Mumbles Motor Boat & Fishing Club

Plenty of summer species on the Oystercat this weekend; we had black bream, bonito (first for the boat), bullhuss, dog fish, garfish, mackerel, scad, triggerfish, tub gurnard, red mullet (9 over the 2 days)

It was pretty cool watching the bonito busting for most of the morning on Saturday and then watching sprats getting pushed up by gillimots on Sunday.

At times the fishing was slow but that’s often the case with these bright sunny days.

Unfortunately, we did have a medical emergency onboard on Saturday which cut the day short but thankfully with the help of the RNLI and the coast guard we got John the help he needed and he is now home and on the mend.

A massive thank you to The Mumbles Lifeboat RNLI and coast guard teams for all their help, their professionalism and care provided was second to none!

Also thanks to Swansea Marina for their help in coordinating the locks and access so the emergency services could do what they needed to do.

Dean Gifford

Oystercat trip , 15th August, I didn't have great hopes for this trip with very big tides strong winds ..... supposed to be offshore so we would need to hug the coastline, so anyway off we go 1st lock out close to high water, drove around a bit looking for bass and macky and the wind I completely the wrong direction to forecasted ..... nothing . Head to the reef for Bream and actually fished quite well with good size fish coming aboard , then the tide built to fast so off to oxwich for more bass and macky now with really strong wind in the wrong direction...... nothing . So back to the start of the day to try again and now no wind at all ...... and no fish , so back to the reef for slack ..... nothing but dogs , tide turned and still no wind so went to try a trigger fish mark ..... we did get one but lost at surface, we did get a surprise catch as a cuttlefish came aboard and that was the only interesting pic to take really 😒
Cheers mark

Oystercat trip 11th Aug., what's that saying "one swallow doesn't make a summer" well I suppose 1 bream doesn't make a fishing trip either. Poor day, rough start but found some baits. Downhill from there . Gary did well to get a tope and an even bigger Smooth hound, one small huss and yes one Bream. Had to hide the knives from Alan in case he was as fed up as he seemed. Not a lot more to say other than thanks Howard for help.. John E

Oystercat trip 9th august Never really been lucky in my search for the silver bars I put a plan together to try to cover a lot of the known haunts of this elusive fish. After trying here, there and everywhere and covering 48 miles we came home with one keeper Bass. Trip started with a fruitless attempt for fresh baits producing one Scad for the bucket. So, into Langland where we had 15 nice size Bream, no photos as I was busy for a change. Tide picked up and then the boat ride started. Off to ledges out deep to diamond bank and back in to Oxwich across all known bank marks.. one did produce 3 bass and a catch of a few large Scad. One to Paul Dougal looked about 3 to 4 lb but bounced of the rail back into the drink. 3 tope to boat and two huss up anchor which saw us try for a few mackerel to finish and head home after a long day ..Best part probably the abundant Sausage Chilli for lunch followed by cold watermelon for desert. Thanks to Tony for all the manual support, lets see if next trip any better tues.

Another hard days catching aboard the Oystercat yesterday.

Due to needing fuel and very low water levels in the river we ended up not getting out until 8am; which was fine for our initial plan of hitting the bream grounds over slack. Weirdly the mark was pretty barren, a few dogs but none of the normal signs of bream or little pouting rattling the baits.

A hour or so later the tide had built enough to run off to some banks reserved for the small tides, here we found plenty of fish but the majority were just monster scad with just the odd school bass in amongst them. It was lovely to get the rods bending after a very quiet start, but it would have been nicer if there were more bass in the mix.

We were treated to some acrobatics from the young dolphins showing off while their parents were feeding on the same bait as the scad and bass.

We searched around a little on other banks but nothing much doing so we anchored on a different area or rough ground for the last of the ebb. Thankfully, here there were a few more signs of life and we had a few bream there. When the tide changed we moved back to the area we started on first thing and the fish had switched on, we had plenty of bream, huss, scad and a red mullet.

