Sunday 4th January 2009

First boat fishing trip of the year. Met up with Alan and several other locals for a trip out of Holyhead on My Way charter boat. The plan had been to fish inshore in the morning and then head out to fish holyhead deeps in the afternoon. Unfortunately despite several calm days preceding the trip there was an increasing westerly and a swell which meant we had to stick to inshore marks in Holyhead bay.

The fishing started off slow with pouting and whiting but at least I was off the mark with my first fish of 2009 a pouting, followed by two more.



We moved to couple more inshore marks and Pete landed the biggest fish of the day, a huss of around 6lbs. I managed a couple of dabs for another species:



Just after a nice lunch of the skippers home made chilli and rice pots, the fishing picked up as we hit a nice shoal of good size whiting and I was bringing them in two and three at a time for a period, then back down to mixed singles.

Despite the swell I managed to overcome the sea sickness feeling that was lurking around most of the day and we moved again to anchor over an inshor wreck for the last hour in the hope of some huss and conger. Neither obliged but some more pollack and poor cod came on board to keep up the friendly catch and release points competition that was running on the boat. Pete managed to win on both points and the largest single fish.

Alan and Pete gave me some good advice on rigs and bait presentation, and Alan supplied me with another batch of rigs to try - cheers mate! Here is Alan giving a pose on board in between marks:



We headed in around 5pm, content that we had had a good days fishing despite the swell and cold westerly wind. Company was great and we had a good laugh on the boat, with Gethyn the skipper and Paul his crew supplying lamb chops, chilli, biscuits and hot mince pies, as well as lots of teas and coffees throughout the day - thanks guys!