Clew Bay shore fishing
Moderator: donal domeney
-
bigden
- SAI Bait Ball
- Posts: 66
- Joined: Tue May 25, 2004 3:32 am
- Location: UK
Clew Bay shore fishing
Anyone have any info about fishing from the shore in the Westport/Newport area? I'm spending a week there in late July. All advice gratefully received!
-
Accony
- SAI Bait Ball
- Posts: 83
- Joined: Tue Sep 16, 2003 9:05 pm
- Location: Cambridge, UK
Re: Clew Bay shore fishing
bigden wrote:Anyone have any info about fishing from the shore in the Westport/Newport area? I'm spending a week there in late July. All advice gratefully received!
Have a look here [url]http://www.sea-angling-ireland.org/shore%20-%20mayo%201.htm[/url] loads of info. Really good website as well!
Good luck.
Colin
-
danceswithwolves
- SAI Lug Worm
- Posts: 35
- Joined: Mon Feb 16, 2004 12:22 pm
- Location: Dublin,Ireland
shore fishing in clew bay
There is a bait/supply shop in Westport that have an A4 photocopied sheet that has map and description of the local marks. It includes bait collection areas aswell.
I have one at home somewhere which I can fax to you if you want.
I have one at home somewhere which I can fax to you if you want.
-
bigden
- SAI Bait Ball
- Posts: 66
- Joined: Tue May 25, 2004 3:32 am
- Location: UK
-
SOD
-
kieran
- Site Admin/Owner
- Posts: 2511
- Joined: Wed Jan 15, 2003 11:27 pm
- Location: Mayo, Ireland
Hi Bigden
Let me know what you are interested in tackling in terms of species and what kit you will have with you, and I will give you some details. I live here and have fished it for five years but still learn something...
FWIW
Let me know what you are interested in tackling in terms of species and what kit you will have with you, and I will give you some details. I live here and have fished it for five years but still learn something...
FWIW
Kieran Hanrahan
Time spent fishing is never time wasted...
2015 targets - a triggerfish, a specimen bass, a three bearded rockling to complete the set and something big and toothy from certain north Mayo deep water marks
Time spent fishing is never time wasted...
2015 targets - a triggerfish, a specimen bass, a three bearded rockling to complete the set and something big and toothy from certain north Mayo deep water marks
-
bigden
- SAI Bait Ball
- Posts: 66
- Joined: Tue May 25, 2004 3:32 am
- Location: UK
Hi Kieran As I'm holidaying with the other half I shall no doubt be restricted to one or two expeditions and one or two rods - probably a standard beachcaster and a spinning rod. I'm mostly interested in fish which are seldom caught from the shore on my home patch - eg rays, huss, turbot, even doggies are something of a novelty; I've caught LSDs in Ireland, Scotland and Wales, but never in England! Any advice will be greatly appreciated. By the way, the site is brilliant - easily the best sea angling site around.
-
kieran
- Site Admin/Owner
- Posts: 2511
- Joined: Wed Jan 15, 2003 11:27 pm
- Location: Mayo, Ireland
Hi Bigden
Rays - shallow beaches, on a flooding tide. The rock mark on Keem Bay on Achill Island (an hour from Newport, but take it easy on the road) has lots of Thornbacks but fresh mackerel or ideally fresh sand eel bait is essential. You can spin for Mackerel, Greater Launce and the odd Sea Trout off the rocks, especially of an evening. Use a german sprat. The mark fisheds only on a flooding tide and better in or approaching darkness. Cast no more than 50 yards for Thornies from 2 - 12 lbs.
Several species of Rays can be taken off An Corraun, the penninsula before Achill Island heading west from Newport. Small Eyed common amonggst the Thornies. Follow the coast road from Mulranny harbour and stop at the second set of steps on the coastal side. Fish from a clearly visible rocky arm, but expect to lose a few rigs. You will have no idea what shows up on each cast... bizarre stuff can be caught here, and as often you can blank. About 5 miles past the harbour. Spectacular views, needs very calm weather and a flooding tide, ideally towards darkness.
Huss - Rosmoney is a small harbour midway between Westport and Newport and it produces the odd Huss, mainly over high water as it is a very tidal mark. There is another mark, Rosanrubble which is known to produce them routinely - not a fish I go out of my way to catch. Rocky and sandy bottom essential, with a good depth of water at low tide and you are in with a shout - loads of small to medium sized conger eels. Rosmoney can produce mullet and some excellent bags of flatfish from under the boats. If you really want one, head for the Tippe Rocks, outside Ballyglass on the Belmullet penninsula (an hour and a half from Newport, due north west) and fish the channels at high water. Loads of bigger Conger too.
