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09/2011 Fishing Report by Gethyn Owen

Sep 2011 by Gethyn Owen

As we entered August, I’m guessing most boat anglers had fingers crossed for calmer weather conditions compared to the windy Augusts of previous years. Sadly 2011 has proved to be a similar affair, with very unsettled weather blowing through our country with increasing regularity.

Flicking through the diary it is though fair to say we managed to sail on the vast majority of days in August, sadly many of these days were with restrictions as to where we could search out our prey. With many days seeing us sail no further than Holyhead Bay itself.

All said, inshore fishing around Holyhead bay can be very rewarding, if anglers are prepared to change tactics and baits in search of the vast variety of species ... you can be in for a fun filled day afloat.

On occasions some choose to sit out in the hope of a good inshore Holyhead tope, these are amongst the largest in north Wales, with the current Welsh record of 79lb caught and released aboard My Way 6 years ago. Despite numerous fish from the deeps in the 25lb bracket and a few tope in the bay, our largest tope this year has barely hit 40lb. The largest confirmed capture for our port in 2011 stands at a whopping 70lb, landed aboard Spindrift in August.

Consistent through the year have been the rays, I’d never take a trip to set out and target the rays, with blonde, spotted and thornback being our most common. But when on a few particular marks there is always a good chance of a ray if particular baits or rigs are used. As these photos show, there are some nice fish to be had.

Huss and dogfish are plentiful, the latter being the scourge of many anglers, but also the blank savour on the odd day. Often referred to as the match anglers favourite, light rods, 3 at a time, fun can even be had with the trusty old dogfish ….. honest! Huss though can be fun, with specimens regularly exceeding 12lb in weight, they have two fight modes – give up or scrap, you just never know!

If species hunting for the smaller fish in our waters, then your rigs really do need to be honed in to near perfection. Fun can be had on a number of marks when searching out the more elusive of species such as scorpion fish, blennies, gobies and corkwing wrasse etc. Maybe not on the A-list in fish, but these can be a welcome tick to many a species list for that year, or even lifetime species goal.

September has followed suit, hurricane winds across the pond leaving us with extreme gale force weather has hammered last month to the ground. With 28days booked afloat with for us and only managing to actually sail on 10 occasions, not exactly a winning ratio is it. The fishing has been hard on the days we have managed to get afloat with the sea left behind not allowing us to do everything we had planned.

Needless to say some angler have been able to catch a variety of species and quantity of fish and on other days nothing has gone right, with the crew struggling to locate the even the dogfish, but hey that’s fishing, not for the want of trying for certain.

Where ever you’re reading, hope the seas have been kind to you of late and fingers crossed for some settled weather for everyone.
07/2011 Fishing Report by Gethyn Owen

Jul 2011 by Gethyn Owen

They say time flies when you’re having fun, well I certainly hadn’t noticed that a whole month had passed by since our last report. Most trips were certainly fun, but then there were also those that despite all efforts still didn’t pan out as hoped for, guess that’s fishing!

This report picks up the reigns mid-July, when we were joined by a group of local lads from Rhosneigr. An early sail saw us feathering up some mackerel at 7am en-route to Holyhead Deep. That should actually read attempting to feather up some mackerel, they have all but disappeared of late making a haul of enough for a decent days fishing wishful thinking. Granted, I can drift around for 6hrs catching a few for the bbq, but, fortunately most anglers appreciate the unreliable nature of this species for us and come prepared.

Spurs, tope and huss all obliged the rods aboard, not as many as previous trips, but never the less, made the early wakeup call worth it, finishing the day on the drift for wrasse then at anchor with dogs, gurnards and rays making up the catch.

On our way back inshore form the deeps we all noticed a very bright light shimmering on the sea a few miles NE from our position. After a few minutes of constant shine the light simply disappeared! Not knowing what we had seen, but being fully aware it was too bright for anything on land I alerted Holyhead Coastguard to the strange light in the area.
As we made way in the direction of the light, maybe a ship light, flare or reflection from something, Rhoscolyn shore patrol were also tasked by the Coastguard to take a look onshore. After an hour, nothing had been observed and then a call came in from Holyhead Coastguard informing me that the shore patrol had observed a strange ‘metal wheel’ floating on the water. Trearddur Bay ILB was sent for a look and found a man inside what could best be described as a human sized mouse wheel. He was attempting to walk the sea to Holyhead. It’s more than likely what we had seen aboard My Way was the reflection his wheel cast in the bright sun.

