Looking at the weather forecast, I couldn’t decide whether to try a bit of sea fishing or mayfly fishing on Lough Erne so I packed the car with both possibilities in mind intending to make a final decision on the day. Next day I was driving along the shore of Lough Erne which was glass-like under a cloud- free blue sky, having had enough sessions on the lough in the past on a “slow roast” setting, I kept driving. The sea was quite calm too but I held out more hope of some fish. I set up the usual 2 rods with a 3 hook flapper and mackerel strip on one and an up and over rig with sandeel on the other. It was the last 1.5 hrs of the ebb and nothing happened for just over an hour; then just like the proverbial buses, i.e. none for ages then two come at once, both rods registered bites almost together. The flapper produced a 25cm dab while the up and over brought a nice little spotty ray weighing in at bang on 4lb. I dared to think that things were on the up but it was another three hours before the next bite registered, a 25cm turbot on mackerel strip. Just a few minutes later another bite, this time a 30cm flounder. By now what little breeze there had been had almost completely died away making it easy to see a number of small shoals of mullet cruise by. I expected to see a few mackerel shoals but none materialised, there were no gannets about either so the mackerel must still be a bit patchy. Another long wait of 2 hours before a 31cm dab, best of the day, succumbed to mackerel strip. The long wait was broken by a dead weight on one rod which turned out to be a large brown/edible crab. 2 more dabs at 26 and 28cm weighed in over the next 2 hours before my own hunger kicked in and I packed up. While the flounder, dabs, turbot and ray were all flat, the fishing wasn’t exactly flat out but it was a beautiful day, it’s always good to get a ray from the shore and I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t have got 7 fish at the trout fishing!
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