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Total Sea Fishing - The Story |
| Back | In September 2002, KerryKim set sail with a number of anglers from Total Sea Fishing magazine aboard. Below please read the story of our adventures. |
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Total Sea Fishing Weekend Gethyn Owen Having tried their luck on the shore, the second half of the Total Sea Fishing weekend saw the Internet crowd of TSF enthusiasts fishing aboard two charter boats from Amlwch port on the north east coat of Anglesey. Being a port, there has always been a traditional commercial fleet operating out of Amlwch, now however only a few trawlers and a number of potters remain keeping the local traditions alive. Still working from the port and guiding the
larger vessels into the safe haven of Liverpool port, Amlwch is home to two pilot boats. Over recent years however the port has increased it standing within the Charter Angling Industry. A fleet of 7 vessels sail the seas fishing both the rough ground and banks, along with the numerous
wrecks that are plentiful around the north Anglesey Coastline; a fitting venue for the TSFSC Anglesey is a haven for sea anglers. The fishing opportunities for both the shore and boat angler are endless. Anglesey is famed for many of its beaches and rock marks that offer a variety of fish species through out the year. For the Boat Angler, the sea around Anglesey offers wide and varied fishing grounds. The many wrecks lying in the Irish Sea are easily accessible to the Anglesey fleet of charter boats. The fishing around these sunken vessels regularly produces pollack, cod and coalfish well into double figures. Additionally many of the wrecks contain lucrative catches of ling and conger. When not on the wrecks, the boats turn to many of the banks and reefs that surround the Island. Catches then include many types of rays, big tope, spurdog; smoothound and numerous double figure bull huss. All these in addition to bass, dab, whiting, dogfish, black bream, all 3 gurnards again naming only a few of the many different species available off Anglesey. We all met up at 0740 at the inner harbour at Amlwch. Joining the lads and lass from the previous days shore fishing we also had Menai bridge youngster Nick Owen and Welsh International anglers, Wyn Parry and Alan Reid, did they know something we never?? Two boats had been booked to take the 17 strong group afloat. These were the KerryKim, a 32’ Aquastar skippered by Pat Jones and Roy Smiths 40’ Aquastar the Dance De‘ Leau. Pat & Roy have worked out of Amlwch Port for more years than either of them can actually remember, together they have over 50years experience in fishing these prolific waters. Rough Ground, or specialist wrecking trips these lads know they’re stuff. The forecast looked good for us, slight winds breaking across Anglesey from a southerly direction. Speaking to Pat the previous night, we had decided to push out a few miles to a small patch of rough ground, and see if we could hook into a huss or two, start the day with
a big fish so to speak. On reaching our mark approximately 8 miles out, down went the KerryKim’s anchor and out came the cups of tea, well the day could only get better now; sunshine, light winds, and a cup of tea…. perfect. On board the KerryKim we had Geordie Lads, Ant & Colin, Hayling Island escapee Adrian ‘Ada’ Farley, Worthing’s Nick Fuller, WFSA internationals, Alan Reid and Wyn ‘old boy’ Parry, together with myself with my two lads, Harry aged 6 and 16 year old Nick. To start with, the anglers split tactics to maximise the catch / specie potential. A few went down with common scratch type rigs, 1 up 2 down or 3 flowing rigs searching for dabs, whiting, dogs, gurnards etc. Others, well Ada actually, decided to go for gold, and went straight into the hunt for something a little bigger; something that would test his angling ability. The flowing rigs we’re baited up from a selection of baits kindly supplied by David Hall, publisher of TSF magazine, these included mackerel, sand eel, black lug, ragworm and squid. For the bigger fish again various baits were used such as mackerel and squid but also fresh whiting caught by the anglers with scratch rigs out. Within 15 minutes, Ada made a lunge for his rod that was nodding away with extreme force. Cries of doggie and woof woof swept around the boat much to everyone except Ada’s amusement. He however had the last laugh as the first bull huss of the day came over the gunwales, a nice specimen of 10lb 13oz. Huss fever then grasped all on board, as many anglers changed over tactics to tougher running ledgers ending in hooks of around 5/0 in size. It wasn’t long before Nick Fuller landed another huss, this time just under the magical 10lb mark. Ada wasn’t to be outdone. Not content with a decent huss, he then brought in a small tope of around 15lb. Could the day get any better? With the tope making an appearance all the rods were soon changed over and baited up with large offerings on big hooks. Rods were set down on the gunwales and ratchets clicked into place, whilst we waited for the screeching noise as the tope picks up the bait and swims off, tearing line from the reel. We didn’t have to wait long before ‘old boy’ Wyn Parry hooked into another tope around the 20lb mark, a good fish, which proved to be one of many big fish that were caught during the day. Fishing was so hectic that every 10 mins either a double figure tope or huss swung in over the gunwales. I’d never experienced such a large number of double figure fish being caught before with such regularity; quality fishing from Amlwch port Lunchtime soon approached, and with skipper Pat scurrying around the deck, net in hand, landing the fish, I drew the short straw and therefore disappeared down below to put the sausages on. 20 mins later, we were all tucking into some tasty sausage baps. For me it’s a definite plus to have some warm food aboard a boat when out fishing. This added extra certainly went down well with the crew. Not with Pat though, much to his disappointment someone had eaten the last sausage, which was intended for him.
