I'm just back from Kilmore Quay. Myself and lads from work try to get 3 or 4 boat trips in per year. On Friday last we headed out aboard the Lady Alison. Locals told us we were the first trip out since storms. We thought...ya'd never know , might be great , or might be a waste of time. Despite good weather reports, the sea looking kinda 'lumpy'. Skipper Paul '' not promising anything this time lads' . Anyway, apart from 3 pukers' we done our best, but after only 1 hour on a falling tide..not a bite not even a nibble. We were followed out of the harbour by 3 seals...even they didn't get a look in. Conditions worsened and we returned to port after a small craft warning from the Coastguard. I reckon the kelp beds of Kilmore have been ripped up by storms... if that is the fact, it spells back luck for a great angling town. Skipper said the coastal defences were thrown up onto the pier like ' jellytots'. I hope place recovers soon, but only time will tell I suppose. But it really brings the damage home as in to what the cost of storms has been on a community that welcomes anglers throughout the year. Sorry for the doom and gloom report, but as they say...''we are where we are.
Lets look at things more positively, yes the inshore grounds have got a hammering but things will take time to settle.There has been a great mixing of nutrients and a cleanout of old growth leaving plenty of space for new.Fish have moved off shore and will be a bit later to come in this year.Because the trawlers were not able to fish most species will have got a better chance to spawn,so a couple of years from now we will reap the benefits.These were not the first storms to hit the coast and they certainly wont be the last.
Sorry to hear of your bad trip but things will improve.Chin up...it's only March!
MONKEYwrasse wrote:I hope the weed ripping storms didn't destroy this years Ray eggs, aren't they attached to the weed?
it seems to be a good year for ray around clifden so far,i am getting loads of ray in a spot i never got a ray before,also getting whiting and cod in the same place,its the first time i caught a cod out this way
lifetime species fishing and rock pool
1 dogfish,2 whiting,3 flounder,4 two spot goby,5 mackerel,6 pollack,7 common blenny,8 European eel,9 butterfish,10 Deep-snouted pipefish,11 rock goby,12 poor cod,13 corkwing wrasse,14 coalfish,15 turbot,16 tompot blenny,17 dab,18 dragonet,19 shorerockling,20 thornback ray,21 three bearded rockling,22 sandeel,23 grey gurnard,24 sea scorpion,25 scad,26 plaice,27 ballen wrasse,28 bullhuss,29 conger eel,30 blue shark,31 blonde ray,32 cod,33 pouting,34 topknot,35 Fifteen-spine Stickleback,36 mullet,37 Sand Goby,38 Montagu's Blenny,39 Three-spined Stickleback,40 goldshinny wrasse,41 painted goby,42 five bearded rockling,43 Sand-Smelt,44 Small-headed Clingfish ,45 sole
MONKEYwrasse wrote:I hope the weed ripping storms didn't destroy this years Ray eggs, aren't they attached to the weed?
it seems to be a good year for ray around clifden so far,i am getting loads of ray in a spot i never got a ray before,also getting whiting and cod in the same place,its the first time i caught a cod out this way
we done our best, but after only 1 hour on a falling tide..not a bite 
not even a nibble. We were followed out of the harbour by 3 seals...even they didn't get a look in. Conditions worsened and we returned to port after a small craft warning from the Coastguard. I reckon the kelp beds of Kilmore have been ripped up by storms... if that is the fact, it spells back luck for a great angling town. Skipper said the coastal defences were thrown up onto the pier like ' jellytots'. I hope place recovers soon, but only time will tell I suppose. But it really brings the damage home as in to what the cost of storms has been on a community that welcomes anglers throughout the year. Sorry for the doom and gloom report, but as they say...''we are where we are.
