Dad n Lad go to Holy head 23/7/10

[gary]

Decided to book a trip to Holy head for a days fishing in different waters,

The boat we chose to go on was called Bad Boys, she is 38ft long with 270sq ft of deck space






Bad Boys skipper is called Mel, he offers a 10 hr trip which would be mixed fishing on various marks over rough ground,sandy bottom,and wreck fishing

Breakfast was sausage and egg butties and hotpot for dinner with tea n coffee all day, for 40 pound per person, :'(

I can tell you now its worth every penny,

Mel called me on Thur night to confirm the trip was on,we arranged to set sail at 9 30am.

Early start on Fri morning, with the alarm set for 5 am,
Arrived in Holy head at 8 20am. about a 2hrs 30Min's journey

which left enough time to get a coffee and get some bait which was recommended rag n squid







As we approached Bad Boys we were greeted by the skipper his friend and his friends son, first question to us was, tea or coffee lads?
As we supped our coffee Mel steamed out to our first mark,

First destination was for bait, fresh mackerel,

After doing a bit of searching we eventually hit in to them, full house every time ,then nothing as we drifted over the shoal, we managed to fill the box which was a enough for a days fishing

mark number 2 was in around 45ft of water over a wreck, dropped anchor and started fishing.

I was using a two hook pennal rig loaded with rag and squid, and mackerel mixed,

my dad hit into a bullhuss first , :'(





Then i got a knock thinking it could be my first bullhuss, and a doggie came up oh no not doggies





Fishing proved to be a bit slow at this mark, a few bullhuss, a few doggies and one gernard, so on went the sausage and egg butties.

The skipper gave us a few options and asked what would we like to do, tope fishing in deep water, was one of the choices, he did say it was a risk because two boats had been out there in the last fortnight and had nothing, so a decision was made between the lads to take a chance to try and catch some tope

i thought this was very good of the skipper to ask what we thought :'(, there are many skippers who would just sit it out and wait for the return home

Mark number 3
This was about a 45minute steam to off shore ground into deep water at about 56 meters, about 180ft over rough ground ,Mel went to the front deck and released the anchor.

The big rigs went on, which were size 6/0 hooks on 200lb mono, and we were soon fishing for the tope.

We arrived at this mark about an hour before slack water, so the tide was still running quite strong,

we were using 1lb weights to keep on the bottom, we had 20 minutes or so of nothing, no bites anywhere :-X

I'm sure everybody was sat there thinking why did we take the chance to come to a mark which had produced nothing for a few weeks,

anyway as slack water approached, so did the fish

my first ever spur dog
;D




Then my dad had his first :'(





the whole boat (7 lads) was into them now, as soon as the fresh mackerel flapper hit the bottom they were on,



another for me










Then after a terrific fight 180ft from the bottom, which was bloody hard work, my first ever tope








Another spur dog for my dad






My dad had a decent fight with a tope but unfortunately he lost it

As we were all catching fish on the deck, Mel was in the wheel house boiling a pan of hotpot which went down a treat

then my dad hit into another tope which was peeling line for fun, eventually after a long hard scrap his first tope






the boat must have caught around 50 spur dogs ,then my dad had a good run on the spur dogs,












Here is a triple hook up






We were catching fish after fish for about 2 hours constantly, it doesn't come much better, my dad had caught three on the same piece of mackerel

He dropped the old scabby bit of mackerel back down to see if he could catch on it again,

as soon as it hit the bottom, fish on he said

well what a scrap we all knew it looked good then his personal best tope surfaced, weighing in at 30lb, the only fish weighed on the day, well done dad








fantastic days fishing, all in all the boat got over 50 spur dogs, 5 tope, 3 bullhuss, 1 gurnard and doggies

arrived back at the mariner about 7:20 got home around 9:45pm had a fantastic day for £40, Mel is a terrific skipper, and i would highly recommend booking a trip on his boat

Thanks,
Gary

[Paul]

Superb report as usual Gary

Looks like a cracking day out

[TerryG]

Exellent report and pics Gary, It looks like you both had a great day, Cracking weather for it aswell, result

[Rushy]

Fantastic report and pictures Gary looked a cracking day to be afloat, good value too at that price