Latest Fishing Reports: Wales

  • 06/2012 Fishing Report by Gethyn Owen on My Way 2 (Holyhead, Isle of Anglesey)

    Jun 2012 by Gethyn Owen

    Report on-board My Way 2

    This report is by Lloyd Rush and can be found at www.shoreangler.co.uk

    Holyhead, Anglesey
    It’s been a while since I fancied going up to Anglesey to sample some of the best Smooth Hound fishing the UK has to offer. Whilst I live close to the Bristol Channel and just under 2 hours to the clear waters of the Dorset / Hampshire coastlines, which could also lay claim to such a title, it was the first hand reports from my fishing buddy of 20+ years (Rob Field) that put this venture at the top of our 2012 ‘to do’ list.

    Boat wise, there’s one that should be at the front of any serious ‘Smut Hunters’ little black book, and that’s My Way out of Holyhead skippered by Gethyn Owen. Last year Gethyn boated 7 fish in excess of 20lb and hundreds in the 15-20lb class, for most of us a fish of a life time, but for Gethyn just part of the annual Smooth Hound Season.

    Anglesey
    Anglesey, particularly Holyhead, doesn’t have the diverse array of fishing that I’m used to fishing out of Weymouth. What it does have is an abundance of those species that our there. Excluding the Dog Fish, you can expect to catch most Rays, Pollock, Codling, Whiting, Wrasse, Huss and ‘Husslets’, the odd Gurnard, oh and not forgetting the Smooth Hounds. Further offshore you can expect to add Spur Dog, yes Big Spur Dog and plenty of them, a recent trip was rewarded with some 40 fish into the high ‘Teens’. The deeps add big Huss, Conger, Tope and Ling to the growing list.


    Rob made the 370 mile slog from London via Bath to pick me up with his Caravan, 2 bags of Jelly Babies and the same of Licorice Allsorts. He also came supplied with a couple of cans of Monster Juice and a catalogue of bad jokes. Given the news that Rob and I were traveling to North Wales, most of the UK stayed off the roads and we made good time over the Menai Bridge and onto Anglesey, a first for me.

    News was the strong tides would keep us inshore for the 3 days we had, ruling out any Tope and a trip to the much fancied deeps. On a plus side a few hounds had been showing, and although not big fish the boat was seeing plenty to 12lb in previous days.


    Doing it My Way, or Gethyn's way . . .
    Having traveled the best part of a day and looked forward to Smooth Hound Heaven for much longer, I wasn’t best motivated about drifting the North Stack in 20-30ft water for Wrasse and juvenile Pollock. However, as I explained earlier the Holyhead fleet has to make best of a full tide and My Way has a routine that will excite even the most negative of species hunters - if it’s fish for the table you want then go to Sainsburys, it’s cheaper.

    Our first drift produced small Ballan Wrasse and juvenile Pollock in slightly coloured waters (given the bashing the coast line had take in the previous week the colour wasn’t too bad) Our second drift introduced us to ‘Colin’ an overgrown fish munching Seal. An attempt to feed him off with endless supplies of Mackerel failed as Colin continued to munch his was through anything we hooked. I did take a very decent fish only for Colin to convert it into ‘Brunch’ after a few interesting moments on my Conoflex QT Jedi Kayak rod (a great rod not just for little yellow plastic tubs, but a brilliant Bass and Wrasse rod, only wish it was a foot longer)


    A Quick Streak from Rob
    We moved grounds in an attempted to evade Colin the Seal and put a few different fish species on the boat. I took a Dab, Codling and endless Dog Fish to nudge ahead in a species bet with Rob. His repost was to equal my Dab, much to his and most the of the boats amusement, later he took what looked like a small Red Gurnard but a closer inspection raised a few questions and the fish was duly photographed. We’ve had it confirmed as a Streaked Gurnard, a first on My Way and indeed the first I’ve seen. I’ll certainly look at any small reds much closer in the future! Well done Rob. Incidentally, Rob went on to beat me 13/12 in that competition and I was delighted to be beaten by such a fish.

