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04/2011 Fishing Report by Gethyn Owen

Apr 2011 by Gethyn Owen

After the joys of our previous April report that contained the words huss, spurdog and tope we have recently been brought back down from the giddy heights of early season double figure fish.

With the neap tides abating we were left with the onset of 30ft plus springs and decisions on where to fish.
Fortunately the weather has remained good of late as a nice high pressure settled over much of the UK, looking at the various forecasts around this settled spell looks set to continue well into the Easter Holidays.

The fishing has been fairly consistent for the time of year with high yields of fish wherever we tend to go. Nothing has set the world alight or would really get the magazines to ‘stop press’, but never the less the anglers have been catching throughout our day’s afloat with a mixture of both sport and fish for the pot being taken.

Our fishing has varied with marks both in Holyhead Bay and around the coast in Trearddur Bay used at anchor and a variety of rock ledges in between for our drifting. Anchor work has seen numerous species including the ever present dogfish, dabs, plaice and codling being the main catches, along with plenty of small huss. The larger species have come by way of slightly bigger huss and a few thornback rays.

Drifting is starting to show more positive rewards inshore, especially with the numbers of wrasse for those wanting to drift closer to the sea bed. Other species include a good number of herring, pollack, codling and coalies. The latter 3 though not having too much weight to them, quantity wise there are plenty around, but with only the odd couple touching the 3lb mark, it’s fruitless to spend too long a time trying to catch them!!!

Every now and then we get a visit from the guys and gals at Trearddur Bay RNLI station. When not on a shout they are often seen around the bay training on various aspects of their voluntary duties.
A cup of tea and a slice of cake us is the least we can do for the efforts they put in on behalf of all sea uses.
http://www.rnli.org.uk/
04/2011 Fishing Report by Gethyn Owen

Apr 2011 by Gethyn Owen

As expected the fishing has been picking up with nearly every day afloat. Not too many more species to add to the list, but more the quantity of fish being found at our more favoured marks. From the beginning of the year I had suspected a good start to 2011 and also a better run through the year, owing mainly to the more settled start to the year.

In recent years, we have been hit with snow, ice and prolonged periods of minus temperatures in February, March and on occasions into April, this time around we got rid of the bitterly cold weather at the start of Winter 2010, with it all but gone by the time the end of the year came around.

This really does bode well now for the year ahead, sunshine, waters are warming, crabs are peeling and the fish really are on the move! When My Way was launched earlier this year the sea temperature was around 7.5degrees; during our last run out we recorded an average temperature of 9.1 degrees.

The species list now stands at 19 so far for 2011: - 3 bearded rockling, ballan wrasse bull huss, coalfish, codling, dab, dog, dragonet, herring, ling, plaice, pollack, poor cod, pouting, ss sea scorpion, spurdog, thornback ray, tope and whiting.

Inshore we have started to spend a little more time drifting a variety of rocky grounds and have been rewarded with some excellent catches of pollack & coalies in abundance and also a nice early run of herring. We don’t tend to see the herring in such great numbers early season; they have though been with us for a number of weeks now and are always a major plus this time of year.

The pollack are small at around 1 to 2 lb, as are the coalies and codling, with the odd few reaching 4lb at times. Ballan wrasse are starting to show, nothing too big once again with the biggest only touching the scales at around 2lb.

The last few trips has once again seen lady luck allowing neap tides and settled weather to coincide, thus deep water adventures ruled the plans when deciding on our days afloat.

Thankfully the species of the deeps have been obliging with far too many huss to count, along with some excellent double figure spurdog and the first few tope for 2011. These tope tend to be pack sharks that swim with the spurdogs, our biggest so far being 19lb 3oz; a first tope and heaviest fish for captor Wayne.
04/2011 Fishing Report by Gethyn Owen

Apr 2011 by Gethyn Owen

Spring Bank Holiday Smoothhound Challenge
North Wales has long been established as a venue for smoothhound, with Holyhead being the mecca for those wanting to catch big double figure hounds in the area.

Fishing for smoothies in waters relatively shallow at only 45’ can be a very exhilarating experience. Hounds first move in for us during early May, and hang around until mid-July. These fish often hit well into double figures with many in the high teens. In the last few years we have landed 11 smoothhound over the 20lb mark, including two at 25lb.

During the Spring Bank Holiday, Monday 30th May 2011, we are running a normal smoothhound only trip, with the slight twist that if you catch the heaviest, (weighed in our purpose made sling) you will be rewarded with a new rod & reel.

The rod & reel up for grabs is a Fladen Super Senor multi tip rod combined perfectly with a Fladen 444 multiplier reel. Personally I would say that the Fladen Super Sensor rods are probably one of, if not the best rod Fladen produce. With 3 varying strength tips and its extremely sensitive nature, the rod is a useful addition to the armoury of any angler wanting to catch those elusive small species in our waters. However these rods are equally at home landing the 20lb+ smoothhounds seen in Holyhead, this set up with a hard fighting opponent on the business end, offers an exhilarating angling experience.

