Tiny Turbot and Toasted Flounder, Donegal Bay, 23-4-2012

[johnwest]

People:Me

Duration:8.5 hrs

Tide:Last 2 hrs down, then up to high water.

Weather:Warm, sunny, dry at first then cool N breeze with heavy showers later.

Bait:Frozen mackerel and fresh lug.

Rigs:3 hook flappers and 3 boom flappers

Results:Small flounder, tiny turbot, dabs, wrasse and pollack.




Report:
I started off on the beach for the last of the ebb tide with bites coming straight away. A series of small flounder came 1, 2 and 3 at a time, only up to 17-18cm in size. One of the flounder was quite unusual, it was completely camouflaged on both sides, just like a slice of well done toast! At low water a small turbot (11 cm ) came ashore followed by another even tinier one at 9 cm; this is the smallest turbot I've ever caught and I have to admit I got a bit of a kick getting one so small. Is this what angling writers mean when they talk about " a better stamp of fish "? One of the flounder was quite unusual in that it was completely camouflaged on both sides, just like a well done slice of toast. ( For a quick look; http://youtu.be/9etWq9VrPPE ). In total the beach yielded 10 flounder and four tiny turbot, all on mackerel and all from very close in; not even a bite at long range. As often happens here, the fishing died after low tide so I moved to a different mark.
At the second mark bites were a bit slower but the fish were a bit bigger starting with a 27 cm dab and a similar sized flounder. Another smaller dab and flounder followed and then the first ballan wrasse of the year showed up. A further four wrasse including a double came ashore, all around the 27 cm size. Most of the fish at this mark came to lug bait rather than mackerel. At this stage I was experiencing some very heavy prolonged showers, one of which must have been bordering on thunder as I got an unpleasant static electric shock from one of the rods despite everything being soaking wet. I got a second shock from the same rod , nothing from the other rod and I am wondering if the fact that the "electric" rod (or should I call it the Lightning rod) was using braid rather than monofilament, had anything to do with it. Anyway with the bites slowing down and weather getting worse I headed for home, via the Chinese.

[chuckaroo]

TINY wee turbot but perfectly formed lovely wee fish
some nice pics there jw from a long hard-earned session

[yngkmd]

good to see the wrasse showing up again

[stox 1]

The power station at Ballyshannon must have been working overtime!

[Sweetwrasse]

I'm always impressed by the determination of those small Turbot! Good report Johnwest.

[fishy1987]

jaysus that lightening sounded scary fair play for putting in the hours and sticking through the bad weather rewarded with some nice fish and a couple of lovley wrasse.that turbot definetly one for the fishtank
ferg

[willie bendit]

some nice photos there....have to agree ,the turbot are deadly lookin'....as is the flounder

[FisherKing]

That is one small Turbot & interesting Flounder, nice catch Great to see the Wrasse making an appearance there still not back at my mark yet but should start showing from now on!!

[grady]

lovely wee turbo John, nice session alltogether, well done

[johnwest]

That is one small Turbot & interesting Flounder, nice catch Great to see the Wrasse making an appearance there still not back at my mark yet but should start showing from now on!!

I've had a couple of attempts at the wrasse recently but these were the first, hopefully a few bigger ones will show up soon!

[Al and Jordan]

more great fishing man. those flats might be small, but at least you were catching something. at the end of the day you can only catch whats out there in front of you . great to see the wrasse turning up too
as for the static, we have some rain gear and when you are moving about you tend to generate your own static charge. but it only discharges when you touch something grounded like your rod or tripod