Fishing has been patchy of late with still fairly mild weather for the time of year. Fishing consisting of mixed bags including dogfish, whiting, pollack, coalies, codling, huss, congers, spurs and a few mini specie.

Finally the whiting have moved into Holyhead bay in great numbers. Some of the whiting touching the 2lb mark have made their way to the dinner table!

Huss are plentiful with some recent specimens reaching 14lb.

Congers are biting well both offshore and inshore. 2 lads from Holyhead hooked into a 50lb eel a few weeks back from one of the inshore wrecks, with some rough ground a few miles off giving eels consistently to 20lb.

Some settled weather now and hopefully the fish will move back in on the feed.

Funniest thing happened though last Wednesday night. Waiting in the darkness for the congers to feed, the joyful banter had died down a little as we were aware of the increasing northerly wind pushing us away from the wreck. My Way regular Paul Coulthurst was concentrating on his rod tip, eagerly looking for a bite, when all of a sudden he jumped, 2 foot back and 2 foot high, whilst screaming like a banshee and swearing like a trooper!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Our friendly neighbourhood seal had popped out of the dark sea, into the dark, still air, right under Paul's rod tip with the loudest of roars/snorts you can imagine from a hungry seal.

I've never laughed so much in my life, as did all on the boat. It will take a long time for Paul to live that one down!

A good night was had by all, I had the sore head to prove it. However the stories of Alans big tope and how it got away are starting to  .......yawn!!

Yesterday a 20 minute drift yielded around 150 mackerel, I know I ended up gutting them for the lads to take home for the pan!!

Bill Bushell came up trumps on Sunday with a nice 6lb codling, plucked from a an inshore wreck, whilst others landed pouting and the odd small pollack to 2lb.

After  thinking the winds had eased off now, following a good 3 week spell that has seen us set sail daily, the past weekend blew up big style with winds up to force 8 pounding our shores. However as the winds eased and moved more into the east we were able to set sail in search of.................smoothound.

At last they have arrived, we landed 6 fish in all. 1 small fish and the others ranging between 9lb 2oz and 12lb 8oz. A few more big smoothies were lost when they just snapped the lines as the darted off.

Plenty of fish around most marks now. As normal the usual suspects of dogs, huss, whiting etc are found most places, additionally South Stack showing good numbers of mackerel and small pollack. Trearddur Bay alive with wrasse, small pollack and coalies, and some decent codling to 5lb.

Nothing to re-write the record books, but a definite good sign of improved fishing.

A key to a successful day afloat, especially when trying for many species is to vary rigs and bait. On a couple trips of late, the only bait has been mackerel and the only rig deployed a 6/0 running ledger. Sadly fishing is not this simple, this set up will not get you your pollack, coaly, wrasse etc on a regular basis - yes you may get a one off but not consistently.

When embarking on a trip, it always pays to have a varied selection of good quality baits in your cool box. Ragworm, lugworm, squid, sandeel etc, along with the oily mackerel and herring. Fishing on My Way feel free to call Malcolm at ABC in Beaumaris on 01248 810009 for a good selection of baits, or when booking your day afloat with us ask for bait to be arranged for you prior to the trip.

However, because of recent changes in the WFSA record list and there being no longer any requirement for tope to be weighed ashore, Anthony has recently been rewarded with a welsh record listing for boat caught tope. 

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Forecast showed nice light winds wherever you looked, albeit NE, however the winds appeared to top 25mph. This threw up a very choppy sea, and despite moves all around the coast sheltering away - we failed to locate many fish. What came aboard was only whiting and the odd dog.