All’s well that ends well, I would like to thank Dafydd who texted asking if I had ‘Seen the light’ and also Gareth on Spindrift, who played ‘Blinded by the light’ to me on the phone!

Off to the deeps again with Milnrow Sea Anglers, you can read a report from club secretary Paul Whiting on my website.

Sadly the RAFA SAC had strong SW winds in the morning to bring a sudden halt to any thoughts of veenturing to Holyhead Deep. Those who know the guys and for those who follow their antics aboard My Way know only too well – fish, fun and food were still on the agenda. Check the video on our website orCBUK .

Fortunately the settled weather returned for a few days of the neap tides the end of July and we set sail regular into the Deeps. Tope, spurs and huss served the anglers fairly well with the biggest of this set around the 30lb mark for Holyhead Angler Tony Dooney. Species Hunter Trevor Cozens managed to add his targets of cuckoo wrasse, spotted ray and eventually a tope to his 100 species of fish inside of 3 years from UK waters, check our links page for Trevors blog a worthwhile read.

Geordie anglers Roy, Brian and Paul had a few days aboard My Way during this time also determined to get amongst double figure sport in the deeps. With Roy’s target being the elusive tope. Frustration was setting in with Roy as he witnessed a few tope come over the gunwales, but all on other anglers rods. It wasn’t until the last day when a tope finally put that smile on his face!

The various reefs are producing well once again - wrasse, pollack and codling with the sizes of the latter reaching 6 or 7lbs on occasions, sadly the reliability not always as good as the anglers would hope for.

Reliable though is the wrasse, plenty of good specimens averaging 2 to 3lb, with the odd fish going up to 4lb. As August continues these will improve and offer fish touching the 5lb mark on calibrated scales.

On the larger tides when we are restricted inshore there’s plenty of sport fishing to be had on species hunts and small competitions etc. check out our websites latest Gallery uploads for a taste of the last 4 weeks - http://www.goangling.co.uk Gallery 79 | Gallery 80 | Gallery 81 | Gallery 82
07/2011 Fishing Report by Gethyn Owen

Jul 2011 by Gethyn Owen

It has been 4 weeks now since we have found the time to write a report on our most recent fishing exploits. We have though managed the most basic of website tasks in keeping the website updated with photographs and boat availability, sadly despite planning, daily or even weekly reports, time gets restricted and fishing comes first! More importantly in recent weeks, the weather has been far kinder and My Way has set sail on all but a couple days.

This report starts in the middle of June when, we had a short period of cleaning and tying rigs owing to bad weather, so not really an awful lot to write about for those few days, moving swiftly on we were joined by a good crowd of seasoned mariners from Telford who despite the blustery conditions of large tides made the most of their time with us bagging a variety of species including a few pb smoothies, spotted ray and a first ever bull huss.

The weather the following week tried it’s best once again to put the dampeners on our plans to sail, un deterred we set sail regular and our anglers were rewarded once again with an excellent mixed bag of inshore fish ranging from the ever present lesser spotted dogfish to 18lb smoothies and a great array of pb’s and angling firsts.

It is also always a pleasure to take anglers out on their first time fishing, when planning days like this I much prefer medium to big tides, thus keeping us inshore, the water flowing and allowing us to help the angler get the most from both drift and anchor fishing. Putting someone new onto a mixed bag of species has a great effect on them and certainly helps heightens their desire for more.

It is always a pleasure to take anglers out on their first time fishing, when planning days like this I much prefer medium to big tides, thus keeping us inshore, the water flowing and allowing us to help the angler get the most from both drift and anchor fishing. Putting someone new onto a mixed bag of species has a great effect on them and certainly helps heightens their desire for more.

We were joined on a Sunday by My Way regulars from The Wirral, this report requires a page of its own to be honest.

