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08/2010
Fishing Report by Gethyn Owen
on My Way 2 (Holyhead, Isle of Anglesey)
Aug 2010 by Gethyn Owen
Report on-board My Way 2
Part way through August and with westerly winds of 25mph approaching, I thought I’d write a report on the fishing so far this month. The first day of August saw the conclusion of The WFSA Boat Team qualifiers, fished from Holyhead. Weather tried to scupper the matches during both weekends; however the anglers taking part slugged it out, often in difficult windy conditions to record an array of species and a fair number of fish. Congratulations go to Jon Law, who topped the table, along with the title of Wales’ number one boat angler, well done!
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Early August and the weather once again became fairly unpredictable. One day we would have no wind, sunshine and some excellent fishing around the coast, then the following day we would be restricted to inshore marks, scratching for a variety of species and crossing fingers for a double figure something to put a bend in the rod.
August 02nd and 3rd were prime examples...an individual’s day on the 2nd was greeted by flat calm seas and the chance to run out to Holyhead Deep, for some possible tope and spur action. Here we managed to land a fair number of tope to 36lb and spurdogs to 16lb, along with numerous huss. However the NW 2 forecasted turned into a NW 4, which left a rather lumpy ride back in. On the morning of the 3rd, with slightly higher winds, I took the decision not to venture to the deeps, caught out in a NW for the previous day; we couldn’t take the risk of stronger winds that afternoon.
It was a good call, the wind certainly picked up, though we we’re able to fish in the relative safety and calmer waters around Holyhead Bay. Fishing wasn’t as prolific; certainly a variety of species but the guys struggled for anything of note. I say guys, as Gina, the only lady on the trip showed them all up, quite possibly in fish count but also with the addition of 2 firsts, a spotted ray and a thornback ray!
On 06th August, the weather was blowing a force 6 southerly and the rain was, well, very wet!!! We could’ve sheltered quite happily behind the breakwater in calm water for a variety of species, however getting soaked wet through. Chatting with the lads we decided to knock the day on the head, there will always be another time.
With strong winds still forecasted for the 07th, I had a chat with the crew from St Helens informing them that the deeps looked a no go, however if they we’re happy to come down early – we could get to the mussel beds and try for rays and huss.
Everyone was happy with this call and our day was planned. In the morning though, the winds had eased and the forecast looked promising (another I don’t know what’s happening forecast from the Met Office). So after a brief chat to see if anyone had a rush to get home, our day was lengthened from 8hrs to 11 and a half in the end to get the LW slack in the deeps. So after a variety of species inshore including, wrasse and pollock on the drift, dogs, gurnards, whiting etc at anchor we ventured out to the deeps – where tope, spurs and big huss saw a brilliant end to a good days fishing.
There’s an old saying regarding our sport being called ‘Fishing and not Catching’. More anglers need to realise this and not expect the world every time they set sail. I’ve had the good fortune to fish with the St Helens guys for a fair few years now, this year in particular they have had 2 pretty duff trips with me with the weather scuppering our planned days afloat, then bingo, things seem to go our way.
Oh for 12 months a year of flat calm sunny days!
The last tide of the early August neaps saw us set sail once again with only 2 things on our minds …. Wrasse and Deeps! Well actually 3 things, food as well. When the RAFA lads come out to play, we eat, eat, eat and also land a few decent fish as well. During this day, we we’re also joined by Phill Williams from Boat Fishing Monthly and Fishing Film and Facts fame.
Before we had even set sail, I threw the sausages and bacon one of the lads had brought into the oven, these would provide breakfast for us an hr later. We started the day drifting for wrasse and pollack. Eventually making our way over to another area of rough ground that we knew held quality wrasse, with the odd pollack and codling. No one was disappointed; with single and double shots of wrasse over 3lb coming over the gunwales.
After a few hrs of hectic drifting we had to move off the mark as the tide had changed and anchored up in Trearddur Bay for just over an hr, simply to while away some time before the tide had dropped sufficiently for us to anchor and fish the deeps with success.
At 250foot depth and a very strong tide, a minimum of 2lb is required even during the last hr of the tide (thought we do get an hr at 8oz as well).
I’d love to tell you about all the species we caught here, but we never really fished, most of the time was spent talking in the sunshine, football, jokes and anticipation of the deeps and the chilli and curry we had on the menu for later.
Well the deeps didn’t disappoint – plenty of tope and spurs, however the size had fallen. Whereas most of 2010 has seen spurs over the 10lb bracket, this time around we we’re plagued by spurdogs around the 5lb mark. That said, many on the trip caught their first ever, that’s always a big plus, with a couple lads also catching a tope for the first time, with Jay catching his first 10lb+ bull huss from a great depth of water! I won’t though go into detail of someone calling net for a ray that turned out to be a plastic bag!
The food, well, Martin’s chilli was awesome, Jon’s curry was fiery and Trish’s fairy cakes where out of this world. Fishing is good fun, but made all the more enjoyable with some great food as well.
Phill Williams hopped onboard to tie up some loose ends from earlier this year surrounding spurdogs - an article for the UK’s only Boat Fishing Magazine - Boat Fishing Monthly, a spurdog video and also a podcast for his website Fishing Film and Facts. The podcast has recently been upload and can be listened to by clicking http://fishingfilmsandfacts.co.uk/. The video s due for release soon
With bigger tides and some breezy conditions, the following week saw most of our fishing restricted to Holyhead Bay. That said, with species including, dogs, dabs, whiting, codling, pollack, wrasse, red, grey and tub gurnards, smoothhound, thornbacks, spotties, blondes amongst the catches, a good time afloat was had by all (well most, lol).
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