Duration:tues evening until friday morning
Tide:up and down
Weather:sunny, windy, raining
Bait: Tasmanian devils of every colour imaginable
Rigs:
Results:a few twaite shad and a brown trout
Report:After much anticipation the short shad season had arrived, the morning of departure meant a quick run to the tackle shop for some odds and ends, a visit to tesco and lidl for some sweet/chips/drink supplies for the trip and a few cans of beans and bacon for our dinner for the next 3 days
once the car was loaded up we were on the road for a 4 hr drive down to st mullins, the highlight of the run down was watching a caravan throwing a major wobbly on the dual carrriage-way heading towards arklow
on arrival to st mullins via a couple of wrong turns we were greeted by the sight of half a dozen anglers lining the banks pulling in fish and reports of there being plenty of decent sized ones through them as well, decision time ,do we fish or go and pitch the tents? We decided to pitch the tents and grab a quick coffee rather than try and do it in the dark, half an hour later we were on the river.Sport was patchy as shoals of fish moved through the area, the standard colour of blue and silver got the odd fish but the majority of fish fell to either purple and pink or gold tas. with a mini comp going on between Davy and I the final total for the night was 16-15 to Davy with a serious amount of fish dropped and davy losing a 3lb+ fish at the net. by the time darkness fell sport had stopped and the bellies were rumbling so we headed back up to the camp for the night.
We nearly had a few people coming over to the tent to get bacon butties as the smell wafted around the area, not long after we'd finished the grub Marty and the stig arrived to set up camp and get a brew on, after a quick chat we all decided to set the alarms for 4.30am so we could get a good session at the following mornings tides.
A few bleary eyes surfaced at about 5am after the snooze buttons where abused, coffee and cereal was threw down the neck and 4 sleepy anglers headed for the river, a few others where already there and had a couple of fish, so things looked promising ,we dandered along the bank trying to locate the shoals and when they were found, battle commenced with much swearing as fish threw the hook or hit the lure just as you lifted it from the water for another cast, sport was hectic for the next 2hrs as the tide rose and then there was a lull over the high water period, after half an hour and the tide had dropped the fish switched on again, and again the sport was frenzied for 2/3 hrs as wave after wave of fish passed back downstream.
A break for early lunch saw Marty and the stig headin down the coast for bass as the stig had never caught one before and Davy and I headed back to the river on our quest for a specimen shad, this was when disaster stuck as I lost my favourite purple and pink tas to a snag mid river, with none left in the lure box I stuck on a gold/red spotted tas which proved to be equally effective, producing about 40 shad for me in the afternoon/evening session .Marty and the stig arrived back after blanking whilst after bass, but the stig made up for the bad afternoon by catching the biggest shad of the day with a cracking specimen of 2lb 11 oz.
It was good to meet a few of the lads from the forum as well, with plenty of banter and slagging flying around ,it nearly felt like a mini SAI meet maybe a north vs south match should be arranged for next years shad fest ! The smile on Albys face as he ran up the lane towards Davy with his specimen in the net was priceless, and watching the fish swim away minus a few scales was fantastic.
Thursday morning arrived to quick and after a quick breakfast it was back to the Shad hunt ,seeing us hit the bank for 6am. This time green and gold seemed to be taking the majority of fish with Marty hitting fish virtually every cast for about 40 mins including a fish over specimen weight.
Davy and I were both landing fish just grams short of the magic 1.1kg mark but not just able to hit it much to Martys amusement, mean will the stig was just plugging away in the back ground taking a fair number of fish with another one over the mark which was quickly returned, as he continued on his quiet efficient manner.
Again a quick stop for lunch and then the other 2 headed of after bass on lures as Davy and I headed back down to the river in our hunt for a specie, the afternoon session was a bit quieter up to hw but when the tide started to drop the fish came back on with a vengeance seeing us rack up another couple of dozen each ,and again they were all around the 0.96kg- 1.06kg, then just before last light Davy cracked it with a fish of 1.14kg, as much as I was pleased to see him get his specimen I was starting to resign myself to the fact that I might miss out on my speci shad this ,as we only had a couple of hours in the morning before we had to decamp and head back up the road home.
Getting back to camp there was still no sign of the stig and marty, we fired up the stoves and got the coffee and bacon on to make a couple of butties. Eventually they arrived back and we were just thinking of hitting the sleeping bags, all excited to tell them about his shad after all the slagging he’d been getting we forgot to ask how they’d got on at the bass, then marty said “well ask the Stig what he caught” I thought happy days he got his first bass ,boy was I for a shock , the jammy git had lifted a 9lb plus bass on a lure, so not only had he caught the biggest shad of the week but he’d caught his first bass ever and it was 9lb odds.
As the alarms went of on the final morning there were a few snores and grunts before a couple of weary anglers appeared from their respective tents, Marty and the stig opted to sleep on as they’d been in the bar for a mini celebration, but Davy and I headed straight to our favourite spot on the river in my last ditch attempt to connect with a specimen, the river was flat calm and the racket from the singing birds unreal, fantastic morning ,but the fish just weren’t playing ball with only about 15 fish each in the first 2 hrs but then as the tide turned things picked up , still landing fish just short of the magic weight for the next 2.5hrs we had moved right downstream to the hole near the carpark. By this stage exhaustion was starting to catch up with us and we decided 10 more casts then back to the tents to break camp and head for home, third cast I hooked a good fish only to lose it in a snag as it ran downstream, b+++++++s 2 cast later and again another good fish, this time it played ball and ran towards me, as it got close to the bank we could see it was a good fish after a couple of near misses with the net eventually it was on the bank, this had to be the one, quickly into the weigh bag and onto the scales , yes it hit 1.1kg , back into the net and into the water whilst the camera was readied ,then it was back onto the bank and all measurements taken and collecting a few scale samples a quick photo was taken and the fish returned , after a couple of seconds of hanging in the water it swam of strongly hopefully to come back next year bigger.
What a hectic few days fishing, I think I landed 200+ shad before I connected with the above fish , in the end it was pure pig headed determination that got me there in the end, I’m still sore across the back and shoulders today from spinning for 12 hrs a day. But I’ll be back next year as the shad bug has bitten ,on light gear these fish fight fantastically and with a bit of tlc when returning them to the water they should live to fight another day.
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feeding marks all around the mud banks so it wont be too long..hopefully!!!
