Duration: 6.00 pm - 12.00 am
Tide: LW at 8.00 pm
Weather: Light norhtwesterly breeze, dry, fairly mild
Bait: lug, razor, mackerel, mussel, squid
Rigs: 3/0 pennel pulley, 3 hook flapper
Results: 2 bass, 3 dogfish, 2 whiting
Report: I had to go to Youghal in the afternoon and afterwards thought I would check out some new rock marks. There were two that I had identified on the OSI website. However both turned out to be inaccessible due to property access restrictions and I didn't really fancy treking a few miles across country with all my gear. I drove further along the West Waterford coast and then realized I was close to Dungarvan so decided to give one of the Dungarvan beaches a go as I have never fished there.
I got set up at about 6.00 pm - the tide was dropping and there was a very weak surf so I was not too optimistic.
About 15 minutes later there was a knock on one of the rods - I could feel a good pull on the line and when I reeled it in there was 46 cm bass
- caught on the 3/0 pennel baited with lug and razor.20 minutes later there was another knock on the same rod - I picked it up and found that the line had gone slack - started to retrieve and then felt the pull of another fish - this was again putting up a bit of a struggle, and turned out to be another bass - a little smaller at 44 cm, again taken on the 3/0 pennel with lug/razor.
Close to low tide I began to catch dogfish - I caught three - all taken on the 3/0 pennel baited with lug/razor.
After the first dogfish I noticed a small tap on the rod with the 3 hook flapper and reeled in a tiny whiting taken on lug/mackerel. A little later a got slightly bigger one on mussel.
As the tide began to rise I was expecting a good session since it had been so good for the two hours prior to low tide but there was not another bite apart from the whiting whipping the bait off the pennel hooks (I presume it was whiting and not crabs).
But I went home very happy, two bass on my first session in Dungarvan Bay on a night with very slack tides and a very weak surf. I will definitely have to give it a good when there are stronger tides and a good southwesterly blowing.
