sea serpant wrote:After fishing for hounds over the last ten years in the usual places i have gathered alot of info on the species I'm wondering has anyone ever gave the dollymount area a real go for hounds and I dont mean one or two sessions prob fishing for something else !! I mean really put the time in over a whole summer ??? I'm curious as I was walking my dog last summer and got talking to a local guy fishing at the bathing shelters who had two fish in a bucket and didnt know what they were I identified them as baby hounds he caught them on ragworm ! I wonder would I be wasting my time or has this place been completely over looked as a sometimes barren bass and flounder venue I wonder could it hold some half decent hound fishing? I've brought this idea up to others but was told the same that I be wasting my time but i would like to maybe give it a real go ! I mean it looks perfect for hounds on a calm incoming tide at night and only a few hundred metres away they are caught in poolbeg I'm thinking of giving the statue a go this summer a couple of times over the summer seen as it's only ten minutes from my house anyone any input
Hi sea-serpent , the dollymount area is really dab, odd flounder and sometimes bass. Plenty of mullet too. The usual channels on the Tolka Estuary side have changed dramatically since last autumn. Where once bass and the occasional smoothound would come up along the breakwater or in under the bridge, they no longer do, as the sand bars have all moved, channels have shifted too. That said, before the changes, I was fishing the statue and a few guys fishing the bathing shelters had caught 3 of those small hounds, very thin looking though. That area on the Tolka estuary side needs some serious pioneering sessions to work it out.
On the dollymount side the chances would be better, however, the algal blooms and weed never let up all of last year, it was unfishable, I've been putting in two to three sessions in the area every week from May 2018 and still do. The beach is spotless now, no sign of weed at all. I myself expected to catch hounds there and other species too, but every time the weed ruined the session.
I did however hook one from the telegraph pole just beyond red rock beach at Sutton, not far from dollymount, couldn't land him, as it was low water, he twisted himself around the trace while trying to lift him over the kelp beds. And he was a decent size too. That was late July 2018 just before the sun went down.
If you do give the statue at dollymount a bash, just be aware that the lighting there is out of action the past few months, totally dark there, you'll need lamps.
Glad to hear someone else thinks the same as myself regarding species other than , dab, flounder and the odd bass! I will be trying the beach myself this weekend but will use the causeway entrance at St. Anne's park side, bigger channels and stronger tide there.
Best of luck