Donegal 8th-10th May

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Donegal 8th-10th May

Postby guernica84 » Wed May 27, 2015 9:52 pm

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Guernica84
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People: BiL, Wee Mark, Me

Had a long-standing fly-fishing weekend planned but had been watching the wind all week and decided to switch over to sea fishing around Thursday.

Friday

We got loaded up and trucking for about 6:30pm, later than planned as always but not to worry. To add to that impropitious start, it p1shed (and I mean p1shed) the whole journey there until maybe 20 miles away from our destination. From there on, things progressively cleared and by the time we got to the house, we were confronted with a fairly calm, dry, still night. Had a quick unpack and headed round the corner to the beach, our 1st mark for a night session.

I had fished this beach once before and fish baits were the order of the day with worm totally untouched throughout. The 3 of us baited up accordingly. Nothing much happening on the rods for the 1st couple of casts bar a surprising run of tide.

First sign of action from Wee Mark - "I knew I had one". Now Wee Mark is still in the casual angler phase and suffice to say, more into the swall than the surf. He does however seem to be riding a long run of beginner's luck. A wee white trout slid onto the beach of about 32cm - 3/4 lbs, promptly unhooked and returned of course.

Shortly after, the lucky beggar was shrieking again. This time I could see the bounce on the rod and knew it to be a better fish. Out I waded into the tide to aid the lad in landing his prize. As the rod bent, I saw that flash of silver and for more than a second thought "bass". I wasn't long in realising that it was another white trout but a substantially better one. A fit and strong bar of silver at 46cm - 2.5 lbs. These yokes weren't what we were after, but very welcome sporting surprises nonetheless.

Finally got a good bounce on my own rod well into the wee small hours. Again, after a fun darting scrap in the shallows, a white trout of 43cm / 2 lbs. This was meant to be a short "bonus" session that actually threw up a few fish. Pretty much out of bait and with bites dropping off, we made for home. The only issue was we realised we'd fished on too long to make it up next morning for the early flood and would thus be starting on the ebb.

Saturday

First stop was a rock mark known to us for spectacular pollock and wrasse fishing. It seems to be a late mark though with pollock not about until July. Pollocking has been so good there that we've tried little else, despite access to deep water over sand from nearby pegs.

Tried our luck there anyway, bit of Heavy Cliff Fishing and not for the feint hearted, especially watching Wee Mark in action the great lummox. Sand disappointingly threw up nothing for the entire 2nd half of the ebb. Come slack water, I decided to exert my seniority, leave the young fellas to strike up the barbie and I went down to the rough to try yet again for that elusive conger for my 10 Most Wanted list. In went the head and guts of a mack on the poker-stiff 9fter. 5 mins in, tap-tap-tap. Picked up the rod being careful not to let any potential culprit know of my presence. As the rig was well into the kelp, I wasn't convinced that the taps weren't just fronds hitting the line in the swell. This went on for a good 20 mins until finally I got a good pull-down. I struck in and gave her dixie. At this point I knew it was a conger but true to form, it snagged up. Now anyone that knows me will tell you that patience is not my defining characteristic. However, the 10MW list is the most coveted piece of silverware amongst our band of anglers and this boyo was not going to be pulled for a break. I kept the pressure on him, all the while altering the angle of the pressure and eventually he came free. Yanked him up and on to the rocks, touched lucky for my first conger. Now it was a modest strap of 2.5 lbs but it was the species and above all, drawing level at 1-1 with my arch-nemesis Atchy on the 10MW ladder that was of importance.

The BiL at this stage (Wee Mark was by now airlocked), realising he was missing out on a good thing, decided to try some cliff congering from beside his peg at the BBQ. Again, shortly after dropping over, he had a long series of tentative taps. The lad having the patience of a saint with the auld congers, I'd say this actually went on for the best part of an hour. All of a sudden, rod bent forward and tripod about to fall over the edge, the young fella decided to spring into action. He puffed and snarled for a few secs as I watched the water in anticipation. All of a sudden, this 3b rockling comes flying through the air ad whacks into the rocks below. After a bit of head scratching and inspection of what was a solid 3b of 35cm, we realised that the conger had bitten (the head near off) an already hooked 3b but obviously not himself got the hook and spat the bait.

