Do you use hooks?

[corbyeire]

After putting in the hours and the blanks on inner galway bay post lockdown ( 7 blanks!) i travelled to a well know conamara venue at the end of June and clocked up 5 species - highlight a tub gurnard at 33 cm, with the itch finally scratched it was on the road again with high hopes for July - to conamara first
- day time minis on my mind - bit late to start and sure enough nothing was biting the rag on the pier as the tide moved out, so
onto a beach nearby probably had about 2m of water - again nothing for 3 hours

not too phased it was down to kerry on a stay cation effort - spent two days on and off trying to get hundreds of mullet to feed on the bread - some 7lbers in the mix - no joy - never started feeding
time to change tack and with fine fresh lug supplied by MB3 it was after bass in really wet rain
alas no joy - a small flounder on a 3/0 hook was all to be shown for it - into darkness for 3 hours - maybe dropped a schoolie on 2nd last cast but couldnt see properly through the horizontal rain - at least the weed had calmed down from earlier

on to an estuary the following day - with the lure out for bass - trout were jumping but no hook ups for 2 hours

A change of scene was required while incorporating a staycation with the missus - good old wexford, started off on an east facing beach - first attempt at the particular location - hoping for a smoothie between flounder and dogs - but all the darkness brought after 4 hours was hungry crabs - my rag/lug/mac gone in 2mins

following day onto the rocks with the lure, no bass, but had a decent ballan follow on numerous occasions but could not get the hook up

back to an east facing beach for the night and was immediately into weed, i was sunk and hand hauling the first cast back in and low and behold a schoolie was on the end of it
i persevered hoping for a smut - but none were to be had and had to move due to the weed - a further 3 hours produced 3 more schoolies but no smoothie

its a serious affliction i have as i decide to head for the inner bay again over the weekend

as a well known international angler once said to me - do you use hooks

sometimes i wonder is it the slobbering about the place that im after, rather than the fish

[Teegerstk]

I seriously commend your perseverance, at least a few schoolies showed for your efforts. 7 blanks I wouldn't be able to process- I've had 2 in the past 24 hours and I'm straight up not having a good time!
If it's any consolation I've found parts of wexford to be very slow recently- a few smoothies in it and sometimes plenty but I've had nothing else for ages- haven't had a flattie in 4 months!
Hopefully you can tap into some more fish over the weekend and prove to yourself that you are indeed using hooks!
- tight lines

[Greendag]

Not a lot of fish but very a good report! Fair play for the perseverance.

[JimC]

I think you must forget about the lockdown fishing..... Now the other trips? You'll have to review your choice of venues maybe?

[chuckaroo]

Sounded like fun Brian, sort of.. lol. Very tough going but nice report
Fwiw also, i put 1500km onto the car (Antrim to Kerry, all around the place then back again) over a long weekend just past for 2 fish (1 x schoolie bass and a small conger). 3 if you count a wee black goby, but I'm not
Had a lot of fun in a stunning part of the country all the same. There were fish to be caught, I just didn’t catch them..
yeah, review your choice of venues for sure

[corbyeire]

I think you must forget about the lockdown fishing..... Now the other trips? You'll have to review your choice of venues maybe?

lol thats what i spent most my time on the beach while i was blanking - where should i be instead

i had been told of spots to try but it can be hard enough to engineer the fishing session, dont mind convince the lady to move 30 km north

[mickser]

A son of mine only uses borrowed hooks that I never see again ?
mickser