Lesser Weever Archives - Fishing Fiend

I’ve had a couple of sessions recently at a new venue for me – the Gynn Wall in Blackpool.

Phil and I fancied a change of location, our enthusiasm for fishing at 5 Bar Gate near Cleveleys having waned somewhat recently after a few blank trips.

I blame the weather lol…. it appears as though every occasion I’m free to fish recently, a good westerly wind picks up, and it makes fishing on the Fylde Coast quite a challenge to say the least. And each of our last few trips has seen us fishing in less than optimal conditions with winds gusting to 40mph.

This years season hunt, and my target of 50 species in 2020 depends on me catching quite a few sea fish to compliment the usual freshwater suspects. And the Gynn Wall can produce a number of species that I haven’t managed to catch yet, such as Plaice, Grey Gurnard, Sole, Thornback Ray, Weever etc. So with it benefiting from good parking, a short walk, and close proximity to both a tackle shop and kebab shop its not a bad spot to spend an evening.

The Tide Races In Through The Gullies and Channels, And As Soon As The Water Hits The Bottom Of The Wall Its Time To Cast In

Wire Grip Leads – on a calm day a small blue 3oz lead does the job, these last few trips we’ve been having to use heavier red and green tops.

We’ve been using semi-fresh yellow lug from the local tackle shop as bait

Rods in but we’ve now had three trips that have been ruined by strong onshore winds, or more recently ruined by large rafts of floating seaweed that has been ripped up by the waves caused by the strong westerly winds.

Driving Me Up The Gynn Wall — The wind — its enough to drive me up the Gynn Wall !

So — over the last three trips I’ve caught a few fish, mostly whiting and dabs – but I’ve also had a Lesser Weever fish (The UKs only poisonous fish). The first time I’ve ever caught one, so a brand new experience for me – having to carefully unhook at fish that has poisonous spines in its dorsal fins. This little fella takes my running total up to 21 species for the year. Phil has managed similar but also picked up a couple of small Sole, one of my target species, making me very jealous.

A lesser weaver fish ... driving me up the gynn wall — A poisonous lesser weever fish, packs a powerful venom from the spines in its dorsal fin

Now Phil and I have had a few sessions on the wall, we are beginning to pick up a few pointers from other anglers. If we are after smaller fish such as sole, gurnards, plaice etc then we need to scale down our tackle and bait. We’ve also been using standard two hook flapper rigs, however looking online at photos of other anglers catches, it would appear that anglers who are using wire booms to hold a bait hard on the deck seem to be having much more success than us. Hopefully we will get a change in the weather to compliment our change in tactics. We’re gonna be back there soon using new rigs and ragworm as bait…. lets hope it does the trick…