30th May 2011
9am sail for 8hrs
£45 per person includes 16 fresh peeler crab

Heaviest smoothound wins Fladen Super Senor multi tip rod combined perfectly with a Fladen 444 multiplier

Check website for further details
03/2011 Fishing Report by Gethyn Owen

Mar 2011 by Gethyn Owen

With the moon closest to the earth for over 20 years last week helping produce some of the largest spring tides for a long time, we looked forward to the next set of neap tides that would allow us to push offshore and see if spring was working its way to Holyhead in the shape of big huss, spurdog and if lucky a tope or two.

I know I shouldn’t continually whinge about the weather, but being such a critical part of a days boat fishing, we cannot help but moan when things go against us. That said, I should try to remember that we are still only in March and traditionally it is not a month known for calm winds and flat seas! So back to the whinge, similar to the last set of neap tides, the wind gods kicked up a stinker for the vast majority of the neaps just gone, restricting our movements on all but one of the days to marks inshore or on the edge of Holyhead Deep.

Inshore the fishing was once again consistent, with a variety of fish coming over the gunnels of My Way. Most marks consisted of numerous dogfish, small codling and whiting. Other marks also gave us numerous small and also large bull huss along with small ling, sea scorpions and also a few nice plaice once again. The thornbacks have continued close inshore along Holyhead Bay, nothing out of this world but acceptable at around 6lb average.

On our first deep water anchor for 2011, 26th March, just at the edge of Holyhead deep, we only managed an hours fishing, thanks to the strong 7mph wind slamming into the boat! Ok it was a little more, it was actually 18mph gusting over 20mph, so we didn’t hang about too long and as soon as the tide showed signs of turning we upped anchor and retreated into the bay. For our efforts, we were though rewarded with a few huss, dogfish and 1 spurdog, we did lose a few other big fish – spurs or huss I cannot say.

The following day, the sun was up high and we had no wind, not even a breeze, not the slightest of puffs! Big fun in deep water was the plan; before then though we set sail to load My Way with some fresh bait and fodder for the dubby bag to help bring the bigger targets to us. We managed to hook into a fair number of small pollack and herring over various marks on our travels around to Trearddur Bay, the herring were to prove extremely useful for both additional dubby and hook bait. Their extremely oily bodies can prove a major attraction for many species around our shores.
We managed a very happy 3.5hrs in the deeps, catching continuously huss, dogfish and some cracking spurdog. Many of the spurs were released outside of the boat with only a handful of cracking double figure specimens coming aboard for a quick photograph
More often than not when looking at attracting fish or shark to your boat you need to lay down a 'rubby dubby' trail. This usually consists of mashed up fish bits and blood. This mixture is poured into a bag and can be tied off onto the anchor before it is despatched to the sea bed.

As the oils and particles get washed out of the bag they are pushed down tide and help attract predators into the area in which you are fishing.

I have already heard a rumour that a new welsh record spurdog has been set in south Wales, although I am waiting to hear a little more, please note that the WFSA allows fish to be weighed aboard a boat and then released.

It looks like this could be another good season for spurdogs, thats if you can locate them!!!
It is certainly nice to see the hard work carried out by Save our Sharks and the SSACN in obtaining the ban on lining proving successful with increasing numbers of spurs as the years go by, hopefully this can be succeeded with correct future management.
20/03/2011 Fishing Report by Gethyn Owen

20 Mar 2011 by Gethyn Owen

With neap tides again upon us last week and everyone chomping at the bit to throw off the small fish shackles and get to grips with the monster of Holyhead deep, in blew gales to put an end to those ideas. With a couple trips cancelled we managed to sneak out into Holyhead Bay on Sunday 13th.

The strong westerly wind restricted our movements, and the small neap tide restricted the flow of water required to help get the fish around on the feed this time of year, we really did struggle. Despite many moves around the bay, locating a sufficient amount of fish to make the day an overwhelming success was very hard work. That said, all the anglers on board My Way that day, knew what the day may, or may not hold! It’s a day out, we’re fishing and we’re also catching – what more could you ask for, ok admittedly a little more than the dogs, whiting and small codling …. the warm chilli certainly helped that day for sure though.

My Way regulars Carl & Annie, know only too well how things can pan out both for the good and sometimes the bad. Undeterred they returned the following weekend in the hope of more fish to pull their lines. But how would they and the other anglers fair this weekend fishing on top of the biggest tide for 20years.

The Moon's gravity pulls more strongly on the near side of the Earth than it does at its centre. It does though pull more strongly on the centre than on the far side. This 'differential' causes the tides that we see daily. Essentially, the water on the near side is pulled up and away from the Earth. Since the Earth turns on its axis, the bulge moves around the Earth, causing the level of the ocean to rise and fall, forming the tides. Spring tides at Holyhead are normally big at the 32 to 33ft mark, we were looking this weekend at battling the elements with tides over 34ft, this meant the water would move fast.

