Duration: too long
Tide: all states
Weather: everything from baking sun to torrential rain
Bait: rag, lug, mack, squid and sand eel
Rigs: flappers, spinners, feathers, lures and float rigs
Results: coalies, sea scorpions, shannys, shore rockling, dogs, huss, flounder and plaice
Report:
after working overtime and being loaded with the flu i finally got a week to myself and decided to take advantage of the low winds that were forecast and planned a week of fishing
. i started off at donaghadee on monday 18th. i fished it from 3pm to 8pm hoping to bag a few wrasse and anything else that had gills( i don't set my goals too high 
) . oddly there seemed to be no wrasse about 
but i did get a 4 coalies all around the 30cm mark and a wee short spined sea scorpion. the coalies all fell to mack and the sea scorpion was'nt even hooked, he was holding onto the end of a big juicy lug worm with a death grip that would have put a bull terrier to shame . he was about 2 inches below the hook point was determined not to let go of the worm. seeing as he had ideas about the worm for dinner i broke the worm off at the hook point and returned the fish with his prize.day 2. wednesday 20th may Bangor 3.30pm to 8pm.
jordan has been wanting a go at the minis for a few weeks now and the low swell forecast for bangor ment the mini species hunt was on
. we arrived down to find conditions were perfect for the wee fellas and jordan got straight into the action with shore rockling after shore rockling. he ended up with 6 and 2 short spined sea scorpions and a shanny to boot. he was gutted when the 1 and only tompot blenny of the day fell off his hook when it was only inches from his hand 
. but i suppose you can't win them all . i had a bit of a shanny fest ending up with 6 of them and 2 shore rockling. we tried spinning feathers for the odd stray mack but had no luck. when i was looking around the rocks in the breakwater fo signs of minis i got the shock of my life as an otter came scurrying out between 2 rocks and almost ran into me 
. i'm not sure who got the bigger shock. him or me it's the first otter i've seen in the wild close up and it made the day for me as i think they are class wee mamals. i've seen some wildlife shows with them breaking open shellfish on their bellies with rocks while swimming on their backs and have nothing but admiration for them 
. a good way to round off the session.day 3. thursday 21st may. county antrim rock mark 11am to 4pm
back out on my own again and i decided to get a bit of recon in for a comp we have there this sunday
. this mark always looked fishy to me when passing in the car but i've never seen or heard of anyone fish it before. but i'm glad i gave it a go as it was a dog a cast and i even managed a wee huss it was a tackle graveyard and i dropped down to a single hook rig and even then i had to replace about a dozen hooks that got snagged up. but it was worth it as i was getting a dog with every cast. i ended up with 6 dogs in the end and lost as many trying to bully them across the thick kelp on the surface. as the tide rose up a bit i tried a float rig with king rag to have a go at any wrasse that were about. the float shot below the surface on it's first cast and i began reeling like a madman trying to get it onto the surface away from the kelp. i was excited as hell as a ballen wrasse of 2 to 3lb broke the surface then heartbroke as it got tangled in the kelp not more than 10feet in front of me 
so after 2 or 3mins of a tug of war with me, the fish and the kelp disaster struck as my line snapped and the fish escaped so with a heart that sank in my chest as quickly as the fish did in the water, i packed up and headed onto my next mark gutted with what could have been 
i would have loved to have got him onto the scales as my own P.B. shore ballen is under 3lb and i reckon he would have been a contender for a new P.B. but i guess you can't win em all 
day 3 mark 2. waterfoot beach 5pm to 10pm.
i arrived to find that the layout of the beach had changed a lot with 2 steep shelves at the high tide line and a sand bar moved 20 yards closer to the shore
. so i was'nt sure where the usual gullies i fish would be at now 
the tide was already flooding back in and i decided i'd just try and fish the usual spots and hope it would produce a fish or 2. the flounder were first out gobbling up the squid strips on the bottom hook of a 3 hook flapper so the blank was beaten at any rate. then i got my first plaice of 2009 who could have been easily mistaken for a postage stamp as he was that small the size 4 hook looked too big for him but he managed to hook himself up anyway . then it was a flounder fest for a bit until i got a new P.B. plaice at 23cms. ok it was'nt gonna get into any specimen guide but it was a new P.B. for me . by 10pm the tally stood at 8 flounder and 3 plaice and i went home a very happy chappy indeed . so roll on tomorrow so we can get back out again to the doggie rock mark and try to get jordan into contact with his first shore caught hussin the north!!!! do'nt you just love fishing!!!!
Congrats on the PB plaice 
unlucky with the Wrasse 
, another major session and great fishing 
, hope Jordan knows how lucky he is 
