Latest Fishing Reports: Wales
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12/11/2012
Fishing Report by Gwyn Andrews
on Goldilocks (Rhyl, Denbighshire)
12 Nov 2012 by Gwyn Andrews
Report on-board Goldilocks
The mesey is fishing quite well now with cod 3 to 10lb+showing.There are plenty of nice sizeable whiting along with dabs and rays.The fishing should really pick up from the middle of Nov so things are looking good for the season.
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10/2012
Fishing Report by Gethyn Owen
on My Way 2 (Holyhead, Isle of Anglesey)
Oct 2012 by Gethyn Owen
Report on-board My Way 2
Following our last report we had a week of fairly unsettled weather in Holyhead cancelling a few trips and throwing the following weekends Fun Match amongst other trips into Jeopardy.
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One trip that we did manage was a short 4hr trip into Holyhead bay, the emphasis more on catching fish than targeting any particular species. Our skipper for the day was young Jensen, who guided My way perfectly to the mussel beds where we spent a good couple hours catching dogfish, whiting dabs and small huss in great number, with rigs coming back to the boat with single double and treble shots of fish. My Way fun competitions have been running for a good number of years, primarily autumn & winter trips with the odd match during the summer months, they are nothing special other than a good general days fishing.
As you search for a variety of species and numbers of fish we record what you catch. These fish are awarded points against a pre-determined list, catch the most in fish points and you win! Prizes are also available for 2nd and 3rd places. Common fish such as dogfish and whiting awarded 1 point, wrasse and pollack 2 points and the likes of tope and huss the maximum 3points.
We started our match on 20th October trying for a few wrasse and pollack on the drift; sadly we were only rewarded with a couple small fish. The breeze together with tide was pushing us just the little too fast for a successful drift and we lost a more traces than fish we actually caught. So we decided to drop the anchor in Church Bay and set about catching some fish and putting a few points on the scoreboard for the anglers.
It wasn’t long before we had the first fish on the boat … a dogfish. A few more followed but before talks of kennels could be justified Tojo broke ranks with a nice coalfish followed by a small codling for Colin Gibson, both fish around the 1½ lb mark. In our fun matches there are no size limits. We have anglers of all abilities taking part and it is their ability to catch fish that gets rewarded, once baited and lowered to the bottom you cannot always tell what size of fish will be attracted to your bait, especially inshore during the latter months of a year.
In typical My Way fashion a good lunch was enjoyed during a lull in the fishing and sausage, bacon and baked bean butty's were wolfed down by a hungry crew.
After lunch the tide was starting to slacken off and we moved My Way to some slightly deeper water in Holyhead Bay. Fishing on the mussel beds can be as varied as anywhere in the bay, however with the immense tidal strength we are restricted to slack water anchors. On first drop the anglers were soon into a healthy mixed bag of dogfish, whiting and dabs, plenty of 1 point fish coming aboard in single double and triple shots.
As the water slackened further the first call of net was heard, as, mixed in with the small stuff the guys proceed to catch 28 big huss in the 2 hours fishing we had at this spot.
This very rare creamy white bull huss was caught by Tojo during the fun match ... more photos
Our final move of the day was for a last hour on the mud just outside the harbour. Numbers of rays tend to move back into the bay this time of year, so they'd make a welcome addition to the score sheets. Only 2 rays obliged, falling to both the anglers named Colin :).
The winning angler was Colin Gibson, his first time with us, who had caught a mixed bag including, dogfish, whiting, pollack, codling, poor cord and huss. 2nd place fell to Chris Nedon with Tojo in 3rd and completely delirious with the capture of his gorgeous looking bull huss.
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Despite the neap tides perfect for getting off to Holyhead Deep, the weather once again kept us inshore for the next couple days. Fishing though remained constant with plenty of variety coming aboard My Way with the bull huss tipping the scales on most occasions just past the magical 10lb mark.
On Tues 23rd Oct there was a break in the weather and we all geared up for some time in Holyhead Deep. We had plenty of baits at the ready ranging from mackerel, whiting and squid - all to be prepped on rigs hoping to avoid the dogfish and huss, concentrating solely on the big spurdogs.
Thankfully we weren't disappointed, with an average size of around 8lb, the lads on board also caught a number of of excellent spurdogs at 16lb in weight. Helping cement some great new personal best weights for the sharks. We were also bit off a couple times by some monster spurs, despite using heavy mono ... maybe next time!
If you are interested in a particular date or species to fish for please email or call to discuss the details 2013 Availability recently updated! -
24/10/2012
Fishing Report by Carl Davies
on Gwen-Paul-M (Conwy, Conwy)
24 Oct 2012 by Carl Davies
Report on-board Gwen-Paul-M
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October 24th
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.
Carl Davies. -
21/10/2012
Fishing Report by Steve Andrews
on Supreme (Rhyl, Denbighshire)
21 Oct 2012 by Steve Andrews
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Beautiful day with foggy spells excellent fishing plenty Dabs ,Whiting,Dogs,few Gurnard,Mackerel,some cracking Huss,and a 45LB Tope for Roy Petch from Manchester who says you only catch Tope in the summer :).
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Looking for the same again tomorrow .
tight lines Steve. -
10/2012
Fishing Report by Jack Thomas
on Incentive (Colwyn Bay, Conwy)
Oct 2012 by Jack Thomas
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Mackerel thinning out this week but still a few about. plenty of whiting, dabs and decent huss keeping the rods busy. the codling seem to of been hiding a bit the last few days but fingers crossed they will show again soon.