Saturday saw a crew of My Way regulars along with 2 guys new to fishing and 2 new to My Way. Despite the previous night giving a wind speed under double figures all day, our revised forecast before sailing was for winds of F4 to 5 from around lunchtime. With monster ebbing tides, Trearddur Bay was out of the question on that forecast as if the wind blew up early, we would be unable to find safe passage through north stack, and hence Holyhead Bay it was.

The morning started in 50ft of water a few miles north of Holyhead. The broken ground always throws up a variety of species for early season, but equally as important, a consistent supply of fish. We were not disappointed, straight into fish were the newcomers Dave and Chris pulling in dogfish and small codling, this trend then continued around the boat as many fish, including the odd double and triple shot came aboard. A My Way first for 2011 fell to Carl Burns’ fishing rod in the shape of a small plaice. Carl also pointed out that this was his first ever plaice whilst aboard My Way. We’re not renowned for our plaice fishing in this part of north Wales and sadly those we do get are rarely the dustbin lids you see in the magazines; still a great catch.

Mixed in with the codling, dogfish we were also pulling in many small bull huss. This area whilst it is accepted you can catch the odd huss, is not famous for numbers of the smaller huss we were catching today. Other parts of our fishing grounds, Trearddur Bay for example are often ear marked for competition fishing, were the reliability of small bull huss to boost a points tally is second to none; today though it was Holyhead Bay that was throwing up numerous small to miniscule sized bullies.

Why, well, I’m not too sure however we were anchored around 300yards off our normal mark. Where I had originally planned to drop anchor was out of bounds to us thanks to lobster pot markers. Never one to opt for the ‘near enough’ option, we had a little look around the area for a spot of broken ground that …. looked fishy ! Using the down-looking imaging on our new Lowrance HDS system, we were able to isolate a patch of ground that appeared to have fish holding capabilities; anchoring uptide, so that our baits could trot back nicely over the broken ground, the rewards where very quickly upon the boat. Could this be the reason for the sheer number of small huss coming aboard the boat today, brilliant broken kelp covered ground, ideal for small fry to shelter and small huss to feed on them?

True to the forecast the wind was steadily increasing throughout the day, a quick check at the weather station at RAF Valley and the wind was higher than forecasted. Inshore though, the tide had already turned to start flooding and now running in the same direction as the wind, our day was as comfortable as it was with the slight breeze of the early morning.

The following day, once again the weather gods had outwitted the forecasters and delivered a few more mph, uncanny how they continually do this really!!

With a forecast of around 20mph from the south, I arrived at the marina to a constant 26mph with gusts of 32mph. Not fancying the day too much, March stuck in close cannot always be the best - I called the lads around 90mins before we were due to sail. Mike the organiser greeted me with, is it safe and will we get a few fish, erm, oh yes we could do it I suppose, so off we went.

Rewards came in the way of dogs, codling and some small huss for the first few hrs. Great fun alongside the tea, coffee, biscuits and sausage butties. As the day went on and the tide ebbed away, the wind slowly decreased, as if with every 5mph decrease we managed to sneak further out from our shelter.

Our day eventually ended up on a small patch of mud around 1 mile outside the harbour, here the lads were rewarded with far more fish than in the morning and additionally 2 thornback rays, both firsts for the anglers including trip organiser Mike himself.

As I finish writing this now, the wind outside, or should I just say the puff of air outside is 9mph! Oh for 9month of 9mph. The light winds are forecasted to continue, we have individual spaces available for this coming Weds 23rd March sailing at 9am. Still a big tide, but plenty of fish and a good selection of species to have fun with for the day.
03/2011 Fishing Report by Gethyn Owen

Mar 2011 by Gethyn Owen

Our first weekend afloat in 2011 following our routine winter maintenance downtime was scheduled for the last weekend of February. With the boat full and small tides upon us it was an offshore foray into the deeps on the cards. Sadly the wind gods had other ideas and with W & NW blasts of air not dropping below 20mph for a few days, I decided to leave My Way dormant for another few days. Wouldn’t really be that fair to force the lads into the shallows were the possibility of fish this time of year was all but slim!

The following week the winds took some time off and the sun also came out to play. With plans to finish sanding and painting My Ways inside gunwales and then hopefully go find some fish following weekend. So it was on nice calm seas, though unfortunately 31ft tides that we finally got going once again for our 2011 campaign.

Spring tides restrict the fishing at Holyhead to inshore; the tidal pulls of such prolific areas such as the Deeps are far too strong for recreational angling in anything really larger than 28ft. so for the Saturday we opted for a slightly later sail at 10am and allow the ebbing tide to help us around to our destination of Trearddur Bay, stopping to drift a few of the reefs along the way.

The drifts however proved fruitless, with only a few nibbles from obliging pout and poor cod, our intended targets of coalie and pollack where no where to be seen, though based on the size of tide and the drift speeds we were having fun with; we’d give it another go later in the day when the LW slack was near us.

