Duration: 6am - 4pm
Tide:falling - rising
Weather: Slight Northeasterly breeze, hazy sunshine.
Bait:Soft plastics
Rigs: Light Jig Heads
Results: See below/Blog
Report:
An absolutley fatastic day to be out on the water..
Well as planned the three f us steamed out of Kilmore harbour at 6am. Neap tides and light North Easterly winds allowed us to investigate how the light tackle would cope in deeper water. Target species would be the same, i.e. any predators that would attack a moving soft plasitic on a light jig head.
Previously we have light tackle fished water up to depths of 40 feet to great effect when conditions allowed, today the depths we targeted were ranging from 60, to just over 100 feet. It took a while to find the correct type of ground we could fish effectively, blindly dropping your lure over the side of the boat is not going to get you anywhere, so a keen eye on the depth sounder is required.
Once we found found suitable ground the fishing got going with Pat taking the first 3 fish all over 5lb, fine lumps of Pollock that refused to come to the boat without a good quality fight. They had a good depth advanatge and they used it very well, doubling up the light rods
and stripping line off the 4000 sized reels. Great Craic !
Barry was next in, a fine Wrasse smashed his lure and was digging in like a tick, eventualy Barry got the better of him and eased him up throught the depths, another fine fish of 3lb on board.
I was playing 'Guinness card'..... good things come to those who wait (OK so I hadnt had a tap all morning!
) until a 6lb + Pollock smashed me on an underwater ledge, epic fight on the light gear, up and down like a demented yoyo...brilliant stuff altogether.A triple hook up was on the cards soon after with Pollock taking a serious liking to the lures, a good bit of banter ensued on who had the best corner of the boat!
The fishing continued with a good stamp of fish all above 3lb, which was an improvement on our last outing, granted we were in a different area/depth. Pat landed a lovely Wrasse in the afternoon, 5lb and a half pound of madness, that fight lasted awhile. A quality fish by anyones standards and to land it on such light gear..hats off to him. Your codding me.. the man does it again...Barry always gets a Cod ! A lovely 5lb fish took a liking to the purple and black lure and put a smile on Barrys face, and I let off few chosing words for good measure lol ! (seriously he always gets a decent Cod !)
Ok, the fishing was great but it took a bit of work to find good ambush ground.
We even got a mention over the airways by the charters
We found the most successful colours for the day were Aurora Shad and Aniseed.
22g jig heads were adequate to get to the bottom as long as we used a lure with a slim profile.
The light tackle handled the fish very well in the depth, a slight drag adjustment was all that was required really.
Its only early April and the fishing is quality, cant wait for the summer to roll in !
More pictures from today and a funny incident! can be seen here:
http://dannymeagher.wordpress.com/
Danny.
