[
size=18]Garretstown, Cork, 23/01/07[/size]
People:Myself, Pete, Donal and 2 of Petes Buddies.
Duration:8.00-1030pm
Tide:HW@ 8.30 Very calm
Weather:Dry, calm and cold
Bait:Mackerel, leftover Whites and Maddies, Razor and sandeel
Rigs:Single hook clipped. 3 hook scratching flapper
Results:20ish Coalies, a flounder and a strap conger
Catch and Release:: Yes
Report:
Headed for Garretstown last night to meet with the all conquering (ahem
) Pete and give it a lash. This beach has been unfishable in recent times for the most part due to weed blown in with the strong southerly winds we have had since mid November. A combination of northerlys for a day or two followed by flat calm meant that whilst the sea may be calm, there wouldnt be a weed problem.
We were proved right on that front and we tackled up under clear skies on a dead calm evening with only the smallest semblance of a swell to provide a little movement in the water. I opted to fish a larger Razor/Sandeel bait at range with one rod. With the other, following my disappointing day at the Cloyne Open on Sunday I was going back to honing the scratching skills. The rig I selected was actually the exact one that did the damage in Tramore at the final SAI comp. 2 up 1 down, 3 feet snoods on 10lb fluoro to size 4 Owner pint hooks with a couple of small little beads on each. I baited each of these with a small fine little piece of mackerel and tossed it about 30 -40 yards only.
Pete was already fishing and had a couple of coalies already. His two buddies also managed to catch their first fish ever from the shore with a coalie or two each. For my part, the 3 hook flapper was really doing the business. First cast, 2 coalies, 2nd cast 3 coalies..... and so it went on...
. Most of them were on the small side, around the 25cm mark but there were odd ones that were a good 10cm over that in the high 30s.
Poor old pete had to disappear after an hour or so as he wasnt feeling the best but not before having racked up a fair few coalies himself. The fishing lulled for maybe 15-20 minutes until I discovered the fish again, around 15-20 yards from waters edge... The steady succession flowed once more..
On the rod fishing at range which I was largely ignoring I spotted a bite. Lifting into it, I felt no resistance and proceeded to wind in at a serious rate....I was more than surprised when I lifted out of the water to find a small (bootlace) of a strap Conger swinging off my sandeel bait
I have fished Garretstown umpteen times over the past couple of years and never had one so to say I was surprised was putting it mildly. Picture in Species hunt thread.
It was heading towards bed time when on the last cast of the evening I swung a double shot of a flounder (22cm) and a coalie onto the beach. A nice end to a fairly busy evening. Surprisingly, the coalie had swallowed the maddies on the bottom hook and the flounder had attacked the mack on the top snood.
An enjoyable evenings scratching to be fair and probably the tactics I should have employed and stuck with at the weekend. To put into context how important selecting the correct rigs and tactics are it wasnt just a case of dangling a line in and having fish jump on the hook, Donal (who is no mean angler himself) who was fishing alongside me blanked. He was using identical bait but a combination of fishing too far and too heavy meant the fish just didnt show for him. The smaller baits and the longer snoods fished in close really did the trick.
Good also to meet Donagh who stayed on after we left, hope the fishing improved for you mate.
. Moved from there to De Wall after about 40 minutes, we were going to head on to Youghal to the mark from the previous day but I had 3 cod to size there in just over an hour but that left it a bit too late to go to Youghal. With the fish being seriously well out and the fishing buddies struggling for bites we moved to Fountainstown where the comp wheels pretty much came off 
)