Unperturbed, the young lad re-baited and dropped back over. Shortly afterwards, another good bend, scrap, stuck-unstuck sequence of events unfolded, finally resulting in a 12 lb 7oz conger for the perseverant BiL. Good craic was had lifting it up 3 ledges for photo-ing and unhooking. The traditional tribal cliff conger dance followed after that.



I must say I found the unhooking a very difficult task even with a T-bar, the obstruction of the deeply swallowed large bait and the 6/0 hook being the key issues. Any advice on that welcome.

Cock-a-hoop and aware that we were well back into the tide by now, we decided to up sticks and head back to the beach for our evening session. In similar conds. to the prior night, albeit slightly rougher, that was a blank-fest and the less said the better. 1 pin flounder for the BiL again won the day.

Sunday

On the Sabbath, the plan was to call in on the rays and see if there were actually about in spite of the dearth of online reference to them so far this year. Again, the heavens bucketed on us for almost the entirety of our drive to the mark, only to ease off just as we arrived.

There was still a quare gust blowing to the right which made bite detection hard. I did however notice my line make an unnatural tightening given the wind direction and revealed the culprit to be a 46cm wingspan ray of about 5.5 lbs from memory. Wee Mark was in as well shortly with a fish of similar stamp. The fish were around but weather and our very depleted bait supply would stop us from maximising our catches. As slack water ensued and the bites dropped off, the rains came and the winds picked up. "Blow-in" himself and with a ray in the bag, Wee Mark took his inappropriately clad self back to the car to call it a weekend. Hardened storm-chasers the BiL and myself persisted. I had another 2 as the tide ran on again, best 52cm - I think about 6.5 lbs. The BiL had a couple of good bites which sadly turned out to be scourges of the seas. Lamenting, I comforted him on the way home with memories of his conger - "Every dog has its day.....Yours was yesterday."

A cracking weekend. Not a great volume of fish, but virtually all substantial which I'll take over pointless pinfishing any day of the week.

On a less successful note, fished Cushendall rocks on Thurs night. What a comedown. 2 30cm codling and 3 scourges in 5 hrs.
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2013 species (23 shore): flounder, plaice, turbot, dab, coalfish, pollock, codling, mackerel, cuttlefish, silver eel, pouting, 3b & 5b rockling, white trout, salmon, whiting, LSD, ballan, corkwing & goldsinney wrasse, thornback & spotted ray, red gurnard, lesser weever, LSSS
2014 shore (27): flounder, plaice, turbot, dab, coalfish, pollock, codling, mackerel, silver eel, pouting, 5b rockling, whiting, LSD, GSD, tope, smoothhound, ballan&corkwing wrasse, thornback & painted ray, tub gurnard, bass, common blenny, rock goby, haddock, LSSS, poor cod
2015 shore (37): cod, flounder, pollack, coalfish, poor cod, 5 bd rockling, shore rockling, whiting, LSD, plaice, dab, thornback ray, undulate ray, stingray, garfish, conger, ballan wrasse, corkwing wrasse, rock-cook wrasse, goldsinney wrasse, tub gurnard, common & tompot blenny, rock goby, pout, greater sandeel, mackerel, smoothhound, turbot, haddock, scad, red mullet, black bream, silver eel, bass, lesser weever, lsss

For this message the author guernica84 has received thanks: 3
corbyeire (Sun May 31, 2015 9:08 pm), jd (Fri Jun 05, 2015 10:50 pm), mickser (Thu May 28, 2015 9:08 am)
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Re: Donegal 8th-10th May

Postby tight lines » Wed May 27, 2015 10:06 pm

Well done all great fishing and top class report
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