For the 4th year running the RAF Angling Festival was fished from Holyhead. This festival partners an RAF angling enthusiast with a complete novices. The aim is to encourage more RAF personnel to take up the sport and join in the fun both on a boat and also ashore. This year the event was won by an angler who was fishing aboard My Way!

With rods, reels and rigs planned for the day, Rob caught steadily a mixed bag of fish learning how to bait up and the different methods to entice different species of fish as he went along. With the event returning sometime in 2012, it will be nice to see if Rob has continued with angling and been promoted to competent angler.

Making our way into July – the sun was beating down, the seas were flat calm, My Way was fully booked and all this could mean only thing – spring tides! Seldom this year have we had such calm conditions on neap tides when a foray into Holyhead Deep has been in the plans!

Never the less, large tides and calm weather simply offers us the chance to move around inshore and fish many marks for a variety of species. Drifting is something we do an awful lot of; pollack, codling and the various species of the wrasse family all our main targets. Whereas the pollack and codling are not monsters that you’d associate with offshore wrecking, ranging from a couple lb to around 6lb, with the odd bigger fish – they make for an interesting fight on light gear and relatively shallow water.

Moving into July we are still seeing the odd smoothie landed on My Way, Rob Field fish with us recently and smashed his pb twice with hounds of 13 and 18lb, more reliable inshore are the huss, with Specimens often exceeding the 10lb threshold for a quality huss.

July the 4th was another day to remember! With it being a day that people in the USA celebrate the declaration of Independence from the UK, we decided to pay our own tribute and celebrate ... My Way style. Yes, this meant only one thing Fish & Food, so it was off we set in bright sunshine whilst waiting for our breakfast of big thick ¼lber burgers to cook.

Fishing did interrupt our food at times as doggies, huss, gurnard, whiting, dabs etc came aboard My Way from the 30ft spring tide. It was soon lunch time and I had planned some great big US of A hot dogs. Pete Chant, originally from Holyhead and now living on the Wirral brought along a massive pan of chilli – chilli dogs it was.

As every munched down for lunch we made our way around to Trearddur Bay where drifting for wrasse and pollack made the agenda once again. Then on the sail home we rounded USA day aboard My Way with jam donuts and caawwfeee! Superb, great fishing, great food and certainly a great laugh – Oh yeah, Pete brought digestives!!!!!!!!!

With July now in full swing our attentions were turning to fishing Holyhead Deep, where Monsters of the Deep where rumoured to be found. I say rumoured as the weather of late had failed to allow us to get out to these sacred grounds, our last venture being the end of April, although we did pass on a few chances early June in favour of smoothhounds inshore, with the deep waters west of Holyhead scheduled to produce the goods well into October, this was a decision easily made with the quality of hounds around this year. Our first trip to the deeps was a non-starter, the strong NW wind that blew the night before left a horrible swell in the sea, so it was the mussel beds and inshore species hunting the order of the day huss, rays, various wrasse plus many more giving all reasonably good day afloat.

Fortunately though, the sea dropped off for the following day and inshore anchor, drifting and then the Holyhead Deep it was.
The deep waters off Holyhead didn’t disappoint, for little over 3 hours all the rods aboard My Way bent double time and time again with numerous huss and spurdog, all of which averaged 12 to 14lb amazing and hectic fishing.

Only one tope though graced us with its presence that day, this fell to the hook of Pete Minns, normally the dogfish king, Pete was on fire with a tope of 22lb, spurs to 14lb and huss to 12lb; finally the lessons are paying off!

This report ends with the good weather continuing during the neap tides seeing My Way take part in the filming of the Welsh language fishing show Sgota!

The original series screened in 2010 was a roaring success with many anglers both Welsh speaking and those viewing with English subtitles, raving about the quality of fishing and excellent presenting and information when compared with other angling related programs of late.

The 2nd series is now being filmed and titled Sgota: The Islands of Western Britain.
06/2011 Fishing Report by Gethyn Owen

Jun 2011 by Gethyn Owen

My last report told the story of our successful smoothhound challenge, where Gareth Hughes won Fladen Sensor Tip and Multiplier reel with a cracking hound of over 18lbs, sadly the next few days afloat were lost to the weather once again. It’s fair to say the weather in March & April was un-seasonably good, and with that we were always going to suffer at a later stage, so with May all but lost and the weather during the first couple days of June playing havoc with the fishing we wanted, things looked a little glum.

