Duration: 4pm to midnight
Tide: HW 10.10PM
Weather: light winds gusting to 30mph intermittant drizzle
Bait: rag, lug, mackerel and sand eel
Rigs: flappers and 2 up 1 down. 6 foot 200lb mono 8/0 conger traces
Results: dab, 5 bearded rockling, doggies, coalies, whiting, codling, flounder and pouting
Report: with the weekend upon us again it was time to have a look through the multiple weather web sites to decide where we were gonna head out to. thankfully the gales and torrential rain from mid week had moved on and we could finally get out and give the fishing itch a good and proper scratch
. just by cahnce as i was sat in front of the computer a fishing buddy rang me to tell me about the great session he had on friday evening. he tried a summer deep water rock mark just to see how it was fairing and had a great session with codling to almost 40cm!!! and a flattie bonanza . i know for the lads who fish the SE coast a 40cm codling is'nt anything to get excited about. but when our NE coast only offers tiny, shall we say codlets 
this was something to prick our ears up over 
. i sent out a few messages to see who was free to join us and drew got back to us saying he was free for a chuck. it was nice to return the favour as drew and dan had invited us to a local beach mark they have been getting good results from recently and we had a decent enough night on it with them. i only discovered this morning that brian was also free, but did'nt get my message until after we had already left 
and boy did you miss out on a great session man 
. drew got a lift up into belfast and we picked him up after a stop off for a feed at kfc and we hit the road. with this mark being a summer mark i knew there would'nt be anyone fishing it so we could take our time heading up the coast. i opted to take the coastal drive that takes you all the way from belfast hugging the coast all the way to portstewart. one of the most scenic drives our island has to offer
it was just as well we did or we would have missed out on getting to see a natural weather phenomeon just 200 yards away from us. as we were driving past the ledges coming into waterfoot drew spotted a waterspout forming off to our right. sadly i missed that one but quickly pulled the car over to a lay by just in time to see a second spout form and shoot skywards. if you have never seen one of these things before they really are a natural wonder to behold. it was like a mini tornado on the sea scuking a column of water spinning in a vortex and shooting straight up
. i just wish i had have had the video camera out with us to record the event. but not long after it appeared the wind changed direction and it just evaporated in front of us into a mist and was gone. still good to have witnessed it thow
we got to our intended mark and things were looking up. the mark was free and the weather was decent so we trooped off on the 15 min walk to the outcrop of rocks we decided to fish from where gary had the sucessfull session the night before. my only concern was that the sea was coloured up from all the rain that ran off the land from all the rain. but it did seem to be clearing and within 2 hours it had gone from peaty brown to crystal clear
. both myself and jordan were getting set up when drew reeled in a flounder marking the first fish of the session. his rig had only been out there long enough for him to bait a second rod before this wee fella decided to gobble down a rag bait tipped with mack. so things were looking very good indeed. as he was unhooking the flounder his other rod (only cast out seconds before) was nodding away too. so we baited up and got out there into the action as well. the bites were coming so often that it was almost an hour later before we even got the conger rods into the water
but if that was the only complaint we were going to have from the session, i'd be a very happy camper indeed . the bites were coming thick and fast and we all missed a fair ammount, but i reckoned it was just due to the size of some of the wee coalies and whiting that were out there just plucking away at the baits as opposed to actually getting them into their mouths. but hey, a bit of action was welcome in what ever way it came i was unhooking a small whiting when i heard that old tell tale click,,, click,,, click coming from my conger rod. i quickly perched myself in good footing at the edge of the rocks, flipped the lever and waited for a good tug and struck!!!. for a short moment the eel felt like he was on before that sickening twang of slack line came back at me
. upon reeling in my bait i discovered i had half a mackerel head left on the hook just below where the hook had been placed . but sure,, it at least ment they were there 
jordan had the same thing happen with his conger gear, but it was a good sign that the eels were still well spread out over this mark
when i went back down the rockface to drop in another conger bait i almost stood to top of a big rat that looked more like a friggin jack russel!!!. it squeaked, i yelped and we both parted company in different directions without looking back . it was more shock on my part as i've never seen our furry friends on this mark before. you usually see the bunnies on the grassy plains at the top of the hill, but never rats!. but i suppose he was just down looking a free feed on what was exposed at the low tide line . while all this was going on drew was on fire pulling in dab after dab. then just for a change he pulled in a dog which gave a decent enough account of it's self
. my long surf rod (which was nailed out at about 120 yards) got a good knock and i reeled into something with a bit of weight. i thought it must be a doggie, but to my shock a nice little plump 38cm codling broke the surface at my feet. happy days!! we don't normally get codling to this size from the shore and it was nice to see one. i took a few pics and he went back none the worse for his ordeal from being reeled up out of deep water. the next 3 casts at distance resulted in another 3 nice codling for me up to, but not exceeding the 38cm bracket. jordan asked me to thump his long rod out and i gave it a good bit of welly. within seconds his rod tip was nodding away with a 36cm codling on the bottom hook . it seemed the extra bit of distance was doing the job and finding the codling. drew was starting to wonder where he was going wrong and asked for one of our 6 inch thick fresh black lug. he was hitting the same range, but the cod did'nt seem interested in his rag baits. and true to form he got a knock and reeled in a 30cm codling . we were all catching a steady stream of fish with a few species showing with drew getting a pouting and jordan joining him getting a few 5 bearded rockling. then i had a run of dogs who were all preggers and a respectable weight. drew even caught one that had the curly bits of a mermaids purse popping out, so they were all quickly unhooked and returned.
