Sligo beach and rock mark, 24th and 25th Oct 2012

[johnwest]

People:Myself

Duration:3hrs on 24th, 6hrs on 25th

Tide:low on 24th, flooding on 25th.

Weather:Calm, dry, sheltered from breeze.

Bait:Lug and frozen mack.

Rigs:1up 1down, 2 hook flapper, float and wrasse rig.

Results:Flounder, small ballans and corkwings.




Report:
I was hoping to target some half decent wrasse and had dug plenty of lug in expectation. As always, some mackerel was used on the beach for the flounder. A 3 hour session in darkness on the beach around low tide produced 3 flounder at 34, 28 and 19cm in that order. As the fish were decreasing in size it was probably just as well it was a short session!
The following morning the sun was shining and there was little or no wind so I headed off to the rocks. Getting out of the car, the temperature was only 7 celsius and it felt quite cool but after a hike across a few sand dunes I was almost ready for a second application of deodorant. I had packed a spinning rod to try for a few pollack but when setting up, found I had forgotten to pack some spinners so on with the bait. The fishing started off very slowly at low tide and I was beginning to think the wrasse had already departed, but after about 2 hrs the fish started to feed. One surprise was a nice 37cm flounder which came out of a rocky hole which must have a sandy bottom. (The pic suggests it was less than 37 but the ground was very uneven). The bites on float-fished lug came thick and fast but hooking up proved difficult; strike quickly and you miss, wait longer and the bait is stripped. I put this down to the small size of fish, corkwings are small anyway but the biggest ballan was a mere 30cm. I ended up with 6 corkwings and 5 ballans, where have the better fish gone? Last time, which was also the first time, I fished here I got fish to 2.5lbs. Is that the wrasse over for this year?

[fishy1987]

You always seem to find the fish maybe not the size you were after but 11 wrasse in a session kept you busy id say its getting that wee bit late now in the season as the colder water is moving in.
tightlines
fergal

[flyno]

Nice fishing again john,

[redzerologhlen]

I have noticed a big decline in wrasse numbers over the last few weeks aswell John so your not the only one, reckon they must be heading to deeper water.

[FisherKing]

Nice few fish John, They seem to have thinned out the past week, usually the big Wrasse would be around for another while. I tried them Tuesday & there was plenty of small ones & the odd one to 40cm but was out again Friday at the same mark & they seemed to have left was lucky the catch one!!! but will try deeper mark next to see if i can find the bigger ones. There's a mark I fish & always catch one nice size Flounder among the Wrasse there, I am beginning to think its the same fish each time!!!

[cathalger]

Tidy flounder John, nice wrasse also. Very nice pics as ever.

[chuckaroo]

very nice JW. great pics.
yeah, thats a very generous 37cm...
nice fish
getting a nice wrasse to win the fish of the month competition though is going to prove tricky!