The first of the Bus Stop Fishing series for 2023. Today it was a trip out on the Newport Bus DRT31 bus to St Brides, just outside Newport. The bus needs to be booked a day in advance and is a Demand Responsive Transport, what used to be known as dial-to-ride in the old days. The weather forecast is not great for the next week but today it’s a least dry.
A 12.2m tide makes this quite a high tide, with blustery winds it meant that the waves were crashing over the boulder sea break. But it was dry – apart from a short shower. It was fairly warm which made a change and the Sun was bright enough for me to get the sunglasses out for the first time this year.
I was not sure how well St Brides would fish on a very high tide with a quite choppy sea. But I had 3 pretty good bites, sadly lost on the reel-in before landing. It’s one of the issues with using barbless hooks, it’s just easier for the fish to get free. Two of the bites were flounders which I saw on the way in before they got loose on the rocks. The other I did not see. It was almost my first fish on camera – getting closer.
All the bites were on a razor clam and mussel cocktail bait. I did try squid and squid/mussel cocktail but it was the razor clams that produced the results. I’ll have to remember to make sure I have razor clams with me next time I go fishing down St Brides.
It was a fantastic 3-hour sea fishing session and I really enjoyed getting out. Easy to get on the bus from Newport by booking the DRT 31. The only disappointment was that the Lighthouse Inn had closed over the winter. I had planned on going there for lunch but sadly the pub closed in November. The cafe that was attached to the pub is also closed so there are now no nearby refreshments or toilets.
