People: myself, jordan, drew and yngkmd
b]Duration[/b]: 4pm - 11.30pm
Tide: HW 5.30PM LW 11.30PM
Weather: occasional light rain and gale force winds constantly changing direction
Bait: rag, mack, sand eel, razor and squid
Rigs: 3 hook flappers, 2 up 1 down and patenosters
Results: turbot, coalies, pollack and a sea trout
Report: well it was the weekend again and a bit of a road trip up to donegal was in order. i phoned around to see who was up for it and both drew and yngkmd were quickly added to the rosster. dan (belfast) is off piking today. (come back from the dark side man!!!) so he was out and dawsey was working. so the car was packed and loaded and we were leaving belfast for 1.30pm. the only thing going against us was the wind. it had picked up from 30mph gusting to 40mph to 35mph gusting to 50mph!! so a sheltered venue was gonna be a must. i had checked 3 weather forecasting web sites before leaving and the beach was chosen. sadly as we arrived this normally calm bay had a surf on it an atlantic storm beach would have been proud of. but sod it, we were there, the bait was bought and we were gonna fish it regardless

. well, i can be a stubborn oul git at times

.
we spread ourselves out well allowing 15 yards or so between tripods, but it was apparent from the first cast that even 7oz grippers were no match for the surf

. after a few tangles and untouched baits coming back i could see the lads starting to lose faith. jordan got peeved off from having his gear wash into my rigs only seconds after casting out and had dropped down to 1 rod and drew did the same. all forecasts gave the wind blowing off shore on this venue, but as ever with forecasts they got it totally wrong with the wind blowing on shore

. the massive waves combined with a terrible swell almost made it unfishable. but drew noticed my small rod twitching away and i duely landed a really nice thick turbo around the 30cm mark

. this was good news for me but bad news for the rest of the lads as it gave them a taste of what this beach had to offer. but with the way things were, no baits were staying in the one location long enough for any fish to find them before the rigs were getting washed back up on the shore

. drew picked up a little coalie, but by 6.30pm we called it a day and decided to have a rethink and consult the folder of maps and marks i keep in the car. beach fishing was out of the window, but i had previously scouted out 3 harbours and piers we could get some shelter from the gales and massive swell out this way. so with the car loaded again we hit the road to check out the first mark. as it turned out we got there to see the waves breaking over the harbour wall so that one was out. but the second mark was high enough up to keep us safe from the waves and fairl sheltered from the wind.
so as we were sorting the rods and rigs out drew was first to get bait into the water and would you believe it he got a hit first cast

. as he reeled the fish up onto the harbour i knew straight off from behind the car it was a bloody sea trout!!. no monster by any means, but he's been after one for his 2012 species list as was over the moon even breaking out into song and dance

. so a few pics and the wee guy was returned none the worse.
this got everyones attention and all of a sudden some very concentrated faces went to work baiting up and rod tip watching with all the poise of a herron on one leg ready to pounce at the first sign of a twitch

. before too long our old friends the coalfish appeared in the usual numbers we have come accustomed to these past few winters and doubles of these wee guys were coming in on all rods. drew and yngkmd both had a few over the 30cm mark that had them momentarilly fooled into thinking it was more sea trout until they were up on the harbour

. but it was still good sport on the light rods
by 11.30pm we decided to wrap it up and head home as i knew it would be at least 3am before we would have dropped drew and yngkmd off and get home ourselves. everyone seemed happy enough that no one had blanked and we all caught something. i was just a bit dissappointed that the conditions had made my beach of choice unfishable as it would have thrown up a better selection and size of fish for the lads, but i've just gotten used to the forecast sites getting the forecast so completely wrong this past few years
but sure, it just wets the appetite for sessions to come in the not so distant future

You do not have the required permissions to view the files attached to this post.