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My Way fun competitions, fished in a friendly
manner, with a chance of reward |
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Date |
Sunday 20th September 2009 |
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Duration |
8hrs |
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Competition style |
Most points |
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Cost |
£35 per person |
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Last Saturday, 20th
September saw us set sail with the first of our autumn/winter
fun matches. Weather conditions were great for what we class as
fun filled matches more than serious angling competition – sunny
and warm is always a good way to start a day afloat. With tides
of 32’ upon us the fishing was to be kept fairly local to
Holyhead bay, with the maximum distance offshore being a slack
water over the mussel beds.
Despite the fun element,
the day was planned to test the anglers slightly with varied
fishing over different grounds. Our day started approximately a
mile from Holyhead breakwater on a small bank of mud that has a
tendency to throw up all manner of species from dogs and
whiting, to huss, rays and tope on occasions. |
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Fishing started well for
most on board, whilst not hectic a constant stream of dogs,
whiting and poor cod came over the gunwales, broken only when a
cry of haddock came from Gareth P on the port side. Having
already reached 50 species for 2009, Gareth was soon camera and
species card in hand to record his 53rd specie of
fish from British waters in 2009; a great achievement.
Pete Minns added 2
haddock to his tally, and quite possibly the smallest codling I
have ever seen; speedy our old Goldfish was bigger!! |
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With the tide book
showing slack water at 1230 we moved to the mussel beds for 1130
to catch the last of the flood and hopefully a few huss. Sadly
though, my timings or the tide book was slightly out! More to do
I think with the large tide of the day, with slack water upon
us, we had a brief 45mins on this mark before the tide ran
through like an express train. After a fruitless mud anchor,
Simon finally got into the action here with dogs and whiting. A
few dogs and whiting later, with a solitary dab for Jon, we
upped anchor to go onto the drift for wrasse and a few pollack. |
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Drifting over the shallow reefs around
Holyhead is a firm favourite of mine, and a style of fishing
we’ll always partake in during a day afloat. With the big tides
and slight E wind we opted for a west facing patch of rocks
where we spent an hour in search of wrasse. Ian was the first to
land a small pollack, not in size for the pan, but as we were
fishing Catch & Return all size of fish count – 6 points for
Ian. Gareth P recording the only goldsinny of the drift
The trio of Gareth P, Pete Minns and Jon Law
catching consistently throughout the drifts, with Jon catching
the rocks as many times as he caught a fish. Good fun as it is,
drifting can sometimes become a little disheartening when snag
after snag tackle is lost, slightly more disheartening for Garth
P this time, who decided to snap his 6lb rod in the process!! |
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After our drift, we
sheltered from the large tide in Church Bay. Here the fishing
was consistent, with dogs, whiting and a few huss coming to the
baits. Jon was slowly sneaking away with the odd dogfish adding
4 points apiece to his tally when Gareth P appeared to be
struggling with a good bend in his fishing rod. Assuming a
decent huss, it went slightly better for Gareth when his rig
broke the surface with a brace of dogfish and a small huss
attached.
Standing with his back
to his rod, Pete Minns relayed yet another interesting joke to
us all as Jon and I watched his rod tip bounce into action. As
the rod started to bend over and the ‘fish’ appear to take line,
we thought it best to let Pete know he had an enquiry!
After 10 minutes of
action on Pete’s SuperSensor2 fishing rod, a small smoothhound
of around 8lb broke the surface, attached to his size 6 hook,
baited with a small slither of squid. |
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For a couple years now,
Pete has tried to break his smoothhound virginity with a double
figure smoothie aboard My Way. Despite being aboard as many
smoothies have been landed and also despite helping others with
rigs, bait and bait presentation – Pete’s mission for a
smoothhound of his own has failed. Well maybe sometimes we just
try too hard and when you’re least expecting ….
Simon, having
suffered a fairly poor day with us so far, managed to catch the
second smoothie of the day. Made more satisfying once again as
it was another first ever. |
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With half hour to go,
Pete had dropped back slightly, possibly due to the excitement
of catching his smoothhound, however it was honours equal
between Jon Law and Gareth P, not a fish scale separating them
both. Once again it was touch and go for each angler as they
matched each other for fish. Finally Jon got the break with a
double shot of dogs, followed by a bull huss to edge him 7
points clear as the final whistle blew.
Unlike a Home Game for
Man Utd, we play to the correctly allocated times! |
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A total of just short of 198 fish were caught |
| Top 3 slots went as follows: |
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1 |
2 |
4 |
5 |
6 |
7 |
8 |
10 |
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Total |
Total |
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whiting |
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all wrasse |
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all ray |
spur, tope |
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Pos |
Name |
pout/pcod |
not listed |
dogfish |
codling |
poll, coal |
huss |
all smooth |
conger |
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points |
fish |
% |
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Prize |
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1 |
Jon Law |
4 |
12 |
19 |
0 |
9 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
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165 |
45 |
100 |
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£25 + 1 individual voucher |
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2 |
Gareth P |
0 |
8 |
19 |
1 |
9 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
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158 |
38 |
95.76 |
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£20 |
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3 |
Pete Minns |
4 |
12 |
12 |
1 |
7 |
1 |
1 |
0 |
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138 |
38 |
83.64 |
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£10 |
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For more fun match days click
here |
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