Shore conger

Hi all

With not enough time for our usual week long trip to Kerry this year a long weekend would have to suffice, so it was off on the long journey to the dingle penninsula.

Arriving at 4pm to conincide with low tide the first job was to collect a bucket of crabs to use for wrasse bait . A friend Eoin drove down from Templemore and joined my Dad and I for dinner and for a conger session at about 9pm and after getting the rigs ready and the mackerel and squid defrosted it was just getting dark as we started.

It was barely five minutes since the rigs went in when a good sized conger swirled right in front of Eoin and I, that gave us confidence that a few fish were around. We had to wait about 20 minutes for our first take though, Eoin got a good positive take on his rod cast in close to the pier but the fish snagged him up on the bottom and he lost it.

Next take was on Eoins rod too and this one didnt snag him, but after a short scrap he reeled in a 2lbs strap conger, but it was a start. We then shared a couple more fish in the 2lbs class before I got a slack line bite on my near rod. When I struck I knew straight away it was a bit better and after a quick battle I had a fish of around 8-10lbs ready for the gaff. Eoin gaffed him but he went into a spin and bent the gaff hook. We got him up anyway and I was just posing for this quick snap when Eoin got another take.

[img]http://groups.msn.com/_Secure/0RwAAAKYUluTfxFjXW*b3l2!orGcc2aO!dWpgEciGUAwWc6g6sMAs55VA1IEsVsn4jFAIQh!0xPpsLWtj8CRzz3uAC0BpL*3L7BrSCg1iu3Y/adconger.jpg[/img]

Straight away when he struck he knew it was a good fish as his beach caster hooped over and the fish took yards of line against a tight drag. This is a proper conger he yelled and as soon as I got up to him from returning my eel it hit the surface. I wasnt prepared fro how big it was as it spun and thrashed back and forth near the pier wall. Without the gaff things were a bit of a panic and I decided the best way was to climb down to the fish and grab him by the mouth with a circle pliers.


After a couple of attempts I got him and dragged him up the steps, where the next problem was unhooking him , but we got him ok with a pair of long nosed pliers. When we fished here last year we missed a lot of takes from small straps, so we scaled down to 6/0 hooks this year , small for a fish of this size but the hook and the 50lbs mono bite trace held out and Eoin had his prize. It went 30lbs 4oz on the scales and was over five feet long

[img]http://groups.msn.com/_Secure/0RgDtAkkUC8vjPzDlBk8Ah79sqg0Vnk*bKVHKQBzORa2QrqKhnWqu24OjC69Kd3Ll!D8TpzPC7iMWUZpGCz9jOlStloowJIhaUH7Qa!3mvUM/congerh.jpg[/img]

After that anything we landed was bound to be an anticlimax so we began packing up , I left a rod out baited with a mackerel strip and had a good take, but lost a fish of about 20lbs just as eoin went to land him, I didnt really care though.

The weather was really poor on the sunday and our chosen rock mark near ballydavid was being pounded too much to fish safely, but we found one small, shallow and sheltered gully and managed to hit a few ballan wrasse on crab to at least not blank.

[img]http://groups.msn.com/_Secure/0RQAAAM0TxKnApio3Nf!7r7rvtCgcZm!X*yZH64XBz*RTbmdt1jqlvo64KvNoe3BQOhJXaQD3Xeor9QDRCD34VGmqenS*QaN0i!RgimS9BDk/ballan.jpg[/img]

Adam,

I am going down to Caheciveen the week after next. I'm boat fishing at the weekend, however we aim to fish a few days either on a boat or the shore. Any advice re- marks, quarry, tackle, etc?

Hi Arthur,

Clare and north kerry are starting to produce surf bass so I'm sure they're down in the ring as well. Caught 8 schoolies myself last night for 2 hours fishing.

Donagh

Hi arthur

What type of fishing or fish are you interested rock,pier,beach,bass,wrasse etc?

If you want to email me I will try to point you in the right direction?

adamshannon@hotmail.com