Duration:4pm-10-30pm
Tide:rising, high at 9pm approx
Weather:fine, calm
Bait:rag,squid,mack
Rigs:mini rigs, 2 hook flappers
Results:ballan wrasse, corkwing wrasse, tompot blenny, flounder, dab, pouting, doggies, ling, scorpion fish, whiting, coalie
Report:With my son heading off in a few weeks to my brother in beautiful British Columbia in Canada i scheduled a trip to Wicklow Harbour to introduce him to a bit of fishing. With great fishing to be had over there in the Fraser river i wanted him to be at least able to put his own worms on hooks etc when he was brought out
. What better place to spark a love of fishing than Wicklow Harbour where youre nearly guaranteed to catch fish. When we arrived there were only a couple of guys fishing so we had plenty of room to set up. We set up 3 rods, 1 at distance and the other 2 lighter rods in close for minis, wrasse ,blennys etc , and it wasnt long till he was getting bites and landed his first fish, a scorpion fish, followed by a dab, blennys, ballan wrasse, corkwing wrasse, in all 7 fish in 40 minutes!! I got a bite on the distance rod and landed a nice doggie, which was a nice change from the minis.A dad and 2 kids were fishing beside us and as i was explaining to my son that it wasnt luck at all but skill that was landing us fish the little lads, about 6 and 8, were pulling fish up every few mins. I was looking for my first pollack of '09, with no success, but the little lads to my left were landing them, ,,,"Whats this Daddy?",,,"Thats a nice pollack son",,,,,,,,,,"Whats this one called Daddy?",,,,,,"Thats another pollack son". They had 5 in all and i edged closer to where they were and dropped down a rag but it was a quiet stage when the fish stopped biting for a while
. Another guy arrived and fished the corner of the pier and after a while i recognised that he was Dave from the site. He had caught a pollack on the first drop after about 30 seconds 
. "Well done Dave", i said 
. When Fishface arrived i landed another dog and introduced everybody to everyone else .John Bunn arrived and did a bit of spinning for macks but got dogs abuse from Fishface for crossing lines,,,,"Bloody mack bashers"
he said to John. Poor John had a(nother) blank .Fishface, who was heading off on his holliers in the morning asked John would he miss him when he was gone?. " Like a boil on my a*se", says John quick as a flash before heading off. The fish came again and we landed more wrasse, and a pouting on the small rods, while i had some dabs and whiting on the distance rod.Fishface gave me a few rag as i had run out due to using 3 rods at times . I had been using mack on its own on the distance rod but switched to a rag and mack combo . I got a good pull on the line straight away, left it to develop, then lifted into what seemed like a decent fish. Not that i've got that many decent fish, but i usually go quiet when i think theres something decent on. "Anything on Dad?", said my son David,, but i just grunted something back and concentrated on landing the fish. I could feel him pulling left and then right and i had to keep him coming in at a good rate as theres ropes from lobster pots which can snag you if youre too slow. As he came closer to the pier i could see a definite eel-like shape in the water and identified him as a ling. I was absolutely delighted and got a quick couple of pics with him and released him . He was a fine fish, quite powerful to handle, and more importantly, he measured 48 cms, a full 14 cms longer than the one Fishface has spent the last few weeks bragging about to us
. This fact provided us with entertainment for the rest of the evening, though in fairness to him , he did get a nice 30 cm coalie as a consolation prize.We fished on till 10-30pm getting some more wrasse whiting and dabs, with Dave pulling in lots of doggies in the corner. A good day,we got plenty of fish,30 plus, had a great bit of banter and in the end i had to drag the son away home in the end. Think i've converted him 
Ps,,,there were a lot of Daves in this report
All I could seem to catch no mater what bait or distance was Doggies and the illusive Plaice alluded me once more, although I think I would have settled for a Ling. 
a nice mix of spicies you's got there.
