Clare Dragoon, Carrigaholt, August 30 2009

[jd]

People: JW, JD, Martin, Tommy, Karl, Muireann

Duration: 9 am - 5: 30 pm

Tide: HW about 1:30 pm , neaps

Weather: Fresh westerly Breeze easing during day, finishing off with some nice sunshine in the afternoon

Bait: Mackerel

Rigs: Shark Rigs, various rigs like hokkais etc, flowing traces

Results: 2 Blues to the boat, Whiting, Red Gurnard, Grey Gurnard, Haddock, Scad, LSD, etc

Report:

Looking at the sea on Friday it was hard to imagine us out 8 miles past Loop Head fishing for shark the following morning! However the wind dropped steadily during the night and we were ok to set off that morning. We stopped off at the Loop for some mackerel and then headed on our way.
It didn't take long to have five shark rigs out into the nice slick that Luke had got going for us. A few of us fished "out the back " for whitefish. I managed to get my fist haddock of the year, some nice whiting and some other bits and pieces. Garfish still not showing for us.
Karl had a good trip, getting his first blue, and also landing a specimen whiting AND a specimen Red Gurnard. Well done! Just before 4 I had to bring in my rig as some of the others had tangled. I dropped it straight over the side, down about 50 feet or so, and went back to my other rod. A few minutes later I looked back to see line being pulled off the shark rod. I let the shark run a little bit more, then lifted into the fish. About 20 minutes (and one sore back) later I brought a lively blue of about 60lbs or so to the boat.

[Tomaszek]

Hey! Congratulations to jd and Karl for landing sharks. This was overall a good trip. It is always OK if you learn something and in this case I guess we all learned how not to fish for blue sharks

One other interesting thing was a pack of dolphins chasing the boat and jumping out of the water vary close to the side of the boat.

See you guys next time!

[jw]

It started off fairly lumpy with a 4 meter swell and 15 knot westerly breeze

Going round loop head i kept the camera in my pocket and held on with both
hands. I promised god i wouldn't be an atheist any more if we got home alive

great sight of common dolphins performing in the swell beside the boat the whole
way north from loop head, do they do this more in rough weather?

loads of whitefish could be picked up from the bottom

[jw]

then i lent my whitefish rod to Karl who brought up a specimen whiting, i went green,
then on the next drop he gets a specimen red, i went even greener and it wasnt seasick

due to the breeze and rough weather and an unusual amount of fulmars tangling up
the lines our setup got in a desperate tangle and probably wasnt fishing for a lot of
the time, still a great day on the water

[The Austrian]

Tried to get a snap from the pod of dolphins following the boat, was a bit tricky but you can make them out between the mid section and one more to the right of the blue rod just below the horizon line.
Again, it was another really enjoyable day out, great comradeship as always, plenty of nice fish came on board, thanks again to Luke for all his help, especially with the rubby dubby and getting us into plenty of fish and - last but by no means least, thanks to JW for organising the trip .
Looking forward to the next one already. Enjoy the piccies and tight lines!

[JimC]

Good stuff Lads. The way the weather has been going, toughening it out is the only answer.

[The Austrian]

a few more pictures

[twinkle]

cant say id have stuck that swell very well felt a bit green looking at the pictures super days fishing and id say the craic was even better well done lads on the fish and also on the report which was top notch

[The Austrian]

cant say id have stuck that swell very well felt a bit green looking at the pictures super days fishing and id say the craic was even better well done lads on the fish and also on the report which was top notch

it wasn't too bad really, nothing what a few mints couldn't get sorted and surely it was one of my best outings ever, great craic and a bit of the auld slagging thanks to Luke not knowing the slight difference between Germany and Austria and me calling him English then as revenge

[gfkelly1969]

well done lads looks rough from the photos,fair play for sticking it out