|
.
|
| |
| |
| |
|
. |
| Rough ground marks out in the deeps
had been generally slow, few
huss, spurs and congers, but a boundless amount of doggies
infuriating most anglers with the 180ft haul up from the sea bed.
With nothing to lose, a change of tact was required and a search for
new ground. There is such a vast amount of sea available to us,
there is never any harm in trying out new marks. In reading a chart,
and having a run over with the echo sounder - gems can often be
found. A good nose through the charts in early April and a series
of 170ft rocks in and around a 240ft bed seemed like a nice holding
point for a variety of species. A few miles off my usual haunts it
was going to be an interesting mark to try out. Well, the move proved successful, no spurs sadly, but this mark
produced more huss than dogfish with most of the specimens topping double
figures with many around the 15lb mark, add these catches to 2
dropped tope (early season for us, so not geared for them), this is
mark was without doubt going to be re-visited at a later time in
2009.
|
 |
|
|
. |
|
. |
|
|
All species have a hold on us for different reasons.
Tope and smoothies for example, bait out, ratchet on and wait, adrenalin
pumping waiting for the ‘click click’ of the ratchet. Pollack over wrecks
– wind up nothing, drop down, wind up again whilst waiting for that short
pluck of a pollack teasing your lure – then bang your losing line as the
fish makes a bid for freedom.
Wrasse fishing though can offer you all this adrenalin pumping action and
more, basically a much greater chance of success. Most anglers who fish
aboard My Way know of my passion for drifting inshore rock marks for
wrasse and pollack. With 5 main wrasse species in the UK -
ballan, cuckoo, corkwing, goldsinny and rock cook all making regular
appearances aboard My Way, 2009 was an exceptional year on the
drift. |
 |
|
|
|
|
. |
|
|
. |
|
|
Unlike the past couple of
years, good fortune fell upon us for most of May and June. Both months
were far more settled than the previous couple of years. Light winds
saw us set sail on many occasions, searching for a variety of species
whether it be on the drift or hard at anchor. One of our main targets during
this period is smoothhound.
Again, 2009 was not to
disappoint. Where north Wales has long been associated with some very
good catches of smoothhound, My Way certainly sets some
standards for consistent numbers of quality smoothhound. With us
smashing the WFSA record for smoothhound in 2008 with the capture of a
25lb 6oz starry, hopes were set quite high for 2009. sadly though
despite a few hundred double figure hounds and many in the 17 to 19lb
bracket we failed to reach the 20lb plus target. However based on the
theory of a 2year cycle for hounds we're hoping for a great run in 2010.
|
|
. |
|
| Here's a selection from 2009's smoothie fun
|
|
|
 |
|
. |
|
. |
| Tope is another big draw for anglers to north Wales. Sadly the last 2
years from Holyhead have been hard work on the tope fishing front.
Strong winds coinciding with the neap tides that are required for us to
have a successful time tope fishing have all but ruined trips in 2007
and 2008. Fortunately that little piece of good fortune mentioned
earlier helped out in 2009. this allowed for many more forays into the
deeper water in search of the tope with excellent results. Paul took the
helm of My Way late June for our first venture after tope and the crew
from the Wirral were rewarded with 25 tope and 15 huss in 2 and a half
hrs of hectic action.
Our last venture for tope came in mid October with a crowd of
paramedics from Conwy.
With such a stressful job, these guys really wanted a day of rest and
plenty of fish. Tope, Rays and huss a plenty certainly was what the
doctor ordered. The video below was taken by one of the crew.
Line screamed from Jasons reel as he hooked into
what appeared to be the best tope of the day. Thus the 5 mins
turned into 30mins as Jason took time to play his 40lb shark to the
side of My Way. |
| |
|
|
|
. |
|
. |
|
2009 also saw 2
surprises landed aboard My Way. Were as not exceptionally large fish,
both of them were first captures aboard My Way and also the first heard
of in the area. Our first new addition to the species tally came
whilst drifting an inshore mark in early June. . Weighing no more than 4
or 5 oz, the Topknot was certainly the fish of the year so far, A first
for it’s captor Monty Burns, but also a first ever aboard My Way. A few
months later Jon Law hooked into the first of many haddock that came
into Holyhead bay. not big by any north sea standard, but another first
and much appreciated aboard My Way. |
|
|
|
. |
| . |
| In October we held another Sponsored fishing day
to help raise funds to send a very brave girl on a
very special holiday, Cath's
Community and Ronald McDonald House
Charities . As the anglers turned up at
Holyhead Marina, it was clear to see that everyone had made that special
effort with fancy dress costumes. What the lovely yacht owners thought
of the variety of costumes including Ozzy Osborne, Superman, Vicky
Pollard, Jason from Friday 13th A couple Indians, Katie Price
and my very own Bet Lynch impression descending on their idyllic pontoon
setting we’ll never know. Read more
here. |
|
. |
|
. |
| A few more photos from our 2009 archives |
 |
| |
|
| |
 |
| |
 |
|
. |
|
.. |
|
My Way species list for 2009 - total 44 |
| bass, black bream, bull huss, coalfish, codling, conger eel, dab,
dogfish, dragonet, gobi -rock & black, gurnard - grey, red & tub,
haddock, herring, ling, mackerel, pollack, pouting, plaice, poor cod, ,
ray - thornback , blonde, spotted, cuckoo, rockling 3b, sandeel, sea
scorpion ls &ss, smoothhound - common & starry, spurdog, tadpole fish,
tope, topknot , tompot blenny, turbot, whiting, wrasse - ballan cuckoo,
corkwing goldsinny & rock cook, |
|
. |
|
. |
|
2 special mentions have to go to the following:- |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Thank you to everyone who has supported us through
2009.
Hope you have a fish filled year ahead and we look
forward to seeing you in 2010. |
|
|
|
