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06/2013
Fishing Report by Gethyn Owen
on My Way 2 (Holyhead, Isle of Anglesey)
Jun 2013 by Gethyn Owen
Report on-board My Way 2
June I am so glad to report has been a hectic month aboard My Way, the weather has on a couple days thwarted our plans, but thankfully not too many to mention. For the first few days of June I was joined aboard My Way by a great group of friends from around the UK - various parts of Scotland, down to Oxford and the nearest a relatively short journey from Cheshire.
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This has become a regular trip over the years with our main targets Holyheads Smoothhound. We have though also suffered from the weather and many times have had a day or more cancelled. This time around we had an extremely favourable forecast for all 3 days.
We caught plenty, everyone had some great fun with hounds the vast majority of which were in the mid teen weight class, Davy Holt taming most of his hounds on the light £20 Yuki Rubymar rod. Top honours though went to Peter Hutchinson, who ignored the comments of being the ‘tangler’ and caught many large hounds including one at 19lbs and another magical smoothie at 22lb, above left. I also managed to find myself a new personal best smoothhound on the last of these 3 days, weighing at 24lb 10oz.
Another annual pilgrimage followed on later that same week when Harry and I were joined aboard My Way by the Boat Fishing Monthly Team, this time Dave and Jim bringing ad man Daz up to sample some hot fishing and hot Holyhead nightlife. As with last years couple days, we were also joined by Mike Thrussell jnr from World Sea Fishing and also a competition winner who had won the chance to fish aboard My Way with the great possibility of joining that VIP club for 20lb hound captors.
Sadly last year the hounds played hard to get, we did land a few doubles on light spinning gear, but never got near the 20lb threshold. This year I was confident, the fishing had finally kicked up a few gears following 2 months of doldrums had - sun was out, the crabs were peeling and we had already landed a 20lb, you can read the full story in an upcoming issue of BFM, but yes, Tom made it with a 24lb 5oz beauty.
We remained smoothhound hunting for the coming weeks – some days also adding general fishing for dogs, dabs, huss, gurnards etc. to the day when the tides never suited for an all out assault on the hounds. When hounding some days fished far better than others, there was no definite cycle to the days that we struggled, nothing I could say was to blame to be honest just a simple case of the smoothhound not being there.
What we need to remember is that with the smoothhound off the Holyhead coast tending to be mainly double figure sharks, they do seem to be more solitary feeders and not pack fish associated with those in smaller sizes. We sometimes see 3 or 4 come through, then it goes quite for an hour or more, then others swim through! Challenging fishing indeed that really does try your patience!
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Entering the 3rd week in June and we had some great settled weather, light variable winds and all coinciding with neap tides. A quick chat with the crews and it was soon decided to shoot offshore to the edges of Holyhead Deeps were we would be able to try out a few wrecks in 180foot of water for pollack and codling. Over slack water we would drop anchor and hopefully connect with more sharks but this time tope, spurdogs and huss.
Fortunately the gamble over these 3 days paid off, during the few hours on the drift over the ebbing tide, we pulled out many pollack averaging 6lb in weight. We also managed to pull out a dozen fish into double figures, the best weighing 11lb 8oz. With all days for individuals, it was a great mixed bag of abilities as well as fish, with everyone reeling in something of note.
On the Monday we had a group of regulars from Burnley in Lancashire, having fished the previous week in some poor weather, but still managing to land the targeted hounds, today was a great blessing. Having had many trips cancelled of late and the one fished remaining inshore, a foray offshore for bigger stuff and possibly a few table fish was music to everyones ears. Thankfully everyone was rewarded with pollack on the drift, and then huss, spurdogs and tope at anchor, the best going 22lb for Pepe … was a great day, made better with some great biscuits and scones from Mrs Eve, thanks.
The following couple days followed a similar pattern for us, out to the wrecks for the last few hours of the remaining ebb tide. This saw most of the crew catching a good amount of decent sized pollack for our small part of the Irish Sea. At anchor numerous spurdogs, huss, small tope and the ever obliging dogfish kept us busy whilst drinking tea and coffee and enjoying our sausage & black pudding sarnies.
Sidewinders, shads and jelly worms all being used to great effect from our varied crews, with certain colours out fishing others more noticeably at certain stages of the tide (it’s great to just sit back and watch sometimes).
I even managed to bag a few pollack myself on the light Ruby h fishing rod. This £20 rod never ceases to amaze me, as well and pollack from 180foot of water, over these few days the rod hauled in spurs, huss and one small tope and once again made everything effortless. I will though add that reel choice is also of great importance when using these rods. Inshore a small multiplier of fixed spool is adequate, Holyhead deeps requires a decent large retrieve reel such as a good Daiwa, Abu or as I was using an Avet!.
We have been using these rods often of late, but at £20 they are worth every penny. Check out the videos on our My Way TV page at www.goangling.co.uk and see for yourself
With tides increasing and an unsettled weather forecast we ended last week by remaining inshore for a spot of general fishing, followed by another bash at the smoothhound.
Thankfully this plan came together and after a few hours with dogs, dabs and a few other species, the lads were rewarded with some great double figure smoothhounds; the best of which fell to Neil Harrisons ledgered peeler crab, an astounding 23lb and our 4th twenty of 2013.
Good weather is rolling in once again for the last week of June, good luck to all :)