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  • 05/2010 Fishing Report by Gethyn Owen on My Way 2 (Holyhead, Isle of Anglesey)

    May 2010 by Gethyn Owen

    Report on-board My Way 2

    The last 5 weeks have been very busy aboard My Way, some great settled weather has seen us sail daily in search of a variety of species, all this together with the return of the Anglesey Boat Angling festival sandwiched in the centre of a hectic time afloat.

    The fishing, well, on most days has been outstanding and on others has been extremely hard work. When the fish are in abundance and offering great sport, a mere 12hrs later everything switches off for a day or 2. You never stop learning as a skipper or angler – keep at it, record your results and you’ll soon have a great log of data and theories to work to. Then the odd curve ball comes and throws all your thoughts and ideas out of the window. So how has it fished?

    Mid May is when we start to turn our attentions to the great welsh smoothhound packs. Most 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 fight like hell!

    Normally by the middle of May our hound fest is in full swing, however this year things have been slow to get off the mark the smoothies being no exception.


    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 and by all accounts a very informative program is due to released soon. You can catch it via subscription or a pay per view in a few weeks time.
    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 Holyheads 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 rand a fair number of spurs around, a quick phone call saw Phill hoping 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 in coming weeks on Phill’s website.

    During the last week of May, I was joined aboard My Way 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 specie all owe a little bit of gratitude to Ian and his drive and enthusiasm within Scottish angling.
    Yet again the fishing was patchy, 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. A special mention though to John, who left it until the last hour to get a run, whilst holding his other rod! Great smoothhound in the end! Sadly on occasions some anglers take little care when using 2 rods, or when lowering the one bait they are fishing, during this visit, along with rods off port and starboard, I counted 9 rods waiting off the stern – it works if everyone is careful and respectable to other lines … simples!

    So not hand over fish action, but a great laugh with a good bunch of anglers, to be repeated next year – along with the challenge to Ian & Matty of finding a ton up skate for my son Harry and a Black Mouthed Dogfish for myself!

    Following the Scottish invasion, I was joined for a couple days by a group of four anglers, including Dave and Norma Park. A very keen angler and now into his eighties Dave has fished all over the world and now has a personal species list containing 438 entries from sea and fresh waters – and our smoothies were still playing hard to get. Well, we managed a fair few thankfully, best going 17lb 3oz, played and landed by Norma, smashing her personal best – however she was reluctant to claim it as I had hooked it up on my rod. Not to be outsmarted by the hounds, Norma managed to acquire a new PB of just under 9lb before her visit was over.

    Dave though was finding the smoothhound hard to find, watching a few come over the gunwales for the rest of the crew must have been disappointing even for the most hardened of anglers. Entering the last couple hours of the 2 day jolly, Dave was sat in his deck chair, happily enjoying a cup of tea and chocolate mini roll, when the ratchet screamed off with the best run of the day. Putting his tea and cake down carefully, Dave stood up, raised the rod carefully into the fish ensuring a good hook up. With drag set, he then sat down and finished his chocolate roll ( Norma won’t let him have too many, so this smoothhound was not going to interfere with that), after which Dave landed a PB hound at 9lb 10oz – fantastic to watch, thanks guys for a great couple days.

    The end of May saw out attentions turn to match fishing and the 6th Anglesey Boat Angling Festival

    Following the festival we turned our attentions back to the smoothhound, this time, they were back on form for us, with 3 20lb+ fish coming to My Way in as many days, with plenty of other double figure fish giving our 3 day run an average smoothhound size of 16lb. My PB on the hounds was a cool 19lb 8oz, caught during a great day afloat in May 2008. I t was always going to be a long haul to break that one, whoever I even managed to snare myself a 20lber early June – with a beautiful smoothie of 21lb 12oz.


    More trips on the smoothies followed; however as if someone had turned the switch off, from 10 with the smallest 13lb one evening, the next day we landed a big fat 0. Poor old Jim Midgley, desperate to break the 20lb barrier and maybe bag a new WFSA record at the same time received a text from me during this trip, it went along the lines ‘Get your sorry ars* up here – it’s electric’. Well the 5hr drive from Peterborough the following morning and no smoothhounds was uhm, a little bit of a low point for the Sunday for both Jim, myself and the crew aboard My Way. But that’s fishing; Jim did manage to bag one in the end – 15lb’s and nearly 36hrs after arriving. That said a great couples days once again, big fish in the deeps day 2 and with some good anglers and copious amounts of banter I’m sure the pain was eased a little.

    Drifting inshore, the wrasse are coming on nicely with ballans reaching 3lb and both male and females cuckoos making a regular appearance. Mackerel are joining in the fun but still not in large numbers. During the drifts we are 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. General anchor work has seen a fair number 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 taking mackerel strips. Thornbacks to 12lb and 3lb spotted rays are making for some good sport at anchor along with our usual suspects of dogfish, whiting, dabs, gurnards and huss along with many other species.

    Hopefully my next report will not take so long, if it does – we must be busy and enjoying the continuos calm weather and exciting sport, so please bear with us. Our availability has recently been updated for both boat and individuals, hopefully we’ll see you soon aboard My Way – either way, enjoy your fishing in the weeks to come

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