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













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





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





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





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






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




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




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


