Duration:6am-5pm
Tide:Neap, high at 1030am
Weather:Glorious
Bait:Soft Plastics
Rigs:Jig Heads
Results: hundreds of fish
Report:
Alarm sounds off at 0430am, no snooze button this morning as I readied the gear for collection. Waiting in the drive for Barry the street was alive with birds singing to each other, there wasn’t a puff of wind and it was quite warm for the time of the morning, yeah it was going to be a good day. With the boat already moored up from Friday, it was straight down to business, load her up and point her seawards, drive her on Darcy was the shout as the buzz built with the banter being fired around the boat as the sun made its appearance.
Crevan joined Pat, Barry and myself for the first time afloat. It ws interesting to see he had brought 2 rods with him; it was a good job he did as we were heading to the tackle grave yard. The Kilmore reefs will reduce any tackle tarts lure box to reserve levels within hours!
The sea was like a mill pond as we initiated our first drift, neap tides and lack of wind resulted in a slow drift which in turn affected the way fish reacted to our soft plastic offerings. A fast drift is preferred for our style of fishing, cast up tide and work the lure into the target area and the take is very aggressive. But on Sunday we had to adapt to the fish as they just plucked at the lures resulting in a lot of missed strikes and some colourful language!
The challenge was undertaken and we adapted, hitting fish after fish for a brief periods before the fish either moved on or lost interest, this was to be the order of the day so we moved around quite a bit trying various locations and lures.
Pollock was our main target for the day, a true sport fish on the light gear over the reefs of Kilmore, this hard hitting and crash diving fish will make any angler shout with excitement when their gets smashed.
The Pollock proved to be scarce on the reef in our usual locations compared to last year, granted it is early in the year and the tide was not in our favor. Anyway we still had quality fishing when we did hit them.
Pat hooked into; in his own words a 'DONKEY' and after a good row <strong>(his own words)</strong> with some decent runs,a fine Pollock was boated and weighed in at 9.7lbs !. A cracking fish indeed. Barry's rod looked under pressure as I glanced over when I heard the drag going, 'That looks like a good fish' as I lean over for a look and a picture.
Line been taken at pace by a substantial fish, a tug of war ensues with Barry the victor. BOOM the scales swing over the 10lb mark! Happy Days as Barry's first double figure Pollock poses for a few pictures. Well done my son
When 2 becomes 1Indeed it was a curious sight seeing Crevan with 2 rods as he came aboard Wahoo, ah sure this lad must mean business!
Anyway he geared up the Speed Master and fished away for a bit, until he had a Captain Ahab moment, rod bent to the butt as he lifted in and then BANG as the carbon expires!
His 2 piece rod became a 3 piece rod, but he sucked it up like a true Billy Bandit and geared up the Teklon, no fear there!
Codling, a rare fish for us last year to be fair. But on Sunday we had arguably more Codling than Pollock which is a good sign depending on what side of the coin you are looking at. Some lovely fish were landed, which gave great account for themselves over the course of the day.
Wrasse, the Irish Tropical fish
, fantastic colors and Lure smashers! These babies last year proved elusive to say the least. We targeted specific marks in 2010 for a small return. Now fast forward to April 2011, lads if I caught 1 Wrasse I caught 50! , all laughing and joking aside, I went on a run of around 30 Wrasse in a row, sure I havnt seen the likes of that since the time of JFK !
Ling, we had a good few of these at the base of some very steep pinnacles, nothing huge but they are always a welcome sight on a soft plastic in my book.Pouting, only one was boated on Sunday, but again it was another welcome species on the softies.
Apologies for the lack of pictures for the different species! Some crew members need some training in the art of not putting your finger in front of the lens while taking a picture styleeee!
Ha Ha , the lads will do it alright
Danny.
cant wait for the pictures some fantastic fish caught by the sounds of it 
