Greystones

Fished in Greystones last night for a couple of hours, catching the rising tide at dusk with a gentle southeasterly outting a nice stir into the sea. I was looking for bass and fished a multiple peeler bait about 25 yards out. At 9.15 the rod keeled over and a big fish took line against the drag. I followed the fish along the shoreline convinced it was the mother of all bass. After a spectacular fight, I finally got the fish into the edge. I don't like shining a headlamp at a big fish in the surf but even in the dark , the fin I saw did not look much like that of a bass. On a big wave I beached the fish - a smoothhound of 6lb. My first from Greystones and I have never hooked one at such close range before.

nice fish buddy they have been getting them down at ballygannon recently, the bass are scarce though.

That raises an interesting point lampoon, cooke

Is it that the smuts were always there but nobody targeted them or have they moved into a niche vacated by our possibly disappearing bass stocks?

What do you think?

The presence of smoothies is a recent phenomenon. Up until about 5 years ago, both beaches were fished almost weekly for club competitions and opens. From August until Late October, crab was always a critical bait, especially when the coalies were around. Ballygannon in September was often the best fishing of the year to peeler. If there were numbers of
hounds around, I'm sure that the occasional one would have been hooked.
I think that the fish were in the greater Greystones area on grounds that
better suited their diet, as the fish I know of came from the sandbanks. The ground off shore has changed over the last few years with extensive bolstering to prevent erosion. It may be that the inshore crab population has now taken hold and the fish are in after them.

cooke is correct over the past 2 years there have been a lot of rocks put along the ballygannon strech, these are now covered in weed which holds a lot of crab which in turn attrcts the hounds, these rocks have done the gannon the power of good with conger also moving in and the area now has the potential to fish more consistently and hold fish for longer periods. As for the bass there around but will probably only show well after a good easterly has stirred up all the shellfish and worm. A killer on the gannons is to fish big razor baits after a good easterly this will attract all species and often the fish will refuse everything else at this time.

Plenty of hounds showing further down the coast. We caught plenty of them on hard back down in Courtown a few weeks ago. Got pics if you want them. Use hardback it does work and will weed out the more annoying species :wink: Lets hope these smooties make a habit of Greystones visits! Was the smootie a Starry or Common? All seem to be Starrys down south?