East Coast Boats

[MAC]

Is it worth having a boat on the east coast? Do you guys just end up towing it to the west all the time :?: Not committed to a boat at the moment just thinking "maybe.... oneday"

Kev

[kieran]

Hi MAC

Had a small 14 foot boat many moons ago on the east coast, based in Dublin, used to launch out of Howth and Skerries in particular. Some good marks just offshore around Skerries, out to Lambay and in particular on a low water reef between the harbour and island. Stuffed with mackerel in the summer, some nice red cod too, nothing huge.

Lambay has one particular cove that produced flats, a tricky spot just past the main western rocks on the 'northern side' - the odd thornie some big bull huss (I think 15 was the biggest we allowed in the boat!) and doggies provided you anchored up. Pollack and wrasse off the rocks, some small conger (which were never allowed in the boat - slime!). Nothing amazing but relative to what you get from the shore, well, incredible.

Long time ago, not sure what others have found since. Try dtmacs etc.

[RobertMcClean]

To be honest we do tow a lot and most of our trips are not based from the East coast, but in saying that I would still recommend having a boat, you will always get decent fishing from some mark off the East coast wether it be Tope bashing, Rays, Pollock, Codling. The key with Boat angling is to have a lot of expereince and more importantly a lot of Co-Ords and you will always pick up fish if you have that. You might not fill your Specimen fish quota as quickly from the East Coast as Cork or Kerry but you will be kept occuppied if you put the effort into locating good marks.

[Terry]

Last year especially i think the east cost picked up a lot.
Some good tope and ray and even the return in numbers of spurs inshore.
As paul says its all about knowing your marks and at what point of the tide they fish best :D
Dublin bay is not as explored as other areas around the country, but that is changing with faster better boats venturing a bit offshore to explore.

[Fish magnet]

Definitley worth having a boat on the east coast. Plenty of tope, good numbers of small codling, coalies, pollack, whiting and flounders and what seems like increasing numbers of bass, at least off the Louth coast. Still the trips over the west are the ones I dream about most. :)

[MAC]

Thanks for the replies guys.... like others out there I'm just thinking out loud. I have a few quid stashed away so you never know... maybe one day. I like the idea of having a nice small boat and I do end up in the south and west coasts a lot. Maybe I'll try to get out on the boats a little more and see if it's for me.

Kev

[dtsacs]

Kev

With the M50 now complete it's quite easy to get to marks from Howth & Skerries on one side to Bray & Greystones on the other side (once you stay away from car park times on the M50 - I'm sure you know it's the cheapest car park in Dublin during the day now). Last year there was a good showing of Smoothound's off Bray, plenty to specimen size, Tope off the usual Greystones marks as well as all the usual species. The Rockabill Lighthouse off Skerries gave up some nice Wrasse and Pollack as did Lambay Island and as Kieran said there's always nice Bullhuss to be found off Lambay. At present parking is free at these venues (they are talking about charging for parking in Howth and I'd say the same will happen in Greystones if they go ahead with the Marina) and all are easy to launch from.
As the lads said above while it's not as good as the South or West coast it's still not bad and seems to be improving slightly since they sorted out the waste in Ringsend. It's amazing but you can see a huge difference even along Dollymount beach, before you had to pick your way through all types of pollution washed up but now there's very little and the beach is a pleasure to walk along again.
Damien