this was turning out to be a great session and drew even broke out into song, singing about being in with the double D's with his dogs and dabs. but i think he was'nt too impressed when i remarked that being a single fella, they were the only double D's he'd be getting his hands on any time soon
we all had a good laugh about it and got back to the fishing. things had been going so well that i had'nt even noticed we'd been fishing for the best part of 7 hours!. jordan was feeling a bit left out in the flattie front, as he still had'nt got one yet. but drew was still on fire and must have ended up with 14 or 15 dabs. but both myself and jordan were scaled up on size 1 and 1/0 hooks where as drew was down on size 4 and smaller. so he was getting a lot of the flattie bites we were missing. but i knew there was the chance of some respectable fish from this mark and did'nt want to lose one reeling it up the 20 foot drop below us to the sea due to a small hook straightening out
. but as with everything in this old fishing malarky it was just a game of patience and persistance and jordan soon got himself his dab
. i was re-baiting my conger rod when drew alerted me to my big rod at distance getting a knock. so it set it down and struck into what i thought was another codling. but as it came up out of the water i discovered it was a nice whiting . probably my biggest from the shore to date. he was'nt the longest whiting but he was a real solid and thick fish not too shy of a pound in weight. we don't normally get them this big from the shore and usually have to wait for boat trips to encounter them. but it seemed that both them and the codling were taking the advantage of the first break in all the rough weather to venture in closer to the shore to hunt for food . the bait reserves were beginning to run a bit low and drew was down to his last 4 rag and we were down to our last 8 lug. so we all decided that the rods that were out would be our last casts of the evening. i started to break down the conger gear and jordan was breaking down his bass rod when my distance rod got a good knock again. when i struck into it this time my reel actually paid out some line
so i was thinking i might actually have a proper cod. both drew and jordan came over to see what was coming in as it was puting a decent bend in the salt long surf . i was quietly praying to myself "let it be a good cod, let it be a good cod". but my hopes were dashed when a double of codling and doggie broke the surface. there must have been a combined weight of about 4lb on the end of my line. but i still live in hope of getting a shore caught codling of that weight some day by midnight we wrapped it up and headed home 3 very happy anglers
the scores on the doors were:
JORDAN - 4 codling 4 coalfish 5 whiting 1 dab and a 5 bearded rockling
ME - 4 doggies, 3 dab, 2 coalfish, 6 codling and 4 whiting
DREW - loads of dabs, 3 flounder, countless coalies, 3 or 4 dogs, a pouting, whiting, 2 codling and a couple of 5 bearded rockling.
i'm sure drew can correct, add or subtract from his catch count for me when he reads this to make it more accurate.
oh and i just ment to add that all the fish except for 1 codling that went belly up were returned. i know it's only down to personal prefrence, but the codling are only starting to make a comeback around the north coast so i reckoned the best thing to do was to return them until they become more prolific. we all gotta do our bit i suppose
and a big thank you to gary for puting us onto the mark. i promise not to give it out mate and appreciate the heads up
it must be killing you not getting out 
i'd be crawlling the walls by now if i was in your shoes 
