Duration: 1800-2130 (28th), 10.30-16.30 (29th)
Tide: Rising (28th), Dropping (29th).
Bait: Mack, Rag and Wraps.
Conditions: Warm, scattered showers and light to stiff SW both days.
28th August-South Dublin
Knocked off work in good time to get to the tackle shop for the weekends bait and to stock up on munchies. Got down to the mark and set-up for 18.00 and was joined shortly afterwards by Jack01986. First 2 hours passed without a tap for either of us and crabs stripping hooks reasonably quickly. We decided to up sticks and move a bit further down the beach to some rougher ground to see if it held a few fish. The answer was not really! Jack managed a pin coley in close and I managed a flounder to 27 cm on the last cast after pulling for a break on the other rod. In fairness to this mark I’m sure it would have produced a few more fish had we fished on into darkness.
29th August- North Wexford
The main objective of the weekend was to head to a rock mark I’d managed to pick a few daylight hounds up in previously around this time of year. Didn’t have any crab but had some fine lively snakes of rag so hopes were high. Got off to a decent start with a dog, small coley and whiting in three casts all on the rag. Couple more dogs followed before things went quiet and with no sign of the hounds we decided to move to a nearby beach mark to see what we could scratch out. The tide was still fairly full and neither of us registered any bites until well into the drop. Unfortunately the bites were all from the dreaded Weever fish
I’d never caught one of these fish before but luckily had educated myself on their ID. Had a pair of heavy gloves in the box which were handy for unhooking. Anyway after no less than 5 Weevers I was beginning to think of the Plan B option of a cool pint of Bulmers when I managed a little Plaice (22 cm). This was the first Plaice I’ve caught in about 3 or four years so a very welcome sight. This, of course, encouraged us to stay a bit longer but when the Weever attack continued Plan B was implemented! Not exactly what I came for but with limited time for fishing recently it was good to pick up a few fish.