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The last 4 weeks have been very busy aboard My
Way, some great settled weather has seen us sail daily in search of a
variety of species, all this together with the return of the Anglesey
Boat Angling festival sandwiched in the centre of a hectic time
afloat.
The fishing, well, on most days has been
outstanding and on others has been extremely hard work. When the fish
are in abundance and offering great sport, a mere 12hrs later
everything switches off for a day or 2. You never stop learning as a
skipper or angler – keep at it, record your results and you’ll soon
have a great log of data and theories to work to. Then the odd curve
ball comes and throws all your thoughts and ideas out of the window.
So how has it fished?
Mid May is when we start to turn our attentions
to the great welsh smoothhound packs. Most familiar with our website
and fishing aboard My Way, will know only too well how fond I am of
catching these hard fighting small sharks. In shallow waters, and with
bodies built for electrifying speed, smoothhound fight like hell!
Normally by the
middle of May our hound fest is in full swing, however this year
things have been slow to get off the mark the smoothies being no
exception. |
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On May 18th we had Dave Barham and Jim Midgley from the UK’s
Boat Fishing Monthly magazine on board to
film a new series of programs ‘Barham on Boat Fishing’ for the Web based
Online Fishing TV . Typical, the smoothhound were in short
supply, however we managed to scratch out a couple and by all accounts a very
informative program is due to released soon. You can catch it via subscription
or a pay per view in a few weeks time.
Still struggling the following day, a change was
on the cards to offer the anglers some good sport. With neap tides and settled
weather upon us the next few days where going to be spent chasing big fish in
Holyhead Deep. Our chosen mark was approximately 8miles SW of Holyhead's famous
South Stack lighthouse in waters of 250ft deep. |
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Disappointment at the lack of smoothhounds
was soon forgotten about as over the next few days the anglers
aboard My Way hooked into countless double figure fish – huss,
tope and some quality spurdogs making many a happy smile. During
2009 we had tried to get a few days filming ‘in the can’ on
spurdogs for Phill Williams website –
Fishing, Film and Facts,
sadly weather and spurdogs conspired against us. This year though
with glorious weather rand a fair number of spurs around, a quick
phone call saw Phill hoping aboard My Way a mere 10hrs later. Phil
wasn’t disappointed and managed some great footage with spurs to
16lb, big huss and some pack tope making special appearances. You
can view the film in coming weeks on Phill’s website. |
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During the last week of May, I was joined
aboard My Way by Ian and Matthew Burrett, father & son team from
the famous Luce Bay charters
‘On Yer Marks’. Along with
Family Burrett, came skippers and small boat owners from north of
the border – all in search of big welsh smoothhound. The pressure
was now certainly on, I have a lot of respect for Ian, not only is
he a highly respected skipper, but also a keen conservationist who
works tirelessly for all anglers. Spurdogs, Skate and many other
sharks and fish specie all owe a little bit of gratitude to Ian and his
drive and enthusiasm within Scottish angling.
Yet again the fishing was patchy, everyone
managed to land one or 2 hounds with the biggest topping the
scales at a very respectable 18lb 3oz; with Ian himself landing 4
great double figure smoothhounds. A special mention though to
John, who left it until the last hour to get a run, whilst holding
his other rod! Great smoothhound in the end! Sadly on occasions
some anglers take little care when using 2 rods, or when lowering
the one bait they are fishing, during this visit, along with rods
off port and starboard, I counted 9 rods waiting off the stern –
it works if everyone is careful and respectable to other lines …
simples!
