Louth Coast, 22/10/2014

[johnwest]

People:Just me

Duration:3.5 hrs

Tide:mid to high tide

Weather:Mild, breezy, dry

Bait:Frozen mackerel, fresh lug

Rigs:2 and 3 hook flappers

Results:1 codling




Report:
I was keen to christen a new rod so with all the house hold chores taken care of ( dinner made, fire lit, dishes washed, even a bit of hoovering; would it really kill herself to make me a few sandwiches now and again in return?) I made a couple of sandwiches and filled the flask. I got down to the beach at low tide to dig a few lug and while getting booted and suited I was treated to the sight of a kestrel and a buzzard hovering in the updraught where the stiff breeze met the low cliffs. With the light fading I had about 40 lug, enough for a short session. The contours of the beach had altered from my last trip here with the top of the beach being much steeper than normal so I decided to fish here instead of moving to another spot, with fairly big tides and the onshore breeze putting movement and colour into the water I would have about 8’ of depth at 25 yds over high water. I set up 2 rods and started fishing around half tide, 1 rod at distance and the other close in. The wind had picked up a bit and the rods were bouncing about in the rod rest so bite detection was difficult, it was a matter of reeling in every 15-20 mins and checking. The hooks were coming in clean as a whistle each time but even a change to size 4 hooks produced no fish, not even a small coalfish or rockling, just the occasional crab. The latter were munching their way through the soft lug and mackerel rapidly with nothing to show, blank on the cards, but just before high tide there was a definite and determined bite on the close in rod. I lifted into something which gave a few kicks on the way in and through the surf came a nice little 40cm codling. Surprisingly it took a small piece of mackerel rather than the lug which was still on the bottom hook. It would have been nice to have christened the new rod with the codling but it fell to the old reliable ZZippy; still a blank saved is a blank saved. A short while later saw the tide full in, bait full out, and with the top of the tide picking up a lot of weed, it was time for home.

[chuckaroo]

surely her indoors will now make u a cod sandwich JW

[Deleted User 3488]

Result

[gussyw]

Thats a lovely fish for this neck of the woods. Well done john west!!

[basshunter10]

Lovely way to beat the blank! Was over that neck of the woods myself last night. Do you fish Louth often John? I never have much success with lug on them. Rag seems to out fish it all the time, very strange when the majority of the beaches are full of lug.


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[johnwest]

surely her indoors will now make u a cod sandwich JW

Not with this codling, it went back!

Result

Just about.

Thats a lovely fish for this neck of the woods. Well done john west!!

Thanks gussyw, it was 1 oz less than my best for this mark.

Lovely way to beat the blank! Was over that neck of the woods myself last night. Do you fish Louth often John? I never have much success with lug on them. Rag seems to out fish it all the time, very strange when the majority of the beaches are full of lug.
Thanks basshunter10, I fish Louth several times a year, it's actually one of the closest marks to home though most of my fishing is done in Donegal Bay. I don't have easy access to rag so I use lug. I must make the effort to get some rag and try it at my Louth mark.