Duration: see below
Tide: see below
Weather: everything from gales and torrential rain to bright blue skies
Bait: lug, mack, squid and rag
Rigs: 2 up 1 down size 1 hooks
Results: coalies, whiting, doggies, turbot, sea trout and an early season thornback ray
Report: well this trip was weeks in the making as we made our way back out west to meet up with friends, old and new. we drove from Belfast just before 6am on Saturday morning and were in doggie's house in mayo for 10am with a fry set out on the dining table waiting for us
nom nom. top man doggie 
we had a look at the sky and decided to give the fishing a miss today as it was blustery and wet looking and opted to scoot over to the angling exhibition in Dublin at swords to buy new toys and meet up with a few mates.
the show was so so with a few stands catering to the sea angler and money was spent and we met up with a few mates.
after a few hours we headed back west to doggies for a few refreshments and an early night so as to get up fresh in the morning for a proper fishing session
sunday 16th feb
mayo turbot beach mark. fished low to high over 6 hours
we arrived at the mark and got set up while waiting for Jason and pat to arrive. soon enough all 5 of us had 2 rods each in the water and Jason was first in with a lovely sea trout around 2lb. it was in fine condition and swam off strongly after a few piccys were taken. we were here searching for turbot, but the trout was a welcome surprise
then the turbot started to show with a few getting caught by us, but none of any great size. but still turbot none the less
every one seemed to be getting into the fish apart for poor Jordan who wasn't getting so much as a sniff from a fish
. old jammy trunks seemed to be out of luck on this trip as we ended up with a nice tally of turbot and an amazing tally of 7 sea trout between us 
. but Jordan ended the session on a blank 
something that he'll not live down any time soon (mainly because we won't let him 
)Monday 17th feb
galway beach and rock mark. fished a dropping tide then all the way in and out again
we said our goodbyes to doggie around 11am and hit the road out west again. great to see you again man and cheers for looking after us
. we arrived at the beach we had chosen to fish and everything was looking good as the skies were blue and the rain had disappeared for a change. but after 5 fishless hours we called it a day and packed up to head back the the b&b for a rethink. we opted just to head to rock mark a mate had put us onto and boy were we glad we did. as soon as the light began to go it was like a switch had been flipped and the fish came on the feed in droves. at first it was the little coalies and pin whiting attacking every bait in sight. but then some better whiting made an appearance before the place turned into battersey dogs home
it was pretty frantic and at one point we went down to 1 rod each as we couldn't get both rods in at the same time with the hungry dogs latched onto our baits before we even set the slack and drag. the bait was running a bit low so Jordan resorted to using the abundant pin whiting for bait on his pulley rig. and within seconds the dogs were munching them too. as we got to the end of the session we decided to quit this mark as we wanted to hit the mayo turbot beach again tomorrow to try for the better turbot we had been told were getting taken there. so with only 4 small mackerel fillets left we called it quits and began packing away. I had just turned my back on my rod when the bell went mental and the rod almost jumped off the tripod I didn't wait for another bite and struck into something that felt a lot heavier than anything I had hooked over the weekend so far. I was almost convinced it was a conger that I was reeling in until a nice 6lb thornie broke the surface coming in backwards
he had got tangled up in the snood length and came in backwards. so he felt easily twice as heavy than what he really was. but I was still made up to get my first thornie of the year and Jordan was just glad not to blank again Tuesday 18th feb
mayo turbot beach again. fished the last 2 hours of the drop and the first hour of the flooding tide.
well our trip was almost over so we decided to stop off here to see if Jordan could beat his bogey beach and catch a fish on it
I had increased my hook size and baits to see if I could winkle out a better turbot and wasn't disappointed as my first cast resulted in a turbot double I was made up and Jordan seemed a bit envious as all he was catching was weed 
but the next 3 hours went by fishless and my last cast resulted in another turbo and Jordan blanked again. (he dose'nt like this beach any more) so defeated, he began packing away vowing to return and get this monkey off his back in the future.
all in all a great weekend away and it was great to meet all the lads from the west again and all our other angling buddies at the show in Dublin. roll on next weekend
