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  • 03/2012 Fishing Report by Gethyn Owen on My Way 2 (Holyhead, Isle of Anglesey)

    Mar 2012 by Gethyn Owen

    Report on-board My Way 2

    During the second week in March we had some pretty mixed fortunes with the weather in Holyhead; both sunshine and rain in equal amounts and the winds not quite knowing what they should be doing, so it was great on Friday evening to finally check the weather and be in a position to say yes to the voices on the end of the phone.

    Once again, the more settled weather early season had fallen on spring tides, big springs as well, with both days just under 33ft in height. Not a terrible thing, but owing to the big tidal strengths around our area of operation it restricts our movements to inshore work. A good day of mixed species for early March was still on the cards.

    The weekend aboard My Way was filled by 2 local groups of anglers, keen to make the most of the settled spell. However fishing in the Bay on a big tide in March can be hard work at times. Saturday I had decided to try a small patch of rough ground that I’d not fished before for the first hour and see what happened. It wasn’t long before dropping anchor that the dogfish moved in on our baits, with single and double shots coming over the sides. Not too bad a start, at least fish were present
    We also had the odd small codling and pouting before Clive grabbed hold of his fishing rod as it received a few thumping bites. Using only general scratch rigs with small hooks on it was now a battle of wills between Clive and whatever had taken his bait.

    Slackening off the drag to take any unforeseen dive from the fish and also slowly lifting the rod up to retrieve on the downward motion Clive skilfully brought the fish to the surface of the sea.

    Whilst the battle continued we discussed what Clive may have caught, bull huss or thornback were the main suspects, at which point it also needed to be clarified what the £5 a head pool money was for – largest fish, most fish, most species or … sexiest fish! Hmm!
    When the surface was finally broken, Clive had played a cracking small Conger eel of 16lb. Great catch for inshore and a superb testimony to his angling skills ….. and My Way rigs!

    We had a move later on in the day to more broken ground and were rewarded with more fish and a few species additions. Dogfish made up the bulk of the catches along with a good number of huss, the odd codling, whiting and poor cod.

    The day though was enhanced considerably with some nice coalfish. Not monsters at a few lb in weight, but tasty fish that went home with a few of the lads.

    Sunday we started the day on our new mark once again, with a bit more tide I hoped we’d maybe see a couple more eels or rays. Thankfully we were rewarded early on with 6 thornbacks making it aboard My Way, all of though them small between 3 and 6lb but still first rays for the majority of captors.

    Sadly the largest thornback threw the hook just as it broke surface … it looked double figures as it swam away. I can assure you no one laughed!

    Leaving this mark, we tried a favourite spot on the mussel beds over HW slack, however this proved a bad move, with only a few dogs coming to the boat over the next hour. Normally a very productive area, early spring can be a little hit and miss when fishing the more tidal areas. The rest of the day was similar to that of Saturday, with bull huss, coalfish, Whiting and small codling joining the fun along with a few other species.

    A nice mixed bag of species and a good laugh for an early March weekend.

    For more information and to check our availability for boat and individuals please visit our website at www.goangling.co.uk

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