Latest Fishing Reports: Wales
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30/05/2011
Fishing Report by David Hancock
on Excel 2 (Milford Haven, Pembrokeshire)
30 May 2011 by David Hancock
Report on-board Excel 2
14 runs and 8 tope upto 45lb landed on Bank Holiday Monday, kentcharterfishing.com Rocks !
Get on down to Ramsgate for some of the UK's finest sport fishing on board Excel 2.
More pics on Facebook at David Hancock.
Keep it tight,
Dave.
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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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30/05/2011
Fishing Report by Aaron Smith
on Bad Boyz VI (Holyhead, Isle of Anglesey)
30 May 2011 by Aaron Smith
Report on-board Bad Boyz VI
May has seen most trips cancelled due to the bad winds of up to 65knots but this last week we have been alble to venture out to try our luck with the mayhounds as we call them and to be rewarded with almost 20 in a few days with only a couple of hours here and there targeting them, with the biggest fallin just off the 20lb mark and most being 6-12lb ( if you could stop the codling getting to your bait first).
Anchoring in the slighty deeper water has produced over 70 huss in 4 days up to 14lb 5oz along with the usual Dogs, Dabs, Whiteing and Gurnards.
The reef fishing around the famous South Stacks is producing endless amounts of Pollack, Codling, Wrasse and a few Mackeral but mainly 1-2lb with just a few fish 2-5lb.
Weather is picking up again for tomorrow which delays the Smothound another day :(
Get your rods out summer is almost here so come down and have a chance to catch a welsh record Smoothy. View Boats Page
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31/05/2011
Fishing Report by Steve Andrews
on Supreme (Rhyl, Denbighshire)
31 May 2011 by Steve Andrews
Report on-board Supreme
Well what can I say May has been very windy this year keeping the Supreme tied up on her mooring more than I care to think about .
When we have got out the fishing has been good but we have hardly been able to string two days together.
The end of May has produced the first tope of the year to be landed from Rhyl which was on the Supreme a 27lber to jags from the bucaneer sac from Liverpool .
I am praying that we now get some settled weather from June onwards View Boats Page
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25/05/2011
Fishing Report by David Hancock
on Excel 2 (Milford Haven, Pembrokeshire)
25 May 2011 by David Hancock
Report on-board Excel 2
A great run of Big Tope inshore at kentcharterfishing Ramsgate at the moment and they`ll hang around for a while.
Big Mike and the South London boys had a great day on them on wednesday. In 2 hours of fishing they had 6 runs and 4 fish bought to the boat, spectacular for inshore fishing, even better as it was one of our weekday individuals days so the 3 of them got to experience a fab days fishing from Excel angling for £40 a head.
Awesome fun, fishing Ramsgate with light tackle and getting 40lb+ beasties !
For the afternoon we went to anchor to get a few Skate so the boys also had some fish to take home as well as a great day sportfishing.
Bass, smoothounds and skate showing in good numbers , remember 3 or more on a weekday and i`ll go !
Keep it tight,
Dave. View Boats Page
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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.
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!
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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
Sadly the weather for the end of April and throughout May has seen far too many trips cancelled.
Strong N / NE winds or very strong southerlies have seen My Way left tethered to the pontoons at Holyhead Marina on more occasions than I care to think about. The photo on the right shows the weather on our berth at the start of the current period of bad weather, April 30th 2011. I cancelled our trip but despite the wind, it was a dry day – so down to the boat it was to do a few of the odd jobs on my list.
When cancelling I think it is fair to say that all skippers take careful consideration of the day that may lie ahead. It is not simply a case of throwing the ropes away and rushing out for cover. Safety is no doubt paramount, but our enjoyment is next most important thing on the agenda. Sometimes the weather scuppers the odd plan, such as a trip to Holyhead Deep, yet a safe and enjoyable day catching a variety of fish is still possible elsewhere in the bay.
Although when the wind is howling to the extreme and your boat is going to swing around on anchor, throwing gear or the anglers around as the next wave hits the beam of the boat – is it really worth it?
Whilst writing this we have 40mph constant outside with gusts over 50-mph, not the nicest of days. Normally May is a fairly settled month in north Wales and we find ourselves afloat most days. At the time of writing this, 23rd May 2011, we have only sailed 5 times and cancelled 12. Think on all those that comment about charter boat operation being easy money – not so good when can’t earn it!
With the trips run, restricted inshore, we have still managed to locate a few fish, with early May offering a variety of species for the novice crews aboard My Way; catches included huss, thornies, spotteds, codling, pollack coalie and wrasse all mixed in with the inevitable doggie, pouting and dab etc.
I guess we are simply paying for the exceptionally good weather that we experienced during much of March and April this year. I am though sure it will come good and this run of very poor weather will be quickly forgotten about.
Where ever you may be reading this I hope the weather is not not hampering your fishing too much and your able to get afloat and have a great time. Hopefully my next report will be a little more upbeat.
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21/05/2011
Fishing Report by David Hancock
on Excel 2 (Milford Haven, Pembrokeshire)
21 May 2011 by David Hancock
Report on-board Excel 2
The main Glut of the crab moult has passed now and the smoothhounds have slowed down a bit. Within a week or so they'll be back taking the squid baits. Lots of Bass showing and some cracking skate inshore. All in all it's Happy Days when you're fishing Ramsgate !
Come on down, 3 or more on any weekday and we go!
Keep it tight,
Dave. View Boats Page
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04/2011
Fishing Report by andrew alsop
on White Water (Milford Haven, Pembrokeshire)
Apr 2011 by andrew alsop
Report on-board White Water
A great days mixed fishing ....1 angler 10 species ...
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07/05/2011
Fishing Report by David Axtell
on Seren y Mor (Swansea, Vale of Glamorgan)
7 May 2011 by David Axtell
Report on-board Seren y Mor
Fished again today with the Danglers SAC from Milford Haven, conditions not great to start with a South Easterly 5 and rain giving a wet, lumpy ride to our first mark, the rain eased by lunch time but the wind continued to gust all day. We decided to see if the Smoothounds had arrived with the boys bringing plenty of crab. First into the fish was Jason Dennis quickly followed by Dave Frampton, these two fished hard throughout the day for top rod with Jason coming out on top with the biggest Hound at 13lb 2oz and most Hounds with 13. Ian Pratt took another nice Hound at 13lb and after a slow start Mike Steer took some nice fish to 11lb 4oz and a Blonde Ray of 10lb 8oz. Biggest fish of the day went to Clive Jones with a Conger of 18lb. with over 50 Hounds landed the signs are looking good for the Smoothound season.
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