Duration: 3 hours
Tide: Flooding
Weather: Heavenly
Bait: Frozen crab and lug
Rigs: 1 hook flappers; short snoods, mounted high
Results: 2 fat flounder
Report:
For a lot of reasons, I wasn't able to get out much lately, so I took the opportunity of little one's birthday to drag the male relatives off for a few casts. Two of my young nephews tagged along, so I was anxious that they'd catch a fish and maybe come down with the fishing bug. Also, most non-fishermen are under the charming illusion that catching fish is easy, not realising that blanking is always a possibility. My first thoughts were to go along to Helvick and maybe pick up a few tiddlers; but to be honest, I hate pier fishing, and in any event I had no life jackets and the like for the kids. Instead, I headed up the Blackwater a bit to a spot that even up to last week was still producing nice fat codling on pretty much any bait that you cared to chuck out.
When we got there the beach was deserted and the sun was splitting the stones, so it would likely be a nice day to be out regardless. I got a line out quickly and then the fun began: as no one but myself had any fishing experience or fishing gear at all, it was like fishing six rods simultaneously. 'Can you put the bait on?' 'Can you tie the hook?' 'Can you perform open heart surgery? (Well maybe not the last one.) Also, the venue is pretty snaggy, so my supply of 3 oz leads was diminishing at an alarming rate. And I'll not mention the stomach churning anxiety of seeing a novice nearly let go of a conoflex rod while 'casting'
Things were slow to begin with and I started to wonder if I'd made a bad mistake coming here, but after an hour I heard a shout of delight as my six-year old nephew brought in a nice flounder. I was off the hook! After that, the bites started coming fairly frequent, which is good considering we were using frozen crab, which is generally rubbish. The next fish was brought in by my brother-in-law, but it turned out that he'd got tangled in my trace and the fish was actually mine. While we were sorting out the mess, a commercial trawlerman came by walking his dogs, complaining that pollution was wrecking his livelihood by killing off the fish. Might want to look a bit closer to home there, mate.
After that we got the summons to come home, so we packed up. All in all, it was hardly a remarkable day's fishing, but seeing the young lad's delight at his first fish definitely made it one to remember. Goes to show: it's not all about 10lb bass and 16lb huss: sometimes a few flatties in a muddy estuary are all takes to make the day!
P.S.: No pics, as the kids are in all of them and as they're not my kids, I don't want to put them up. Anyways, you all know what a flounder looks like
,,,,,,,,i enjoyed that report, and youre right ,its not all about 10lb bass,,,it can be great to just get out to keep yourself sane,the fish are a welcome extra 
