It was a 9am start from Holyhead aboard My Way within Gethyn Owen. A trip I had highly anticipated for some time with the potential for spurdogs, however the weather leading up to the trip was very sketchy to say the least. The trip the day before was blown off but fortunately the wind had died down by the Monday and the trip was on! First stop was drifting along the back of the breakwater for pollack and wrasse. Think I managed at least one pollack on each drift which I was pretty pleased with, and lost what felt like a nice one being too eager to retrieve. Some of the other lads also manged a few brightly coloured cuckoo wrasse along with a few ballans and a codling were caught.Once we had a few for fresh bait we anchored over a couple of patches of clean ground, however the fishing was poor. I managed just doggies, and some of the others had whiting and a few dabs but despite a couple of moves the fishing didn't improve. With a more plentiful supply of fresh bait, and improving weather Gethyn took us out to the Holyhead deeps for an hour or so over slack water. In 200ft of water the tide run is immense and even at slack it requires at least a pound of lead to hold bottom. Terminal gear was a 2 up rig with short wire biting traces, as most of what we were likely to catch would have teeth capable of slicing through lighter mono.
My hopes were pinned on getting a spurdog but unfortunately they didn't play ball, being a pack fish it seems the boats either get loads or none at all and Monday was the latter. I ended up with a load more doggies until last drop, I let a bite develop for sometime and on winding in felt a decent weight on the end. After what felt like an age, not 1 but 2 bull huss around the 6lb mark broke the surface, and I was pretty chuffed with that. Boat fishing is something I'm a bit novice at, but with helpful instruction from skipper and crew it was a productive day out, and a good laugh along the way!Friday after work I decided to have a few casts with the lures. I wasn't overly optimistic with the water being so clear but you never know if you don't try! The fishing was a no hope but in the clear water I the chance to see a few different lures working in the water, and try different types of retrieve with each. The session was made more worthwhile by meeting a chap called Paul, who clearly knew what he was doing. He took the time to explain a lot of aspects of lure fishing, shared some of his recent catches (good ones as well) and showed my some of the lures he uses in action. I was very grateful for his time, the things I learned will no doubt be invaluable and I'm sure our paths will cross again in future.
Last part of the week was today, Saturday. The forecast was better today than Monday so I just out of bed and in the car as early as possible to head down to the end of the Llyn Peninsula after tope. I went all guns blazing with 2 big rods and a further rod on feathers for mackerel and pollack. I didn't get much chance the trash the water because the big rods were nodding pretty constantly, unfortunately it was just to the tune of doggies. I must have landed 6 or 7 and missed a few bites, even the 10/0 circle hooks didn't put them off. Bonus of the session was getting to try out a new rod, a Sonik sk3 rough ground. It certainly has plenty of guts, chucking 8oz weights and half a mackerel no problem. A couple of pollack fell to feathers, and a couple were lost as well but overall a more productive session than my last trip down the Llyn, with good weather to boot!