    Onto the Smooth Hound
    Shortly after we move onto grounds known to hold bigger more solitary Smooth-Hound, the downside was there are much fewer fish, a risk we all agreed worth a go.

    Rig wise the fishing couldn’t be more simple. A running ledger with 6ft of 30-40lb fluorocarbon to a Size 3/0 or 4/0 Sukuma Manta. Some other anglers, including Gethyn have recently moved to Tronix Big Fish in 2/0s, a heavy gauged hook that is less prone to the hook point going blunt or turning in having been pushed through the shell of the Peeler Crab. I’ll certainly consider using them in the future for Tope and Huss, I just don’t catch big Hounds and I use plenty of Mantas for my general fishing.

    Bait, simple. Peeler Crab but not cut up and entombed or mummified in ribbons of elastic, but simple hooked from underside into the middle of the shell and if you wish lightly bound onto the hook. Although the elastic was not mandatory it was the preferred presentation of the skipper, I personally chopped and changed depending on how ‘popped’ the peeler was e.g. if the shell was ‘hanging off’ then elastic it was.

    Rod & Reel. I opted for a light approach to get the most fun I could out of the fishing. My Tubertini F1 Atlantic was fitted with a Tubertini AP Power 8000 fixed spool reel. The reel has an unbelievably smooth drag, which is good as it has no back wind! Once you’ve used the drag once you don’t ever worry about the fishing running too hard. The ‘in fight’ adjustment is precise and for a front drag I honestly haven’t used a better reel.

    Rob opted for a Tubertini Tatanka Hyper and the same AP Power 8000 reel as myself. Rob’s doing a review of the Tatanka at the moment and I’ll not steal his thunder other than to say it’s one of the best rods produced for general UK fishing by the Italian ‘tackle tart’s’ for many moons!

    Bites started slow, but before long we had a small near double on the boat. I think it was Ann on the middle of the stern that took the first fish (female pheromones work again!) Ann knows her way around a rod and reel and out fished most of us most of the time, Ann preferred to dig out the ‘Fighters’ in the box of peelers which would give here a bait with extra movement. It seemed to work as I think she had the 3rd fish too!

    I took the 4th fish (or as I remember) and soon mighty glad of the silky smooth drag as the fish hung low in the water and continued to dive just as I was making good ground and the bright sunlight became too much. It wasn’t too long before Gethyn promised Rob he’d knock it off and approached me with the net and a smile that made me nervous [see utube video] Moments later the fish was in my arms and being snapped by the netsman, who’s also a decent photographer. Although blessed as a brilliant skipper, angler, photographer the good Lord had sense to give him a shinny head and a funny accent, so don’t be too jealous.


    The following 2 days we ventured onto different grounds in search of more consistent smooth hound sport, although I wasn’t complaining about day 1 with new PB and about 8-10 fish on the boat. Each of the remaining days we started with an inshore drift for ‘species’ and then onto the mussel beds which are a short steam into Holyhead Bay almost due North West out of the Breakwater, whilst they offered a bite a chuck for Whiting we’d hoped for the bigger Huss and Rays.

    On count back the mussel beds turned up better Huss, a nice blonde for Billy and a Spotted Ray for a couple of local lads on their first ever boat trip, Gethyn has since told me they’ve booked on again, a good judge of the fun had. Also on this mark Billy took a very decent Thornback Ray having taken a bit of stick for being slow of the mark on day 3. We event took a 8lb+ Huss that threw up 2 whole Whiting giving value to the tactics adopted.

    The last part of the day was all about the hounds as the tide turned and we moved inshore a little to the green Buoy that marks a drop into the deeper water we’d previously fished earlier in the day. A popular area for Hounds in good numbers if not the the big near 20lb fish. That said the best fish around 16lb went to the skipper on day 3 as he made one of his many brews for the anglers.


    Rob didn't quite managed to beat my 14lb 1oz, although this 13lb+ fish came close, his PB remains 4lb+ bigger than mine. I must try harder.

