During the early part of the summer, anglers fishing out from Rhyl in North Wales see some of the best tope fishing the country has to offer. Parts of the Hoyle Bank attract big female fish up to 65 pounds, and the Rhyl boats regularly grab their fair share of them. I fancy trying some of that I thought, so I made arrangements with Alan Tinsley who operates Warrior for a suitable date in June. But poor weather, poor tides and wreck bookings pushed the trip on into July followed by August. Then all of a sudden it was September and Alan was talking about moving his operation up into the Mersey for the winter cod fishing. Where do the summers go? Perhaps I was pre-destined never to fish the trip. I am not a superstitious person, but when a last gasp opportunity to fish Rhyl before the Mersey move came along, the fact that it let on Friday 13th did make me wonder if this might be a bad move. To compound the problem the weather forecast for the trip wasn’t good, and on arrival the reality wasn’t much better. As the sun put its first few glints of light into the early morning sky, I was able to pick out great patches of black cloud whipping across it at a fair lick from the east. Offshore winds may well have a calming effect close in, but out where we were heading it wouldn’t matter what direction the wind was coming from if it was strong. And it was. It must be hard being a charter skipper on days like that with tricky decisions to make. Alan’s decision was that we would go and give it a try.

Rhyl has a drying harbour, which means that trip timing and duration are controlled by the tide. This particular trip meant an early drop out, and once out we would have to stay out until the River refilled around the moorings and steps. Our party for the day was a bunch of ex-army anglers comprising mainly Scousers and Wiganers. As a born Scouser myself who for many years has lived near to and fished with Wiganers, I had no problems understanding the barrage of ribbing that flowed throughout the whole 12 hours of the trip. But some people it seems don’t share my grasp of dialects. Party organiser Barry Cash from Wigan told us of a competition fished from Poole with a party of Irish and anglers and Scots. The skipper had no problems understanding the Jocks and Paddies in the party, but couldn’t make out a single thing the Wiganers said. With some of the razor sharp comments being batted around the boat, that perhaps was no bad thing. This was the Group 4 Army Sea Angling Club fishing one of its regular competitions where each species is worth 25 points, each pound weight 4 points, and each individual fish 1 point. Alan’s plan was to head off around 15 miles to a cluster of wrecks close to the gas rigs, dropping back closer to shore if or when conditions forced the move. This gave a real armed services feel to the trip. A party belonging to the army fishing over marks belonging to the navy in condition best described as RAF.

It soon became clear that the wreck we were originally going to fish would have to be given a miss. Warrior is a 38 foot Aquastar powered by a 200 hp Perkins and could have eaten up the conditions. But the long run back from this particular wreck would have meant pushing both the tide as well as the wind, so a more comfortable alternative was sought. To get the best species mix available, finding fresh mackerel was high on every body’s list of priorities. With the mackerel having moved away from the inshore marks, and becoming ever patchier offshore, Alan decided that the disturbed water on and around the wrecks themselves would be the best bet. The first wreck we visited produced fresh bait by the bucket full. Unfortunately when the long flying collar rigs went out it produced little else. Three drifts and no fish saw us heading for the largest wreck in this particular cluster. Immediately you could see the difference. Redgills, jelly worms, power worms, even Ammo sandeels all got straight in on the action. The hope had been that other species would get a look in over the sand on the drift up to the wreck. 'Unfortunately', pollack were so thick on the ground that they were scattered around the wreck as well as over it. Nice fish too in tip-top condition, some of which were pushing double figures. A change to baited feathers added red, grey and tub gurnards to the list, along with whiting, an odd pouting, and poor cod. Clearly there were other species to be caught. But with the pollack fishing so good the lads wanted to stay with them for a while.

Several weeks earlier I had been sent a sample pack of assorted Jelltex lures including shad patterns from Fishtek, which prior to the Rhyl trip I hadn’t managed to try. Wrecking was the perfect opportunity. Alan said he hadn’t seen much come up before on shads. But one of the lads on board, Frank Davies had taken some good fish on them in recent times on other boats and was more than happy to give them a go. The pack contained red, yellow and black patterns, each of which was given a run out on a flying collar rig, and each of which in turn produced good fish. All the other patterns were catching fish as well. Pollack were plentiful and very tempting to stay with. But the competition was a points gathering exercise that required more species to put a potential gap between the competitors. Alan kept on reminding them that it was approaching slack water, and that if they wanted to anchor the wreck, which in the prevailing conditions would be difficult, they would have to put their pollack tackle away and soon. Finally the message got through, and after some very carefully calculated positioning, the anchor went down on a pre-determined length of rope in the hope that the wind would swing the boat around to lay just off one edge of the wreck. We watched the swing of the boat on the plotter hoping nothing would come up on the sounder. Alan got the position bang on right at the first attempt. For now that would be okay. But some repositioning would be called for later as the tide picked up.

With different species available both on and around the wreck, everyone had their own agenda bringing a whole range of tactics into use. Large mackerel flappers on heavy mono and wire, smaller fillet cuts and baited feathers all were sent down to do their stuff. Some of the party tried to get their baits onto the wreck and others just nudging up to it. Conger and ling were the target fish from the wreck itself. But who knows what you might come up on the sand surrounding it. In the past, fish baits have brought up a range of species including turbot, brill, smoothhounds, spurdogs, tope, bull huss, rays and some huge tub gurnards, whereas worm baits had taken dabs, whiting, plaice and cod. Early in the proceedings, Barry Cash had a small tope. Shortly after, Peter Barratt took another. The pair also picked up a conger apiece. Some excellent tub gurnards were soon coming aboard, the best of which picked up a mackerel strip put down by Tommy Gallagher. Geoff Brown fishing on top of the wreck managed to find a ling. Pouting, poor cod, and yet more pollack kept the rest of the party busy. But slowly the tide picked up persuading Alan to make a few adjustments to Warrior’s position. Same wreck, new position, but enough of a change of scene to cause all sorts of problems. Suddenly everyone was getting takes, only to find themselves hung up. But not the kind of solid hang up you might expect. This had give in it to a certain extent. Alan’s guess was that somebody had recently lost a net on the wreck, which is a pity, as the value of this particular mark will be affected on into the future. Time then to up anchor and move.

One of the other wrecks in the area has an unusually deep and extensive scour hole adjacent to it that attracts all sorts of fish, particularly clean ground feeders. To get the species mix higher, it was agreed to give this mark the last hour or so before heading back to port. Some of the lads had brought along fresh black lug worm which could potentially prove useful for quite a range of species, in particular dabs and plaice. The dabs immediately obliged. Unfortunately, in the short spell of time remaining, the plaice did not. Meanwhile, the mackerel baits added doggies to the list. But sadly no rays, bull huss, spurdog or smoothhounds. That gave a total of 12 species on the day, which is probably about average for a trip of this type, and could have been much better had Alan been free to take the boat to some of his first choice marks. Typically, later in the afternoon, things did quieten down quite a bit. But by that time it was too late to head out to the more favoured wrecks. Not that anyone was complaining. Organiser and current group champion Barry Cash certainly wasn’t as he took top honours again on the day with 7 species and 404 points.