county antrim beach ice fishing friday 28th november

[Al and Jordan]

cheers again lads for all the top tips much appreciated.

[MackDaddy]

I think the best way to tell flounder and plaice apart, besides fin ray, vertebrae, lateral line scale counts and mtDNA! is to look at two very specific areas.

1. On Flounder (Pleuronectus flessus not the american winter flounder The Austrian! Some cast that would take!! ): Look above the pectoral fin on the pigmented side of the fish and notice the scales that run along the lat line. Feel for them on smaller fish and you will notice their rough texture.

Paul's Flounder (5).JPG

2. Plaice (Pleuronectus platessa) The ridge between the eyes has four or five bony protusions which again can be felt for on smaller fish.

Paul's Plaice (3).JPG

Colour isn't the best thing to use when identifying a fish as they show a massive variation in colour morphologies... red dots does definately not always equal a plaice!!!??? (Even if most of them display them.)

I'm sure the experience of the forum knows many more ways to correctly ID these two closely related fish but thats the way I do it!

[Al and Jordan]

excellent stuff mackdaddy. i'll save those pics for future reference much appreciated.

[MackDaddy]

I learned some top tips while doing some work on a research boat last summer. you wanna see the number of deep water flatfish we have! It's unfortunate we never come into contact with them as anglers.
Glad I could help ya out tho. I think there should maybe be an area where we can post a picture of a fish and all the key identifing features for future reference? Share the knowledge! I'd love to be able to tell the mullet species apart (for when I get round to catching one!! )

[Ronald]

I learned some top tips while doing some work on a research boat last summer. you wanna see the number of deep water flatfish we have! It's unfortunate we never come into contact with them as anglers.
Glad I could help ya out tho. I think there should maybe be an area where we can post a picture of a fish and all the key identifing features for future reference? Share the knowledge! I'd love to be able to tell the mullet species apart (for when I get round to catching one!! )

I'm building up a wee data base of my own fish photos here www.flickr.com/photos/ronaldsurgenor/se ... 494956493/ hoping to be able to add a few notes to the photos at some stage when i get time to add identification .

[Al and Jordan]

just checked out your pics ronald, some real nice species there. i'm only now concerned that we might have cheated ourselves out of some species this year during our mini species hunt at bangor . at first glance you could easily mistake shannys, gobys and tadpole fish for each other. i'm feeling quite the muppet

[nthclare]

Great report guys it reminds me of when myself and my friends went fishing the shannon estuary with my dad when we were younger and were absolutely freezing fishing Kilteery pier till all hours in the morning its good to see the youth still interested in going night fishing.

[round_ourway]

well done alan, sounded like a great wee session there.

[dan]

temperatures hav been horibally badly dreadfully dreaded. fishins been hopeless for me lately. had one successfull session in the past 5.