Sea Angling Ireland

Ballybunion beach was the next stop for “Team Ullcatch” the beach had been producing big bass and lots of them for the past few months. Bass to fifteen pounds were caught on the beach in 2011, so this beach had to be worth a go, to see what was around. As we arrived at the main car park we could hear the roar of the surf some eight hundred yards away, as we got to the beach there was massive surf running some two hundred yards out to sea.

With such surf on, most anglers would think it would be insanity to try and fish in such conditions. Maybe the Ullcatch boys are a little bit mad so of course we had to give it a go. The first casts went out into the roaring surf and the traces held bottom quite good, so it was game on. Fifteen minutes later as we reeled in our traces, only to find out we were stuck on the bottom, what’s going on here we said! (this is a lovely sandy beach). We managed to get one trace back from the first casts. A swift change to heaver line was made by all of us and we were back into the water. As we reeled in for the second time a few of us had caught fish, no bass but those little slippery bearded creatures better known as rockling. Even though they would be a very welcome sight when fishing a match, but not so much when out bass fishing.

Rockling were now being caught on every cast along with a few coalfish, and as the tide went out, the beach was covered in stone and rocks. Tons of sand had been moved by the storms over the past month or so. Where bass once roamed those little rockling had now taken over, and were now the new fish on the block. Two hours into our session we came upon those lost traces from the first cast and on every hook, you guessed it (rockling).

The beach in Ballybunion really strips out on the retrieving tide so four hours into our session we started finding the odd little sand bank. Eventually we escaped those rockling and actually caught a few little bass and a shot of flounder. Nature is remarkable, and the power of the wind and sea is incredible how it changes a place so spectacularly. The local boys have informed me the sand is on its way back though, so those rockling will have to move onto a different rocky venue.