Broken ground always throws up a variety of species for early season, but equally as important, a consistent supply of fish. We’re not renowned for our plaice fishing in this part of north Wales and sadly those we do get are rarely the dustbin lids you see in the magazines; but this one caught mid-March was good enough. Our first for 2011, but as captor Monty Burns pointed out that this was his first ever plaice whilst aboard My Way.

One day, where I had originally planned to drop anchor the mark was covered with lobster pot markers. Never one to opt for the ‘near enough’ option, we had a little look around the area for a spot of broken ground that …. looked fishy !

Using the down-looking imaging on our new Lowrance HDS system, we were able to isolate a patch of ground that appeared to have fish holding capabilities; anchoring uptide, so that our baits could trot back nicely over the broken ground, the rewards where very quickly upon the boat with everyone catching plenty of fish and many double and triple shots from the off.

The sheer number of small huss coming aboard the boat today was astounding, brilliant broken kelp covered ground, ideal for small fry to shelter and small huss to feed on them!

Late March and April saw glorious weather, the sun was often up high and we seldom had any wind of note! Big fun in deep water was the regular plan; before then though we’d set sail to load My Way with some fresh bait and fodder for the dubby bag to help bring the bigger targets to us.

We managed to hook into a fair number of small pollack and herring over various marks on our travels around to Trearddur Bay, the herring were to prove extremely useful for dubby. Their extremely oily bodies can prove a major attraction for many species around our shores. 3.5hrs was an average spell in the deeps, catching continuously huss, dogfish and some cracking spurdog.

Now into mid-April the water temperature was rising and fish quantity and species were ever increasing. When launched the sea temp in Holyhead Bay was a mere 7’, it had now though increased to 9.5’ and this was being reflected in our catches, fishing continued as reported for both inshore and offshore marks.

With weather finally on our side, April saw us spend a lot of time in Holyhead Deep where spurdog numbers were again delighting our anglers and the first small tope of 2011 were coming aboard.

This photo shows the weather on our berth on April 30^th 2011, this weather was set to continue off and on for most of May. In fact it was the worst start to May that I can remember with gale force winds keeping My Way tied to her berth.

When cancelling I think it is fair to say that all skippers take careful consideration of the day that may lie ahead. It is not simply a case of throwing the ropes away and rushing out for cover. Safety is no doubt paramount, but our enjoyment is the next most important thing on the agenda.

Sometimes the weather scuppers the odd plan, such as a trip to Holyhead Deep, yet a safe and enjoyable day catching a variety of fish is still possible elsewhere in the bay. Although when the wind is howling to the extreme and your boat is going to swing around on anchor, throwing gear or the anglers around as the next wave hits the beam of the boat – is it really worth it?

May is traditionally the time of year that My Way is involved with some of the best smoothhound fishing in north Wales. Our first run out for 2011 was mid-May with a crew of My Way regulars from Merseyside; this bunch of hardened anglers are smoothhound mad and boast many fish landed aboard My Way in the high teens and also a 20lb 2oz monster a couple years ago.

Our first hound was on the hook within an hour of fishing and fell to Ian ‘Golden Peeler’ Tomo who went on to land a further 2 hounds and smash his PB once again.  However the sweep fell to smoothhound novice Graham, who, as everyone watched Ian play the first hound, quietly went about his business of fighting a reasonably good hound.

We also set a new boat record of 28 hounds landed in 1 session. This was when Boat Fishing Monthly Editor Dave Barham and BFM photographer Jim Midgley made their annual smoothhound pilgrimage to Holyhead.

You can read Dave’s blog on the trip here.

For the Spring Bank Holiday we ran our first Smoothhound Challenge competition  The event was a great success with many hounds being caught, with the winner taming an 18lb specimen to win the first prize of a new Fladen Sensor Tip Rod and Multiplier reel. Next year we have managed to secure sponsorship from Fladen for the event that has now been increased to 2 days.

July the 4^th was another day to remember! With it being a day that people in the USA celebrate the declaration of Independence from the UK, we decided to pay our own tribute and celebrate ... My Way style. Yes, this meant only one thing Fish & Food, so it was off we set in bright sunshine whilst waiting for our breakfast of big thick ¼lber burgers to cook.

Fishing did interrupt our food at times as doggies, huss, gurnard, whiting, dabs etc came aboard My Way from the 30ft spring tide. It was soon lunch time and I had planned some great big US of A hot dogs. Pete Chant, originally from Holyhead and now living on the Wirral brought along a massive pan of chilli – chilli dogs it was.

As everyone munched down for lunch we made our way around to Trearddur Bay where drifting for wrasse and pollack made the agenda once again. Then on the sail home we rounded USA day aboard My Way with jam donuts and caawwfeee! Superb, great fishing, great food and certainly a great laugh.

Moving further into July the weather tried its best once again to put the dampeners on our days afloat, un deterred we set sail regular and our anglers were rewarded once again with an excellent mixed bag of inshore fish ranging from the ever present lesser spotted dogfish to 18lb smoothies, a great array of pb’s and many angling firsts.

It’s always a pleasure to take anglers out on their first time fishing, when planning days like this I much prefer medium to big tides, thus keeping us inshore, the water flowing and allowing us to help the angler get the most from both drift and anchor fishing.

When the weather allowed, the deep waters off Holyhead didn’t disappoint, for little over 3 hours on most days all the rods aboard My Way bent double time and time again with wither huss tope or spurdog.

Whenever we venture to these grounds, it is simply a case of baiting up big. You avoid the smaller fish and concentrate simply on those double figure sharks that like to pull back. During July we helped film an episode of the welsh Language fishing show Sgota. We were tasked with finding a variety of both big and small species for present Julian Lewis Jones and My Way regular Sion Hughes to catch.

August was the final month in north Wales of any resemblance to good weather. Flicking through the diary it is though fair to say we managed to sail on the vast majority of days in August, sadly many of these days were with restrictions as to where we could search out our prey. With many days seeing us sail no further than Holyhead Bay itself.

September and everything started to fall apart, westerly winds over force 6 battered north Wales leading up to the Military InterService championships, held from Holyhead for the second year running. More high winds during the event meant we lost the 2 practice days. Day one was spent in 30ft of water inside the harbour catching dogs, whiting, huss etc, For the second day we managed to sneak out but still the fishing was hard work with high winds, choppy seas and very coloured water.  As these photos show, the conditions were not ideal at all, this is within the inner harbour!.