Fortunately by the end of the first week in June the weather perked up resulting in a nice settled spell for nearly a fortnight. On the Friday we sailed with a group of young lads from and a few dads, trying out angling for the first time. The plan was to anchor up in some relatively shallow water and get the lads catching whatever swam by.

Predictably dogfish made up the bulk of the haul, however with it being a first outing for the majority aboard even the dogs were greeted with roaring enthusiasm.
Mixed in with the dogfish, the youngsters were also rewarded with a few codling, whiting, dabs, small huss and also a rogue ling of a couple lb.

With a couple hours left in our half day afloat we turned our attentions to slightly bigger sharks, smoothhounds! With hotdogs bubbling away on the hob and soft drinks flowing, we lifted anchor and moved the short journey over to some mixed ground to try our luck. Needless to say I was a little nervous, fishing for the bigger stuff is a waiting game and I wasn’t too sure how we would fair with so many young rods eager to catch. Thankfully we didn’t have to wait too long and we managed to snare a few before the day ended. No monsters this time, but sharks, excitement levels maximized!

That evening we sailed once again for a few hours hound fishing. This time the biggies did come out to play, all on board landed a couple double figure hounds, with Welsh Boat Angling Team Manager Robbie Roberts taking top honours with brace of hounds that each annihilated his previous PB of 14lb. With starry hounds weighing in at 19lb 1oz and 21lb 5oz, Robbie was King of My Way that evening.

Into the weekend and it was once again onto the smoothhounds for regular clubs from St Helens and Milnrow. Both clubs have had fantastic days afloat …. and, sadly the odd poor one, but, that’s fishing I guess. Confidence was high with me for the weekend, conditions seemed good and the run of hounds appeared to be continuing. Smoothhound records had been set for both clubs on previous trips, with sharks in the 19lb bracket, so it was certainly an all-out assault to try and break these records that had now stood for a couple years. It wasn’t to be for the St Helens guys, but plenty of good hounds came aboard, with top honours going to Carl with a nice Smoothie of 16lb.

On the Sunday, we had a fair amount of wind to start the day, so with a quick chat to the crew, we decided to fish inshore for a couple hours before the tide turned and ran with the wind, thus making a less lumpy sea. Inshore we were rewarded with codling, huss, rays, dogfish and the odd dab before we moved out for the main attraction this time of year, smoothies! Again it was a good time with everyone one the boat catching smoothies. Best of the day though went to John Settle, who caught his very first smoothhound. The previous club record held by Ken Costello, also on the trip, was just under the 20lb mark, John’s when weighed pushed the scales over 26lb! It was a monster of a fish, both large in length and also gut size.

With the WFSA record standing at 25lb 6oz, we proceeded to weigh the big starry a couple more times for confirmation. With varying weights, the lowest reading offered was agreed by all, but it was still a whopping 24lb 12oz; a new club record and an amazing first for a PB, well done John.

The following week fished with mixed results, the weather was not as good as previously and the hounds were not as prolific as had been witnessed in previous days. General fishing though again saw plenty of fish coming to the boat along with a few smoothies. Fishing though can be so fickle and taxing at times, on the 8th we had a great group of local rods with the thoughts of some big hounds, but we never really caught anything to get too excited about, we struggled to hit anything of any real note.

Then 2 days later I couldn’t go wrong, same mark, similar rigs, peelers from same source! June 10th was to be a day to remember. I was joined aboard My Way by Dave Barham and Jim Midgley; editor and photographer for the UK’s Boat Fishing Monthly magazine. I was nervous to say the least and fearing the worst given what lack of smoothhounds had proceeded that week. Many skippers will tell you, the best laid plans and all that, weather is good, bait is good, marks are traditionally good, time of year is good …. but the darn fish fail to turn up.

Waving good bye to DB & JM that evening we set sail once again. With a good bunch of novices on board we set out in similar fashion to the trip for the young guys a week earlier – scratching around to start with, ending with smoothhounds later on. Another good evening, with our day’s smoothie tally for June 10th ending on 38, superb!

