Puca, Shannon estuary, 17th June

[bigkev]

Edwin and I:

6 HOURS:

Low water 2.12pm:

Caribbean weather again:

Hokkais, mackerel flappers:



Mackerel, pollack,tope:

Ran out of Kilrush at 9.30 in search of mackerel for the tope. Ver frustrating, tried numerous marks in the estuary with no joy. Ran out to the cliffs at Kilcredaun head, again no macks. However, the pollack were really on it, with no large fish but averaging 3lbs .We caught pollack after pollack,all at mid water on hokkais .Great fun, but no macks
We spotted a large number of gannets working an area and motored over confident that at last we would get amongst them. Mysteriously, whatever the gannets were working on, we had nothing to the feathers
Finally had to go out to loop head and caught a dozen macks and with time running short, whizzed back up to the beal bar. With glorious conditions, we travelled everywhere at 26 knots, a real treat

With a large 5 metre tide, we only had a short 90 minutes at the tope mark. Edwin first off landed a 26lb fish. I then followed with a 32lb tagged fish , number 31029. Must report this as soon as I find out the body involved. Irish fisheries board tag. Another tope of 35 lbs came to the boat, with a lost fish and another couple of dropped runs before the tide pushed us back off the mark
Great day out, but the mackerel are still very patchy in the estuary

Kev:

[jw]

kev,

brilliant fishing again. If the tope are plentiful and the mackerel scarce does this show they are feeding on flats, whiting etc and mackerel are too fast for them to catch anyway?

What stage of tides do you fish there at? Do you have to let go the anchor when a fish is hooked?

[bigkev]

Hi JW
The mark just off the beal bar holds lots of pin whiting all year round, and lies next to a long beach holding lots of flatties and sand eels. With tope being primarily bottom feeders, this must make up most of their diet in the estuary

The mark off the bar itself is a tidal race, and means on big tides like yesterdays, that you can only hold bottom before and after slack water. We couldnt hold bottom uptiding with 7oz grip leads yesterday once the tide started to push

Best times therefore are high and low water and an hour either side

We usually stay at anchor whilest fighting tope as it can be dangerous drifting to close to the bar in any push of water. So far , only one fish has done us on the rope, so it works out alright

Kev

[Bradan]

Kev

You can report it to the Central Fisheries Board - they are responsible for the sportfish tagging programme. Think you get a small reward, like a cap or t-shirt or something. Tel. 01 8379206, ask for anyone in the angling section to report a tag recovery

Well done mate!

[bigkev]

Got a reply from the fisheries board, and they are going to send me details of the original capture of the fish

It will be interesting to see if it was tagged in the shannon previously, or tagged elsewhere, and when

I wait with interest

Kev

[jw]

did you ask them to give you a few tags yorself, given the amount you catch

might be interesting to see a shannon tope showing up 2000 miles away

[bigstyle]

My Uncle tags his tope. Over the past few years he's got word to say his some of his tope were caught off Portugal i think it was. :?

Would be great to hear where a fish you've caught has gone on holidays :lol:

[bigkev]

I spoke with the fisheries guys about tagging tope, but they say they have enough local charter skippers doing this for them!

Given whats known about their movements already, Irish tope have been tagged as far away as the mediterranean and even the Azores. Several thousand miles each way!!

One fine specimen was recaptured off scotland 16 years after original tagging off tralee!

Kev

[jw]

definately costal nomadic sharks

why dont they go near cork???

[bigkev]

One for Jim I think :lol:

Maybe they are afraid of the coalfish they have down there 8)

[MAC]

Maybe they are afraid of the coalfish they have down there

:D Nice one Kev

[bigkev]

I mailed the CFB yesterday who responded in 20 minutes, and then were good enough to post me a sports fishing t shirt with the original capture details,all in 2 days flat.Well impressed!!

This fish was tagged in the shannon on July 7 2003, at liberty for 1345 days.Returned with tag intact of course

Looks to have grown from 13kgs to approx 15 kgs in 4 years.Quite a slow rate of growth!!

Kev