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20/03/2011
Fishing Report by Gethyn Owen
on My Way 2 (Holyhead, Isle of Anglesey)
20 Mar 2011 by Gethyn Owen
Report on-board My Way 2
With neap tides again upon us last week and everyone chomping at the bit to throw off the small fish shackles and get to grips with the monster of Holyhead deep, in blew gales to put an end to those ideas. With a couple trips cancelled we managed to sneak out into Holyhead Bay on Sunday 13th.
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The strong westerly wind restricted our movements, and the small neap tide restricted the flow of water required to help get the fish around on the feed this time of year, we really did struggle. Despite many moves around the bay, locating a sufficient amount of fish to make the day an overwhelming success was very hard work. That said, all the anglers on board My Way that day, knew what the day may, or may not hold! It’s a day out, we’re fishing and we’re also catching – what more could you ask for, ok admittedly a little more than the dogs, whiting and small codling …. the warm chilli certainly helped that day for sure though.
My Way regulars Carl & Annie, know only too well how things can pan out both for the good and sometimes the bad. Undeterred they returned the following weekend in the hope of more fish to pull their lines. But how would they and the other anglers fair this weekend fishing on top of the biggest tide for 20years.
The Moon's gravity pulls more strongly on the near side of the Earth than it does at its centre. It does though pull more strongly on the centre than on the far side. This 'differential' causes the tides that we see daily. Essentially, the water on the near side is pulled up and away from the Earth. Since the Earth turns on its axis, the bulge moves around the Earth, causing the level of the ocean to rise and fall, forming the tides. Spring tides at Holyhead are normally big at the 32 to 33ft mark, we were looking this weekend at battling the elements with tides over 34ft, this meant the water would move fast.
Saturday saw a crew of My Way regulars along with 2 guys new to fishing and 2 new to My Way. Despite the previous night giving a wind speed under double figures all day, our revised forecast before sailing was for winds of F4 to 5 from around lunchtime. With monster ebbing tides, Trearddur Bay was out of the question on that forecast as if the wind blew up early, we would be unable to find safe passage through north stack, and hence Holyhead Bay it was.
The morning started in 50ft of water a few miles north of Holyhead. The broken ground always throws up a variety of species for early season, but equally as important, a consistent supply of fish. We were not disappointed, straight into fish were the newcomers Dave and Chris pulling in dogfish and small codling, this trend then continued around the boat as many fish, including the odd double and triple shot came aboard. A My Way first for 2011 fell to Carl Burns’ fishing rod in the shape of a small plaice. Carl also pointed out that this was his first ever plaice whilst aboard My Way. We’re not renowned for our plaice fishing in this part of north Wales and sadly those we do get are rarely the dustbin lids you see in the magazines; still a great catch.
Mixed in with the codling, dogfish we were also pulling in many small bull huss. This area whilst it is accepted you can catch the odd huss, is not famous for numbers of the smaller huss we were catching today. Other parts of our fishing grounds, Trearddur Bay for example are often ear marked for competition fishing, were the reliability of small bull huss to boost a points tally is second to none; today though it was Holyhead Bay that was throwing up numerous small to miniscule sized bullies.
Why, well, I’m not too sure however we were anchored around 300yards off our normal mark. Where I had originally planned to drop anchor was out of bounds to us thanks to lobster pot markers. Never one to opt for the ‘near enough’ option, we had a little look around the area for a spot of broken ground that …. looked fishy ! Using the down-looking imaging on our new Lowrance HDS system, we were able to isolate a patch of ground that appeared to have fish holding capabilities; anchoring uptide, so that our baits could trot back nicely over the broken ground, the rewards where very quickly upon the boat. Could this be the reason for the sheer number of small huss coming aboard the boat today, brilliant broken kelp covered ground, ideal for small fry to shelter and small huss to feed on them?
True to the forecast the wind was steadily increasing throughout the day, a quick check at the weather station at RAF Valley and the wind was higher than forecasted. Inshore though, the tide had already turned to start flooding and now running in the same direction as the wind, our day was as comfortable as it was with the slight breeze of the early morning.
The following day, once again the weather gods had outwitted the forecasters and delivered a few more mph, uncanny how they continually do this really!!
With a forecast of around 20mph from the south, I arrived at the marina to a constant 26mph with gusts of 32mph. Not fancying the day too much, March stuck in close cannot always be the best - I called the lads around 90mins before we were due to sail. Mike the organiser greeted me with, is it safe and will we get a few fish, erm, oh yes we could do it I suppose, so off we went.
Rewards came in the way of dogs, codling and some small huss for the first few hrs. Great fun alongside the tea, coffee, biscuits and sausage butties. As the day went on and the tide ebbed away, the wind slowly decreased, as if with every 5mph decrease we managed to sneak further out from our shelter.
Our day eventually ended up on a small patch of mud around 1 mile outside the harbour, here the lads were rewarded with far more fish than in the morning and additionally 2 thornback rays, both firsts for the anglers including trip organiser Mike himself.
As I finish writing this now, the wind outside, or should I just say the puff of air outside is 9mph! Oh for 9month of 9mph. The light winds are forecasted to continue, we have individual spaces available for this coming Weds 23rd March sailing at 9am. Still a big tide, but plenty of fish and a good selection of species to have fun with for the day.