Maighdean Mara 11/9/09 Spiddal, Connemara and Aran Islands

[The Austrian]

Maighdean Mara 11/9/09 Spiddal, Connemara and Aran Islands

People: 3 lads from Spain, Gareth (no1dubliner) and his Dad, Allan and Martin (The Austrian)

Duration: 9am to around 6pm

Tide:all neaps

Weather: unbelievable

Bait: Mackerel and juicy east coast Rag

Rigs: baited feathers, sabikis, cod caspers, kilmore killers, animal rigs, flowing traces

Results: Cod, Haddock, Scad, John Dory, Mackerel, Pollock, male and female Cuckoo Wrasse, Ballan Wrasse, Red Gurnard, Whiting, Pouting, Poor Cod, Ling, Lesser Spotted Dogs and a Spurdog/Tope(?)


Report:

Had my mind set on going out fishing this Friday, so after the cancellation of our planned trip to Crosshaven due to bad weather , plan B was drawn up quickly, not to waste the sunny spell.
A call to Kevin secured us seats on the Maighdean Mara and we headed out from Spiddal Pier towards Inishman in just a light ripple and bright sunshine, accompanied by a pod of dolphins.

dolphin.JPG

more dolphins.JPG

First stop after half an hour was for bait and we had full strings of joeys with every cast. Even a few bigger Mackerel were caught, some nearly 40cm in size and the guys from Spain were looking forward to a nice Barbie already.

We went on a few drifts in Gregory Sound then and a few nice Pollock, Haddock, Red Gurnard, Whiting and Ling came on board.

gurnard.JPG

ling.JPG

pollock double.JPG

[The Austrian]

One of the Spanish lads, a 13 year old who was out with his father the first time, was christened Mr. Pouting by the crew, but he didn’t mind at all and after a while his luck switched over to lots of female cuckoo wrasse and he remarked he is fed up with all these gay looking pink fish now.

boys from spain.JPG

pouting.JPG

pollock.JPG

red gurnard.JPG

Leaving the Aran Islands behind us, we were able to fish the reef before them, which is only possible in very good conditions, a rare occurrence in this area and hit a massive shoal of Scads up to 1,5lb in weight but were fed up quick, it was just too easy, full houses nearly every time and decided to venture further west onto a sandbar to try for spurs.
The first fish, which came on board, was a 5-6lb cod to all our surprise, congratulations again to Allen, and Gareth’s dad was into a fight with a 35-40lb Spurdog soon, brought him to the boat after a short fight but he bit the trace during the attempt to lift him on board.

spur on.JPG

[The Austrian]

like glass.JPG

After all the excitement we decided to call it a day, not without stopping briefly about 400 yards off the Connemara coast before Spiddal for a few Mackerel, which Kevin had promised to give to a friend of him. We filled a fish box within 10 minutes.

blackhead.JPG

towing.JPG

Returned to Spiddal Pier we bumped into Conor, Nige and Steve from the site, they had a small mini competition going between them and enjoyed the lovely evening as much as we did.
Nice meeting you lads and apologies for not staying on for a chat longer but the drive back ahead of us to Tipperary and Dublin didn’t allow us for much time but surely another opportunity will arise soon, there are still a few nice days in the forecast

Lust but not least, thanks again to Kevin, who did us proud being a brilliant skipper as always and got us all into the fishies

Tight Lines until we meet again!

[twinkle]

lovely report martin and some beautiful pictures id say all the lads were tired after the fishing and the driving

[The Austrian]

lovely report martin and some beautiful pictures id say all the lads were tired after the fishing and the driving

How are things twinkle, thank you for your nice comment unfortunately the driving is the catch if you happen to live in the middle of the country, the original plan was set up home closer to the sea when we arrived 16 years ago, unfortunately house prices were against it
However, at least I know for sure I'm never further away than 3 hours driving time from all the good fishing spots

[doggie3131]

ah goddammit!! i was going to ask for a place when the post first came up,but family duties came first great fishing and a great day by the looks of it!well done lads

[The Austrian]

ah goddammit!! i was going to ask for a place when the post first came up,but family duties came first great fishing and a great day by the looks of it!well done lads

thanks for the reply Noel anyway, not to worry, Kevin promised to let me know when he has seats available and I surely post it here, might be during the week and of short notice but honestly, when do we ever get conditions like that, there are times you have to set the priorities in your favour
I have only this life to live, at least that's what I know for sure

[dbrock]

wow a 35 to 40lb spur
the record is only something like 22lb
big well done

[The Austrian]

wow a 35 to 40lb spur
the record is only something like 22lb
big well done

the weight stated was only a guess from the skipper and the crew involved, anyway, it would have been tagged and released, spurs are on the list of endangered species, therefore no way to bring it ashore, record or not.

[eric]

any chance your spur was a tope,

[Tony Fella]

Hard luck gar on the bite off..sorry i missed this one looks like you had a cracking days fishing

[gfkelly1969]

well done lads great selection of fish,pity about the spur

[The Austrian]

any chance your spur was a tope,

quite possible, Kevin phoned me this evening, they had 4 tope this afternoon from the same spot.

I didn't really see the fish, too busy catching and releasing doggies and it was all over when I had the time to attend the action
But I'm sure your assumption is correct, I'd reckon from the size and scrap that it was a tope rather than a spur.

Anyway, I guess we never find out what it really was, the only thing I know for sure is that it swam away unharmed and reasonable happy, not accounting for the considerable toothache it has to suffer now, resulting from it biting through the steel trace

[The Austrian]

well done lads great selection of fish,pity about the spur

thanks gf, ah not to worry, that's the beauty about sea angling, you never can be sure what surprise might be lurking beneath the surface and there is always another day and another chance

Hard luck gar on the bite off..sorry i missed this one looks like you had a cracking days fishing

Thanks Tony, yes, it was a great day out, hope Gareth has better pictures from the battle with his spur/tope thingy which he could post here, I gave my camera to Kevin to take the photos but he is a better skipper than photographer

[no1dubliner]

sorry im a bit late but it was a great day out the old man really enjoyed his day here are the few pics i did get