my first thornie

well i finally managed to hook and land a thornie last night on cappa pier in kilrush, in what is probably to date my most memorable fish, hooked him as a thunder storm past over, and there was lightening going off all over the place, then the 24lb hook snood snapped as i beached him on the steps, but managed to grab him before he had a chance to turn himself, problem was i had no camera, and i haven't a clue what weight he was! i don't want to embarrass myself trying to put a figure on him, but he felt good and heavy and i measured him hoping that ye lads with more experience could put a weight on him for me. his wing span was 26 inches, and was a total length from snout to tip of tail was 34inches. your guesstimates are warmly welcomed. thanks,

Patrick

Frodo,
Well done - a magnificent fish for your first Thornie!
I guess it was well over 10 lbs. possibly 15lbs.
I am sending the mearurements to Norman Dunlop, Fisheries Officer,CFB
for his assessment of weight and will let you know.
Anyway it's a hell of a Thornie and well done!

Well done Mr. Frodo you have my total envy. Of course the only problem with having a camera on-board is that you wouldn't have caught the fish. This is due to my own, yet unpublished, Catch-Camera Exclusion Principle as follows,

"The probability of catching a specimen, or otherwise stonking, fish is in inverse proportion to the certainty of your knowledge that you have a working camera, or other video recording equipment, available to record the event."

CERTAINLY SUBSCRIBE TO YOUR THEORY FIRST THORNIES i CAUGHT OFF A BEACH CAMERA PACKED UP.

Nice fish Patrick, that's really wet my appetite for our trip in Oct.
What bait was it caught on?
What rig did you use?

Frodo,
Copy of reply from CFB -

Bill,
Sounds like a great fish. Will get back to you early next week when things a little bit quieter in here.

Willie R

WELL DONE !

i had it on the ian golds rig, you know the one? came across it a couple of months back in sea angler. i was fishing a single sandeel tipped with mackeral on a 1/0 hook. nothing special, i was only really aiming to catch a few doggies to pass the night. i fished from 8pm til 11.45pm, and had the ray just after 11 o clock. he didn't fool round with the bait either, just picked it up and kept going! it was only when i got him to my feet that i realised what it was and hadn't a hope of dragging him up the pier! so i had to walk him down about 100 feet to the end of the pier onto steps, and just as awave lapped him up onto the bottom step the hook snood snapped! 24lb line frayed to bits.just managed to grab his wings before he turned around into the next wave. definitely a night to remember.

was thing of heading up that way for june bankholiday weekend as we got some good fishing at cappa and poulnasherry last year whats the fishing like at the moment?and any other spots worth trying?

i'm getting a couple of small pollack on the fly, and spinning inside in kilkee bay over the past couple of weeks. nothing huge but still getting them. i haven't been doing much 'convential' bottom sea fishing around the area lately, and there doesn't seem to be any one else in the area who is up to much, so apologies on the lack of details on that front, i've been concentrating on the fly for pollack, and doing a fair bit of fly fishing for trout on the local reservoir too. Ross is down here for the next week, so he was talking about giving the wrasse a go, so i'll let you know how we get on with that. i really can't get my head around poulnasherry at all, all i do is blank there, but i'm looking forward to giving it a goover the june weekend, i've heard all the great reports about it last year. the weather hasn't been great down here for weeks, that cold east by north easterly is keeping the night very cold, and i think it's delaying the sport from getting into full swing. if push comes to shove cappa and carrigaholt pier with provide plenty of doggies

yeah it has a habit of been rough up there it was a gailforce storm when we there last trying to cast in to it at cappa peir and waight landing 20ft out a bit crazy.nice one thanks anyway we will be up to give it a go thanks.

no worries.i forgot to mention that there are mullet showing around the pier in kilkee at the moment too. if these south westerlys stay then hopefully, the area should get the kick start it needs. i think i read somewhere on the message board earlier in the week, that someone is fishing the bridges of ross this sunday, so there should be a few catch results up on the website about the area next week.

Patrick

that brill thanks ill let ye know how we get on anyway.

Thanks for the write up Patrick, I would suggest that you use nothing less than 30lb hook lenghts when targetting Rays, they soon ruin mono especialy if you hook a few Dogs as well.
Once again cracking fish mate.

Well done Frodo.A fantastic size for your first thornie.Good idea about taking the measurements.When you have no scales with you and you want to return the fish this is a great idea as you can usually get an accurate weight from the fisheries board.Congrats again.

Frodo:
See report on estimate of weight from Willie Roche, CFB.

Bill,
I checked this out using a little bit of data from specimens taken in 2004. Based on the total length I estimate at 10.1 lbs. Interestingly the wingspan data proved very unreliable.

In any case it was a marvellous Thornie! Well done!

Frodo and all- it's not true everyones first thornie is always over 10 lbs. It's also not true that if you have your camera with you, you will blank. However, the catch will tend to be a little smaller :oops:

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