Duration: all day 10 am to 8 pm
Tide: HW 10:30 am, LW around 4 pm
Weather: Fantastic, mostly strong sunshine, burnt to a crisp!
Bait: Frozen mackerel, great rag from Dave Tilly courtesy of James, very mixed rag from another Dublin shop
Rigs: Lures, flappers, zip sliders...
Results: one mackerel, two pollack, one coalfish, one whiting, one shorthorn scuplin, one (very dark) dogfish and one ballen wrasse.
Catch and Release:: Yes on the inedible species
Report: Arrived and our supplies at the Eurospar. Drove out to the first mark, Scotchport rocks, took one look at the sea and decided best to fish from the stony beach and the rocks alongside it. Waves were crashing over the island and working their way a long way up the cliffs at the mouth. Sean Lavelle was off to his sister's wedding - so we let him off with that!
Pitched up and got to work around high water. Very calm, heavy weed patches. Some of the lads took off with the cameras to get some pictures of the waves and views across Eagle island. Small whiting arrived to ragworm, funny, it has the tiny black spots the same as the fish in Killary but nothing more. No wrasse available in the margins. One decent bite might have been a strap but did not develop. Shorthorn sculpin arrived only marginally bigger than the hook. People had the deckchairs out at this stage! Very hot, water supply dwindling...
The tide having dropped I decided to bring the lure rod across to the far side. Long walk over broken ground past the collected spume out to the white water. First cast with a German sprat and a lovely big prime mack arrived - ah, I thought, we're in. Next cast nothing. Next cast, a very big pollack smacks it just under the rocks below me, shakes itself loose after 30 seconds. Rod was bent into an upturned U - its a Grauvell HD 300, very light, braid loops at the top, casts like a dream, adds 30 metres to the cast, and is very responsive. Top section resembles a fly rod, a very light fly rod. Next fish a few casts later was a very fat 1 kilo coalie, taken very close in, in the dark space between white water boils. It was bit of a struggle to get it up the cliffs, around 30 metres... Next few casts elicited no response. Changed to soft plastics and lost a few trying to bump them along close to the bottom in brilliant sunshine. Finally with a sandeel softie a metre behind a lead got hit by the best fish of the morning, big pollack. Could not wince it up the cliff, thankfully it shook itself off in a big surge at the base. The rod was clearly not meant for this kind of work. Send some pics to the boys but they were too happy relaxing in the sunshine...
Wandered back to find that the tide was almost full out and the there was sand everywhere on the bottom where we had been. Big surprise. There was always some sand there - it can produce flounders, but never this!
Upped tents, after Colin had his pint and sarnies in his deckchair ! - and off we headed to Ballyglass lighthouse. It clouded over here. It being close to low water, I decided to fish a one hook rig close in under the kelp on the bottom. Lots of lost gear on all sides. People tried spinning feathers and lures but to no avail. After the tide turned, gannets and terns started to make a meal of sprats, launce and macks out in Broadhaven Bay. Great to watch. Saw something bashing through the waves, assumed it was a porpoise but it could have been a seal as there was only one...
Bottom fishing finally produce a small ballen wrasse to ragworm under my feet, around 500 grams. Could not understand what others were not being taken. Very odd. Mark has tonnes of them, albeit to no particular size...
Later Mans took a dogfish - very dark and aggressive, thought it was a small huss to begin with - and then a small pollack. Tried some more spinning as the sun was sinking in the west, but to no avail. Awful fishing.
We left an awful lot of kit behind us in ballyglass, very snaggy grounds. Very disappointing returns, granted the tides were all wrong in that we were effectively fishing from LW up for a few hours and had to leave as it was likely to get better. Definitely believe it is a mid to high water mark notwithstanding the possibility of dogs, small huss and strap congers at low water. Not a single mack, even in the deep water north of the lighthouse. Clambered out there to try some spinning and lost of a few lures there too. No scad. No small pollack or coalfish, normally littered with them.
Great day out, fantastic weather but a shame the fishing was so poor...
