All things considered, Pembroke was kind to me. 

A really monstrous Ballan wrasse didn’t make an appearance (and nor did a Cuckoo) but I had the pleasure of fishing some lovely wild places – and I only saw two other anglers the entire week I was there. I met some friendly faces along the way and was treated to a silly amount of Welsh wildlife – choughs, gannets, guillemots, razorbills, stonechats and skylarks… The list goes on.

The wrasse fishing wasn’t plain sailing. Far from it, actually, and a building northerly wind put paid to a good portion of the north coast fishing I’d planned. For a trip in late May the wind felt cold – and I won’t be forgetting a Saturday morning fishing St. David’s Head in a thick and chilly fog any time soon! But the novelty of having both a north and a south coast to fish wasn’t missed, and it was the calmer south coast that kept the bites coming when the north was too wobbly. 

I barely scratched the surface of the county, of course – spending the majority of my time chugging to spots between Fishguard, St David’s and Solva – but it was a blissful enough way to spend several evenings and a weekend. One of the biggest revelations of the trip was discovering float fishing for wrasse, after being talked into it by a friendly ex-commercial fisherman in Fishguard harbour. While the ledger rod remained quiet, the float rod accounted for several three pounders, and a good four, pictured below! I was in disbelief, and it left me wondering why I was so late to the party. I wouldn’t go as far as to say I’m a float-fishing convert, but it’s an exciting enough way to fish, and a bit less tackle hungry.

A return to Pembs will hopefully be on the cards before the year is out – I need to make a more concerted effort for that shore-caught cuckoo – but we’ll see how we go. A big thank you to ‘Cosy Cottage’ for putting me up in Fishguard for the duration of the trip. It lived up to its name entirely, and made for an excellent fishing base.