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  • 06/2014 Fishing Report by Gethyn Owen on My Way 2 (Holyhead, Isle of Anglesey)

    Jun 2014 by Gethyn Owen

    Report on-board My Way 2

    Last June was another fantastic month aboard My Way, with only 3 days canceled we sailed all others, including a great amount of evening trips in search of only one thing … smoothhounds. With the time frame for the hounds visiting Holyhead in any great number being fairly small, we tend to hunt these hard fighting small sharks for the vast majority of the month. Only changing tact when weather or specific trips dictates.

    For a couple days I was joined by good friends Elton Murphy of Anglers Net, Mike Thrussell jnr. from World Sea Fishing and Jim Midgley, the beauty to the beast from Boat Fishing Monthly! We had only smoothhounds on light tackle in mind. So basically bait up, chuck out and wait, while discussing world current affairs and how we'd make this planet a better place for everyone. Similar to the regular deep and meaningful conversations many of you will have engaged in aboard My Way.

    Our first day fell foul to some quite strong winds, knowing we had another day ahead of us and decent weather on the horizon we came in handy and went for a dog walk along the Menai Straits instead. We are fortunate that many of the smoothhounds landed aboard My Way are mid to high teens in weight. However as with most species, there is a cycle to the hounds and this was to be a year of the majority being on the small side.

    I've not laughed so much in a long time. Jokes, antics, much of which not to be repeated here, but all interspersed with the landing of smoothhounds and plenty of them too.

    For a number of years our boat record has stood at 28 smoothhounds landed. We managed to sneak past this record on our 2nd day afloat by landing 29 between 5 of us. Vast majority of them around 8lb in weight with the best reaching 15lb and on the whole most played on spinning rods or the light Yuki Ruby H or Ruby Mar rods that I often rave about. Really excellent fishing that everyone should enjoy.

    The following 3 days I was joined once again by some good friends, this time from across a couple borders. Davy, Linda, Billy and Peter all making the pilgrimage from Scotland for our annual smoothhound hunt.
    We caught plenty, laughed far alot and ate..... too much. On the last day of the Scottish invasion we were joined aboard by another old friend, David Proudfoot, head honcho at Planet Sea Fishing, I never told the others David was joining us, seeing their faces as they heard the dulcet tone of my new Tea Boy was great to see.

    One day the following week, My Way and Holyhead smoothhounds were to be challenged by a few local rods normally to be found stalking bass along the Anglesey shoreline. Dennis, Dewi and Terry all mad keen bass lure anglers, fancied a change and wanted to challenge the great hounds on their £400 lure rods.
    Yup, you read that correctly, four hundred pound lure rods, tackling what could potential be a 20lb plus smoothhound! Sadly we never saw any of the high teens on the lure rods, but they did see plenty of action, as we pushed the new boat record for smoothhounds landed to 33 in a day.

    Frustratingly, we could have or maybe should have caught a load more. The bites being so delicate, with some hounds dropping baits and returning to them a staggering 4 or 5 times. I can only pout this down to the vast majority this year being small at 6 to 8 lb in weight. The bigger ones always appearing to take the bait whole with an immediate hook up.

    Every year we are privileged to host the RAF Boat Angling Festival at Holyhead, using Boy Evin, My Way and Spindrift from Holyhead, we also utilise Empress and Julieanne from Amlwch port, who come over for the day, full of fish and a few laughs. The festival sees one seasoned angler introduce a novice to both boat and shore angling. This is the 5th time we have hosted this event in the last 6years, a great introduction for people to fishing who get the chance to anchor over rough and broken ground for a a variety of species and also some drifting for pollack and wrasse. The event is run as a competition, with points available for all fish caught that are quickly returned after capture.

    Milnrow Sea Angling club are always a welcome sight aboard My Way. A great bunch of guys and gals who enjoy their fishing regardless of the weather conditions. Their date mid June, things were perfect. We started the day with a plentifully amount of hounds, spent slack water on the mussel beds, with dogs, whiting huss and ray, before returning to the smoothhound grounds Star of the day was John, more affectionately known to members of the club as sausage John, a butcher with a mean line in sausages … allegedly.

    If memory serves me right, the boat figure for hounds was around 25, with everyone catching at least one. John though taking 9 of them himself including the biggest at 22lb. Superb angling!


    Local angler Mike Hughes had a birthday trip to remember in June. A small 4hour trip & I needed to locate some hounds!. Thankfully the hounds came out to play. Plenty being caught around the boat, with the birthday boy landing 8 himself including another 20lber. On light tackle these smoothies really put up a fight to entertain everyone on the boat.

    Towards the end of June, we managed to sneak a day in Holyhead Deep, with everyone having caught hounds before or simply wanted the chance of something else, the great weather and neap tide couldn't’t be ignored. It turned out a great move for local rod Mike from Menai Bridge who had a successful day afloat adding, spurdog, huss, tope and conger to his species list.

    June was another superb month aboard My Way, the fantastic weather helped us sail almost every day with great crews on each trip and on the whole, some superb fishing.


    Read more with some superb photos at http://www.goangling.co.uk/2014-June-report.htm

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