Donegal Bay stone, sand and a seagull, 18,19 Sept 2013

[johnwest]

People:Me

Duration:6 hrs and 2.5 hrs

Tide:Flood

Weather:Windy but mainly dry.

Bait:Lug, mackerel, hardback crab

Rigs:Jigheads, float, 2 hook flappers.

Results:8 species, season's best ballan wrasse.




Report:
Conditions looked settled enough for a go at the wrasse again so with about 50 fresh lug and some small hardback crabs I headed for a rock mark at low water. I set up the lrf gear first using jigheads baited with lug. A few small finger size pollack started the ball rolling to be followed by a couple of small ballan wrasse around the 17-18cm size. As the tide started to fill, the rod bucked over hard, very hard, as a good wrasse crash dived for the bottom, and reached it. The lrf rod just didn’t have the backbone to stop it. After losing another fish to the weed and snags, I switched to the standard beachcaster with float tackle and a short while later struck into a decent wrasse, this time I hauled him up to the surface before letting him thrash about safely. Seeing the bend it put in a beachcaster, you can understand why the lrf rod wasn’t up to it. This fish weighed in at 3lb 4oz, my season’s best. A couple of smaller ballans and corkwings added to the tally before I had to leave the mark to avoid getting cut off by the incoming tide.
I moved to another spot with weed and rock in close but clean sand further out. Floatfishing produced 3 more ballans up to 2lb 6oz while 2 hook flappers with lug and mackerel baits produced a dab, a mackerel and 2 dogfish, one of which I dedicate to Creep if he’s out there. The lrf rod produced a few Pollack up to 30cm and with darkness settling I headed off.
I still had some lug and fresh mackerel left over so the next morning I headed for a session on the beach. There was quite a strong breeze blowing across the beach but I set up anyway casting 1 rod out far and the other close in. The far rod was collecting a lot of weed and when the close rod produced a flounder around the 28cm size I switched both rods close in. As the tide turned to come in the wind really gathered strength and the weed became a real problem and even though I got another flounder and a nice little turbot, I decided to pack it in. I don’t find much pleasure in fighting weed and wind and not spotting bites or knowing you have a fish until you clear all the weed off the rig. The final straw was when a seagull flew into the line, got caught up in it and brought the tripod and both rods tumbling to the ground. Sand every where in the reels and an angry bird to deal with. It’s amazing how quiet and docile they become when you throw a towel over their head. Still, with 8 species (not counting the seagull) and a season’s best wrasse(so far!) it wasn’t a bad result.

[Determined Dan]

Nice session.

[sparkey+1]

Some fishing JW very nice wrasse fair play your on a roll now..

[bigbadtom]

Very nice fishing with 8 species. Some excellent wrasse there.

[thelegend]

great fishing , well done , love the turbot

[eyesreilly]

Lovely wrasse, well done,,,nice session there great to see some fish being caught

[sea serpant]

Nice busy session well done

[lucky13]

nice report and a decent session...the ballans are deadly aul fighters,hardy out...

[razor2]

Good stuff John nice mix you got there

[originalsin]

As the tide started to fill, the rod bucked over hard, very hard, as a good wrasse crash dived for the bottom, and reached it. The lrf rod just didn’t have the backbone to stop it

I can feel your pain there, i had a 3lb ballen on the lrf gear over the summer, to say i took a beating getting it out of the kelp is an understatement....... Took a bigger beating tho getting it out of the water tho...

[FisherKing]

Nice Ballan John, there will be a few specimens caught over the next few weeks. I'll have to shake the cobwebs of the rods & give them a bash!!