Here ends our latest report, hopefully the fishing will continue it's great form aboard My Way in the months to come and fingers crossed that this weather also sorts itself out so you can get afloat where ever your destination may be.
10/06/2011 Fishing Report by Gethyn Owen

10 Jun 2011 by Gethyn Owen

Taken from the Editors Blog at http://www.boat-fishing-monthly.co.uk

Well, what an amazing day Friday was! BFM photographer, Jim Midgley and myself hopped on board Gethyn Owen's Holyhead-based charter boat 'My Way' for a spot of smoothhound fishing. The weather was cracking, with just a light breeze blowing and the sun beating down. Little did we know what we were in for.
There were just thre three of us on board today, so we decided to fish two rods each. I was testing the new Daiwa Procaster X spinning rod, plus their Kenzaki Braid 12/20 rod. And boy did they get a proper testing!
It was action all the way, right from the word go. By lunchtime we'd managed to boat and release 20 smoothounds between us, including a 20lb 1oz beauty and others of 17lb and 15lb 11oz. The afternoon session was a bit quieter, but we did Gethyn proud by finishing the day with a tally of 28 smoothies and one thornback ray, which beat the long-standing record for the number of hounds caught on board 'My Way' in a single session by two fish.
I was fishing like a pro, and managed to boat 14 of the 28 hounds, plus the 10lb thornie, but it was Gethyn that took all the monster fish including the 20, an 18 and a 17-pounder. What an awesome day's sport. I'll be editing and uploading a load of video footage, plus a few tips from Gethyn by the end of the week, so make sure you check back to see the all the mayhem!

Posted by Dave Barham
http://www.boat-fishing-monthly.co.uk/blogs/blogShow.asp?blog=83&post=1258
05/2011 Fishing Report by Gethyn Owen

May 2011 by Gethyn Owen

The My Way Smoothhound Challenge
A long time ago, we set the date of our inaugural smoothhound challenge for Bank Holiday May 30th 2011. This was based on the time of year when My Way specialises in landing some of the biggest hounds caught from Holyhead.

Fear though filled the air for weeks leading to the date, with high winds blasting our shores since early May, the chance of the match actually getting fished was slim to say the least. In the previous 4 weeks we had cancelled 14 trips and only fished on 5 occasions. The latter 3 trips were to target the smoothhound, a report from which hs already been posted.

The day of the competition loomed, the 30mph winds of the previous morning had all but dispersed and 9 mad keen anglers arrived at the pontoon with beaming smiles all round. The challenge was to simply catch the heaviest Smoothie of the day, do so and your reward would be a Fladen Sensor Tip rod and 444 sized reel. These light multi tip blanks offer superb bite detection and sport to any angler, they are one of our favourite rods for taming big hounds. It was possible though, that we were in for a hard day afloat. Many factors were edging against our day today – the high winds of late, the early peel of the crab and also the size of our hounds!
The smoothhounds off our shores do not run in the big packs normally associated with sharks of this type. Whereas smaller hounds, say below 8lb can often be caught one after another; as they increase in size they appear to become more solitary when feeding. Our best day afloat after smoothies had seen in the region of 26 hounds caught, but with all bar a couple over 12lb, this was gratefully accepted.

Despite all this, those opting to fish our smoothhound challenge were well aware of the potential Holyhead offers for smoothhound anglers. For a few weeks of the year, this really is where the action is!

As we set sail and made way to our fishing grounds I started to rue my last report and uploading it to the world! Our previous few trips in between the high winds had seen My Way and it’s anglers in a peaceful paradise catching some excellent hounds with only the odd yacht passing by. The last two occasions though, another boat was nearing on us with each anchor drop – by this third day of the current spell of settled weather it was out before us and was slam bang on top of the mark we tend to fish in this area. Now I do accept that no –one owns any particular spot, but funny how your exact marks attract so much attention at times!

The previous day had only seen 5 small hounds come to the boat despite some very experienced smoothie anglers aboard. So fortunately we had already decided on a slight move to hopefully encourage a better catch. Moving only 1/4 mile, with the tides as they were for the match we had more depth and also slightly more flow compared to the Sunday.

