Ladies Day at Ballycastle (Mayo)

[hugo]

Vessel: Lady Marion
Crew: Meself, Herself, and No 1 Daughter
Duration: 3 hours X 2, Sept. 13/16
Weather: Blazing sun, N/E breezes
Bait:
Rigs: The works.
Results: Usual suspects: Pollock Mack Launce......and Squid.

Report:
The fine weather ended 8 landlocked weeks, and with eldest Anna taking a break from her Berlin studies, we headed out to get some mack bait and winter pollock dinners into the freezer before the big waves resume, as they will soon enough.
First day there was still a fair bit of a swell from NW, and since this was No1's first ever trip out, we stayed in the calmer waters around Lacken Bay. Conditions were blinding and hot in the middle of the day and fish scarce enough but No1 was duly rewarded and started hauling in the macks. This is what she thought of it all at first:

Anna-mac.gif

Half a box later of course, she was chucking them in like an oul' fishwife....

Once the macks palled, we scouted around for something more interesting but with the brightness and falling tide making the fishing poor, and the tea flask empty, we headed back in early.

Second day was just Meself and Herself again, and after the usual grumpy launch at 11am (I'm told some locals refer to us as Victor Meldrew and the Mrs, tho I have to say I dont believe it) we motored out to the spectacular Ceide Cliffs to hit the pollock. Once we figured out which reefs they were hiding downtide of, they started coming aboard steadily, Herself as usual accounting for the bigger ones (its the Chanel No 5 I bought her last Xmas). Only the odd mack showed up, and as Herself was winding one up, something big and strong whacked into it and tore it away, nearly pulling the rod out of her hand. Conger? Big Ling? Its a spot marked for further investigation now that the freezer is OK.

Later on, we jetted back beyond Ballycastle Bay to Downpatrick Head to whack a few macks for the neighbours: There we saw this:

High-flyer.gif

Dodging his leads, we spent about 15 mins pulling in some nice macks (never thought I'd actually be glad to see them again, but its been a bad year) and on the final wind-in Herself decked this:

squid.gif

Never seen one rod caught before, and it would've been a nice addition to my species list. I don't believe it.....

[doggie3131]

well done hugo and the girls,love the pic of the daughter and the mack another sucidal angler on the cliff!! them guys are pure mad!!they were there all summer,calm or rough!! what is that fish in the last picture?

[The Austrian]

Lovely report Hugo and well done to all on getting into the fishies, amazed to see squid turning up this neck of the woods, sure it's the warm weather bringing them in so close to the shore, saw a lot of small jellyfish at the weekend around the Arans, maybe they feed on them?

[doggie3131]

ah squid,your supposed to be able to get them off keem beach this time of year.

[hugo]

Cheers lads, hopefully I can interest Herself in more adventurous fishing sometime - only just weaned her off the ancestral handline....

another sucidal angler on the cliff!! them guys are pure mad!! they were there all summer, calm or rough!!

Suicidal is right, but that one spot below him is the only place on this stretch of coast where the macks have been consistent all summer, and a good size they are too. 100 yards either side and there's no fish. And then that squid.... wonder what's going on down there?

[huntress sea anglers]

Your big fish could be a seal? We had some bother our pollack at the stack this october.

[hugo]

A fair possibility, never thought of that. The fantasy Big Fish always hogs the imagination first....