Anchoring just out of Trearddur Bay we were soon into an array of late winter and early spring fishing from Holyhead. Dogfish, whiting and codling making up the vast majority of catches with many rigs reeling in double and triple shots, mixed in with these we also had pout, poor cod and numerous small huss.

One angler even managing to land a triple shot of 3 small huss that had the 2 match anglers ‘cooing and awwing’ like kids in a sweet shop. Huss are usually worth far more points of the common dogfish and to catch them 3 a time, certainly good going.
This trend of fishing continued into our second mark, nothing to set the world alight but a steady stream of fish to keep everyone happy on a day where dusting down the fishing tackle was more the priority. Lunch today was the famous My Way chillie.

With Geoff having his 21st birthday (yeah right) another angler, Tony had brought a selection of cakes along to have after lunch with a cuppa.

To end the day we once again decided to try our luck on the drift, this time we were rewarded with pollack, coalfish and also some early herring. We don’t tend to see too many herring around Holyhead when on the drift and those we do see tend to be a little later – so it was certainly nice to see some coming to the boat.

We ended the day with 9 species, we had hoped to break the double figures for an early spring outing by giving Arthur the chance to land our 10th specie … sadly he never proved to be the dab hand at it!

Sunday we decided to stay within the confines of Holyhead bay and concentrate mainly on anchor work with the lads aboard My Way relatively new to sea angling. Many of them, albeit experienced coarse anglers had never been sea fishing before, let alone on a boat.
They were rewarded though in more fish than a carping year (not my words!) with dogs, whiting, huss a few dabs and some good sized codling falling to a variety of baits. One lad also managed to hook into a 3 bearded, specie 11 to get 2011 well under way.

Then there is good old chicken cam, well currently known as hand cam! Poor fella, thought it was a monster!

Let's hope the weather gods play fair this year and treat us all to some fantastic days afloat.
12/2010 Fishing Report by Gethyn Owen

Dec 2010 by Gethyn Owen

Review of 2010
With wind, snow and freezing temperatures, topped off with a NE force 10 causing havoc in Holyhead, 2010 started in epic fashion. For My Way the year started the same as every other, being lifted out of the water for some well-earned TLC. There were not that many demanding tasks undertaken, more so time consuming. The deck was ground right back to the original gel coat, so that a new anti-slip surface could be bonded on correctly and also the cabin was given a good sand down and colour change.

As ever the engine was given an overhaul and any signs of possible problems corrected, thus helping us towards another problem free year ahead.

Launching early March our fishing adventures could be best described as up and down. Many days would see a fair number of fish come aboard, and others not so many – the only consistency being the elusiveness of anything touching double figures on the scales. That said, those who fish with us very early on know what to expect – plenty of whiting, dogs, dabs and huss. Weather permitting we can move offshore and locate the good spurdog packs and early tope. Sadly though March 2010 saw the winds roll and scupper all opportunities to catch the big uns.

Fortunately April saw the change in our weather fortunes as more settled weather and high pressure spells nestled over the UK and treated us all to calmer fortunes. This time of year we tend to go on the lookout for big bull huss, spring spurdog and if lucky one or two small tope that often run with the spurdog packs. Northern marks at the edge of Holyhead Deeps were not to let us down as our first jolly early April returned numerous double figure huss and spurdog to 15lb. Sadly no tope on this day, but being a good 6weeks before our general run started, we were not to down hearted. The following day a slight change in actual mark we fished, gave us the huss, spurdog and this time the tope we had hoped for, weighing in over 20lb. During this particular trip in early April we reached a good 12 species, including pollack, coalie, ballan, cuckoo, a good start to our 2010 adventures.

This good weather continued throughout April and fortunately for the anglers aboard the fishing was equally as good with numerous big spurs, tope and huss being found on the offshore deep water marks.

May is when we start to turn our attentions to the abundance of large smoothhound that visit Holyhead for a feed on the many peeling crab in the area. Those familiar with our website and fishing aboard My Way, will know only too well how fond I am of catching these hard fighting small sharks. In shallow waters, and with bodies built for electrifying speed, smoothhound put up the best small shark fight in the UK!

Normally by the middle of May our hound fest is in full swing, however this year things were slow to get off the mark. On May 18th we had Dave Barham and Jim Midgley from the UK’s Boat Fishing Monthly magazine on board to film a new series of programs ‘Barham on Boat Fishing’ for the Web based Online Fishing TV . Typical, the smoothhound were in short supply, however we managed to scratch out a couple. You can watch the program via subscription or a pay per view on the OnlineFishing TV website.