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10/2012
Fishing Report by Gethyn Owen
on My Way 2 (Holyhead, Isle of Anglesey)
Oct 2012 by Gethyn Owen
Report on-board My Way 2
September 2012 – has gone and good riddance – from a full month of bookings we sailed on a mere 7 occasions so bad was the wind. Additional to my last September report we did manage a couple days afloat in the middle of the month. With choppy seas to contend with we stayed inshore and managed to lift out a fair number of species with the biggest specimens coming from the many bull huss in Holyhead Bay.
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During the first weekend of October the weather started to settle down, fortunately we were going to get a good few days afloat. Over the weekend we remained inshore and were rewarded with a good variety for species including more huss than I’ve seen in a long time on the mussel beds, with anglers pulling in at least 5 or 6 each.
On the drift we managed to locate some great inshore sport with pollock averaging 3lb for all the anglers with codling and poor cod mixed in. This was all great fun until our friend Colin the seal turned up and proceeded to remove the fish from the hooks without asking permission first, leaving just heads and gills attached to the traces.
Moving into the week, I was joined aboard My Way by some good friends from down south, Lloyd, Mike and Rob, all of whom make the 300 mile journey to fish aboard My Way a couple times of year. This month, the deep waters to the west of Anglesey were our chosen marks and we had been watching the weather change with immense regularity.
Owing to an increasing forecast the Monday was spent in the northern half of the deeps our reward was a good number of bull huss. Spurdogs was though what everyone wanted and they remained painfully absent for our valiant 4hour effort. We returned to Church Bay for the latter half of the day and just in time as a NE 20 blew through the bay.
Thankfully the weather forecast was to settle and with a sea predicted to flatten off nicely we decided the following day was to be spent in the southern part of Holyhead Deep, mid-October can be a great time of year for big bull huss, spurdog and the last of the big tope.
We were joined on the Tuesday by My Way regular Annie, who was going to show the boys exactly how to catch a few spurdog and after a couple hours playing with pollack and Colin the seal we made our way off to our chosen mark. On anchoring the tide was running hard, but this undeterred everyone fished through the tide retrieving bull huss and the occasional dogfish through the 130ft of water.
As the tide slackened we had a few irregular bites, a few thrashes of the head and the fish was lost, so tactics were changed slightly to encourage more bites from our intended target - the spurdog. It wasn’t long before Annie was into something big, pulling back and taking line from her reel and it was at this moment she reminded me that she was yet to catch a spurdog, despite numerous trips out! Today she wasn’t to be disappointed, managing to land 5 in total with a pb set at a very respectable 14lb!
Ann also went on to land a double figure spurdog and double figure bull huss on the same rig, from 130ft of water, great angling. The biggest of the day and another PB fell to the hook of Rob Field and topped the scales at an ounce of 17lb, again another superb spurdog.
The following day was again weather perfect for a venture to the southern half of Holyhead Deep. With a small group of My Way regulars from the Wirral, our day started once more trying to retrieve pollack underneath the nose of Colin the seal …. He won. Huss obliged and spurdogs obliged and yet again, it was another day of fun, fish and very dodgy jokes aboard My Way. The best spur so far for 2012 fell to Graham Ellis, until this point a spurdog virgin. At 19lb 12oz it was a mere 1oz under the current WFSA record, also caught and released aboard My Way a few years ago. -
07/10/2012
Fishing Report by David Axtell
on Seren y Mor (Swansea, Vale of Glamorgan)
7 Oct 2012 by David Axtell
Report on-board Seren y Mor
Ray fishing is really good at the moment. Odyssey SAC landing 60 rays on Sunday between 6 anglers, with top rod for the day being Paul Evans with 16 rays. Top baits are mackerel and squid. Saturdays trip was a mixed party again the rays were there in good numbers with Declan Williams (aged 13) having a good day. Hopefully the whiting will arrive in the next few weeks.
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09/10/2012
Fishing Report by David Hancock
on Excel 2 (Milford Haven, Pembrokeshire)
9 Oct 2012 by David Hancock
Report on-board Excel 2
lots of Bass still feeding inshore in the coloured water. A few good Hounds about as they start to move off to their winter grounds.
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Some good Cod showing now, Doubles have been caught inshore. Grab your worms and cuttle and get on down !
4 or more and we go !
keep it tight,
Dave .
07774 294 959. -
10/2012
Fishing Report by Jack Thomas
on Incentive (Colwyn Bay, Conwy)
Oct 2012 by Jack Thomas
Report on-board Incentive
Plenty of whiting,dabs,mackerel about with some codling up to 4lb. The gurnards are starting to thin out now as we head towards winter. Bull huss still around in good numbers up to 14lb. Lets hope this month is kinder with the weather!
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09/2012
Fishing Report by Steve Andrews
on Supreme (Rhyl, Denbighshire)
Sep 2012 by Steve Andrews
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What can I say about September what a windy month it turned out to be keeping us in the harbour for much of the time.
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When we did get out plenty of fish were to be had .
The start of Sept brought to an end the Tope comp that I have been running on the boat through the summer the winner of the comp with a fish of 55 lb was KARL GANDY which won him £200 .
Looking forward to a wind free October plenty of dates available check out the calendar for the remainder of 2012 and for 2013
tight lines
Steve
No bull just result
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