    I went on to nudge my PB to 14lb 1oz and lost count of the LSDs that would take our crab baits. I even took a greedy LSD on a whole whiting bait put down for Huss! Gethyn, Rob and fellow angler Billy kept me in stitches with a range of fun activities such as ‘knock my best smooth hound off with a landing net’ as played by Billy and ‘Stealth Bumming’ apparently something popular in North Wales when the sheep are too far up Snowdonia. Many people get the Holyhead ferry to Dublin that sits due West just for the ‘Crack’ but I reckon they’re waisting the money on the ferry crossing. The real crack is on My way.

    On trips like these the fishing sometimes takes back seat to the new friends we make. Gethyn, Billy and Ann all fell into that bracket this week and I hope to fish will all 3 again in the future. Gethyn as skipper of My Way provides a brilliant service, including all bait and lunch. I’ll be doing a review of My Way and pop a link here. Best value for money charter I’ve even taken.

    Billy the Vampire Slayer.
    Billy spins a yarn like no other, often getting his words confused and often key words to within the story, which in themselves are priceless moments between bites on the boat. Billy was telling us how he’d wandered though is local allotment after a long night in his local boozer. He recalls loosing a moccasin and waking to some discomfort in his leg.

    A trip to 2 hospitals (first one too busy) resulted in the doctor informing Billy he’d been - in his own words ‘Bitten by a Vampire’ - I think Billy meant reptile (Adder) but in Billy style put the wrong word to the right story. Laugh, I think we could be heard roaring with laughter back on shore. Billy went on to reveal he found the shoe almost a year to the day in the allotment and it was as good as the day he lost it, which was a good thing as he’d not thrown away the other one! He claims the ‘Vampire’ had kept it for a while before returning it to it’s rightful owner.

    Priceless.

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  • 20/06/2012 Fishing Report by Aaron Smith on Bad Boyz VI (Holyhead, Isle of Anglesey)

    20 Jun 2012 by Aaron Smith

    Report on-board Bad Boyz VI

    The wrecks are fishing very well at the moment with plenty of fish between 4-8lb and a few from 8-14lb making an apperence on most trips.

    Pictured is a group of lads I had on from the Wirral for a generel days fishing which we managed a few hours on a wreck due to the weather being kind, And with a good haul of 50-60 fish in a couple of hours its was smiles all around.

    Only midweek dates left for the wrecks now so get booking to avoid dissapointment.

    Winter Conger trips will be starting from late October with a few dates still available

    http://www.facebook.com/BadBoyzCharters

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  • 06/2012 Fishing Report by Steve Andrews on Supreme (Rhyl, Denbighshire)

    Jun 2012 by Steve Andrews

    Report on-board Supreme

    What a week we have had good weather bad weather, two species comps with over 2000 fish and 19 different species being recorded in one of them between 3 boats.

    Other trips have included plenty of good double figure huss , thornback rays over a dozen caught this week I think they are making a come back, gurnard ,dabs ,whiting , not too many dogs plus plenty of small mackerel .Plenty of tope as well

    Yesterdays trip had a small group of friends from the north west boarded the Supreme at 11am a short 7 minute steam had us anchored over the Smoothound and bass mark .

    90 minutes later we were on the move having landed 28 Smoothound .The quarry this time was to be the hard fighting tope but unfortunately nobody told the tope after 3 moves non had been caught so the decision was made to move onto another mark for smoothies and bass .

    Paul tired arse Baker was first in with a couple of small bass then the double figure smoothies came on to nail the baits with some nice fish coming to the boat.

    Fantastic weather , great crew plenty of craic and excellent inshore fishing.



    NO OTHER SKIPPERS INFO WAS USED IN WRITING THIS REPORT,

    NO GIMMICKS, NO BULL JUST RESULTS.

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  • 15/06/2012 Fishing Report by Carl Davies on Gwen-Paul-M (Conwy, Conwy)

    15 Jun 2012 by Carl Davies

    Report on-board Gwen-Paul-M

    We are seeing consistently good fishing on the offshore wrecks for pollack and sometimes cod. Pollack are running in the range of 3lb-9lb and cod 2lb-6lb. Odd coalfish are also being taken.

    The spring algal bloom has died off, so the water has cleared and mackerel are now widespread in numbers. We are even seeing launce mixed in with them for those using shrimp rigs which provide a deadly livebait for the pollack.

