Oxwich Beach, South Gower
The beach at Oxwich is a very popular tourist area and coupled with the
shallow water this means that during the summer months the beach is
only really fishable at night or during poor weather!
The ground at Oxwich is primarily sandy with the only real features to
aim for being the rockier side of the beach as can be seen in the
right-hand corner of the picture above, or if you are willing to walk
there is a small stream which joins the sea approximately 1 mile along
the beach towards Tor Bay.
The rockier corner in the picture above is right by the slipway on the
beach (infront of the car park). Unfortunately this area is very busy
during the warmer months but it provides fishing much the same as
Church Rocks (see the following link:- http://www.freewebs.com/southwales-angling-guide/oxwichchurchrocks.htm
Further along the beach towards the river the beach gets progressively
shallower. It is rare for there to be mush surf at this venue. Normally
the beach is well protected but if there is a very very strong SW/W/NW
wind this beach gets a swell and becomes very popular with surfers.
When this swell is up the bass fishing comes into its own. Big worm
baits will pick up plenty of school bass with the odd fish going to 6lb
every year,. The beach is underfished for bass and if anglers put in
the effort and select their sessions carefully there is no reason why
the beach wont provide a double figure fish.
Bass anglers in the 80's regularly caught good bags of bass from this beach along with some nice plaice.
The plaice are still there, though not in big numbers. Try fishing the
calmer tides at distance with long snoods and ragworm tipped with squid
as bait. Fish to 2lb are likely. Best time of year for the plaice
fishing is May.
On calm summer evenings mackerel shoals will often come in close enough
to be caught from the beach. Try the car park end of the beach where it
is slightly deeper but the fish will be scared away if there is too
much watersports activity so early morning sessions are most productive
here.
Dogfish can be caught at range but come closer under the cover of
darkness, anglers will also catch some good sized flounders from this
beach - the small stream is a good spot to target these throughout the
autumn and winter months. Small turbot are caught during the summer and
it is fairly likely that occasional sole can be caught here. There was
once a 3lb sole caught from nearby Tor Bay some years ago. These fish
like small baits, calm seas and the cover of darkness. Scaling right
down to size 4 or 6 hooks is often neccesary as the sole is a very
finicky fish with a small mouth.
|
|
