Duration: Various
Tide: Various
Weather: Generally good, dry, mostly calm
Bait: Various Lures and razor fish
Rigs: 4/0 pennel pulleys
Results:
11th August: 1 mackerel
12th August: 2 pollock
14th August: 1 bass, 12 pollock
15th August: 16 pollock, 1 coalfish, 1 mackerel
28th August: 1 pollock
29th August: 5 pollock, 1 mackerel
30th August: 5 bass
3rd September: 1 flounder, 1 codling
Report: I havn't put up a shore report for quite some time, mainly as I had done no fishing in July and the first half of August due to a problem with my foot. I had a trip to Kerry planned for the end of August so by the 11th I had a short session at a local easily accessible rock mark mostly to test out my foot rather than the expectation of catching anything. I fished for about an hour and caught one good size mackerel.
12th August: The following evening I had another short session at a rock mark I never fished before, but one that didn't require a lot of walking. I had two pollock on a patchinko, both about 38-40 cms.
14th August: As my foot had held up well on these two short sessions I headed to a reliable rock mark that produced a lot of bass for me last year. It was a much longer walk and the shore is much rougher. I got there about 5 pm just was the tide was beginning to push forward. Shortly afterwards I had a few follows on a patchinko but the fish would not take the lure. I tried a range of different lures but could not interest him again. Close to dusk the pollock came on the feed. I had two in quick succession, then had a 44 cm bass,
15th August: The following day I dusted off my spare spinning rod and headed back to the same mark. I waited a bit later this time and got there about 7 pm. Again nothing was happening until dusk, first I had a small coalfish and then the pollock came on the feed. I had 16, mostly on Xlayers, a few on the baby patchinko, and one or two on the full size patchinko. No bass this time, but I think that if they had been there they wouldn't have had a chance to get a bite in as the pollock were attacking the lures with such ferocity. They were in the same size range of 1-2 lb, maybe one or two close to 2.5 lb. In amongsts the pollock frenzy I also had a mackerel.
28th August: Headed to Kerry on Saturday afternoon with a new camera (dropped the last one in a rock pool - ruined it along with the memory card with the photos from the previous sessions
29th August: I was up at dawn and fished a high tide mark Patk recommended, but not a hint of a fish - water was quite choppy. At lunch time I met Patk for a short session at a low tide mark. Again despite chucking out a variety of lures there was nothing to show for it. In the afternoon I headed to a deeper water mark. I was intending to fish for pollock and wrasse. I had a short strong rod I use for wrasse fishing but I brought the wrong reel - one that doesn't fit that rod. So I stuck to spinning. However, there was not much biting - I had a small pollock on a white plastic shad, but nothing more until dusk. But it was a nice sunny afternoon so I just relaxed. For dusk I moved to a different mark (one that I thought might have potential for bass as well). I tried a range of lures; Xlayers, shads, jellyworms, tobys, as well as hard bodied lures like the patchinko, Feed Shallow, tide minnow but nothing was biting. As a last resort I put on a Tasmanian Devil - then first cast I had a small pollock. This was followed shortly by a better pollock of about 3 lb. I had another two smaller ones after that and a mackerel.
30th August: I spoke to John Quinlan and he said that daylight shore fishing had been very poor for the last couple of weeks but lure fishing at night was still producing a few bass. He recommended a few marks and I headed to one of them at lunch time. However, there was quite a big surf rolling in despite a fairly light wind. I had a few casts but the water was very coloured and I packed it in after less than an hour. That evening as there was still a good surf I decided on some bait fishing. I headed to a beach that fishes best on a rising tide. I set up two rods baited with rag and razor on 4/0 pennel pulleys. It was quite until dusk, then I had a 40 cm bass close to the top of the tide. About an hour later as the tide was starting to drop I had a strong bite, the line went slack. I retrieved that lack line and connected with a much stronger fish - this one was a well fed 51 cm bass
I fish on for another hour or so - I had a few more slackliners but the fish were not hooked. Then I packed up and headed to the other end of the beach to fish down to low tide. Not long after arriving and setting up I noticed some small tugs on one of the rods. I held it but the tugs stopped, I put the rod back down on the rest. Then a few minutes later the tugs started again. I reckoned it was small fish pulling at the bait. I held the rod again, then suddenly a felt a stronger pull, let the fish run with the bait for a few seconds and struck. It put up a strong fight and I was expecting a good size bass but when I hauled it out of the surf I found it was only a 45 cm fish.
Half an hour so so later I had another bite - this one did not feel so big and turned out to be an undersize fish of 37 cm. This was followed by another 40 cm bass. So not a bad night's fishing.
The following morning my foot was quite swollen - I had exerted it too much over those two days, so that was the end of fishing for a while.
3rd September: My foot seemed OK again so I headed to an East Cork beach that is easily accessible to fish the last couple of hours of the rising tide. It's a beach I prefer to fish on the last of the ebb and early rising tide but I thought I would give it a lash anyway. There was a nice surf and it was weed free. Not much to report - first fish was a 34 cm flounder followed by a small codling, both caught on 4/0 pennel pulleys baited with razor.