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05/2011
Fishing Report by Gethyn Owen
on My Way 2 (Holyhead, Isle of Anglesey)
May 2011 by Gethyn Owen
Report on-board My Way 2
Our last report detailed the high winds that have battered much of the UK over recent weeks. North Wales has been subjected to some of the strongest and most prolonged periods of rough weather in May for a long time.
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May is around the time when the annual smoothhound run gets into full swing in the waters off Holyhead; where we may lack the numbers of hounds that some places can boast, a good average day for us maybe seeing around 15 hounds to the boat, Holyhead and more especially My Way benefits from exceptionally large smoothies, possibly some of the best that can be found in UK waters, having an average size well into doubles figures.
Picking the mark and tide can be crucial when setting out on our trips to locate the first runs. Like most species the smoothies feeding patterns are influenced by certain states and sizes of tide.
Our first run out for 2011 was with a crew of My Way regulars from Merseyside; this bunch of hardened anglers are smoothhound mad and boast many fish landed aboard My Way in the high teens and also a 20lb 2oz monster a couple years ago.
Our first hound was on the hook within an hour of fishing and fell to Ian ‘Golden Peeler’ Tomo who went on to land a further 2 hounds and smash his PB once again.
However the sweep fell to smoothhound novice Graham, who, as everyone watched Ian play the first hound, quietly went about his business of fighting a reasonably good hound. As Graham’s smoothhound broke the surface, it was a little more than reasonable and deserved a weigh! At 20lb 3oz, it was another monster, a whopper for a first hound and one hell of a Smoothie for early season!
This could only bode well for future trips.
It was a few days before we could venture out once again, excitement for the quality of the fishing was uncontainable, sadly though the strong winds battering around our coastline simply put an end to any thoughts of us carrying on our smoothhound fun.
We set sail a lot later in the day for our second outing, thus ensuring we fished the state of tide we needed to maximise the chance of hooking into more hounds. Only a small group of 4 anglers, booking the boat to themselves! Once again the smoothhound were obliging with John hooking the first, followed closely by Dic who landed a couple and a new PB for himself.
Gavin a relative newcomer to fishing was sat eagerly awaiting a bite on his rod whilst fighting off the dreaded feeling of sea sickness. Naturally we were all full of sympathy for Gavin offering greasy sausage sandwiches, making vomiting noises etc … as you do!
Gavin though, was to have the last laugh, despite feeling extremely poorly in the lumpy sea of Holyhead Bay, he continued to fish and this determination was rewarded late that afternoon when a smoothhound finally took his offered bait. Gavin played the hound for what seemed like an eternity, it came close to the boat on a number of occasions before making agonising late dives back down to the sea bed. Another half hour passed before Gavin’s shark broke the surface of the murky stirred up waters in Holyhead and it was a good one. The weigh sling and scales were required again to accurately record the latest shark aboard My Way. His first smoothhound had topped the scales at 24lb 11oz … Gavin no longer felt sick!
I must also give a small mention to Ari, who also took much stick from all of us for not landing a smoothhound all day, well not until the very end when an obliging 7lb hound took pity on him. With a few more trips planned for the smoothies, I’m sure this though can be beaten.
2 trips, plenty of big hounds including 2 over 20lb, this was an exceptional start to our 2011 smoothhound escapades. Sadly though, more wind blew into Holyhead and cancelled the next week of trips. It is very frustrating cancelling so many trips when you are so aware of the quality of fishing around! Equally upsetting is to know that they are only here for a certain number of weeks and on specific tides, please wind go away!
Our next trip out after smoothhound was to be a 2 day jolly with a group of 4 friends looking at landing some of our big inshore sharks. This has become an annual pilgrimage now to land double figure hounds on light gear. Sadly the winds were making every attempt to ruin our day. Deciding on a 7am sail in the hope of making the most of our time, we set sail with a fresh increasing wind. On reaching our destination, I made the decision to turn around and head back in – the forecast was a constant 10mpoh more than forecast with gusts over 30 – not safe and certainly not pleasant, back to Marina it was to wait out the wind as the new forecast was to drop around lunchtime. What did we do instead …. had a full brekkie on the boat whilst setting the world to rights and gossiping!
We motored back to our intended fishing grounds early afternoon and started hound fishing straight away. It was a little later in the tide than I had hoped, but was confident we would catch well. Our first hound was on the boat within an hour of fishing and fell to Davy Holt, a new PB for him at 16lb 10oz.
Davy's partner Linda was on her first smoothhound outing and was determined to catch one, regardless of what the weather had in store for us. This perseverance paid off when a short time after Davy broke his PB Linda hooked into what looked to me a very good hound. Playing the Smoothie on a light Fladen sensor tip rod, Linda could only watch and wait as the hound made darting runs for freedom. After a long fight that saw the hound remain very deep under the boat Linda’s hound came to the net weighing a staggering 20lb 10oz!!! Another 20lber!! Superb fish and well played.
Determined to beat Linda, Davy tried harder to land that 21lb Smoothie – the one that did look on course though turned out to be a low double, foul hooked! He did though manage to break his PB once again with another hound of 17lb 2oz. Smoothhound also came to everyone else on the boat, including myself, sadly though, none of us coming anywhere near to breaking Linda’s 20lber.
With 40mph southerly winds on the forecast we cancelled our second day afloat. We also cancelled the following few days – let’s hope the winds ease off pretty soon, we will be landing these hounds for a few weeks to come right into the middle of June weather permitting!