HANDS ACROSS THE SEA
What happened when two old rivals, but both now charter skippers, met in the middle of the Irish Sea
Old rivals meet up in the Irish Sea.
Some 15 years or so ago, two anglers, both fishing for their national boat teams, came face to face on deck. It was a competitive, no favours given battle, each trying their best for their respective countries, but that chance pairing has produced a life-long friendship. Little did those guys know that they would also follow the same career path and end up as top charter skippers, but in different countries.
Gethyn Owen, from Holyhead, Anglesey, a lifelong angler and a qualified angling coach, was a member of the Welsh National Boat Team in the Home Nations Championships in 2003 in Weymouth, and again in 2004 at Milford Haven. He also wore the red shirt of Wales in the 41st World Boat Angling Champs at Weymouth in 2005, individually finishing ninth overall and helping Wales to a fourth-place finish.
Geth also qualified for the 2006 boat team in top spot, but with a relatively new and flourishing charter business to run, he reluctantly decided to call time on his competitive fishing.
Meanwhile, Kit Dunne, from Wicklow, Ireland, has a not dissimilar path, with more than 30 years of angling and boat handling behind him, including experience with Wicklow RNLI.
Kit has represented Ireland at five World Championships and four Home Internationals. His abilities in angling, and with people, resulted in him being made national team manager. Like Geth, Kit is a qualified angling coach.
It’s often said that good anglers make good skippers, and the backgrounds of these two lads fully support that.
JOINT VENTURE
I fished with Kit out of Wicklow a few years ago, not long after he’d started his charter business, sampling the tope and smoothhound sport, and with Holyhead being one of my nearest charter boat ports these days, I guess you could call me a regular aboard Geth’s boat My Way. As a result, I know both skippers very well.
Unbeknown to me, even though the lads hadn’t seen each other for 10 years or more, they’d been discussing the possibility of actually meeting up in the middle of the Irish Sea and doing some wreck fishing together.
The first inkling of what was afoot was the forming of a private Facebook group and a message to me asking if I would like to record the first hands across the sea meeting and photograph the event for posterity. I didn’t need asking twice.
After a couple of cancellations due to poor weather, a settled forecast arrived. With winds variable and under 5mph, we had the green light.
A group of anglers from Deeside and Anglesey, plus myself laden with camera gear, boarded My Way as the first pink light of dawn was colouring a near cloudless Holyhead sky.
A little over two hours later I was scanning the flat calm sea’s horizon with binoculars and spotted Lisin, Kit’s Offshore 105, heading in our direction.
Shortly after, she sidled up alongside us and the banter began.
TOUGH START
This offshore union works well for all parties. You have a buddy boat out there, which is always reassuring, you can combine knowledge and learn the wrecks quicker, compare tactics as the day develops, and it’s a fun day for the anglers swapping banter with lads from across the pond.
Geth had been out on the wrecks the day before, not the same wrecks, but some well to the north. He’d had fish, but said they weren’t feeding hard and his anglers had worked hard for their catches.
On our first few drifts as My Way led the way, Geth having fished this wreck before, Lisin followed by working a slightly different drift line. Taking different drifts quickens the time it takes to find out exactly where the fish are positioned in relation to the wreck. Are they over it, packed tightly on one side, or in the tide bubble either directly or some way behind the wreck?
The skippers will also ask the anglers to shout out at roughly what height above the wreck the fish are located when they get a take, and this helps all aboard to maximise their chances as quickly as possible.
The truth was, it was a tough start. Fish were showing very tight to the seabed in flat layers close to one side of the wreck, but even though different tactics were tried, they proved impossible to tempt. It achieves nothing flogging a dead horse. In this situation it’s best to move and try another nearby, as food sources around wrecks can quickly deplete or move and the fish will follow, seeking fresh resources.
Wrecks rarely offer consistent fishing day in day out. This especially applies to the Irish Sea, where most of the wrecks are from the First World War. It was the main transit route from the open Atlantic into Liverpool. The U-boats packs used to hunt here and often sunk four or five ships in quick succession and in tight groups as the convoys scattered. This created clusters of wrecks, giving the fish the option of hopping from one to another.
MORE WRECKS
The second wreck was much the same. Fish could be seen on the fish-finder, but they weren’t feeding. Geth shouted across to Kit that the previous day had been a bit like this until lunchtime. This would have coincided with a slackening of the tide towards high water. Maybe today was the same, though you usually pick up fish right through the tide over these Irish Sea wrecks.
I took the opportunity to jump ship and join Kit on Lisin. Typically, a couple of the Irish lads out with Kit I’d fished with before, and the international cordiality stepped up a gear. I’ve been on boats travelling between Wales and Ireland before a fair few times, but never physically stepped over the international line in the middle of the Irish Sea by swapping from a Welsh boat to an Irish boat. It was a unique experience and one I won’t forget.
I was still aboard Lisin when we headed for a third wreck. I’d anticipated it, but the first drift produced a nice pollack for one of the My Way crew and, inevitably, shouts of “Jonah” rang out and “You can keep him” quickly followed, obviously aimed at me. But it signalled the start of better fishing.
I jumped ship again and took photos of some decent-sized pollack coming over the side. The fish looked to be generally between 8lb and 10lb, one or two bigger than that. They still weren’t coming out in numbers, but things were improving. I was keeping a close eye on Lisin too, and saw Kit bend into a pollack that punched his rod tip down. He held the fish up for the camera, having put the Irish lads firmly on the score sheet.
VARIED TACTICS
As I was not fishing, it was hard to get a feel for what was actually happening during the day. I was trying to see if there was a particular lure pattern, size or colour that was dominating, but there wasn’t. Some of the anglers were using a steady retrieve, others just hopping the lures off the seabed, and neither tactic dominated.
It was the same for the Irish contingent, who I’d seen armed with everything from baited
muppets to Mr Twisters, sandeels and bigger shads, yet with no tactic proving superior on the day. Geth rates the Fiiish lures as very reliable here, and a red/orange pattern did catch fish, but so too did a bright pink shad and a lumo green sandeel, just to prove the eccentricity of the pollack on the day.
Usually, you can swap things about out here, and find that a particular lure size and colour will take the bulk of the fish – but not today.
Even as we approached slack water, the fish would not noticeably lift off the seabed as would be expected. The wind had been generally a very light north north-westerly when we started, and the barometric pressure was forecast fairly high at 1029, then slowly falling. By the following day the wind was going east north-east, then full east, and my gut instinct was that fish were feeling the coming pressure change, and maybe even the wind change, making them lethargic.
I’ve seen this a few times when fishing deep wrecks, resulting in the fish not behaving as they should and making things tough for both skipper and anglers. Nevertheless, there were some nice pollack taken into double figures.
The next few drifts produced a few more fish, but all too quickly it was time to think about heading for home. The boats came together one last time for a farewell as this inaugural meeting came to an end. All parties agreed it was an experience not to be missed and departed with the expectation of doing it again at the earliest opportunity.
I can see how effective this liaison will be, and how much the lads onboard enjoyed it too. I can see it becoming not just an annual event but something that happens quite a few times a year throughout the summer and autumn.
I detect that even though the skippers remain the greatest of friends, that old competitive rivalry still lurks, and when they do reunite again in the Irish Sea, they’ll both be looking to come out on top. ■