Over on the Dance D’ Leau tope and huss were again order of the day. Fishing with skipper Roy Smith was Yorkshire trio Mike, Donna and David, Holyhead lads, Ian, Alan and Steve, with Plymouth angler Ian Sweetman and Rhos on Sea rod John Traynor. Plenty of fish were coming aboard the large Aquastar. Top tope went to Yorkshire angler Mike Hirst with a male of 29lb 8oz., a nice specimen fish and Mike’s personal best tope. Plymouth angler Ian ‘Crabs’ Sweetman came in with the best huss of the weekend. Fishing a whole mackerel on a running ledger, Ian landed a huss of 18lb in weight. Fish of this size are a rare catch nowadays; so it was pleasing to hear that after weighing, the fish was quickly released back into the Irish Sea. After our big fish haul we decided to move inshore, the tide was picking up and holding bottom was becoming increasingly difficult. Pat informed us that there was a small wreck on the way back, around 4 miles from shore, and it hold’s some nice pollack to around 7-8lb. We didn’t need telling twice. All rods changed over to pollack gear, some onto 3 hook hokki’s and others onto flowing traces with jelly worms or ragworm as bait. On the first drift most anglers caught pollack around the 6lb mark. The second drift produced a small ling of a few pound for the Geordie Ant Thirkill. All fish had so far fallen to jellies, so for the second drift I baited up with ragworm. My luck was in, and I landed a fish of 9lb 10oz. fantastic, and it went really well with some chips later on that evening. After a few drifts more, all anglers had hooked into a mixture of pollack, pouting, and more ling, so off both boats went to the inshore mark just off Moelfre, to try for a few more species. Shortly after the anchor went down at our second mark we were straight into fish once again, another specie? Not yet, another huss, with a little help Harry Owen landed a nice specimen Huss of 11lb 10oz, a great feat for a 6 year old. Before too long Ada hooked into something different, a plump 1lb Red Gurnard, this only 3oz smaller than the current WFSA record. The bags then included red gurnard, tub gurnard to 3lb, dabs, dogfish, mackerel, pouting, poor cod and small codling and yes you’ve guessed it big huss and tope.
After a few more fish filled hours, it was time for some food again. This time around it was Pat’s turn to don the apron. On the menu, however was Pat’s now infamous seafood soup. Over recent years it has become known as the ‘137’, or in this case, Squid and Huss soup, together with some veg and his secret oriental sauce. The soup was gladly received by most on the boat. Personally I passed on the culinary experience but have made a deal with Pat, that if he helps me catch my first ever spurdog, I’ll gladly eat a bowl full. The gauntlet has been laid; will I get to ‘eat’ my words? The whole weekend was a complete success, and it brought together a number of anglers from all over the UK. Having all met before hand on the TSF website forum it was nice to put a few faces to names. If you’ve not indulged yourself on the forum, give it a try by going to www.total-fishing.co.uk and follow the links to the sea forum. Further information Kerry Kim 32’ Aquastar skippered by Pat Jones, COP 60miles and all the usual electronics. Tel 01407 831526 or website www.kerrykim.co.uk |
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