Still struggling the following day, a change was on the cards to offer the anglers some good sport. With neap tides and settled weather upon us the next few days where going to be spent chasing big fish in Holyhead Deep. Our chosen mark was approximately 8miles SW of Holyhead's famous South Stack lighthouse in waters of 250ft deep.
Disappointment at the lack of smoothhounds was soon forgotten about as over the next few days the anglers aboard My Way hooked into countless double figure fish – huss, tope and some quality spurdogs making many a happy smile. During 2009 we had tried to get a few days filming ‘in the can’ on spurdogs for Phill Williams website – Fishing, Film and Facts, sadly weather and spurdogs conspired against us. This year though with glorious weather and a fair number of spurs around, a quick phone call saw Phill hopping aboard My Way a mere 10hrs later. Phil wasn’t disappointed and managed some great footage with spurs to 16lb, big huss and some pack tope making special appearances. You can view the film Denizens of the deeps here.

During the last week of May, the smoothies started to trickle through. I was joined in the week by Ian and Matthew Burrett, father & son team from the famous Luce Bay charters ‘On Yer Marks’. Along with Family Burrett, came skippers and small boat owners from north of the border – all in search of big welsh smoothhound. The pressure was now certainly on, I have a lot of respect for Ian, not only is he a highly respected skipper, but also a keen conservationist who works tirelessly for all anglers. Spurdogs, Skate and many other sharks and fish species all owe a little bit of gratitude to Ian and his drive and enthusiasm within angling for more information please visit the Scottish Sea Angling Conservation Network website. The fishing was patchy, yet everyone managed to land one or 2 hounds with the biggest topping the scales at a very respectable 18lb 3oz; with Ian himself landing 4 great double figure smoothhounds.

Just as the hound fishing started to pic up, we had to break away for a couple days with the return of the Anglesey Boat Angling Festival, 2010 was the 6th outing for this festival. Scheduled to return during the last weekend of May in 2011, despite being a competition the Anglesey Festival is a very friendly fun event with prizes spread throughout the field of anglers.

Following the festival we turned our attentions back to the smoothhound, this time, they were back on form for us, with many high teens and 20lb+ fish coming to My Way including the biggest of 2010 for myself at 21lb 12oz.

Wrasse and inshore pollack, a firm favourite, have also proved to be a great hit once again. Slow to appear this year, the wrasse have started to become plentiful with ballan, corkwing, cuckoo and goldsinney wrasse all making an appearance, the rock cook tho still eluding My Way in 2010. Towards the end of July, the ballan sizes started increasing and reaching the 4lb mark Drifting under the cliffs around South Stack we were also seeing some good numbers and sizes of Pollack with plenty of coalfish and codling, with the odd fish going home at around 4lb in size.

The general fishing through June July and August saw many species and fish come aboard My Way, with the ray fishing proving exceptionally good with plenty of blonde rays, the bigger few going 15lb+ , some of them caught during the Anglesey Festival, at only 3 points reward, it’s funny to see a 15lb blonde ray cursed! Plenty of small blondes, thornbacks to 12lb and 3lb spotted rays are making for some good sport at anchor along with our usual suspects of dogfish, congers, whiting, dabs, gurnards and huss along with many other species.

Offshore the double figure sport continued throughout the summer months with the spurs being caught right through to September. Fishing in the deeper water we tend to tackle up big, with hooks rarely any smaller than 5/0. With spurs, huss, conger, ray and tope than normal catch, you just never quite know what has taken your bait. Reeling in a double figure shark, often over 40lb from 200foot of water really is an accomplishment, even the fittest and strongest among us require a rest after such an exhilarating fight

During 2010, the Welsh Federation of Sea Anglers brought their Boat Team qualifiers to Holyhead; here anglers competed hard against each other for a prized position within the international team of Welsh anglers. The trials are also an excellent learning curve for anglers who have not only aspirations of making the National Team, but also those just wanting to learn more on rigs, bait preparation and tactics from a fishy fun weekend.

Having been part of the National Team for 6 years, it is a very proud moment for a true Welshman to qualify into this team and it is also testimony to the hard work and dedication they all have.

Early August and the weather once again became fairly unpredictable. One day we would have no wind, sunshine and some excellent fishing around the coast, then the following day we would be restricted to inshore marks, scratching for a variety of species and crossing fingers for a double figure something to put a bend in the rod.

An individual’s day on the 2nd was greeted by flat calm seas and the chance to run out to Holyhead Deep, for some possible tope and spur action. Here we managed to land a fair number of tope to 36lb and spurdogs to 16lb, along with numerous huss. However the NW 2 forecasted turned into a NW 4, which left a rather lumpy ride back in. On the morning of the 3rd, with slightly higher winds, I took the decision not to venture to the deeps, caught out in a NW for the previous day; we couldn’t take the risk of stronger winds that afternoon. It was a good call, the wind certainly picked up, though we we’re able to fish in the relative safety and calmer waters around Holyhead Bay. Fishing wasn’t as prolific; certainly a variety of species but the guys struggled for anything of note. I say guys, as Gina, the only lady on the trip showed them all up, quite possibly in fish count but also with the addition of 2 firsts, a spotted ray and a thornback ray!

