and returned the fish, I noticed it took a lug/mussel cocktail.

Again I re-baited and recast.

I was still experimenting with different attracters and baits on the other rod. I was having to re-bait and recast every 15 minutes due to crab activity, but this allowed me to experiment with the baits also.

Before long the second tip shuddered and I knew instantly that this was not a crab.

Leaving the bite to develop, the tip started to bend round, at which time I lifted the rod and struck.

Again, the same dragging sensation was felt whilst reeling hard, this was probably down to the fish hunkering down to the bottom. Once landed, I had a slightly smaller 1.2lb, slightly muddy Plaice flipping around.

1.2lb Winter Plaice

After cleaning the fish and letting it go I was frantically running out of time. In hindsight, I should have taken so other, larger rigs, as there was talk of Coddling being caught in the area, but I'll be back before long hunting out the spring Bass and Cod runs.

What I learn't from this short, yet productive session is, don't believe everything you read on the internet. One in particular and well established Sea Fishing website, claims that Mostyn is a rough ground mark, with plenty of tackle losses, and you'll need to cast 80 - 100 yards to land on the sandbanks.

I can suggest that when you want to fish a new mark, ask the people who fish them. Talk to the tackle shops and SAC's from that area!