Donegal Bay 6th/7th January 2017

Thursday; A few days of unseasonably mild weather encouraged me to pack the car and head out. I thought I would try a beach which I haven’t graced with my presence for some time, a change of scenery is always welcome so west along the road to the Sligo end of the bay it was. I called in to Carty’s in Bundoran for some bait and was informed that a few lads had had a good day’s fishing there the other day (you know who you are Rushnaldo and co.!). This is the type of news that spawned that well known angling cliché; “You should have been here yesterday/last week” etc. I called at a spot on the way to see a completely calm sea, not a ripple on the sand. On to the chosen mark and there was, comparatively speaking, a roaring surf. Some of the breakers were as much as 6” high! At least there would be no bother with surfers. As I was setting up at the back of the car I heard over my shoulder “Are you John West, I recognise you from the forum?” Having recently received a post Christmas and New Year bank statement and safe in the knowledge that I owe nobody, I pleaded guilty as charged. It was Tinto, also from the forum. We had a quick chat exchanging a few scraps of information, if you’re reading this Tinto, I look forward to a few pm’s about that deep water mark! The fishing was pretty much as I expected, poor. Offshore, a small group of porpoises were feeding, inshore there were very few bites and those few produced only 5 or 6 small coalfish. After a recent tacklebox malfunction, I lost my fish measure and had the replacement, still in the poly bag, in the box; no need to take it out yet. As the tide ebbed, weed became an increasing problem and when it got to the stage where every cast was coming in draped in the stuff I gave up. On the way home I stopped at another mark for a couple of hours but a single pin whiting was the only bite for my efforts.
Friday; After yesterday’s dismal results the north side of the bay was beckoning. Having fed, watered and stocked up on bait, I headed off to my first mark. The first rod was baited and cast out and while I was setting up a second rod, the first started nodding vigorously. A quick strike and a fish was on. It was a good dab; time to break in the new ruler! The dab measured 36cm, a new p.b. by length for me but at only 14oz, definitely well short by weight. Still, a good fish within minutes of starting, perhaps I was in for a good day. But how often have I got a fish straight away only for that to be the only fish of the session? Add one more to that score. The only activity for the next three biteless hours was a group of some two dozen dolphins sporting some way off so I headed for another mark to fish the last of the ebb. There was a nice surf (no sarcasm this time) but any hopes of some nice matching fishing were dispelled as almost three hours later I was still awaiting my first bite. Beautiful scenery and sunsets only go so far but then it’s called fishing, not catching. Almost on low tide, I spied a slight tremor in one of the rods, (my recently resurrected Shakespeare Legend). I struck and in through the surf came a nice plump flounder, 35cm according to my newly broken- in measure, and 1lb 1oz according to the scales. It made the earlier dab seem two dimensional. The ZZippy, not wanting to be outdone by a mere Shaky, registered a bite; well, more of a tremble, a small coalfish. No feeding orgy was beginning; another couple of small coalies and that was that. Time for the drive home, made longer by some dense fog in places. On a positive note, herself had peeled the spuds....

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More pics;

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stonking dab John well done

Well done on the fish and I'm sure the spuds were great

I hope you are charging for any signed photos JW
Nice flatties. Nice pics.

Great stuff as always.

I think johnwest deserves a lot of credit for the quality reports he consistently puts up. The shore reports section would be a very very quiet place without him!

Some lovely fish there and great report

Fantastic report, one of these days sir the fishing will be up to the standard of your write ups.

That dab is a fine fish

Jaysus JW I thought I was doing well with my 35 cm dab at the weekend [img]https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20170110/15bb1ab2cc47018668df3438234e1192.jpg[/img]

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Jaysus JW I thought I was doing well with my 35 cm dab at the weekend

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You were, you won a new beachcaster with yours!

Not much gets past you lol

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Well done on the fish and I'm sure the spuds were great

Herself won't make sandwiches but does do a great roast chicken!