Turbot - small fish can be picked up on Keel Beach on Achill (better around low water down towards the end near the cliffs), but you need western storm beaches rather than the more sheltered marks in Clew Bay. I usually target them off the northern Mayo beaches like Ballycastle and Rathlacken East. Flesh baits essential, with a nice mackerel belly strip ideal. Size 4 - 1/0 hooks as most of the fish are quite small, under 1 lb and need to be returned. Anything over 1 lb is good, with up to 4 lbs possible. You will doubtless encounter lots of Flounder, the occassional swarms of Dab, and the odd Plaice on these marks, and if fished further out, Gurnard. You will inevitably pull out lots of wrasse near any rocks.
LSDs: I can't remember that last time I met someone who seriously wanted to catch these buggers! Low water specialists, ideally over sand with a decent current and some rocks and weed. They find you more than the other way around. Entrance to Lough Furnace is a good mullet spot and right at the mouth you will find doggies, mullet, sea trout and the odd bass. You might even find the odd Salmon heading for Lough Beltra!
The best option is really smelly baits - lugworm (big beds outside Newport heading west just beside Rosturk house), and old mackerel (if its a big high even better so long as you can stand the smell!)...
Hope this helps...
If by some misery you are having no luck, PM me and I will give you my phone number and we might get to go on a short session somewhere (I have two lads myself which require lots of sand castles and the like at the moment!)
Thanks
Rays - shallow beaches, on a flooding tide. The rock mark on Keem Bay on Achill Island (an hour from Newport, but take it easy on the road) has lots of Thornbacks but fresh mackerel or ideally fresh sand eel bait is essential. You can spin for Mackerel, Greater Launce and the odd Sea Trout off the rocks, especially of an evening. Use a german sprat. The mark fisheds only on a flooding tide and better in or approaching darkness. Cast no more than 50 yards for Thornies from 2 - 12 lbs.
Several species of Rays can be taken off An Corraun, the penninsula before Achill Island heading west from Newport. Small Eyed common amonggst the Thornies. Follow the coast road from Mulranny harbour and stop at the second set of steps on the coastal side. Fish from a clearly visible rocky arm, but expect to lose a few rigs. You will have no idea what shows up on each cast... bizarre stuff can be caught here, and as often you can blank. About 5 miles past the harbour. Spectacular views, needs very calm weather and a flooding tide, ideally towards darkness.
Huss - Rosmoney is a small harbour midway between Westport and Newport and it produces the odd Huss, mainly over high water as it is a very tidal mark. There is another mark, Rosanrubble which is known to produce them routinely - not a fish I go out of my way to catch. Rocky and sandy bottom essential, with a good depth of water at low tide and you are in with a shout - loads of small to medium sized conger eels. Rosmoney can produce mullet and some excellent bags of flatfish from under the boats. If you really want one, head for the Tippe Rocks, outside Ballyglass on the Belmullet penninsula (an hour and a half from Newport, due north west) and fish the channels at high water. Loads of bigger Conger too.
Turbot - small fish can be picked up on Keel Beach on Achill (better around low water down towards the end near the cliffs), but you need western storm beaches rather than the more sheltered marks in Clew Bay. I usually target them off the northern Mayo beaches like Ballycastle and Rathlacken East. Flesh baits essential, with a nice mackerel belly strip ideal. Size 4 - 1/0 hooks as most of the fish are quite small, under 1 lb and need to be returned. Anything over 1 lb is good, with up to 4 lbs possible. You will doubtless encounter lots of Flounder, the occassional swarms of Dab, and the odd Plaice on these marks, and if fished further out, Gurnard. You will inevitably pull out lots of wrasse near any rocks.
LSDs: I can't remember that last time I met someone who seriously wanted to catch these buggers! Low water specialists, ideally over sand with a decent current and some rocks and weed. They find you more than the other way around. Entrance to Lough Furnace is a good mullet spot and right at the mouth you will find doggies, mullet, sea trout and the odd bass. You might even find the odd Salmon heading for Lough Beltra!
The best option is really smelly baits - lugworm (big beds outside Newport heading west just beside Rosturk house), and old mackerel (if its a big high even better so long as you can stand the smell!)...
Hope this helps...
If by some misery you are having no luck, PM me and I will give you my phone number and we might get to go on a short session somewhere (I have two lads myself which require lots of sand castles and the like at the moment!)
Thanks
Last edited by kieran on Fri Jul 02, 2004 3:24 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Kieran Hanrahan
Time spent fishing is never time wasted...
2015 targets - a triggerfish, a specimen bass, a three bearded rockling to complete the set and something big and toothy from certain north Mayo deep water marks
Time spent fishing is never time wasted...
