Waterford Estuary - 01/08/2022

[Teegerstk]

Last night I thought to myself "I haven't caught a smooth hound yet and it's almost August" so I knew I had to at least make some sort of attempt, right? My last outing only provided dogfish in early June, but I still had some leftover squid from back then.
A quick look at met.ie and it seemed like this morning was the ideal option, with rain fall from noon onwards.
Up I rose at 6am and spun down to my local to see if anything was about.

I've never had any success fishing in the morning, especially after sunrise. I honestly didn't have much hope until I arrived at the pier. I was met with some millpond water with tons of sprat activity on the surface, with even a few bigger fish splashing about in pursuit.
Obviously this didn't mean smooth hounds were about but fish were feeding at least!
I set up and tried some mackerel strips first, I'm not sure why. This didn't amount to anything until I rebaited with some squid. 20 minutes after casting I see the rod tip bounce up, the line slacken. This was all I needed to know so I grabbed the rod and struck.
Straight into a decent fighting hound, although I had some difficulty landing it due to someone's boat tied up. Nevertheless it was unhooked and released well.

IMG_0389.jpg

The activity, however, was fleeting as I didn't get another smooth hound bite for the duration of the session. I picked up a dogfish a few casts later but it was quiet otherwise.
I feel like there were mackerel around but my gear didn't exactly suit (4/0s with pulleys!).
The highlight of the morning was seeing a rather large fish surface about 30m out, looked like a large sea trout or a bass (5lbs+).

Definitely not a bad way to spend the morning, I might have to try an early session again soon.
I even arsed around with the camera:

Boat.jpg

[delmonte]

Nice hound. Great to catch the target species!