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  • 06/2011 Fishing Report by Gethyn Owen on My Way 2 (Holyhead, Isle of Anglesey)

    Jun 2011 by Gethyn Owen

    Report on-board My Way 2

    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.



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