greystones picking up.

fished greystones on sat. hoping to catch a plaice or two. had 2 plaice, 1 flounder and a dab. all fish fell to my 'flashy' wishbone. tried other clear rigs of different designs to no avail. baits used were decent cocktail baits of cockle and mussel tipped with rag and sandeel. outfished the 2 guys beside me who had one fish between them (they know who they are). successful day, not bad for march. i tried different distances and even a swimfeeder but found 100+ casts to be best.

forgot to mention.......plaice both 11 1/2 " , flounder 11 " and dab of 9.

Fair play m.b3. Where's the best place to source mussel for bait at the moment?
thanks

i usually get mine around the Bull Wall, either at the landside of the bridge(near the water) or at the yacht club ramp in clontarf (to the left of the ramp). the problem is that they are not very big. they do the job though(30 is enough for a session if using with other baits), just pick the larger ones.. i have to make do because of lack of transport........i heard the mussel beds nearer sutton are better, mussel are bigger, but have no other knowledge about them. wash them in sea water before u bring them home to get rid of the mud otherwise things get messy. put them in a bait bucket and pour bioling hot water over them. this opens the shells. drain out water and u can open them with your hands. personally i put the shelled mussels back into the empty bait bucket and leave them in the air for a while. sprinkling a little salt on them toughens them up aswell. look at the 'skewered mussel' in the tips section. it dosen't take as long as u think, no more than half an hour, and makes fishing time more enjoyable. best of luck. Mark.

Great, Thanks Mark. Hoping to get some fishing in over the weekend and reckoned fresh mussel would be an advantage. Have found it hard to locate decent supplies. Cheers. Dave H.

Hi Dave/Mb3, Donabate beach has some huge mussels. From the beach itself, wait til the tide is out and walk around to the left.....there you'll see a long concrete pipe, in fact you cant see the pipe for the mussels. No shortage at all.

i know the place Wes but to be honest it takes a long enough time to get to Dollymount from where i live....i will be doing some bass fishing here in the autumn, i suppose i could pick some up. it would be nice to go home with more bait than you went fishing with..... that was interesting stuff about the smoothies from around howth. maybe we should get a possy together over the summer to target them!

Thanks Wes. That'll beat the Tesco farmed jobs.

No prob lads. Should put a post up mid summer Mb3, invade Howth! :lol:

You can put me on the Howth Smoothie list! (still a bit sceptical though!)

Why not just buy frozen mussels in the tackle shop? They're about 3.50 a pop, but there are plenty in each pack.

I think certain baits like mussel and razorfish fish better having been frozen, it seems to concentrate the juices and gives a better scent trail.

And you can stick me down for the Howth Smoothie list aswell..... worth a try.......
JFK

There are plentiful mussel around Dublin - Baldoyle, Red Rock and Sandymount have big beds. Theres plenty for everyone as long as people only take what they need. There were problems a few years back when boat anglers were taking bucket loads to practice "smashing", that is breaking the shell of the mussel and tossing it over your shoulder as the boat drifted. It was considered a good groundbaiting technique for codling and coalies. Unfortuantely, in order to maximise, anglers thaought they needed more and more bait. Each individual angler could use 500-1000 mussel per competition. I think that it was banned in several clubs. Now that we have very few codling and coalies around, the mussel beds have replenished.

Some huge Mussells are to be found at the estuary at sutton. During extreme low tide walk down the steps on the cycle track oppisite the dinghy supplies shop. Before you reach the channel you will come across some huge mussell beds. The mussells are about four inches across and you could fill a bucket in a few minutes. What's this about the Howth Smoothie list?

i will post a report on Greystones later today....i'm too knackered, all fished out...