Duration: 4.00 - 6.45 pm
Tide: HW at 8.00 pm
Weather: Warm sunny day
Bait: lug, razor
Rigs: 4/0 and 3/0 pennel pulleys, 3 hook flapper (1/0 hooks)
Results: 3 flounder, 1 plaice (I think)
Report: I havn't done a report for a few weeks as there was not much to report, fishing was fairly poor over the last month and I was away at a business convention in Toronto for the all of the second week in March (it was actually milder there than it was in Cork). The only session of note at the beginning of the month was in Ardmore - first fish was a 41 cm flounder although the rest of the session was fairly mediocre (two small codling and a tiny coalfish),
After getting home in the third week of March I had a few bass sessions as the weather had got milder and the southwesterlies were blowing up a bit of a surf but not a bite.
So on Saturday I was determined to have a better session and just forget about trying to catch bass until the sea temperatures warm up a bit. I tried a beach mark in Youghal Bay. It was a surprisingly warm sunny day - the first time in quite a few months that I didn't need to wear my coat while fishing. There was a nice surf - so I was hopefully of a few flat fish. Despite the surf I wasn't holding out any hope of a bass as the water still feels very cold. I set up two rods, one with a pennel pulley cast out about 50-60 m baited with lug/razor, the other with a three hook flapper cast in relatively close initially baited with just lug but later I changed to lug/razor on this too.
About 15 minutes later I had the first bite a 33 cm flounder on the pennel pulley. After another half an hour I got a second flounder, a reasonable size this time at 36 cm.
It was probably another half hour later when I had the third bite. At first I though it was another 36 cm flounder (the flounder on that beach typically dispay orange spots) but its lateral line was totally smooth and it was a bit lumpy around the head so I reckon it was a plaice (it also tasted nicer than any flounder I have ever eaten).
At that stage I had still not had a bite on the three hook flapper that was cast in fairly close so I switched that to another pennel pulley and cast it out to about the same distance that I had picked up the fish.
However, it was quite for some time. Then at about 6.30 I had another knock on the first rod and reeled in a 35 cm flounder. This guy had completely swallowed the bait and both hooks of the pennel so it was another one for dinner. Interestingly when I cleaned it out I found a butter fish and two small sand eels in its stomach
. what you lacked in quantity, you sure made up for with quality