I love a trip away. Fishing on the doorstep serves well to satisfy the ever present urge to wet a line, but there’s nothing like a trip away somewhere to target something different and I spent the last weekend doing just that.
North Wales has some tremendous fishing on offer and it’s not hard to see why so many anglers up and down the country travel here. The Isle of Anglesey has a variety of sport unrivalled by almost anywhere else in the U.K. I’ve not had much opportunity to fish further afield this year due to a combination of Covid and being a new dad, so I’ve been looking forward to this trip!
I arrived on the island around mid day Friday and headed straight to Holyhead Breakwater. I was to be joined later in the afternoon by Steve and Erica. The intention was to use daylight and the flooding tide to tally up some species points by fishing light gear down the side of the harbour wall, then concentrate on the bigger Huss and Conger during the hours of darkness.
There was a difficult side wind blowing from the south west at a fair rate of knots and unfortunately this was to be the theme of the weekend – in fact Saturday and Sunday were forecast gales, so marks were restricted. But I was here so…get on with it!
First fish was a bit of a surprise – a female Dragonet. I’ve normally only caught these over clean sand so I wasn’t expecting to pull one out of the tangles of kelp and rock down the side of the wall, so a nice welcome bonus!
Not long after, the obligatory Corkwing Wrasse started to make an appearance. These fish are often here in big numbers and provide good sport on light gear, albeit a bit of a nuisance at times when trying to winkle out other species! There was one or 2 good size amongst them though and the males are a truly stunning looking fish in full colour.
The occasional Ballan Wrasse broke the monotony with a couple of nice fish over the lb mark putting up a great scrap on the 7g LRF rods. I’m by no means a purist when it comes to “LRFing” – in fact I don’t usually bother with the lure side of it, preferring instead to fish small 2 or 3 hook rigs with small hooks and sections of ragworm. You get some odd looks sometimes but it keeps things interesting to have a little rod baited and dropped short for smaller species.
Anyway just before Steve and Erica arrive I manage a nice little Rock Goby which was one of the targets for the species hunt.
The wind is challenging and I’m having to lay the rods flat on the deck with the tips just protruding over the edge to try and stop them from bouncing around too much in the wind – as I think the frantic movement transferred to the baits underwater water puts some of the more interesting mini species off – although it does seem to appeal to Wrasse!
It goes quiet for a bit at this point and I brave the howling winds on the upper levels with the bigger rod to see if I can tick off a few more species. The ground off of the outer wall of the breakwater is rough, some of it pure evil – so a 2 hook flapper with a weak link is the order of the day.
The wind is howling along the top of the breakwater and it seems the intended Cuckoo Wrasse aren’t playing, but I manage a nice surprise in the shape of a 3 Bearded Rockling. These are far more striking than their northern counterparts and great to look at with their mottled patterns and it’s a welcome bonus species that I’ve not caught in a few years.
I also manage a decent size Pouting and Poor Cod, both of which are deep hooked and so are retained for Huss bait – and also a nice Pollock which is returned, while Steve and Erica are enjoying success with the Wrasse again down on the lower levels.
As darkness falls the big rods come out and long pulley rigs are baited with big fish baits and sent out into the the rough stuff to see if the Huss and Conger are willing to oblige. Darkness for me has definitely been a factor in success when targeting Huss or Conger – they do come occasionally during the day but without a doubt they feed far more confidently at night.
A few hours pass with just a couple of Dogfish showing before I get the first decent take of the night on a big lump of mackerel. After a powerful fight a nice Bull Huss surfaces. Steve does a magnificent job with the drop net in the awkward side wind and it’s hauled over the wall. We quickly weigh it and with the weight of the sling deducted it comes out at 11lb 12oz.
The rest of the night is a bit slow with just more Dogfish showing. Both me and Steve get a few more tentative runs but most result in dropped baits. Steve hooks into a good fish only for it to come off near the wall. Then just at the turn of the tide I manage another Huss around the 7lb mark before we make the 1.7 mile trek back along the breakwater to the car.
The Next day
After a lie in I grab some breakfast from the local Asda and since I’m up I head to a mark 2 mins from the hotel where I know there’s usually a pocket of Black Gobies. It’s strange how these seem to be localised in certain areas, unlike the Rock Gobies who seem to turn up pretty much everywhere on the island! Sure enough after 20 mins i manage one for the species hunt.
Then we head off to Amlwch in search of more minis. I’m particularly after the 3rd Goby species of the weekend – a Leopard Spotted Goby – so set about fishing down the side with small bits of worm. The wind is picking up again and is meant to turn gale force from around tea time so the intention is to have a few hours here before finding a rock mark to try and get some shelter under the cliffs.
Again the Corkwings are being obliging and we manage quite a few of them along with some smaller pouting. I’m getting plenty of gobies – just not the right ones – they’re all Rock Gobies!
That’s about it for the couple of hours we were there so we head up the coast a bit to the intended mark for the evening. Upon arrival however it’s apparent that it’s not quite as sheltered as we’d hoped, with the now stronger south westerly wind whipping round the headland and straight across us. With the forecast to get worse we decide to move further round to the east side of the island and after a bit of searching, find a mark neither of us have fished before that gives a good depth of water and some much needed protection from the cliffs on our back.
We’re fishing the ebb which is obviously a gamble on a new mark but I’m hoping the good depth will mean it retains fish throughout the tide.
Well it did… in a manner of speaking. Unfortunately this was just a steady stream of ever present dogfish, until Steve managed a Huss around the 6lb mark half way through the ebb, which is about as interesting as it got all night. We stick it out until a couple of hours into the flood but we’re both shattered and decide to call it a night.
The following day the wind was horrific – Steve and Erica had to leave in the morning and since the tide didn’t start flooding until mid afternoon and most of my usual daytime marks were a complete blowout I decided to head home too.
12 species in total on what was a difficult weekend conditions wise so happy with that.