We then ,lost a couple days to the weather, with strong winds still forecasted for the 07th, I had a chat with the crew from St Helens informing them that the deeps looked a no go, however if they we’re happy to come down early – we could get to the mussel beds and try for rays and huss. Everyone was happy with this call and our day was planned. In the morning though, the winds had eased and the forecast looked promising (another I don’t know what’s happening forecast from the Met Office). So after a brief chat to see if anyone had a rush to get home, our day was lengthened from 8hrs to 11 and a half in the end to get the LW slack in the deeps. So after a variety of species inshore including, wrasse and pollock on the drift, dogs, gurnards, whiting etc at anchor we ventured out to the deeps – where tope, spurs and big huss saw a brilliant end to a good days fishing.

There’s an old saying regarding our sport being called ‘Fishing and not Catching’. More anglers need to realise this and not expect the world every time they set sail. I’ve had the good fortune to fish with the St Helens guys for a fair few years now, this year in particular they have had 2 pretty duff trips with me with the weather scuppering our planned days afloat, then bingo, things seem to go our way.

The last tide of the early August neaps saw us set sail once again with only 2 things on our minds …. Wrasse and Deeps! Well actually 3 things, food as well. When the RAFA lads come out to play, we eat, eat, eat and also land a few decent fish as well. During this day, we we’re again joined by Phill Williams from Boat Fishing Monthly and Fishing Film and Facts fame. Before we had even set sail, I threw the sausages and bacon one of the lads had brought into the oven, these would provide breakfast for us an hr later. We started the day drifting for wrasse and pollack. Eventually making our way over to another area of rough ground that we knew held quality wrasse, with the odd pollack and codling. No one was disappointed; with single and double shots of wrasse over 3lb coming over the gunwales. After a few hrs of hectic drifting we had to move off the mark as the tide had changed and anchored up in Trearddur Bay for just over an hr, simply to while away some time before the tide had dropped sufficiently for us to anchor and fish the deeps with success. At 250foot depth and a very strong tide, a minimum of 2lb is required even during the last hr of the tide (thought we do get an hr at 8oz as well). I’d love to tell you about all the species we caught here, but we never really fished, most of the time was spent talking in the sunshine, football, jokes and anticipation of the deeps and the chilli and curry we had on the menu for later.

Well the deeps didn’t disappoint – plenty of tope and spurs, however the size had fallen. Whereas most of 2010 has seen spurs over the 10lb bracket, this time around we we’re plagued by spurdogs around the 5lb mark. That said, many on the trip caught their first ever, that’s always a big plus, with a couple lads also catching a tope for the first time, with Jay catching his first 10lb+ bull huss from a great depth of water! I won’t though go into detail of someone calling net for a ray that turned out to be a plastic bag!

The food, well, Martin’s chilli was awesome, Jon’s curry was fiery and Trish’s fairy cakes where out of this world. Fishing is good fun, but made all the more enjoyable with some great food as well.

September started off on a high, with very settled high pressure and sunshine bearing down on us for the first few days. Drifting offered plenty of ballan and cuckoo wrasse, with weights up to 5lb and 1lb 8oz respectively. I even managed to snare myself a decent wrasse during 1 trip out and break a long standing 4lb pb with a fish of 4lb 10oz.

The first week of September saw us fishing with the Armed Forces. Teams of 9 anglers from the Army, Navy and RAF fished a hard battle against one another in the prestigious Inter Services Boat Angling Championships; you can read the report here.

Inshore and the fishing was fairly hectic once again with a good variety of fish coming aboard My Way. Along with some good spotted rays, we had a few thornies and blondes. The blonde Ray on the right was a good size, however only tipped the scales at 15lb!

Other species included the world famous Welsh Tiger Shark, yep honest, it was reported so in the papers a few years ago - we normally call them dogfish though, plenty of red & grey gurnards around along with a few nice tubs. The Tub Gurnard is not a fish we catch in abundance, but 2010 has seen a fair few around the 2lb mark.

Further catches inshore included pollack, huss, whiting, codling, smoothies, dabs, plaice, strap congers and a few others.

We managed a few trips into Holyhead Deep, however after 5 excellent months gone by with huss, tope and spurs in abundance, the trips of September returned very few hard fighting sharks. Plenty of huss, however only a handful of tope and a few small spurs were really all that put bends in the rods.

October and November have been hard months from Holyhead. I guess given the fairly settled weather through the year (wind wise that is), our time of good fortune had to come to an end.

That said, in between the winds, that on occasions reached a Storm Force 10 in Holyhead we have popped out of the harbour and been rewarded with some fairly decent days afloat. Owing to lumpy seas and undesirable forecasts we have though been limited on the majority of occasions to fishing within Holyhead Bay. However, with some good churned up seas the fishing has been reliable on all occasions with typical autumn and winter species coming to the boat in great numbers. The Species count on most trips has included the good old dogfish and its larger cousin the bull huss, but also a fair number of codling, coalfish and pollack all averaging in the 3lb bracket. These highly desirable fish have been topped up with an abundance of good size whiting, many of which have exceeded the 1 1/2 lb mark. OK not monsters of the English Channel, but for our shore, certainly a very good size and important for some - take-able ... with a few chips, happy times!