15 fresh peelers were supplied as part of the entry fee to our fun challenge, but some of the anglers had also come prepared with a selection of peelers, softies, crinklies, velvet peelers and hardbacks. It was going to be an interesting time for the next 6hrs.Pegged on the stern, Shaun Hughes was first off the mark. Inside an hour of the anchor going down Shaun was soon fighting his very first Smoothie. Weighing quickly in our purpose made shark sling, Shaun’s hound came in just shy of double figures at 9lb 12oz. Maybe it was something in the name, spelt differently though, next up was Sion landing a nice hound, this time into doubles at 11lb 15oz.

Having had his hands on the rod & reel prize so early in the match, Shaun was keen to regain his position as top dog. This perseverance saw Shaun land the 3rd hound of the day and this time raise the bar significantly higher to a great 17lb 2oz. As the day went on smoothies came to the boat at a steady pace, we never had a double hook up or pack frenzy, most of the hounds came individually, Gareth P secured a new PB and also first double figure smoothhound with a nice 15lb 8oz specimen.

Watching his brother catch 2 smoothhound and take a commanding lead with his 17lb shark had Gareth Hughes a little green with envy. Despite other hounds coming to the boat, none matched the size of Shaun’s catch and this was starting to eat at Gareth who decided to do something about it. Around lunch time Gareth Hughes hooked into what looked to be a good size Smoothie. After struggling to control the hound for 20 mins, Gareth finally broke the surface – it looked big ….. it looked close!

I weighed the hound a couple times to be sure of the reading, brotherly love never came into this as both eagerly awaited the decision. Mark Cain adjudicated on the weight having accepted that his hounds of around 6 and 10lb would not equal Gareth’s combined! This hound went 18lb 4oz, photo above, a smoothie first, a stonker of a PB, but more importantly a hound that took first position. The family smiles moved from Shaun to Gareth.

Sadly no other hound was to come near Gareth’s 18lb starry. As I called time to days fishing, a few anglers had sadly blanked on the smoothies, with a couple having only the odd dog or small codling to show. Congratulations though still went to Gareth who posed with his new rod and reel and vowed to defend his win in 2012, when the My Way Smoothhound Challenge returns for its second year, Bank Holiday Monday 28th May

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05/2011 Fishing Report by Gethyn Owen

May 2011 by Gethyn Owen

Our last report detailed the high winds that have battered much of the UK over recent weeks. North Wales has been subjected to some of the strongest and most prolonged periods of rough weather in May for a long time.

May is around the time when the annual smoothhound run gets into full swing in the waters off Holyhead; where we may lack the numbers of hounds that some places can boast, a good average day for us maybe seeing around 15 hounds to the boat, Holyhead and more especially My Way benefits from exceptionally large smoothies, possibly some of the best that can be found in UK waters, having an average size well into doubles figures.

Picking the mark and tide can be crucial when setting out on our trips to locate the first runs. Like most species the smoothies feeding patterns are influenced by certain states and sizes of tide.

Our first run out for 2011 was with a crew of My Way regulars from Merseyside; this bunch of hardened anglers are smoothhound mad and boast many fish landed aboard My Way in the high teens and also a 20lb 2oz monster a couple years ago.

Our first hound was on the hook within an hour of fishing and fell to Ian ‘Golden Peeler’ Tomo who went on to land a further 2 hounds and smash his PB once again.

However the sweep fell to smoothhound novice Graham, who, as everyone watched Ian play the first hound, quietly went about his business of fighting a reasonably good hound. As Graham’s smoothhound broke the surface, it was a little more than reasonable and deserved a weigh! At 20lb 3oz, it was another monster, a whopper for a first hound and one hell of a Smoothie for early season!

This could only bode well for future trips.

It was a few days before we could venture out once again, excitement for the quality of the fishing was uncontainable, sadly though the strong winds battering around our coastline simply put an end to any thoughts of us carrying on our smoothhound fun.

We set sail a lot later in the day for our second outing, thus ensuring we fished the state of tide we needed to maximise the chance of hooking into more hounds. Only a small group of 4 anglers, booking the boat to themselves! Once again the smoothhound were obliging with John hooking the first, followed closely by Dic who landed a couple and a new PB for himself.

