Castle Point, Dunlickey, co.Clare

Had some friends over from the UK and was taking them on a wee tour of fishing spots in our area. We went up to Kilkee and then along the cliffs to Castle Point, Man, I was ashamed to show them the place, its a feckin' disgrace! Miles of tangled mono line all over the place from the carpark to the cliff top, discarded tackle packets, hooks,broken beer bottles, remnants of fires, Plastic ALdi and Lidl carrier bags and all manner of shite thrown here there and everywhere. Add to that around 25 eejits with lines tangling up with each other. kids running around near the edge of the cliffs and drunken fools shouting and screaming at each other when they catch each others leads (well, spark plugs, bolts, spanners or anything else heavy) it represented a picture of shame to my visitors. I was ashamed by it. I had previously taken them on pristine bass beaches, piers and harbours and they were ,to say the least, impressed and envious of what we have. So who is to blame? I blame the mackerel for being so easy to catch using a ten quid rod and reel with a few feathers..........

Hi David,

I frequent that area for the last several years everytime I need some macks for bait, for the table and for the neighbors. I have stopped complaining and just did my share. If I have been there 100 times, I have brought down 98 times a bag full of trash including all that you have mentioned. There were a couple of times that the area was clean. This is the time after heavy rains and strong winds. The trash have been blown to the sea .

Interestingly 2 weeks ago the trash have been in the bottom of the sea. I have hauled in 2 black bag full of trash from the bottom of the sea one of which snapped my line including my shock leader!!! Got a couple of t-shirts as well from the bottom...

On the perspective of trash... it is not a good place to show off to our friends... but on the hind side if you want to showcase the abundance of fish like Mackerel... it is definitely the place to go...

When mackerel reports on the site have been scarce... hundreds can be hauled from that mark as early as May...

These are just my opinion and thoughts from your post...

I recently heard that some grey hound breeders have taken up mackie bashing to feed their dogs and have been causing all sorts of trouble at particular marks.

for god sakes

David,

I could not agree more. I visit Eire every year (last 5 years) on my own for about 14 days, various locations.

I remember arriving there 3 years ago for a spot of mackerel fishing. decided to look first before getting the tackle out.
Like yourself, I was disgusted.

Got back to the car and drove away.

However on the brighter side, 95% of the places I end up fishing are pristine and the more popular marks appear to be looked after.

Castle Point hopefully is an exception

Went and had a look here while on holidays a few weeks back,and like the other
poster didnt even bother taking rod out the car.........
How we as a race could do that to such a beautiful spot beggers belief.....

Unfortunately it's mack basher heaven there and has always been that way...a spectacular place but often attracts the wrong sort and litter has always been a problem there...it just seems to be worse these days...the disposable bbq's and empty booze bottles/cans are a fairly recent development...not the type of rock mark to be even mildly drunk on. There's now also an army of foreign national bashers practically living on that mark...a lot of the fish taken away are not for personal consumption but are for sale.

I gave up fishing there when I seen fools drinking out there, Blackhead in Co. Clare is getting similar, but at least there I can watch from my dads boat as I catch fish when they dont.