It has been another good year aboard My Way; the fishing has been fantastic. It’s also been good and it’s also been dreadfully poor, that said I’m sure you have always seen My Way try hard to put you amongst the fish you desire. The last count showed that anglers aboard My Way have boated 47 different species of fish throughout the year, ranging from small gobies to big tope, here’s hoping to break the 50 in 2011. The My Way species list for 2010 totals 47: -
Main fish list - black bream, bull huss, codling, coalfish, dogfish, dab, conger, flounder, grey gurnard, red gurnard, tub gurnard, haddock, herring, ling, thick lipped mullet, mackerel, plaice, pollack, pouting, blonde ray, thornback ray, spotted ray, 3 bearded rockling, greater sandeel, scad, ss sea scorpion, common smoothhound, starry smoothhound, spurdog, tadpole fish, turbot, tope, ballan wrasse, cuckoo wrasse, whiting

Mini Specie - tompot blenny, dragonet, black goby, rock goby, leopard spotted goby, shore rockling, ls sea scorpion, corkwing wrasse, goldsinny wrasse, rock cook wrasse, lesser weaver

Thank you to everyone who has supported us through 2010.

Hope you have a fish filled year ahead and we look forward to seeing you in 2011.
12/12/2010 Fishing Report by Gethyn Owen

12 Dec 2010 by Gethyn Owen

Sunday 12th December saw the last of our autumn / winter fun competitions for 2010.

Thankfully we had a nice break in the recent weather with a light easterly breeze and sunshine the order of the day. Aboard My Way for the match were My Way regulars Pete Minns, Tojo, Tony Dooney and welsh International Chris Hamblin, who vowed to avenge his second place result from the previous match in November. Making up the Motley Crue we had 3 lads new to My Way, Graham, Steve and Andy who have hopefully asked Santa for a Sat Nav and Alarm clock each for that special day. Young Harry, My Ways reliable crew man joined the lads for a festive fish.

The plan was to stick inshore all day and scratch out as many bits and pieces from the murky and cold sea within Holyhead Bay. Our first stop was the mud banks around 1mile outside Holyhead Breakwater. With the flood tide just starting, our aim was to hook into a few dabs and whiting before the dogfish chomped on the baits. Sadly though I had forgotten to inform the fish of our visit that morning, with only the odd whiting being caught, Chris bucked the trend with a nice plaice falling to his black lug and squid cocktail. The fishing however remained very slow and everyone struggled to catch a number of fish, despite an excellent armoury of rigs and baits.

With the winter rigs not showing signs of success, Steve attempted to turn up the heat on his fishing by swotting up with the Boat Fishing Monthly ‘summer rigs’ booklet.
After a slow hour we made a move up to Church Bay. Again the fishing was slow, but a little more variety started to come aboard with the anglers adding more whiting along with dabs, dogfish, poor cod and a few dragonets to their tally.

At noon a move to the Mussel beds was on the cards to take in the slack water period. With only a 25ft tide, we hoped to have a good few hours on the mark with plenty of fish.

This moved proved to be the making of the competition as the lads started to pull in single, double and treble shots of fish, with whiting, dabs and dogfish making up the vast majority of the catches. Harry fishing the stern was happily pulling in the odd double shot to shouts of ‘watch it’ from Pete.

Not content with the Fun Match element of the day and naturally cash winnings at the end, there was also another side bet running between these 2!

From the first 2 marks, Pete, Chris and Harry were all within a couple points of each other, so now the ability to pull a few fish in a drop was going a long way to separate the group.
Struggling on the first couple marks, Tojo and Tony, pegged next to each other as well, started to find their fish. A few double and triple shots of whiting between them soon lifted them to within snatching distance of the lead. Sadly Graham was not having the best of days, with just the odd single fish falling to his rigs, much to the amusement of Andy who plodded on with a wheelhouse draw, focused only on beating his 2 travelling companions. By this time though, Steve had realised ‘summer rigs’ were not the way forward and concentrated on basic 3 down rigs that did then help him increase his catch rate.

A break for lunch was on the cards during our time at this mark, but with fish finally feeding well, everyone tucked into a bowl (or 2) of our warming chillie as they carried on catching.

Our final move was back to the mud for the last hour and hopefully a few more fish on the ebb than was caught during the early flood tide at the start for the day. As we checked the scores it was Pete and Chris who were vying for the top 2 slots, with commendable leads over the other anglers. 3rd place though was proving a little more interesting as Harry, Tojo and Tony where all within a fish of each other; dogs, whiting and some fat dabs again the order of the day.

As the sun set behind Holyhead it was soon time to lift anchor and head for home. After calculating the scores it was Pete that had taken top slot from Chris. 3rd place fell to local angler Tony from Holyhead, not bad considering he also found time for far too many bowls of chillie J
11/2010 Fishing Report by Gethyn Owen

Nov 2010 by Gethyn Owen

October and November have been hard months from Holyhead. I guess given the fairly settled weather through the year (wind wise that is), our time of good fortune had to come to an end.
That said, in between the winds, that on occasions reached a Storm Force 10 in Holyhead we have popped out of the hrabour and been rewarded with some fairly decent days afloat.