    Pollack have been falling to variety of colours, however on Wednesday, rhubarb and custard 4-6 inch sidewinders took the lion's share of the fish. Ground fishing is producing plenty of bull huss with the odd thornback and tope mixed in.

    Grahame made a great dish onboard the other day...a twist on sushi! He mixed chunks of skinned raw cod with coriander, mild chillies, and red onion, with lime juice to part cook the fish. May sound a little odd but it tasted great.

    Weather is still proving challenging at times however calm spells inbetween the storms give us chance to venture out.

    I have room on various trips which are all listed however if you have another date in mind, please feel free to give me a call or drop an email.

    Regards,

    Carl.

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  • 13/06/2012 Fishing Report by Steve Andrews on Supreme (Rhyl, Denbighshire)

    13 Jun 2012 by Steve Andrews

    Report on-board Supreme

    The day started with a 10 hr general fishing trip which produced a couple of Thornback Rays, Huss to 13lb ,plenty of mackerel and all the other suspects.
    We then had a couple of hours on one of the wrecks that litter Liverpool Bay this produced Ling,Pout,Cod,Huss ,and again plenty of Mackeral.

    I then had a evening Smoothie and Bass trip well what a trip this turned out to be with over 40 Bass falling to the guys and girls onboard most were returned and a few kept for the table .the smoothies put in an appearance as well plus some mackerel rounding off a great trip.

    tight lines steve

    No other skippers info was used in writing this report


    NO GIMMICKS, NO BULL JUST RESULTS

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  • 06/2012 Fishing Report by Gethyn Owen on My Way 2 (Holyhead, Isle of Anglesey)

    Jun 2012 by Gethyn Owen

    Report on-board My Way 2

    Following the success of our Smoothhound challenge competition in 2011, this year’s event was extended to 2 days and run over the bank holidays of the Queens Jubilee celebrations. The aim of the Smoothhound Challenge is to simply catch the heaviest hound of the trip.
    The main prize each day was a Fladen IM8 sensor tip rod, perfectly matched with a Fladen Maximus 444 sized multiplier reel. These prizes, along with baseball caps were kindly donated to us by Fladen UK.

    2nd and 3rd places each day were to receive baseballs caps and a selection of fishing rigs from both Fladen and GO Angling.

    With the event being well received last year, the 2 bank holidays were booked fairly quickly, so we decided to also lay on an evening trip for the hounds, with the heaviest caught being eligible to win the ‘overall’ prize of 2 Gift Vouchers for a fully inclusive day aboard My Way.

    Day one and we set sail in calm seas and bright sunshine, not the best of weather when hunting out the hard fighting small sharks. It was a good few hours before we struck into the first of the day. Kev had never landed a smoothhound before, so a 10lb 7oz specimen was a brilliant start to the challenge and a specie for Kev to tick off his list.

    Colin was the second to call for the net, this shark looked to be a lot bigger than Kevs as it swam deep in the water and refused to come to the surface. After a powerful struggle, Colin’s hound was netted, with the weight coming out at 16lb 9oz.

    A further 3 smoothhounds came to the boat, with only Dave coming the closest with a great double figure hound of 16lb. This was made all the better for Dave as his pb hound currently stood at around 8oz, having landed a tiny starry whilst beach fishing on the each coast.

    That evening we set sail for 4 hours with a mixed bag of both experienced regulars and anglers out for the first time afloat. It wasn’t long before Tom hit into his first hound, followed closely by his mate Dave, both recording hounds of 12lb 8oz. Paul Coulthurst was next with a hound just sneaking into double figures.

    After which Robin, on his first fishing experience persevering with smoothhounds as his girlfriend Danielle reeled in dogfish and small codling, struck into the biggest of the night with a hound of 14lb.

    It looked to be in the bag for the evening for Robin and as I called lines up & started My Ways engine, Gareth P called fish on and proceeded to play and eventually land the biggest hound of the evening and a new pb at 16lb.


