Duration: two 7 hour sessions
Tide: 3 hours either side of low
Weather: 13th calm and mild 14th drizzly and blow the head off ya
Bait: ragworm and mackerel
Rigs: 3 hook flappers size 1 hooks and long snoods with bling
Results: flounder coalfish and bass!
Report:
THURSDAY 13TH MARCH 2014 DONEGAL BEACH MARK
well this was a spur of the moment sort of trip that was decided on at the last moment. Jordan was off school today and tomorrow and I finally had some free time on my hands. so a quick check of the forecast and tides had my mind made up that we should be off exploring a beach in Donegal that we have always avoided due to the fact that it was useless in the past as it was a featureless flat sort of mark with little to no fish holding features.
but since all these mad storm over the recent months it has changed dramatically with some lovely gullies and exposed crops of rocks beyond the low tide line that I reckon should attract some hungry fish on a flooding tide
so a quick phone call secured me a few bags of rag and a guest house was booked and we collected Jordan's friend mark and his dad willie and we were Donegal bound. ROAD TRIP!!!
we got quickly booked into the accommodation and were on the beach fishing for 8pm.
both mark and willie are new to our beloved sport and have been learning the ropes with a summer of rock fishing now under their belts. so they now wanted to broaden their angling arsenal with some beach fishing hoping to target some new species and learn new tips and tactics. so rigs were tied and baits were loaded and we were all in the water awaiting to see how this new mark would treat us.
we didn't have to wait long before willie called me over asking if I thought he was getting a bite or maybe he had weed on the line. but you couldn't mistake that tell tale, quick fire tap, tap, tap of a flounder bite
so willie lifted into it and a nice flounder was soon on the measure for a quick pic then a release. willie was made up as it was a new species for him and seemed amazed that you could tell what type of fish was nibbling at the bait long before it was hooked, just by it's bite
but he didn't have too long to think about it as his other rod and mark's rod were simultaneously doing the flounder jig together in unison
so I left them to it and got back to my own rods to see them too nodding away
before too long we were all in on the flounder action and I was running about like a madman unhooking and photographing fish for everyone
things died off over low tide, but I was sure that as soon as the tide began to flood back on things would switch on again
thankfully I was right, but the flounder had disappeared and were replaced with a run of 6 inch coalies. this was the way it went for the rest of the session.
I was showing willie how to tie a shock leader when we heard the boys screaming and jumping about at the surf line 50 yards to our right. so we quickly ran over just in time to see mark land a lovely schoolie bass of 39cm.
he was over the moon and after a few pics he returned it to the surf and we all congratulated him on his catch. he said a bass was a fish he had always wanted to catch, but just thought it was gonna be a bit of a pipe dream as he knows boys who have tried for them for years and are still waiting for one.
I was sure we might have been in for a run of them, but as the night went on it was just, little coalie after little coalie.
so by 2am we called it a night as we wanted to get a session in on the rocks in the morning before we went home.
we were all made up for mark and i'll deffo have to put in a few more sessions in on this mark as we go into the summer months this year.
FRIDAY 14TH MARCH DONEGAL ROCK MARK
well there's not much to report on this one
we arrived to one of our favourite rock marks to find the wind gusting easily to 30mph and the sea had been churned up overnight with the water clarity gone to heck
but we were here and we just stuck it out to see what happened. sadly not a lot of anything at all
we all blanked and I put it down to the weather and sea state in front of us
well that's my excuse and i'm sticking to it
all in all not a bad return for our efforts and I think we have converted willie and mark to the world of beach fishing
I was just glad to see at least one of them get a silver fella and notch up a new species to their ever growing tally
