Duration: 19 hours in total
Tide: all states
Weather: torrential rain broken by sunny spells (sure it's ireland, what would you expect
)Bait: rag, sand eel and mackerel
Rigs: sliding float, 1 up 1 down and every spinner and soft plastic imaginable
Results: doggies, pollack, coalfish, ballan wrasse, corkwing wrasse, mackerel and thornback ray
Report:
after last weeks success we decided to get back out on the rocks for another session to see if we could squeeze out a specimine ballan wrasse
. i reckon there must be one or two cruising about up there or a decent pollack or two as well. sadly the forecast was'nt looking as good for us this weekend with heavy rain and a bit more of a swell predicted. but not to be put off we left belfast at 4am and were on the mark and set up for 7am. it was still dark so we had a coffee break while we waited for the sun to make an appearence, then got into it trying all different tactics. jordan had a eureka moment at home on friday night and decided that he wanted to try for a specimine ballan wrasse on his fly rod. now he did'nt have any worm type flys in his box so decided that he would try a 3/0 hook baited with a worm and a split shot above it to get it down to the fish. technically not fly fishing, but it was all gonna be about enjoying the scrap of a hard fighting wrasse on a trout rod 
he also invited his friend mark to come along with us as he usually only gets to fish portrush or blackhead. so the chance for a run up to donegal for a few quality fish was'nt gonna be missed by him
from the first cast it was obvious that the 1lb coalfish and pollack were just as abundant as they were last week. it was a fish a cast and my herring type spinners were getting nailed before they could even get down into the kelp. meanwhile jordan was having great sport with the wrasse an the fly rod and mark was having great success with the float. it was like this for the next 7 hours with the only slow bit being about an hour either side of low water when the bites died off. sadly there were no decent pollack this time but the wrasse were more than accomodating happily munching every worm we offered to them. we even caught the same wrasse from last week again
this fella never seems to learn that those yummy worms have a steel backbone attached to line . mark came up trumps getting the biggest fish of the session with a new personal best wrasse of 4lb 1oz and jordan had a great time landing countless wrasse up to 2lb on the fly rod. his wrist was sore by then end of the session as those wrasse fight something powerfull on a light trout fly rod no specimines this time but great fun all the same. even the torrential rain could'nt dampen our spirits
.so we went for a bite to eat and returned to fish into darkness before heading to the guest house for some well deserved sleep. on our return the 1lb coalfish and pollack were back and we could'nt get through them to catch anything else. so it was time to pack up and get ready for our 8.30am sunday session before going home.
the day started off great with blue skies and light winds as we sat waiting for our full irish breakfast. so after a good feed at the guest house we were set for the day.
i decided to fish bait on the bottom at this mark and the boys went for spinners, feathers and floats. this spot did'nt fish as well as we had expected it to, but i was getting doggie after doggie on the bottom until something better hit the mackerel and a nice thornie was landed. then a mackerel took a sand eel on my top hook, so i let the boys do a bit of tinsel tossing in the area i had been bait fishing in resulting in 49 mackerel destined for the pan and the bait freezer
after the shoal had passed on the boys went back to the float annoying the wrasse. the wrasse were smaller here with the biggest only getting to about 2lb, but still good sport even thow we were now soaked through with the rain. but all to soon we were nearing 2pm and had to pack up and head for home. another great weekend away and donegal was more than good to us yet again
, another awesome session, wrasse on the fly rod sounds like mighty craic, and muscle building too, nice one on the thornie!!, and on the free macs for the pan and freezer, glad ye had a great time 
