Duration: see below
Tide: see below
Weather: see below
Bait: rag, lug, mack, squid, razor, sand eel and cooked peeled prawns
Rigs: flappers, 1 up, 2 down, pennels, pulleys and single hook rockling rigs
Results: see below
Report: SATURDAY 3RD APRIL ROCKLING BEACH
after checking different weather forecast websites we decided to give this beach a go again. there was going to be a break in the weather for 6 hours and we thought we'd take advantage of it and get an evening session in. we arrived and got set up for around 7.30pm with high tide expected at 10pm. jordan was fishing to my left and mark to my right so no one could accuse me of hogging the best spot
. mark was first into a fish with a flounder who was taken on mack and jordan soon followed with a flounder of his own on mack too. by 11pm i was the only one not to have caught and the fishing was pretty slow. so we upped sticks and moved on up the beach to the rough ground in hope of some big rockling 
. i noticed a small twitch on my close rod and reeled in a wee flattie. it was worth the wait as it turned out to be my first turbot of 2010 . not of any size to talk of, but i was just glad to have got one and was off the mark. i'd no sooner cast back out and the rod twitched again and in came a wee coalie. this was great, but where were our 3 bearded friends 
. but we did'nt have to wait too long as i was the first to get one. not an espically big on, but a 3 beardy none the less 
then i was really jammy as i got another 2 in quick succession. no where near as big as some of the monsters we've had here in the past, but i was just chuffed to be catching. meanwhile poor jordan and mark were continually re rigging as they kept loosing rigs in the thick kelp. but mark got his first ever 3 beardy which turned out to be the last fish of the night. we had'nt noticed the hours passing by and it was 4am and time to head home. so we ended up with jordan getting a flounder. mark getting a flounder and a 3 beardy, and me winning (for once) with a turbot, a coalie and 4, 3 beardy's . the weather was unusually calm, mild and dry which made the session all the more enjoyable . the only oddity of the session was that one of the 3 beardy's had a serious deformity and had a massive hump in his back 
. it seemed to be a solid mass rather than an abcess or cyist. so we'll know if we get him again in the future easy enough.SUNDAY 4TH APRIL BALLYCASTLE BEACH (co. antrim)
with a full squad of us loaded in the car we headed for ballycastle beach. we have'nt fished this beach in months and with dawsey, belfast dan, jordan and myself all fishing 2 rods each it would give us a good indication of how it was fishing
. at 7.30pm got set up and spread ourselves out over a 100 yard stretch of the beach to try and cover as much ground as possible. dan was first off the mark with a flounder caught in daylight (which is hopefully a good sign for the coming weeks ). then it was my turn and i got a wee flounder too. not to be outdone, jordan reeled in a coalie double with dan getting another couple of single flounder. then it was my turn for a coalie and poor dawsey was still to make a start . i honestly don't know what he was doing wrong 
. we were all fishing the same baits with the same rigs at similar distances and he just could'nt connect with any of his bites. by this stage dan was storming off into the lead with more flounder and coalies and me and jordan were slowly catching him up. meanwhile poor dawsey was having a nightmare and considering chucking his rods into the sea as he reckoned he stood more chance of spearing a fish with his rod than catching one on a rig . and as you would expect the banter was flying thick and fast with the milk of human kindness flowing as freely as cold roofing tar . but it was all in good humor and dawsey finally got a coalie to save his blushes . near the end i got a decent bite and reeled in the biggest fish of the session. a coalie of 34cms . by now it was 11pm and we packed away as dan and dawsey had work in the morning. i reeled in my last rod and discovered a 5 bearded rockling attached to my rig that i did'nt even know was there . so the scores on the doors ended up,DAN: 7 flounder and 4 coalies
JORDAN: 5 coalies and 1 flounder
ME: 4 coalies, 1 flounder and a 5 beardy
DAWSEY: 1 coalie
other than the 1 coalie there was nothing of any real size, but plenty to keep us happy with the fishing itch well and truely scratched for another 24 hours
. we still can't get out to our rock marks with all this rain. had a look at one mark last week, but the rocks are still too slippy to attempt it. but as soon as we get a few days of dry weather we'll be out after the bigger fish 
