Dunfanaghy/ Horn Head/ Portnablagh

Hi guys,

I'm heading down to Port na Blagh for the 12th July weekend for 3-4 days and will be taking the boat out. I have a couple of mates with me who don't fish - what are the mackerel like at the moment? Many about?

Aside from dropping feathers over the side of the boat, my boat fishing experience is very limited. Could anyone who knows the area give me some advice for trying another technique that will yield results and the type of fish I could expect? I keep the boat moored in the Port na Blagh Pier so somewhere within a couple of miles of here would be great. I normally take the boat out along horn head and into skate bay and have had plenty of mackerel, pollock and gurnard on feathers but fancy giving something else a go!

Answers on a postcard..

Cheers

try anchoring up in sheephaven bay and casting out some rigs. animal rigs, flounder rigs with spoons, running ledgers etc. bait the animal rigs with chunks of mackerel, the flounder rigs with rag or lug worm. this should get you a few different species. i'll be up there myself but on round in the tory sound area.

They don't call it skate bay for nothing....but they really meant ray bay. Anchor up there for rays, dabs and plaice.

A spinning rod with a leadhead, jellyworm and/or a strip of mackeral belly will produce fastastic sport around Horn Head.

Check the foul ground on the way over to Dungap for mixed species.

Great job lads. I assume skate bay is a sandy bottom then? It's pretty deep, over 100ft, need to get a longer rope if we're going to drop anchor! What would you recommend - mackerel strip, sandeel, lugworm?

I've caught a few dab on lugworm on the sandy ground half way out from the beach at Killyhoey before you reach the foul ground, but they were small and to be honest I like to each my catch so I didn't really bother with them again.

close in under the Horn is stoney/foul ground, further out a bit is sandy. Be careful when dropping the pick that you don't snare pot lines - i've seen that happen before.

Mackeral will do all for you.

Over on the other side of the Bay near the Black Rock there's a chance of a haddock, if they're about.