So not hand over fish action, but a great
laugh with a good bunch of anglers, to be repeated next year –
along with the challenge to Ian & Matty of finding a ton up skate
for my son Harry and a Black Mouthed Dogfish for myself! |
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Following the Scottish invasion, I was joined
for a couple days by a group of four anglers, including Dave and
Norma Park. A very keen angler and now into his eighties Dave has
fished all over the world and now has a personal species list
containing 438 entries from sea and fresh waters – and our
smoothies were still playing hard to get. Well, we managed a fair
few thankfully, best going 17lb 3oz, played and landed by Norma,
smashing her personal best – however she was reluctant to claim it
as I had hooked it up on my rod. Not to be outsmarted by the
hounds, Norma managed to acquire a new PB of just under 9lb before
her visit was over. |
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Dave though was finding the smoothhound hard to
find, watching a few come over the gunwales for the rest of the
crew must have been disappointing even for the most hardened of
anglers. Entering the last couple hours of the 2 day jolly, Dave
was sat in his deck chair, happily enjoying a cup of tea and
chocolate mini roll, when the ratchet screamed off with the best
run of the day. Putting his tea and cake down carefully, Dave
stood up, raised the rod carefully into the fish ensuring a good
hook up. With drag set, he then sat down and finished his
chocolate roll ( Norma won’t let him have too many, so this
smoothhound was not going to interfere with that), after which
Dave landed a PB hound at 9lb 10oz – fantastic to watch, thanks
guys for a great couple days.
Dave has written a book based on his early
years angling exploits – highly recommended read for all anglers,
Angling Vagabond |
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The end of May saw out attentions turn to
match fishing and the 6th Anglesey Boat Angling
Festival – you can view the results here. |
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Following the festival we turned our
attentions back to the smoothhound, this time, they were back on
form for us, with 3 20lb+ fish coming to My Way in as many days,
with plenty of other double figure fish giving our 3 day run an
average smoothhound size of 16lb. My PB on the hounds was a cool
19lb 8oz, caught during a great day afloat in May 2008. I t was
always going to be a long haul to break that one, whoever I even
managed to snare myself a 20lber early June – with a beautiful
smoothie of 21lb 12oz. |
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Jim
&
Annie |
More trips on the smoothies followed; however as
if someone had turned the switch off, from 10 with the smallest 13lb
one evening, the next day we landed a big fat 0. Poor old Jim Midgley,
desperate to break the 20lb barrier and maybe bag a new WFSA record at
the same time received a text from me during this trip, it went along
the lines ‘Get your sorry ars* up here – it’s electric’. Well the 5hr
drive from Peterborough the following morning and no smoothhounds was
uhm, a little bit of a low point for the Sunday for both Jim, myself
and the crew aboard My Way. But that’s fishing; Jim did manage to bag
one in the end – 15lb’s and nearly 36hrs after arriving. That said a
great couples days once again, big fish in the deeps day 2 and with
some good anglers and copious amounts of banter I’m sure the pain was
eased a little. Sadly, the big hounds that we get off north Wales have
been a little unpredictable this year that said ….. we’re not doing
too bad as these photos will prove.
Gallery 57
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Gallery 58
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Gallery 59
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Gallery 60 |
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Drifting inshore, the wrasse are coming on nicely
with ballans reaching 3lb and both male and females cuckoos making a
regular appearance. Mackerel are joining in the fun but still not in
large numbers. During the drifts we are also seeing some good numbers
and sizes of Pollack with plenty of coalfish and codling, with the odd
fish going home at around 4lb in size. General anchor work has seen a
fair number of blonde rays, the bigger few going 15lb, some of them
caught during the Anglesey Festival, at only 3 points reward, it’s
funny to see a 15lb blonde ray cursed! Plenty of small blondes taking
mackerel strips. Thornbacks to 12lb and 3lb spotted rays are making
for some good sport at anchor along with our usual suspects of
dogfish, whiting, dabs, gurnards and huss along with many other
species.
Hopefully my next report will not
take so long, if it does – we must be busy and enjoying the
continuous
calm weather and exciting sport, so please bear with us. Our
availability has recently been updated for both boat and individuals,
hopefully we’ll see you soon aboard My Way – either way, enjoy your
fishing in the weeks to come |
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