Duration: 5pm to 3pm the following day. 22 hours
Tide: all states
Weather: westerly gales dropping to flat calm and scorching sunshine
Bait: peeler, rag, lug, mack
Rigs: all sorts
Results: bass to 5 & half pounds, starry smoothounds to 6lb, common pups, tope, flounder, dab, whiting, doggies, lesser weever and tub gurnard
SESSION 1
After a quick stop at eye's place for coffee and apple tart (thanks helen
) we all got set to hit the road to the mark chosen in advance where we stood a chance of a smoothie and mabey even a flukey bass. we got onto the beach to see mitch and the other lad already set up and fishing away. i think mitch had a flounder before our arrival so things looked promising. we all got set up and i laced out a big peeler on a 3/0 pennel and a 3 hook flapper in close with a selection of baits to see if anything was feeding in the gutter. i think everyone else did the same and mitch was first in with another flounder. after a good 20 minute natter i noticed a twitch on my peeler rod and reeled in a nice dab who had no problem impaling himself on the pennel wile attempting to eat the crab. so happy days, blank saved . things were a bit slow but mitch assured me that once it got dark the hounds should come on the feed. but before it had even got dark fishface was into a wee tope and a few hounds swiftly followed by a smashing bass weighing in at over 5 and a half pounds 
. it was a long slender sort of bass, and to be honest i thought he was reeling in another decent smoothie at first, but the bass was a welcome addition to his ever growing species list . after everything had calmed down a bit it was me up next with another flattie and a flounder broke the surf to add to my tally. then eyes had a smoothie pup and a few whiting to get him off the blocks. mitch and the other fella decide to head on and we all said our goodbyes and i walked up to the cars with them to get our tent in preperation for an all nighter 
. they gave us a pile of bait which was greatly appreciated and i got back to discover neil had another nice starry, but poor jordan and dawsey were still waiting on their first fish 
. eyes had a few flats before i noticed a twitch on my close in rod and my first ever starry was landed 
. admittadly he was only a puppy, but a starry none the less . jordan was up next getting a starry pup too so we were made up to get our target species. nothing like the beasts fishface was landing, but we were happy enough. but poor dawsey was still to catch anything and was beginning to lose the head as he was finding every snag on the beach resulting in loads of lost rigs and leads 
. i was talking away with one of the guys when dawsey shouted to me that i'd had a vicious bite on my close rod and i struck into something that was running straight at me towards the shore. i wound in as fast as i could as all i was reeling in was slack line and a 3 and a half pound bass broke the surface . sadly he was bleeding like a stuck pig as he was gut hooked and just kept washing up in the surf, so that was dinner sorted 
i was made up as it was my first east coast bass but as quick as the fising had picked up it died off. as we approached midnight fishface and eyes called it a night and gave us yet more bait wich we added to our mountain . i'd the tent set up for us to fish on. we all said our goodbyes and got back to the fishing. i noticed a twitch on my rod and called to dawsey to hit it as i was sorting a fire pit as it was starting to get a bit nippy. he struck it and landed a doggie which turned out to be the first of a few who came out to avail of all the juicy baits we were offering them. so dawsey was off the blocks and began to have a great comeback with loads of solid bites and the odd fish coming in . but by 2am jordan was starting to feel the effects of the marathon session and retired to the tent to get his head down so he could get up at 5am for the dawn run of smoothies he was sure were coming 
. me and dawsey fished on and i got a couple more smoothie pups and dawsey finally got a few himself . we were both chuffed that we had all got in on the smoothie action, even if they were only small doggie sized smoothies, they were still smoothies . jordan woke up at around 5am as i was reeling in another smoothie pup and got back to fishing himself. my eyes were going togeather and i knew we had an afternoon session planned for wicklow harbour later so decided to get a bit of shut eye. i was only in the tent for about 30 mins drifting in and out of sleep when i heard jordan screaming " dawsey help me quick,,, help,, help!. i sprung up in a panic, dazed wondering what the hell was going on. and opened the tent just as jordan was hauling a big smoothie up onto the shore . i had'nt realized that dawsey had passed out on the beach while watching his rods when jordan got smashed up by a smoothie close in 