We ran for the 16:30 lock, but we couldn’t squeeze in so went back out for a little drift around hoping for some fresh mackerel for tea but we found strings of small scad and a tub gurnard before it was our turn to lock in.

Stunning day on the water but the fishing was tough at times.

Dean Gifford

Oystercat 1st & 2nd report

Was pretty hard going both days; we ran around a lot but mackerel, scad and bream made up the bulk of the catch along with a few schoolies, huss, hounds, a baby tope, a baby conger and other odds and sods.

While on the way back in on the Sunday it was cool to watch large shoals of sprats swimming in the surface behind the mixon, nothing pushing them up, just that’s where they were feeding - great to see so much life in the water!

Dean Gifford

OysterCAT trip 3/8/26

Well with the weather set to deteriorate, decided to rush through a short notice trip, which although up and down, proved to be an ok day.
Set out on first lock, and headed east. First stop mackerel and within three drifts we had enough for the table and fresh bait for later on in the day, plus some scad and a schoolie.
Continued working our way east, trying several different banks but the bass just weren't there, so we decided to drop anchor, have a cup of tea and a snack, and fish HW for rays, however, the rays didn't want to play either.
So, about two hours into the ebb, with only one small tope for our efforts, we decided to up sticks and head back west. On route we tried another bass bank, and here there were plenty of fish showing, and we did manage to land three keepers.
Back west, we anchored up, with Bream the target, this proved to be the best session of the day, everybody catching, with Sean particularly onfire and proving to be top angler for the day. Here we also had Huss, of course dogfish and Tony with his PB conger (only joking Tony).

Conditions perfect at the end of the day, bream on the feed, but we decided to pack up and catch the 5.30 lock.

Thanks to Tony and Steve for crewing, and everyone else who helped out during the day.

Until next time
Terry.

Oystercat
29th July
6.45 Boarding, as is now usual everyone there early.
4 boats in first lock out so off to find fresh bait with very little success.
Headed east to a small wreck where we found a few scad and mackerel ,with birds sighted working in the distance offshore we headed out.
Here we had a couple of hrs fun chasing the birds and bass.
Best bass fishing so far this season, we all caught numerous fish and ended with 19 keepers with Steve Harris 's63cm topping the day.
We then anchored up for a cuppa and bacon roll,wind and swell increased and thoughts were we might move to the bay but then the bream started to feed so we stayed with several nice fish coming aboard.
In all a great day on the water with everyone happy long may it continue.
Thanks to the crew whoever they were😂
CHEERS T.A

Oystercat 28/7/26
Junior fishing trip.

Well with the great weather continuing, and a request from the parents, it was decided to run a short evening mackerel fishing trip for our junior members, and what a good night it turned out to be. Target species, mackerel and within 5mins of our first drift, target achieved, wow, have we got some budding future anglers in our ranks
What a pleasure to see our younger generation out fishing their parents, and the smiles on their faces as they landed fish after fish. We even caught a 'shark'.
Well done all and hope to see you on many future trips.

Until next time
Terry

Oystercat trip 28th July…Tope target and good weather still with us what could go wrong! Woke up to wet roads and very low cloud. Marina was nice but once at SWIGG a 5sec interval swell made drifting uncomfortable. Scratched about had a few mackerel and some Skad, kept to plan, and did a drift across ledges nothing (yellow commercial cougar shot off towards Porthcawl) once across ledges a slow ride to three mile, swell now sometimes 1.5mtrs 5secs, spent about an hour there with nothing to show at all. At 11.00 decided to go to tope mark as the Cougar joined us back from east so obviously not much there either. Wind against tide made it impossible to drop on mark so into Oxwich till tide turn. Mark had a nice thornback within 5 mins and again slow fishing except for a nice run of single mackerel most drops for me which gave us a dozen or so for baits. Off out deep at slack, and weather settled nicely throughout the afternoon but only manage two tope (mark and Terry 34lb a PB) and two huss. Nice afternoon in the end and good conditions for junior trip later. John E Nice photo of Phil struggling to hold 11Lb huss before it tried to bite his head!