    Day 2 and we were greeted with a damp and miserable day; light rain was going to be with us for the majority of the day. Still, with what we considered to be better conditions than the previous day, we set sail with great anticipation. In all we managed to land 12 smoothhounds during the7 hrs we were fishing, however from the crew of 8 the day was real owned by Dan and Paul who between them landed 8 of the fish, taking 4 apiece.

    3rd place went to Gareth P, who couldn’t better his 16lb smoothie from the previous evening with a hound of 9lb. In second place was smoothhound expert Paul, again fishing the Tuesday following a try the previous evening. A hound of 12lb 8oz saw Paul walk away with a baseball cap and selection of rigs from Fladen and My Way.

    The actual 2nd place fell to Dan, however he bettered his hound of 16lb 11oz with a cracking specimen that topped the scales at 18lb 130z, winning Dan the 2nd IM8 Super Sensor Rod, 444 Maximus reel and with the heaviest fish of the challenge 2 fully inclusive Gift Vouchers for a days fishing aboard My Way.


    Not electrifying fishing this time around, but given the changeable weather conditions we were all happy to get afloat and catch a few hounds over the 2 days.

    The My Way smoothhound challenge will return once again next year during the Spring bank holiday and the following Tuesday, book now to avoid disappointment.

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  • 06/2012 Fishing Report by Gwyn Andrews on Goldilocks (Rhyl, Denbighshire)

    Jun 2012 by Gwyn Andrews

    Report on-board Goldilocks

    Things have taken off lately with the the arrival of the tope.We have been landing them every day,the best weighing 42 lb.Still plenty of midweek trips avaliable so book now while the tope are here.

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  • 10/06/2012 Fishing Report by Aaron Smith on Bad Boyz VI (Holyhead, Isle of Anglesey)

    10 Jun 2012 by Aaron Smith

    Report on-board Bad Boyz VI

    Sunday 10th June,

    A day with Bold Sea Angling Club

    Well the weather died off and alowing us to visit a few wrecks around the 20-30mile mark off Holyhead, we set sail at 7:30 with the kettle on ready for a brew once we were underway.
    First stop off for the day on a wreck around 12 miles just to breck up the traveling time which after 4 drifts produced around 8 Pollack to 6lb.
    A further hour steam out we arrived at our venue for the day and working closely with a vessel from Caernarfon to find the fish around the different wrecks of St.Goerges Channel.
    Calling lines down on the first drift and almost instantely people calling for the net with fish around the 4-7lb mark which was another perfect start on a wrecking trip.
    This kept up until the tide slackend and as always on slack water the smaller fish around the 2-3lb came out to play one after another with the odd coalie and we had this until the tide turned and the flow increased which saw the smaller fish disipate and the larger Pollack from 3-7lb start to feed with the odd codling, once the tide got too strong we headed to a wreck a bit closer in to finish the day which on the first 4 drifts saw a fish to the same person each drift lucky man with the right colour jelly! but it soon came to the last drift of the day which 4 out of 6 hit fish around the 5lb mark to finish.

    So a good 2 hour steam home with my crew man watching the wheel whilst i filleted all the fish and the lads tucked in to a nice big pan of hot pot.

    The Cod should be making more of an apperence on the wrecks soon and the larger Pollack to follow, Back out there a few times this next week so it should be intresting to see if a few Cod make an apperence.

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  • 10/06/2012 Fishing Report by Steve Andrews on Supreme (Rhyl, Denbighshire)

    10 Jun 2012 by Steve Andrews

    Report on-board Supreme

    Out today Sunday 10th after another few days of wind, and what a day it turned out to be plenty of Mackerel ,dabs ,whiting,coddling tub and red gurnard ,dogs ,plenty of good size Huss and a first for Richard out on his first ever boat trip he caught a Spurdog which is the first for over 25 years could they be making a come back?.

    We also had a couple of Tope to finish the day off .

    tight lines

    Steve

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  • 05/2012 Fishing Report by Gethyn Owen on My Way 2 (Holyhead, Isle of Anglesey)

    May 2012 by Gethyn Owen

    Report on-board My Way 2

    Our last report detailed the great smoothhound fishing we have been experiencing in recent weeks. Many anglers have been fortunate to catch some quality double figure hounds, with the vast majority also smashing personal bests.