2015 targets - a triggerfish, a specimen bass, a three bearded rockling to complete the set and something big and toothy from certain north Mayo deep water marks
-
bigden
- SAI Bait Ball
- Posts: 66
- Joined: Tue May 25, 2004 3:32 am
- Location: UK
Kieran
Many thanks indeed for the information - looking at the Mayo coast it seems to me there's about two or three lifetimes' worth of shore marks to be tried, but at least now I have a start! I wasn't entirely serious about LSDs, but they make a nice change from pouting which are the staple fish in these parts, and they're bigger. I found a good ray mark last year in Connemara (Mweenish Island), and the ones you describe sound very similar. Thanks again
Many thanks indeed for the information - looking at the Mayo coast it seems to me there's about two or three lifetimes' worth of shore marks to be tried, but at least now I have a start! I wasn't entirely serious about LSDs, but they make a nice change from pouting which are the staple fish in these parts, and they're bigger. I found a good ray mark last year in Connemara (Mweenish Island), and the ones you describe sound very similar. Thanks again
-
Tim
- SAI Bait Ball
- Posts: 101
- Joined: Mon Mar 29, 2004 10:58 pm
- Location: Hampshire, UK
Bigden
We're going on a fishing holiday in August in Connemara and having never caught a ray, I'm very interested in your ray mark near Carna. Are you prepared to spill the beans with a few mark details please?!!! We are going to be up near Clifden so any further information around that area gratefully received. I've explored all the web-sites so I have all those printed out but any further local knowledge is very valuable.
Like you, I find this angling site the best there is, with loads of helpful information that an amateur like me much appreciates. Great stuff and where else would you get such a detailed response from the Webmaster?
Thanks to all you regular contributors and welcome back Keiran. Catch any Barracuda?
Tim
We're going on a fishing holiday in August in Connemara and having never caught a ray, I'm very interested in your ray mark near Carna. Are you prepared to spill the beans with a few mark details please?!!! We are going to be up near Clifden so any further information around that area gratefully received. I've explored all the web-sites so I have all those printed out but any further local knowledge is very valuable.
Like you, I find this angling site the best there is, with loads of helpful information that an amateur like me much appreciates. Great stuff and where else would you get such a detailed response from the Webmaster?
Thanks to all you regular contributors and welcome back Keiran. Catch any Barracuda?
Tim
-
bigden
- SAI Bait Ball
- Posts: 66
- Joined: Tue May 25, 2004 3:32 am
- Location: UK
Hi Tim
To get to Mweenish you go through Carna, past the shops, past the small pier and the marine research place on the left then over the road bridge onto the island. Once over the bridge turn immediately left, then the road bears right down the eastern side of the island, eventually turning sharply left till you reach the shore - at the end there's a space just about big enough to park two cars. These directions are as accurate as I can make then given I've only been there once. You'll find yourselves on a rocky beach with narrow sandy gaps, just inside the southernmost point of the island. I fished there at last light on the last hour of the ebb and first of the flood and had three smallish thornbacks at dead low water, about 70/80 yards out, plus a doggie, on not very fresh mackerel - this is something of a problem in the area; there's a fishmonger in Clifden, but I couldn't find any frozen mackerel in the Galway tackle shops, they only seem to cater for game angling. There's a charter boat in Roundstone and it might be worth approaching the skipper to see if he could help with bait. If you want worm bait, there is plenty of lug in the channel by the road bridge. A couple of miles east of Carna on the coast road towards Kilkieran there's a narrow road leading to a huge sandy beach which is one gigantic lug bed, and also has some good white rag here and there. Across this strand, and walkable at low tide it seems, is another island called Finish Island which looks very promising, but I didn't have time to try it. You can see Finish Island across the water from the mark on Mweenish, which incidentally looks like a classic low-water mark and in any case would be very difficult to fish over high tide because of the rocky terrain. If you do try it let me know how you get on - with a good supply of fresh mackerel or sandeel I think it could be a great spot.
Denis
To get to Mweenish you go through Carna, past the shops, past the small pier and the marine research place on the left then over the road bridge onto the island. Once over the bridge turn immediately left, then the road bears right down the eastern side of the island, eventually turning sharply left till you reach the shore - at the end there's a space just about big enough to park two cars. These directions are as accurate as I can make then given I've only been there once. You'll find yourselves on a rocky beach with narrow sandy gaps, just inside the southernmost point of the island. I fished there at last light on the last hour of the ebb and first of the flood and had three smallish thornbacks at dead low water, about 70/80 yards out, plus a doggie, on not very fresh mackerel - this is something of a problem in the area; there's a fishmonger in Clifden, but I couldn't find any frozen mackerel in the Galway tackle shops, they only seem to cater for game angling. There's a charter boat in Roundstone and it might be worth approaching the skipper to see if he could help with bait. If you want worm bait, there is plenty of lug in the channel by the road bridge. A couple of miles east of Carna on the coast road towards Kilkieran there's a narrow road leading to a huge sandy beach which is one gigantic lug bed, and also has some good white rag here and there. Across this strand, and walkable at low tide it seems, is another island called Finish Island which looks very promising, but I didn't have time to try it. You can see Finish Island across the water from the mark on Mweenish, which incidentally looks like a classic low-water mark and in any case would be very difficult to fish over high tide because of the rocky terrain. If you do try it let me know how you get on - with a good supply of fresh mackerel or sandeel I think it could be a great spot.