. i was still in a bit of a daze and to be honest, both me and dawsey looked like 2 zombies, but we got it onto the scales and it weighed in at 4lb 11oz . i honestly thought it would have weighed more, but apparently that's a thing with the smoothies. because of their long slender profile, they often look a lot heavier than what they actually are. but i was just made up for jordan getting a decent fish. his face was a picture of happiness and he must have gave it a half dozen cuddles and kisses before carefully returning it to the surf . i was knackered and got another hour of sleep before getting up to sort the brekkie for the boys.. while i was asleep jordan had a few dogs to add to his tally, but made sure he got pics of them all so we'd believe him . so me and dawsey went back up to the motor and got the coffee and pot noodles on the go. we got back to the beach and jordan informed us that he'd got a weever and something else, but i honestly can't remember what it was as the coffee had'nt kicked in yet. so he sat beside his tripod munching away when he got another good bite and a 1lb bass broke the surf . another new one for him from the east coast . by now the sun was high in the sky and we all sat down and took our wellies off as our feet were beginning to get a bit rank after cooking for 16 hours or so in the boots. the weather was smashing and we all ended up burnt, but very happy. the fishing had died off and as we approached 3pm we decided to call it a day and head down to the harbour to continue the marathon session to target the mini's. as we reeled in one last time i descovered i had a plump 29cm flounder on and dawsey got a bonus tub gurnard . it was lovely with it's blue/green pectoral fins glistening in the bright sunlight. but when i tried to take a pic of it he decided to retract them and the pic really did'nt do him proper justice. so this part of the trip was over and we managed to get in 22 hours on that beach with only 2 hours sleep. but we were all fuelled up on coffee and sugar and were ready for a go at the minis at the harbour now the other lads can correct me if i get anything wrong. but i think the scores on the doors ended up,MITCH - a couple of flounder
EYESREILLY - 4 whiting, 2 starry's and 2 flatties
FISHFACE - 1 tope, 2 big smoothies, 5lb 10oz bass, and a common pup
ME - 1 dab, 2 flounder, 5 starry pups, 3 dogs, 1 whiting and a 3lb 9oz bass
JORDAN - 4 dogs, 2 starry smoothounds, 1 lesser weever, 1 bassat 1lb and 1 flounder
DAWSEY - 3 dogs, 2 starry smoothound, 1 whiting and a tub gurnard
SESSION 2 WICKLOW HARBOUR 4PM TO 7PM
after another few coffee's we arrived down to see eyesreilly already fishing away getting loads of bites with all the usual culprits of small stuff we've come to expect from here. the action was non stop for the next 3 hours with loads of coalies, pollock, ballan wrasse, corkwing wrasse, pouting, sea scorpions, tomot blennys and even a few codling being taken by us all. there were a few nice wrasse taken and me and eyes had a codling each at just under 30cms. but the star of the session was a cracking big sea scorpion that eyes got
. i thought we'd better call it a day just as fishface arrived down to see what we were up to. to be honest i did'nt fancy driving home in the dark as all the coffee in the world would'nt be able to keep my eyes open once it got dark 
. not after 22 hours on the beach and 3 hours in the harbour and all the travelling in between. added to that i'd only managed about 2 hours of sleep between all this. so we said our good byes and hit the road for the 3 hour drive home. yet another smashing trip where we had a blast with great company and actually managet to get our target species with the odd flukey bass thrown in for good measure . the east coast lads got us sorted out with productive marks and eyes went and paid our toll for the M50 to keep us legal again . great to re-affirm old friendships and catch up to make plans for the rest of the summer forgot to say, eyes has loads more pics to put up when he gets the chance too
