Duration: see below
Tide: see below
Weather: 26th MENTAL!! gale force winds and horizontal rain. 27th sunny, calm but bitterly cold
Bait: rag, lug, maddies and mackerel
Rigs: 3 hook flappers & 2 up 1 down
Results: whiting, pollack, coalies, doggies, pouting and 5 bearded rockling
Report:
SATURDAY 26TH NOVEMBER PORTRUSH HARBOUR 2PM - 5PM
after grady's trip to the west coast to wet a line with fisherking got scrubbed due to the weather we invited him up to get out with us on the north and east coast. we have'nt fished with him before so it was good to finally put a face to a name
. we met up at belfast angling center and got a few bits and bobs and headed up the coast to the first mark. as we got out of our cars the wind was gusting to about 30mph, but not as bad as we were expecting. so the rods were baited up and fishing began in ernest. it was pretty quiet with us only getting a few coalies and whiting between us with the biggest coalie coming in around the mid 30cm bracket. as we were rounding off this part of the trip the larne club arrived for a comp so we wrapped up to give the lads room to fish and headed on to the next mark.SATURDAY 26TH NOVEMBER EAST ANTRIM BEACH 6PM - MIDNIGHT
on the way up to the next mark i got a phonecall from liam off the forum to say he was fishing on his own near our next chosen venue. the weather was a bit rough, but not unfishable. so i told him i'd give him a shout when we got to the mark to see if there would be enough room for him to join us. we got there and i nearly lost the car door when i opened it because the wind must have been blowing a good 50mph!!. if it had'nt have been for the fact that it was blowing from behind us and out to sea we would'nt have even fished it. unloading the car was fun to say the least because i had the boot open when jordan opened the front door creating a wind tunnel inside the car sucking the wet jackets, hats and cd covers out the boot!. but with the reflexes of an international goal keeper, and a few quick saves thankfully nothing was lost and blown over to scotland
. grady was having the same problem as his rod bag loaded with all his beachcasters and aluminium tripod blew across the grass at the carpark and he set off after it 
.this was serious wind by anyones standards
i gave liam a shout and he came round and we all got set up on the beach. the tide had just turned and was heading back in with HW around midnight. we all set up 2 rods each and had to do a bit of carefull casting. if you wanted your gear to end up in front of you, it ment you had to almost cast out at a 3'o clock direction allowing for the wind to blow your rig and 7oz lead around 
. but as tough as conditions were, we were all catching fish 
. flounder and whiting were the main catches, with myself getting a few dogs and a 5 bearded rockling. but liam and jordan stole the show with 3 decent flounder. liams biggest was in the high 30's and jordan's best was'nt too far behind. but as the tide pushed us back up the beach and we neared the high tide line we started to get sand blasted 
i lost count of how many times we nearly got blinded and our ears peppered with sand 
. added to that you could hear the reels grinding with the sand getting blown under the spools and into the inner workings which did'nt sount too healthy to say the least 
. then to add insult to injury the bait bucket with a pound of lug and rag in it got blown up the beach. jordan gave chase and i gathered up as many of the worms as i could find. we must have lost half of what was in the bucket, so getting up at 5am to go digging for 2 hours was a bit of a waste . then it was liam's turn to feel the force of the wind as his beta seat box got blown over even thow it was fully loaded with reels, leads, tackle and gear. this was quickly losing it's appeal
as we neared high tide the fishing died off and the horizontal rain came down in biblical proportions. so we deceded to call it a day and said our goodbyes to grady and all headed off home.
great to finally meet you man and wet a line, i'm just sorry we could'nt put you onto better fishing. that weather was something else
. but if the weather gods are good to us next weekend hopefully we'll get out with you and brian somewhere over on the west coast. SUNDAY 27TH NOVEMBER DONAGHADEE HARBOUR 1PM - 6PM
just me and jordan this time and what a difference 12 hours can make
. blue skies, bright sunshine and light winds. we got to the harbour expecting to see other anglers making the best of the conditions. but we were the only people there . we got set up and to be honest the fishing was pretty pants. we got a couple of tiny pollack, coalies and whiting each and jordan had 2 tiny pouting. but nothing else. added to that, once the sun went down the tempreature plummeted. the added kick in the groin came from watching thousands of gulls on mass having a feeding frenzy that lasted all day just off the copeland islands. they stretched half the length of the island and were feeding hard all day and all we could do was stand there catching our tiddly wee fish .oh what i would have given to have had access to a boat because the water was flat calm
but it just was'nt ment to be
. hopefully next weekend will be better
what can be better
the flounder liam and jordan had were 2 of the biggest i've seen landed on that beach in a long while. go figure 