Owing to lumpy seas and undesirable forecasts we have though been limited on the majority of occasions to fishing within Holyhead Bay.

However, with some good churned up seas the fishing has been reliable on all occasions with typical autumn and winter species coming to the boat in great numbers.

The Species count on most trips has included the good old dogfish and it's larger cousin the bull huss, but also a fair number of codling, coalfish and pollack all averaging in the 3lb bracket.

These highly desirable fish have been topped up with an abundance of good size whiting, many of which have exceeded the 1 1/2 lb mark. OK not monsters of the English Channel, but for our shore, certainly a very good size and important for some - take-able ... with a few chips, happy times!

The ray fishing has been extremely well of late. Normally we tend to fish for thornbacks, spotted and blonde rays in and amongst other general trips throughout the year, our only targeted ray fishing is early season, however this is often scuppered by March and April weather.

October and November has seen many rays come to the boat, with an average size of around 6lb.

With one day being lost to the weather in September we have managed to get afloat for the last 2 of our autumn / winter fun matches.
These matches just throw a little bit of added excitement to a days fishing. Where anglers of all abilities fish for the expected fun, but also try that little bit harder to beat the angler alongside them on the boat. Fishing was hectic during both matches with a good quantity and variety of species being caught, and as the reports prove - it's not only the experienced anglers than reap the rewards.
07/11/2010 Fishing Report by Gethyn Owen

7 Nov 2010 by Gethyn Owen

Autmn / Winter Fun Match number 2.
After a week of gale force winds, the weather gods once again looked down kindly upon us for this weekend. Residual swell on the Saturday gradually abated and left for a glorious day on the Sunday.
9 hearty souls arrived at the marina early Sunday morning to be greeted with calm seas, sunshine … and a cup of tea and chocolate bourbons.
After a brief review of the plans for the day, including an update on the weather that forecasted a southerly gale 8 by early evening we set sail for the mussel beds, were we would fish the last of the flood through to the first of the 31ft ebbing tide.

Fish were soon coming aboard, nothing too special to start; mainly dogfish, with the odd whiting and poor cod. As the tide turned a few huss came to the gunwales, with Wayne netting a nice 8lb bully, only to be out done by his farther with a double figure fish. Early indications showed it would be a tight match with Chris Gee, Chris Hamblin and Gareth P all contending the top slot.

Poor Tony though could only struggle on with a solitary dogfish whilst he looked for his friend Huey. On the stern Gaz joined in, he though had a friend called Ralph, though I did hear him call for Huey a couple times as well. B&B the night before is ace, too much beer, not so ace!!

As we lifted anchor to move into Church Bay and out of the fast running tide of the mussel beds, a quick tally showed that Chris Hamblin was putting his international experiences with Wales into effect and was edging Gareth out of the first place. Moving into Church bay and a quick look around and Leon was then getting to see what his breakfast looked like, I promise you, it wasn’t choppy at all, lol. In fairness though, it never stopped him fishing.

Once anchored up in the bay again the dogfish came into play, along with a few whiting, plenty of poor cod and some small huss. Despite his 3point huss, Wayne a novice angler dragged along for the day by his father was struggling to make an impact on the leader board, so a little coaching was on the cards. A little bit of advice on baiting up and also waiting for each bite to develop correctly was discussed to try and get Wayne catching double and treble shots of fish instead of the odd one as time went by. Wait… wait… let some line out, wait … put that bloody rod down …wait, ok reel in!! Well, something worked out right as Wayne then proceeded to reel in a double shot of dogfish and small ling. A brace a piece in his next two drops soon had the angler chomping at the bit for some more. Double patting, the method of preparing a second rig whilst one rig fished was then employed and Wayne’s catch rate soared.

With sausage butties for lunch, and more fish coming aboard it was soon time for our next move. As we lifted anchor at Church bay for our third move we could feel the wind freshening. A tally up here and now Gareth P was leading Chris Hamblin by a few points with Tony having found his sea legs and form rocketing into 3rd place.

Our first 30minutes on our final mark proved difficult as the increased wind swayed the boat around the anchor warp. Never the less the lads struggled on, adding more dogfish, a fair few whiting, dabs, poor cod and a couple pouting to score sheet. Conditions though were slowly deteriorating as the wind increased to 25mph.
Everyone struggled on, catching fish with Wayne continuing to bring in double after double.
At half four it was time to up anchor and get in before the wind blew too hard. Before we set sail I added up the score sheet and Wayne, the novice angler using My Way rod, reel, end tackle …. and know how – won the day by 1 point from Chris.

It was a great day afloat with a good bunch of lads made all the more sweeter with Liverpool spanking Chelsea !