    All said though, the smoothhound fishing has also been patchy and hard work when compared to the reliability of recent years. Where one day we can go out and bag a dozen large double figures it will be followed by a day with just 1 or 2. An example of this was a couple weeks ago, when amongst the crew of 7, we had 4 anglers visiting from Newcastle Upon Tyne. Having found Roy, this month’s Boat Fishing Monthly cover boy a first ever tope in 2011, the task this year was for a smoothhound.

    The hounds though had other ideas, leaving the baits for a constant stream of dogs and small codling to devour. Through the day despite trying a couple of our more consistent marks for the hounds, the return was a paltry 2. That said Dave had a cracking time fighting his double figure specimen and Roy managed to bag himself a 6lb starry hound, small but a target species ticked off the list.

    With the tides dropping for the following day, we decided that a trip off to Holyhead Deep was called for and then try for the hounds later in the afternoon. Our day started drifting for small wrasse, pollack, codling and coalie for an hour. As the tide dropped we made our way off to a mark offshore, which would see us anchored in around 180ft of water, with the drop off laying the baits around 220ft.
    Roy was first into a fish, a nice spurdog just short of double figures; we won’t mention how the skipper knocked it off with the net though. For the next 3 hours, all 7 anglers were treated to a big fish bonanza and from 200ft of water, they certainly felt it afterwards. Every 5 minutes there was call of net as double figure spurdogs were accompanied by double figure huss! Everyone aboard was playing a fish with =in minutes of their leads hitting the sea bed. With only the odd photo shot, the majority of fish were released quickly back into the sea, from chatting after the hectic 2.5hrs fishing, we’d estimated over 50 double figure spurs or huss between the 7 lads, along with the slightly smaller sharks and also dogfish. Sadly the tope failed to turn up to this particular party, but just means we’ll have to try again!

    Returning to the deeps the following day I was joined by a group of good friends, Boat Fishing Monthly duo Dave Barham and Jim Midgley, Anglers Net Supremo Elton Murphy and the MD of World Sea Fishing Mike Thrussell jnr. Our plans were to have a ball in the deeps with the double figure spurs and huss, maybe even snaring a tope for our efforts. Everyone caught well from a variety of species, however despite, the mass of angling super talent aboard that day, the honours were well earned by My Way crewman Harry, who had bought a £7 kiddies play rod from a shop in town; coupled with a small Abu 6000, Harry was determined to land big and have fun whilst doing it!
    Drifting a couple wrecks on our way out to our chosen mark, Harry caught consistently on most passes, with pollack averaging 3 to 5 lb, this little fishing rod bent double as the pollack hit hard and made the occasional dive for freedom!
    In over 200 foot of water, the fun really started , a spurdog was the target species for Harry, despite having been fishing these waters for many years, the spurs always eluded his hook, congers, huss or dogfish usually getting to the bait first. It wasn’t soon after dropping anchor that his rod was bouncing with a nice take from the depths. During the fight, Harry often had to hold the 4foot, 2 ring masterpieces straight down to allow the fish to take line without the risk of snapping! Eventually after a gruelling 20 minute battle, a …. Conger broke the surface! Were as we laughed at this initial capture given the spurdog fishing of recent days, we then realised that a good 20lb conger had just been hauled from the deep water on what could be best described as a twig! Excellent fishing, I am though pleased to report that Harry got his spurdog, again on the small rod it was a fantastic double figure specimen.
    The following day we set out with the Boat Fishing Monthly smoothhound trip competition winners. How did they fair? You can read on these exploits in a forthcoming issue of the magazine.
    In shore the general fishing is fairly reliable for the time of year with mixed bags including dogfish, whiting, codling, small rays, huss and gurnards and many other species keeping the anglers busy whilst at anchor. On the drift the wrasse quantities are picking up with every passing day. Mackerel are about but proving patchy when wanting to quickly bag enough up for fresh bait.
    Hopefully more settled weather will follow on from the gales that are currently blasting along our coastline.

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