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  • 07/2014 Fishing Report by Gethyn Owen on My Way 2 (Holyhead, Isle of Anglesey)

    Jul 2014 by Gethyn Owen

    Report on-board My Way 2

    After the a great time through June hopes were high of continuing the great run of form into July. Weather gods thought differently and we lost the first few days of July to some strong weather fronts. Towards the end of the first week in July everything started to settle down, for the first couple trips we were restricted to inshore fishing.

    Despite wanting desperately to make our way out to Holyhead Deep, the sea state prevented such travels, undeterred anglers still had a great time afloat with a number of different species and what seemed to be an ever present number of smoothhound. Normally numbers start to dwindle with the hounds by the start of July, but this year the smaller sized hounds were around all the way through the month and beyond!

    Our first trip to the deeps in /July came at the end of the first week, a mixed bag of individuals in search of some tope and spurdog along with a good few huss. We weren’t disappointed with most on board hooking into a good number of double figure sharks during our few hours offshore.

    This settled spell continued for the week of trips afloat to Holyhead Deep. Those who sail with us regular know only too well just how important it is to get the weather conditions perfect. Not often do calm seas coincide with neap tides, a perfect recipe for travel beyond North & South Stack tidal races for some action in Holyhead Deep.

    Either side of our anchor in the Deep, we tend to concentrate on inshore drifting with wrasse, pollack, coalies and if we are so extremely lucky mackerel making up the species list. I get a real buzz when drifting inshore.
    If using light tackle, even a wrasse or pollack of a couple lb in weight can put up a mammoth fight, testing both angler and gear to the max.

    We have some ultra light rods available for use aboard My Way – the small Yuki Ruby rods along with some of the fantastic HTO spinning rods from Tronix, these light yet very capable rods are more than capable of handling hard fighting wrasse and pollack from rocky marks. These rods also been used to land smoothhound well into double figures, with relative ease.

    Following the initial few days of woe watching the winds get July underway, My Way sailed regularly barring the odd blip and 24hr weather front. Sadly though things came to an abrupt stop during the third week, when on the way back to the marina after a great day species hunting around Holyhead and Trearddur bay I started to sense something wrong. Not being the fastest boat on the sea, plus being my precious, you notice little things, small changes. And My Way wasn’t performing correctly. Long story short, heat exchanger / exhaust manifold was leaking! Decisions! Patch job or new? Well we went for new.

    The unit had been on My Way since she had become part of our company, so the correct course of action really. A grand old cost aside, the worst of it all was that I had to cancel 2 trips. Two trips to Holyhead Deep when the weather was flat, calm and sunny.

    In 10 years I've never had to do this and it felt bad! Fortunately the vast majority of the crews that board My Way are great, many of whom have become friends, every one I spoke to appreciated the situation and the need for me to do a 'proper' job! After all our safety at sea is paramount!

    Well, everyone except for one person, he had been looking forward to the trip for a whole year and I had ruined everything for him! Not intentional ... cheers for the understanding pal … :p


    Once fixed and tested, straight out to the deeps, and back into the action. tope, spurs an big huss.
    Fortunately July was full of neap tides and settled weather, and we certainly made the most. With regular outings to the deeper water resulting in successful catches for most anglers, many recording either their first tope or spurdog whilst with us. With Holyhead having quite a tidal range, the Deeps is not always favorable. Tides over 28ft and we struggle to maintain contact with the bottom, not friendliest form of fishing with 3lb of lead and naturally with the bigger tides, the window of opportunity drops. So a 3lb lead for merely an hour is not quite worth it in our day. So when the tides grow, we remain inshore and target an array of species at anchor and on the drift.

    Another highly enjoyable month afloat from Holyhead Marina, aboard My Way. We are extremely fortunate to have such varied fishing available to us, and with some great anglers, novice and experienced, perfect for a fun packed day afloat.

    Read with photographs at http://www.goangling.co.uk/2014-July-report1.htm

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