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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

    The My Way Smoothhound Challenge
    A long time ago, we set the date of our inaugural smoothhound challenge for Bank Holiday May 30th 2011. This was based on the time of year when My Way specialises in landing some of the biggest hounds caught from Holyhead.

    Fear though filled the air for weeks leading to the date, with high winds blasting our shores since early May, the chance of the match actually getting fished was slim to say the least. In the previous 4 weeks we had cancelled 14 trips and only fished on 5 occasions. The latter 3 trips were to target the smoothhound, a report from which hs already been posted.

    The day of the competition loomed, the 30mph winds of the previous morning had all but dispersed and 9 mad keen anglers arrived at the pontoon with beaming smiles all round. The challenge was to simply catch the heaviest Smoothie of the day, do so and your reward would be a Fladen Sensor Tip rod and 444 sized reel. These light multi tip blanks offer superb bite detection and sport to any angler, they are one of our favourite rods for taming big hounds. It was possible though, that we were in for a hard day afloat. Many factors were edging against our day today – the high winds of late, the early peel of the crab and also the size of our hounds!
    The smoothhounds off our shores do not run in the big packs normally associated with sharks of this type. Whereas smaller hounds, say below 8lb can often be caught one after another; as they increase in size they appear to become more solitary when feeding. Our best day afloat after smoothies had seen in the region of 26 hounds caught, but with all bar a couple over 12lb, this was gratefully accepted.

    Despite all this, those opting to fish our smoothhound challenge were well aware of the potential Holyhead offers for smoothhound anglers. For a few weeks of the year, this really is where the action is!

    As we set sail and made way to our fishing grounds I started to rue my last report and uploading it to the world! Our previous few trips in between the high winds had seen My Way and it’s anglers in a peaceful paradise catching some excellent hounds with only the odd yacht passing by. The last two occasions though, another boat was nearing on us with each anchor drop – by this third day of the current spell of settled weather it was out before us and was slam bang on top of the mark we tend to fish in this area. Now I do accept that no –one owns any particular spot, but funny how your exact marks attract so much attention at times!

    The previous day had only seen 5 small hounds come to the boat despite some very experienced smoothie anglers aboard. So fortunately we had already decided on a slight move to hopefully encourage a better catch. Moving only 1/4 mile, with the tides as they were for the match we had more depth and also slightly more flow compared to the Sunday.

    15 fresh peelers were supplied as part of the entry fee to our fun challenge, but some of the anglers had also come prepared with a selection of peelers, softies, crinklies, velvet peelers and hardbacks. It was going to be an interesting time for the next 6hrs.Pegged on the stern, Shaun Hughes was first off the mark. Inside an hour of the anchor going down Shaun was soon fighting his very first Smoothie. Weighing quickly in our purpose made shark sling, Shaun’s hound came in just shy of double figures at 9lb 12oz. Maybe it was something in the name, spelt differently though, next up was Sion landing a nice hound, this time into doubles at 11lb 15oz.

    Having had his hands on the rod & reel prize so early in the match, Shaun was keen to regain his position as top dog. This perseverance saw Shaun land the 3rd hound of the day and this time raise the bar significantly higher to a great 17lb 2oz. As the day went on smoothies came to the boat at a steady pace, we never had a double hook up or pack frenzy, most of the hounds came individually, Gareth P secured a new PB and also first double figure smoothhound with a nice 15lb 8oz specimen.

    Watching his brother catch 2 smoothhound and take a commanding lead with his 17lb shark had Gareth Hughes a little green with envy. Despite other hounds coming to the boat, none matched the size of Shaun’s catch and this was starting to eat at Gareth who decided to do something about it. Around lunch time Gareth Hughes hooked into what looked to be a good size Smoothie. After struggling to control the hound for 20 mins, Gareth finally broke the surface – it looked big ….. it looked close!

    I weighed the hound a couple times to be sure of the reading, brotherly love never came into this as both eagerly awaited the decision. Mark Cain adjudicated on the weight having accepted that his hounds of around 6 and 10lb would not equal Gareth’s combined! This hound went 18lb 4oz, photo above, a smoothie first, a stonker of a PB, but more importantly a hound that took first position. The family smiles moved from Shaun to Gareth.

    Sadly no other hound was to come near Gareth’s 18lb starry. As I called time to days fishing, a few anglers had sadly blanked on the smoothies, with a couple having only the odd dog or small codling to show. Congratulations though still went to Gareth who posed with his new rod and reel and vowed to defend his win in 2012, when the My Way Smoothhound Challenge returns for its second year, Bank Holiday Monday 28th May


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