Denis
-
Peter Kinsella
- SAI Bait Ball
- Posts: 180
- Joined: Tue Feb 03, 2004 6:43 am
- Location: North Clare
Finish Island - quite some way from Clew Bay.
I fished from Finish Isle last month and blanked on both days.. Lug to be dug from the eastern side. I bottom fished with lug and also used artificials from the rocks. The sea is generally quite shallow all around here.
One important point, Finish is only accessible for very short periods either side of low tide. The tidal run between the island and mainland is swift. Also if boating - many rocks close to the surface. If there is a chop on the sea then it is a difficult area to negotiate.
Going a little further south into Galway Bay, the summer species are a little slow appearing this year.
Peter
I fished from Finish Isle last month and blanked on both days.. Lug to be dug from the eastern side. I bottom fished with lug and also used artificials from the rocks. The sea is generally quite shallow all around here.
One important point, Finish is only accessible for very short periods either side of low tide. The tidal run between the island and mainland is swift. Also if boating - many rocks close to the surface. If there is a chop on the sea then it is a difficult area to negotiate.
Going a little further south into Galway Bay, the summer species are a little slow appearing this year.
Peter
-
Tim
- SAI Bait Ball
- Posts: 101
- Joined: Mon Mar 29, 2004 10:58 pm
- Location: Hampshire, UK
-
kieran
- Site Admin/Owner
- Posts: 2511
- Joined: Wed Jan 15, 2003 11:27 pm
- Location: Mayo, Ireland
Hi Tim
Nope, did not get to go fishing but I chatted to a few people who did and took these photos (very lage files, be prepared for a long download) from the harbour in Puerto Calero (where fishing is banned and the children feed the fish). The biggest mullet were very close to double figures, but if anyone can help, there are bream like fish (pale blue under the surface with a distinctly forked tail) on the edges that moved like torpedoes - now they would be worth fishing for based on their speed alone!
http://www.sea-angling-ireland.org/pict ... y%2004.jpg
http://www.sea-angling-ireland.org/pict ... y%2004.jpg
BTW, there is a new Irish magazine published by DHP - "Irish Angler" - the people behind Total Sea Fishing - and it is specifically and exclusively about fishing here, so people in the UK might find it useful...
FWIW...
Nope, did not get to go fishing but I chatted to a few people who did and took these photos (very lage files, be prepared for a long download) from the harbour in Puerto Calero (where fishing is banned and the children feed the fish). The biggest mullet were very close to double figures, but if anyone can help, there are bream like fish (pale blue under the surface with a distinctly forked tail) on the edges that moved like torpedoes - now they would be worth fishing for based on their speed alone!
http://www.sea-angling-ireland.org/pict ... y%2004.jpg
http://www.sea-angling-ireland.org/pict ... y%2004.jpg
BTW, there is a new Irish magazine published by DHP - "Irish Angler" - the people behind Total Sea Fishing - and it is specifically and exclusively about fishing here, so people in the UK might find it useful...
FWIW...
Kieran Hanrahan
Time spent fishing is never time wasted...
2015 targets - a triggerfish, a specimen bass, a three bearded rockling to complete the set and something big and toothy from certain north Mayo deep water marks
Time spent fishing is never time wasted...
2015 targets - a triggerfish, a specimen bass, a three bearded rockling to complete the set and something big and toothy from certain north Mayo deep water marks
-
Tim
- SAI Bait Ball
- Posts: 101
- Joined: Mon Mar 29, 2004 10:58 pm
- Location: Hampshire, UK
-
kieran
- Site Admin/Owner
- Posts: 2511
- Joined: Wed Jan 15, 2003 11:27 pm
- Location: Mayo, Ireland
Rossanrubble
Hi
For anyone that is interested I plan to fish Rossanrubble (between Newport and Westport) some time in the next few weesk heading for darkness on a flooding tide, specifically targetting Bull Huss. 4/0 up an over with mackerel baits. If you want to fish it during the day -= same rig - you will be plagued with Thornbacks - a nice plague! Doggies, clean ground Congers and Three Bearded Rockling are taken as well.
FWIW...
For anyone that is interested I plan to fish Rossanrubble (between Newport and Westport) some time in the next few weesk heading for darkness on a flooding tide, specifically targetting Bull Huss. 4/0 up an over with mackerel baits. If you want to fish it during the day -= same rig - you will be plagued with Thornbacks - a nice plague! Doggies, clean ground Congers and Three Bearded Rockling are taken as well.
FWIW...