Shannon estuary - Fenit Pier

Shannon estuary.

Drove down Friday evening got to the first spot about 9:00pm, Inishmurry quay, started fishing and first cast got a 5-6lb conger so started off really well..Only got a couple more bites nothing major and then it went totally dead..So we called it a night about 2:00am....Crawled into the van made a cuppa sorted out where to go the next day....Fished the quay for a couple of hours the next morning again nothing then moved to Aillroe and tried that spot well nothing not even a bite so packed up and headed off...Got the ferry to Tarbert headed to Killteery pier, on the flood so should have been some decent fishing...Nothing nada even getting our bait back..So we headed off from there..Went to Foynes, now at this stage it was starting to get dark and raining pretty good...The pub was very inviting but we were there to fish so that's what we did.....First cast bang straight into a ray, about 3-4 lb maybe but a start or so we thought....got nothing for the next few hours so we went back to Tarbert pier and parked up with full intentions of fishing into the night for some conger but getting the milk out of the fridge for a cuppa a beer attacked me and I had to drink it...aawell we had a few beers and went to bed...

Next day we decided to hit Carrick Island east, 3 hours there with 2 bites and 1 doggie we headed off supposedly to the pub for the rest of the day and night but we then ended up in Fenit for some conger fishing....Started fishing at about 7:30pm on the dropping tide first couple of casts we where hammered but doggies ahh a bit of sport at least.....I had out my second rod with a big mackerel bait on a conger trace, was only in the water a few minutes when the drag took off, let him slow and then bang into a nice fish...took a couple of minutes to get him to the edge of the harbour and then he made a dive for something and lodged himself there so I waited and waited but some how he shed the hook...I put another big bait out and waited...I had put out the second rod..2500 Zziplex with a 6500 Abu 18 pound line....further out into the channel for a spot of fun with some doggies and hoping for a ray maybe but what was to come I didn't expect...With a pennell rig on and a decent bit of crab I got a good hit then slack line and when I struck into him the rod doubled over, after about a 5 minute fight got him to the edge to the pier...it was a big conger...Bent the hook out trying to lift him up the pier....I changed trace to a heavier snood line 30 lb this time and a put a bit of rag on and a sandeel and blasted it out....While fighting the conger I missed a good run on my other rod, when it rains it pours....Nothing for a couple of days then this, hectic....So with the 2500 out far again I changed the bait on the rod I had out for conger and put it back out only to look at my 2500 double up then slack line...Again I struck into a larger fish...Another nice fight from this one with a couple of good dives that stripped line off my Abu 6500 very quickly....Finally got him to the pier wall and he was allot bigger than the last one....looking at him in the water down below he even looked visibly bigger...And then came the question how the hell are we going to get him up the wall...We decided to try and just lift him but the minute he came fully out of the water, he felt quite heavy, then went mad spinning and twisting and snap line broke...30lb snood line...Ahh well atleast I got to see them in the water and the fight they gave was good...Only landed one smaller eel later on that night after I switched both rods over to conger traces...I think I might be taking another trip down there sometime soon....


Ohh and the lesson I learnt this weekend was bring a blooody drop net with you if you are fishing for anything of size off a pier.....Ok now where can I get a drop net..

John

Hi John,

Has the building construction in Inishmurray quay finished and are the tug boat still there?

I fished labasheeda last week and only had one fish on which fell off. I heard over the weekend there was some big fish caught there so I'm going back tomorrow night. The general opinion is kilteery is a waste of time.

I bought a drop net in steves in limerick. If you contact him he can get one in for you but you need one around a meter across otherwise you'll have a right laugh trying to get conger in one.

Donagh

Donagh,

There is what looks like a construction site straight on and to the right as you drive down but nothing down on the quay itself...The also was no boats moored there either. I'm going to try there again as it looks like it has promise...Kilteery pier big waste of time really...nothing not even a bite of that place...

where do you normally fish in Foynes....we fished of the main pier which was not ideal I suppose but with the wind and rain it was the half comfortable option.

Will be picking one up from Southside angling in Dublin before my next trip down....Just judging by the trace lenght beside the bigger conger I got I would have needed a drop net atleast a metre across....Worst thing was standing there with my mate looking at the fish in the water, with the head lamps on it as it was twisting and trashing around and knowing that me being the person that normally has everything with me if I need it or not didn't have anything to pick that fish up with .....but it was a great fight and a nice big fish...

I'll be back there and this time with a drop net for sure....Not giving up that quickly...

John

I've never had more than one ray in Foynes but I'm told you really have to cast into the middle of the channel from the pier to get into ray and that its a good ray mark. One bloke told me that he was there one night and they all had only one ray each but there was another angler casting 3/4s of the way across and had 7. I fish near the tug boats but was told the far end of the quay was better. Foynes is usually one of the more sheltered marks from wind.

30lb snood line is very light for conger but you'll deal with most conger in the estuary with 60lb mono as long as you don't have to pull them out of the water again back to the drop net. Up your gear in the estuary use 20lb line and use hooks with a /0.

Donagh

The place I went to was right where the big dredger/crane is...so the west side just up from the yacht club. I tried all distances there and nothing was working.....I even blasted it well across the channell a few times and still nothing. Is the place your talking about more towards the Limerick end of the pier....What time of the tide is best.

The rod with the 30lb snood line was set out for doggies and ray with smaller 3/0 pennell rig style trace....Both of the bigger congers took very small baits...First one was half a crab bait and the second one was on a rag/sandeel cocktale....My other rod had 30lb main line with 60lb shock leader and 100lb snood to 6/0 Cox and Rawl meat hook so that one was setup for conger...Even though half way through the session I did have to change out the 100lb snood as it had gotten slightly shredded....The congers took very small baits, the rod out for conger had a full mackerel on it and they took a rag/sandeel cocktale....

Always the way....have one rod setup for big fish and the big fish hits the lighter tackle setup. Had this happen with a tope in Greystones last year, had a mackerel out on a 30lb wire tope trace and just a little bit of crab on the other rod and the tope hit the crab bait..Mind you there could have been a coalie on it for the tope to take..

John

Sorry I miss understood on your tackle setup.

I haven't fished up where your on about in foynes but I know it does produce thornies up there. I'm told the flood to high tide produces ray from the pier from locals and thats when I've had my limited success. But i've also heard of them being caught there at low tide.

Donagh

Donagh,

No problem I reread my first couple of posts and actually didn't make it clear that I had heavy gear on one rod and lighter stuff on the other...and the conger took the lighter setup.

So the place that is better is further east on the pier, more towards Limerick...Was looking up that way coz it seems like the channel opens out into a bigger stretch of water...It was dark when I was there so didn't really get to see much...One thing I did notice is that is very deep off that pier. I'll be back there in about 4 weeks I think...Has to be done..

John

Hi John,

A word of warning I'm not saying one spot is better than the other. I haven't had enough success to steer you toward any paticular ray mark. I'm still only learning to fish in the estuary myself.

BTW Towards november fishing turns to smaller fish with whiting and flounder the main targets.

Donagh