We've had a pretty busy season and I've been a bit slack with the trip reports so here's a summary :). The summer has been challenging weatherwise, to say the least, but with many beginner anglers booking this year we have been able to fish inshore and dodge the weather on many occasions. September, so often a good month for fishing, was disrupted with a few gales, however October has been far more settled with even a couple glassy calm days. Weather has set in now from the north for a few days so its unlikely we will venture out now until next week.
The fishing has been very good at times through the summer and we've seen some species in numbers that we haven't seen for a few years. Notably we saw more thornback rays this year than for a few years. Spurdog were again present in numbers near the Isle of Man in September and over this last weekend we caught a few 20 miles from Conwy. They are definately making a come back in the Irish Sea and are a good fun fish to catch. It was another good summer for mackerel with many large fish amongst them, even in the summer. Normally large mackerel are only seen at the beginning and end of the season but this year we saw them throughout the summer. Inshore ground fishing was good with a variety of the usual species, whiting, dabs, gurnard, dogfish, codling, bull huss, rays and tope. There were some large tope inshore in June/July with the best one around 50lb. The offshore wrecks produced plenty of pollack, cod in May and June, coalfish, ling and conger. Pollack on the inshore wrecks were in short supply but all the other wreck species were around.
We completed 4 two day Isle of Man trips and had to cancel two which was not too bad a hit rate considering the weather we were dealt. The wreck and reef fishing was good on all the trips. The trip proves popular with those that fancy a fishing 'minibreak'.
So is the season over? In November last year we saw some of the best pollack fishing of the year with a few coalfish and codling thrown in. The fishing is a good distance away so we need good weather but I will advertise a couple of 10 hour trips in November, in the area that we did so well last year.
I am presently taking bookings for next year and many weekend dates have already been booked so if you are thinking of booking a weekend day for next year probably an idea not to leave it too long. If anyone hasn't yet used their vouchers there is a trip this Sunday with room, alternatively you could use them next year.
We've seen many bottlenosed dolphins this year. I've also seen a pair of common dolphins on two occasions whilst lobster potting. The second time they were with me for around one and a half hours checking out the pots as they were coming to the surface.
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