Where: North Dublin
Who: Myself
Duration: 2-3 hours over low tide each night
Low Water: 19:30 and 20:00
Equipment: 9ft Abu Garcia Devil
Lure: Dolive stick sandeel on a 7g jighead on the Friday night, Berkley Dex Longshot sandeel on the Saturday
Conditions: Just after the full moon so tides still fairly big, north easterly churning up a surf, cloudy and misty.
Result: 2 schoolie bass, 30cm bass and 54cm bass
Just wanted to post about the estuary fishing I've been up to over the weekend, a couple of days after the full moon at the best time of year! I'm after buying a tonne of new gear and lures so was excited to finally get out into some good conditions. On Friday night I headed straight from work to a North Dublin estuary and walked my way up the channel casting a little dolive stick in sandeel colours on a small jighead into the currents and eddies, just bouncing it along the bottom as it was swept by the current, and after a few casts I felt a little vibration, which turned out to be one the smallest bass I've ever caught, tiny little schoolie! I got snagged up on the next cast which resulted in me losing the lure and the leader and I forgot my fluro so just went home.
On the Saturday I headed out to a different North Dublin estuary about 2 hours before low tide and this time I was fishing one of my favourite lures in a new colour I hadn't tried yet, sandeel, couldn't be more perfect.. As I walked out the sandbar towards the mouth I was casting into the current and letting the lure float down with little twiches here and there, which wasn't really working until I got to a part of the estuary where water was running off the beach into the channel, casting into the fast current which was murky from all off the movement, I was into a fish almost straight away. It was another tiny schoolie only slighty bigger than the lure and around the same size as the one the night before. But it told me one thing, the fish were there, so after throwing him back I kept doing the same, casting upstream into the strong current, letting it float down and twitching the rod tip ever few seconds, literally 2 casts later I was into a better fish, this one was about 30cm, after unhooking him and throwing back I decided to move on up towards the surf at the mouth, and again, literally 2 casts in and I was into a decent fish, finally getting a proper fight, I pulled out a lump of a fish, must of been about 6lbs, definitely my biggest fish on lure at 54cm. This one was for the table so after dispatching, I checked the contents of his stomach and it was stuffed full of small crabs and sandeels
So finally a bit of decent fishing after many many fruitless sessions over the last few weeks. Beating my PR for bass caught in a session, which is now 3
The first schoolie on the Friday night: The first fish on the Saturday night: The 30cm bass: And the 54cm chunky thing: Anyway, looking forward to getting out again a few more times before things slow down for the winter so hopefully will have more to post about soon
Tight lines!
