Once again the weather is trying it’s best to scupper all our plans for some good days afloat. With both Southerly and northerly gales of late, we are tending to take each day as a bonus.

Following Southerly winds of 35mph last Friday, the good forecast for the weekend was met with a little nervous anticipation, would it be ok?

With neap tides upon us, a sortie into Holyhead Deeps was planned for both the Saturday and Sunday, in search of the last of the tope and the first of the winter spurdog.

Saturday’s crew was a mixed bag of My Way regular, who all hoped on following a late cancellation on the Friday morning …… thanks guys! Here’s a run down on Friday as described by regular My Way angler Carl ‘Monty’ Burns.

I was lucky enough to fill a space on My Way due to another party cancelling at the last minute (Suckers!) and brought my mate Jobe along too. It was Jobe's first time out on a boat,but he was looking forward to it.

The weather was fantastic, no wind and relatively calm seas, we had a brew and set off. We started off at anchor fishing for Dogs, Whiting and anything else that might be down there. My first drop of the day produced a small Huss and a steady stream of fish followed and my mate Jobe was getting the hang of things.

We then headed off to have a few drifts for Wrasse,etc before heading off to deeper water. The drifts produced Wrasse for everyone,"Funny Ol' Scouse Fella" having the biggest,but not in the numbers Geth was expecting. The Skipper decided it was time for the off,so we headed out to deeper water to fish a new mark for,Possibly:Tope,Conger,Huss,Spur.

We were fishing 170ft. of water with large baits, Mackerel/Whiting, and waited for any signs of life. My rod started nodding after about 20 mins.,so I started reeling in whatever had taken my bait. I was only using a small rod and it was taking a while to bring it in and,Yes,I did worry it was only a Doggie and end up looking like a right Muppet for taking so long.

Eventually, I got the fish to the surface and,Thankfully,it was a nice Bull huss. I'd Skillfully hooked it in the tail(very hard skill to master)and it was about 14lb. A couple of nice Huss followed for Lee and Dave and then I caught a small Spurdog. And,as ever with boat trips,our day came to an end all too soon and we set off back to the Marina. A great day afloat,some nice fish and my mate Jobe had a brilliant time out. It was also a small triumph for him as he'd not felt sea sick all day......

"Cheers to Geth and lads for a Great Day. Peace!!!"
p.s. "I isn't sayin nuffin about yellow rods or yellow pants.....u know who u r!!lol"

I always promise to keep the mailing list up to speed with the goings on, and in addition this page. Apologies again for the lack of words. It’s been a while since I wrote a little for ‘My Way News’, not for the want of trying though! The weather has been terrible this summer, Gale force winds, followed by more gale force winds has restricted our trips severely. I have not known a summer like this!

Summer … ha, there’s a joke!

On the occasions we have been able to get out the fishing has been far from electrifying. Bags of wrasse, pollack, dogs, huss, gurnards, dabs etc have been fairly consistent mixed in with some smoothies, rays, eels the odd tope etc. But in all seriousness nothing compared to previous years or what it actually should be like for the time of year.

Speaking to colleagues up and down our coast as well as a few from further a field, it is a similar story all around!

Well the forecasters always appear to promise us an Indian summer come September /October. Let’s hope that it is on way this year and we can enjoy some autumnal sun and calm days afloat.

But whilst they're around why not, hehe!

Since my last report fishing has been picking up on a daily basis. More species are moving in en-mass. Catches of late have included pollack, wrasse, coalies, rays – blonde, spotted and thornback. Recently though our attentions have turned towards the influx of smoothounds.

Since mid May some quality fish have been landed ranging from the smallest of around 6lb to the biggest that fell to local angler Jonathon Law and topped the scales at a whopping 25lb. We have managed 3 twenties so far, Jon’s 25lb, a 24lb 3oz and a 20lb fish – all starry hounds, and all putting up a great fight.

Over 80 fish have been landed in 7 days with many of the fish caught in the late teens, with numerous 16’s, 17’s 18’s and 19’s. With this stamp of fish it is no wonder that many anglers are smashing their personal best smoothie captures.

Last Friday 23^rd, all 5 onboard smashed pb’s with fish of 25lb, 20lb, 19lb 8oz, 19lb 6oz and 19lb 3oz.

These fish were caught in a 17 total haul with only 5 smoothies going under the 10lb mark, and all caught using a selection of sensor tip rods and light lines.

We should have them around for a few weeks to come, let’s hope they get bigger.

Whilst fishing aboard My Way on Sunday 27th April, local angler Paul Whittle hooked into a cracking spurdog that weighed in at 19lb 13oz. The current WFSA record stands at 19lb 2oz, also caught aboard My Way last year by Manchester angler Damon Brierly. Please note that these fish are Caught and then released. As the governing body for angling in Wales, the WFSA have for a number of years now, allowed C&R on record claims.

My Way finally went back in the water on March 14^th following her annual routine maintenance and general TLC.

But, typical early year the weather has been horrendous of late with the many trips falling foul to the extreme northerly winds we have been experiencing; we have only managed to get a float on 9 occasions, so lets hope this late run of poor weather will abate and leave us with a mighty fine summer. 

Fishing has been at best described as up & down. One day we’ll have a fish filled time afloat with the next seeing us struggle to keep the rods bending. Typical winter quarry are here with the odd signs of spring – dogfish, conger, huss and whiting with dabs, pout, pollack, coalies, a few ballans and some nice spurdog offshore making up most of the bags when we are able to get afloat.

Small tides and weather permitting the reefs and wrecks in Holyhead Deeps are proving once again to hold a good number of spurs and huss, many of both into double figures.

I would love to say plenty of decent congers as well, but yesterday especially we failed to land any of the big fish we had hooked. Myself and Paul Whittle both losing out to what appeared to be very good fish half way up from the 200foot depth we were fishing.

Yes I know – we need some better anglers on board.

Well that’s it the first brief report from 2008.

Best wishes to all reading and happy fishing wherever you wet a line.