Gavin a relative newcomer to fishing was sat eagerly awaiting a bite on his rod whilst fighting off the dreaded feeling of sea sickness. Naturally we were all full of sympathy for Gavin offering greasy sausage sandwiches, making vomiting noises etc … as you do!

Gavin though, was to have the last laugh, despite feeling extremely poorly in the lumpy sea of Holyhead Bay, he continued to fish and this determination was rewarded late that afternoon when a smoothhound finally took his offered bait. Gavin played the hound for what seemed like an eternity, it came close to the boat on a number of occasions before making agonising late dives back down to the sea bed. Another half hour passed before Gavin’s shark broke the surface of the murky stirred up waters in Holyhead and it was a good one. The weigh sling and scales were required again to accurately record the latest shark aboard My Way. His first smoothhound had topped the scales at 24lb 11oz … Gavin no longer felt sick!

I must also give a small mention to Ari, who also took much stick from all of us for not landing a smoothhound all day, well not until the very end when an obliging 7lb hound took pity on him. With a few more trips planned for the smoothies, I’m sure this though can be beaten.

2 trips, plenty of big hounds including 2 over 20lb, this was an exceptional start to our 2011 smoothhound escapades. Sadly though, more wind blew into Holyhead and cancelled the next week of trips. It is very frustrating cancelling so many trips when you are so aware of the quality of fishing around! Equally upsetting is to know that they are only here for a certain number of weeks and on specific tides, please wind go away!

Our next trip out after smoothhound was to be a 2 day jolly with a group of 4 friends looking at landing some of our big inshore sharks. This has become an annual pilgrimage now to land double figure hounds on light gear. Sadly the winds were making every attempt to ruin our day. Deciding on a 7am sail in the hope of making the most of our time, we set sail with a fresh increasing wind. On reaching our destination, I made the decision to turn around and head back in – the forecast was a constant 10mpoh more than forecast with gusts over 30 – not safe and certainly not pleasant, back to Marina it was to wait out the wind as the new forecast was to drop around lunchtime. What did we do instead …. had a full brekkie on the boat whilst setting the world to rights and gossiping!

We motored back to our intended fishing grounds early afternoon and started hound fishing straight away. It was a little later in the tide than I had hoped, but was confident we would catch well. Our first hound was on the boat within an hour of fishing and fell to Davy Holt, a new PB for him at 16lb 10oz.

Davy's partner Linda was on her first smoothhound outing and was determined to catch one, regardless of what the weather had in store for us. This perseverance paid off when a short time after Davy broke his PB Linda hooked into what looked to me a very good hound. Playing the Smoothie on a light Fladen sensor tip rod, Linda could only watch and wait as the hound made darting runs for freedom. After a long fight that saw the hound remain very deep under the boat Linda’s hound came to the net weighing a staggering 20lb 10oz!!! Another 20lber!! Superb fish and well played.

Determined to beat Linda, Davy tried harder to land that 21lb Smoothie – the one that did look on course though turned out to be a low double, foul hooked! He did though manage to break his PB once again with another hound of 17lb 2oz. Smoothhound also came to everyone else on the boat, including myself, sadly though, none of us coming anywhere near to breaking Linda’s 20lber.

With 40mph southerly winds on the forecast we cancelled our second day afloat. We also cancelled the following few days – let’s hope the winds ease off pretty soon, we will be landing these hounds for a few weeks to come right into the middle of June weather permitting!
05/2011 Fishing Report by Gethyn Owen

May 2011 by Gethyn Owen

Sadly the weather for the end of April and throughout May has seen far too many trips cancelled.

Strong N / NE winds or very strong southerlies have seen My Way left tethered to the pontoons at Holyhead Marina on more occasions than I care to think about. The photo on the right shows the weather on our berth at the start of the current period of bad weather, April 30th 2011. I cancelled our trip but despite the wind, it was a dry day – so down to the boat it was to do a few of the odd jobs on my list.

