out of Kilmore May 2009

Right lads,

There are nine of us so far heading out of Kilmore on the 9th May next. P.J. Bates has kindly agreed to take us out on the Fiona Tee. 5 experienced anglers and 4 non experienced. I have arranged nearly enough rods and tackle, the hotel and even dinner after.

I'm sure that a few of you have been there and done that so if anyone can remember from previous trips some little nuggets of brilliance that you either thought of or wish you had, I would appreciate the advice. I'm looking to keep the anglers happy and turn the non anglers into happy anglers if you know what I mean.

Thanks and tight lines.

Bring a feck load of rag, you will miss so much without it.

[beebub2]

Pete,

What are you likely to catch with rag off a boat in Kilmore and what rigs should you use with them?

I was down there recently and the advice given both here and by the skipper was to use hokkais. In fact the skipper rented some rods to some of my crew and all he gave them was feathers without bait. We did ok in the short time we fished (about 15 fish between 7 of us with no more than 2 hours fishing time).

Mind you, I caught 3 ok sized pollack with hokkias and one of them had some rag attached.

Last edited by beebub2 on Wed Mar 25, 2009 2:40 pm, edited 1 time in total.

15 fish between 7 of you in 2 hours at Kilmore is poor, you would expect to have at least that yourself in that time to be honest. Use the rag on a long flowing trace slowly retrieved for pollack and bonus codling, and on smallish lures like Bleeding glowworms and the like for pretty much everything else, amongst others, codling, all the wrasse, pouting, gurnard etc etc. I PMed someone a good while ago about Kilmore Quay, if I can find the PM ill forward it onto you. Bring plenty of leads with you as well, its a tackle graveyard down there.

Great. Thanks. In fairness out of the 7-8 fishing only one had fished before (me; the complete novice). We stopped at our first spot and caught 5 fish in the first 5 minutes then moved on after less than 30 minutes. The next time we stopped, no-one had caught anything for at most 7 or 8 minutes and one lad said 'Ah there are no fish here will we move on?' So it wasn't a day for serious fishing or anything like it. Good day though.

bring plenty of rag as mentioned but the best man to ask is the skipper when your out
like whats his plan for the day/ this will let you no what traces to use whether there flowing traces for over the sand or the likes of hookai baited over the reefs.
Get a variety of ready made rigs the likes of
sabiki
Devil rigs
Shamrock Mardigra rigs
These should cover most of the day for you in kilmore, don,t be to afraid to try different rigs at the start and if you find 1 method or rig working then change onto it
hope this helps

As Gary said bring plenty of hokkai type rigs and feathers as its more than likely you'll be drift fishing/ jigging over reefs and the likes. You want at very least a dozen sets of feathers and likewise pound weights per person more if you can afford it as you can lose sets of gear by the minute down there. A good tip is just to fish slightly up off the bottom to reduce tackle loss a couple of winds of the reel will do, keep jigging the line up and down not allowing it to drag bottom. You can also try tying a weaker strength line connecting the sinker to your rig so if you get snagged only your weight is lost. Bring plenty of heavy duty swivels also. I believe the fishing is slack enough down there at the moment but i would expect it to pick up by the time you get down.
Fresh bait if you can get it, bait up the feathers/rigs with fresh mack or rag.
As Gary said also the skipper is prob the best person to ask advice.
Hope this helps anyway.

Thanks for all the advice. Will let you know how we get on. I'm really looking forward to getting out there again and hopefully the weather will be good. I'd say some of the non angling lads coming would be quite happy getting a few mackerel. I think it will be a first trip for at least three of them. I've only fished out of Kilmore once, last November and although it was a good day the fish tally was really poor. I'd say between 8 of us there was only 7 Gurnerd, a pollock or two and a handful of mackerel. I'm looking forward to a bit more sport than that. Either way I'd say we will end up in Keoghs for an hour or two, or three that evening

if ya want cod bring some lug ,big ones ,fish them on the bottom on the drift