Duration: 10.00 am - 1.30 pm
Tide: HW at 1.00 pm
Weather: Strong southwesterly wind, becoming very strong, dry at first then very heavy rain
Bait: razor, mackerel, mussel, frozen black lug
Rigs: 3/0 pennel pulley, 3 hook flapper (size 1 and 2 hooks), single hook flapper (size 4 hook)
Results: 2 flounder
Report: As the weather forecast for later in the day was for strengthening winds and heavy rain I dragged myself out of bed earlier than normal for a Saturday morning and headed to my usual East Cork beach. As the wind was already quite strong I decided to fish the western end thinking it might not be as exposed (stupid thought
) and there was the possibility that there could be a lot of weed on the eastern end with the westerly/southwesterly winds.When I arrived there was a big surf rolling in. I got set up, cast the 3/0 pennel out as far as I could against the wind (which wasn't very far), the three hook flapper was in fairly close and the single hook flapper in even closer.
Every so often there was a extra strong gust of wind which would blow the rod stands over so it was a bit of a struggle to keep the rods upright. the 5 oz gripper leads were usually torn up within minutes. Fortunately I had a few 6 oz weights with me - they held much better, although the one on the pennel rig tended to get ripped up fairly regularly. With the wind whipping the rod tips around and the pull of the wave action it was very difficult to see bites.
I got the first bite at about 11.30 pm - a 32 cm flounder caught on the 3/0 pennel baited with razor.
About 40 minutes later I got a second flounder, this was a good size, 38 cm, and again taken on the 3/0 pennel with razor.
The weather got worse after that - the wind picked up even more and there was persistent very heavy rain. I reduced down to two rods, to try and focus on what might be bites but every time I thought there was something hooked it turned out to be just the wave action or a ball of weed. The weed became worse close to high tide as the tide lifted off the seaweed that was lying high on the beach. Eventually at 1.30 pm I decided I had enough and packed up. The rain was still p!ssing down, and there was a new river flowing down the slipway onto the beach. I had intended to fish for at least three hours on the dropping tide but the conditions were too grim and it looked like there would be no let up in the rain.
Got home, had an shower, opened the curtains and the sun was shining