When cancelling I think it is fair to say that all skippers take careful consideration of the day that may lie ahead. It is not simply a case of throwing the ropes away and rushing out for cover. Safety is no doubt paramount, but our enjoyment is next most important thing on the agenda. Sometimes the weather scuppers the odd plan, such as a trip to Holyhead Deep, yet a safe and enjoyable day catching a variety of fish is still possible elsewhere in the bay.

Although when the wind is howling to the extreme and your boat is going to swing around on anchor, throwing gear or the anglers around as the next wave hits the beam of the boat – is it really worth it?

Whilst writing this we have 40mph constant outside with gusts over 50-mph, not the nicest of days. Normally May is a fairly settled month in north Wales and we find ourselves afloat most days. At the time of writing this, 23rd May 2011, we have only sailed 5 times and cancelled 12. Think on all those that comment about charter boat operation being easy money – not so good when can’t earn it!

With the trips run, restricted inshore, we have still managed to locate a few fish, with early May offering a variety of species for the novice crews aboard My Way; catches included huss, thornies, spotteds, codling, pollack coalie and wrasse all mixed in with the inevitable doggie, pouting and dab etc.

I guess we are simply paying for the exceptionally good weather that we experienced during much of March and April this year. I am though sure it will come good and this run of very poor weather will be quickly forgotten about.

Where ever you may be reading this I hope the weather is not not hampering your fishing too much and your able to get afloat and have a great time. Hopefully my next report will be a little more upbeat.
04/2011 Fishing Report by Gethyn Owen

Apr 2011 by Gethyn Owen

Traditionally April is renowned for showers and cold blustery weather, however the last few weeks for much of the UK has been treated to some very warm and sunny spells. For those that gauge the weather with sun versus rain I’m guessing it’s been all smiles of late.

Afloat on Anglesey though, the latter half of April including the Easter period has been a mixture of fairly settled weather along with bursts of strong winds. Un deterred we have set sail on most days and been rewarded with some great fishing, banter and the occasional spot of sunburn.
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In shore drifting has again seen an increase in the numbers of pollack, coalies and codling coming to the boat. Whereas the vast majority of the fish are not really anything to write home about, the occasional one has topped the 4 to 5lb mark. Not monsters, but acceptable light tackle targets in relatively shallow water. Ballan wrasse are becoming more frequent as the days go by, hopefully the numbers will continue to improve and sizes grow as the year continues.

Spotted and Thornback ray numbers are on the increase, normally they are more prolific a little later in the year but 2011 has started extremely well, depending where we go we appear to be seeing a few rays most trips.

Pictured here is Brian from Warrington Sea Anglers, now the spotted ray the big fella is holding weighed a mere 2lb 2oz. But! It was still the first spotted ray this long established club had recorded. Given that Brian was also a new member on only his second boat outing a smile and photograph was certainly called for. You can read a couple reviews from 2 Warrington club members on this day via the My Way CBUK page..

Despite the neap tides this past week our deep water escapades have been limited owing to a combination of strong winds and also very early LW slacks. On the days we have ventured offshore, we have been fortunate to enjoy plenty double figure shark action. The vast majority of the ‘sharks’ though during these few trips have been bull huss, numerous beasts of the deep well into double figures, along with a few spurdog and also a few small pack tope, the biggest this time around estimated at only 10lb.

Our trip on 29th April 2011 was a get away from the Royal Wedding Fishathon ….. or was it ….. visit our webiste for more information.
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Sadly the 25mph ENE winds on the forecast for the next few days will see My Way remain firmly tied up to the pontoons – ready to get straight back to it when the winds ease as the week progresses!
23/04/2011 Fishing Report by graham squire

23 Apr 2011 by graham squire

Had a club trip aboard My Way skippered by someone who's name i forget.Anyway the weather wasn't exactly the best and the banter even worse.Started drifting just outside the breakwater where we were catching plenty of Pollack and a few wrasse,but the wind was making fishing difficult.We then went over to church bay and done a few drifts before going to anchor.At anchor there was plenty og dogfish to be had along with codling,poor cod ,ling huss and a ray of some discription,as always the skipper kept us well feed and plenty of warm cups of tea.All in all an enjoyable day afloat with Holyheads finest,although i'm lead to beleive it got reported we blanked? Must be some bad boyz around