Duration:14:15pm - 17:30pm
Tide:HT 19:49 (3.9m)
Weather:Gale force winds with heavy rain
Bait:Crab and Lug
Rigs:Pulleys
Results:11 codling (25 - 34cm)
Report:Myself and Danny opted to fish a new spot; one thats, as far as we know, never been fished before. We had had a tip off from an English lad, who not knowing where to fish, tried a spot nearby purely because it looked 'fishy.' He had a 5lb cod
. Armed with that info we were confident that our experiment would work. I started first just as a gale started to pick up momentum; Danny was to join me later. I timed it to get the start of the flood. Baiting up with crab I cast as far as I could, knowing that at 120 yards I would be in the channel at a depth of 60 ft. Almost immediately I was getting a few small rattles. I decided to leave them develop. After about 10 minutes I went to pull the grips out and hopefully retrieve this small bugger, when the line parted like cotton. Reeling in, I found the last 10 yards to be frayed. It was obvious what had happened. The sloping beach of rocks and stones must, at some point, sharply drop off into deeper water; at that point my line must have dropped away at a steeper angle resulting in some portion rubbing over the edge of the shelf. On a normal day I'd have concluded our experiment there and then, but I did have bites
! Not to be outdone I set up again. Once more I belted my end rig out over 120 yards (which for me is some achievement). This time I stood my rod up vertical trying to keep the angle of the rod as high as possible. It worked; on my next retrieve I got my gear in, although, about half way in I could feel the lead coming through weed and rocks at the drop off point. Mind you, I wound like hell to try and make sure it would clear it. On my next retrieve I had a bit of weight on. I'm rewarded; I have a small codling
. Success!! This mark works . In my excitement I muck things up on my next cast. Somehow I manage to get the mainline wrapped around the top of the rod. My rig only goes half the distance. I reckon its probably sitting on the edge of the ledge. I decide to leave it there. Not long after Danny arrives and just as he does I get some nice bites. This time I land a nice fat plump codling of 34cm. Danny lets off a string of expletives: something along the lines of 'you jammy x@! 
git.' After that I decide to stick with the shorter casts. So did Danny
. I had one more codling before I headed off. Danny stayed on into darkness and was rewarded with 8 more codling. All and all, a successful experiment. Cork Harbour is still throwing up numbers of codling at the moment 
and hopefully it will stay that way until the next Cork Harbour Light Line Comp on Sun 14th Feb (Note for your diaries ). Watch this space 
!