Butcher's Hook

Back at Home Richard Butcher Explores the Difference Between His Home Patch and Ireland.

Having had a successful week in Ireland catching plenty of bass and small-eyed rays, I was looking forward to catching the same fish on my return to my favourite Welsh beaches. It’s interesting to do a quick “compare and contrast” between the Irish strands I fish and the Welsh beaches.

There are two main differences. The first one is the surf: on the west coast of Ireland the surf is usually generated by areas of low pressure – depressions out in the middle of the Atlantic that generate the strong winds, which then drive large but slow swells on to the beaches.

These waves have hundreds of miles to travel. They reduce in speed but build in size and can be over 10 feet high by the time they reach land. However, the distance between each wave, the “slowness” if you will, means that there are long flat tables of water between each wave and it’s these tables that hold the fish. This also means that it’s possible, after the depression has moved through, to have a big surf without any discernible wind and this can make the fishing very comfortable indeed.

These same mid-Atlantic depressions drive the same waves on to the beaches of Devon, Cornwall and south Wales, but these waves peter out as they drive up the St George’s Channel and all but disappear before they reach Anglesey.

Therefore, the Anglesey beaches I fish have surf that is predominantly – but not always – wind driven. In other words, you need an onshore wind to generate the surf, which produces waves that are very close together, having not travelled for hundreds of miles and had the chance to slow down.

The north Wales beaches I fish have surf that is exclusively wind driven. This makes for very turbulent water and when added to the fact that you’re likely to be fishing into a strong onshore wind, means that fishing can be very difficult.