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  • 18/05/2019 Fishing Report by Jonathan Law on Privateer (Rhyl, Denbighshire)

    18 May 2019 by Jonathan Law

    Report on-board Privateer

    First trips out this spring at last, with previous trips booked being very unlucky with the weather.

    Big tides this weekend gone, but easily fishable on both days I don't think any one had to use a lead over 8oz which is very pleasant. We were slightly unlucky in that there was a bit of an algae bloom showing which cut down water visibility quite drastically and although not targeted on either trip, I had hoped we would pick up some of the Mackerel and Herring that are around by accident on the baited rigs but it didn't happen. Some of the other Rhyl boats that did try feather rigs caught a number of Mackerel but fair to say the last two days, numbers were down due to the water clarity.

    To the trips. First on Saturday was the 2nd of the Rhyl species match series ... the 1st was cancelled for weather so this was the first opportunity of the year for most of the lads to get into their match fishing groove. The first hour was slow for species but plenty of Whiting, Dabs and Dogfish plus a couple of Gurnards kept the scorer busy but it wasn't the fishing we were after so a quick move onto some more broken ground livened things up a bit and the species tally started to rise with quite a few Codling and Huss showing. The Huss varied in size from the small up to double figures, with a couple estimated around 13lb, on match gear a good scrap. The scores were close around the boat with one angler getting a few high scoring Codling, whilst directly opposite him on the boat, another angler maxing out on his whiting. The rules in these matches are only the first 10 of a species count towards your score .... lots of banter around the boat as said angler no matter what he tried, just could not avoid more and more pesky Whitings ... infuriated him but kept humour levels up around the rest of the crew ��

    As the tide eased it was time to try a bit of drifting. A little bit early for my drift marks but we gave it a try. Whilst it was not frenetic a few Ballan wrasse, Poor Cod, Codling, Pouting and Goldsinny were caught and nice to see that some of the Ballans were a good size and as one angler needed a photo with his card, for his yearly species hunt I grabbed a moment to give it a weigh .... 3lb 6oz which a nice fish up here but in future I must weigh a few more because last year we had plenty of larger ones ��
    With the large tides, the short window of opportunity was soon over, it was time to steam to our last mark with the main target being Smooth hound.

    The last couple of hours were used by the anglers to max out on their Dogfish and Dabs and shared amongst the anglers 15, 8 point Smoothies and a nice Thornback Ray. As the light faded we made our way back to the pontoon and to tot up the scores.

    Between the 7 anglers overall 13 species were taken with most of the competitors having 9. The scores were very close which keeps the league nicely competitive but coming out on top was John Traynor with 9 species and 265 points in 6 hours actual fishing. The lads all enjoyed the fun but I'm expecting the points and species to rise quite a lot for the next one as the summer species arrive in numbers and the water clears a little ����

    Sunday due the tide size and times was a 5 hour introduction trip for a family group of new anglers, most of whom had never caught a sea fish or any fish for that matter before. So with the water clarity and a bit of a northerly wind blowing I decided to stay close to port in more sheltered waters and set the crew up for bait fishing.

    All the anglers caught which was great to see. Mainly Dabs, Dogfish and Whiting but a nice Huss and lots of hard fighting Smooth hound. A nice gentle introduction with lots of pics of their first ' Sharks' �� .... Next time out I'm pretty sure they will want to progress to the 50lb Tope and full strings of Mackerel �� ..... expecting them to arrive in the next couple of weeks in numbers ����

    So all in all a nice start for me and I hope, think the anglers enjoyed it too. Thanks for reading and I hope your all getting a good bend in the rod very soon wherever you may fish ��
    Tope are nearly here and I'm getting excited �� .. Cheers

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