Porbeagles

Are these fish in our coastal waters in sufficient numbers to really target them. Now I know Jack Shine did some sterling work down in Clare but I'm not hearing many catch reports, aside from a few small ones out of Downings, in recent years. I've talked to few charter skippers on the west coast and they dismissed the idea of specifically targetting them. Anybody any opinions?

Pete

i think that they have to be out there, its probably just a matter of putting the time and effort into targeting them.

In July we spent a day fishing for a porbeagle that had been attacking hooked pollack from one of the wrecks in Donegal - bait was live 2lb pollack.

Needless to say it never made an appearance that day, although another couple of smaller ones were caught in August off Downings.

Apparently the coast off Malin Head is somewhat similar to Scrabster in Scotland where most of the really big Porbeagles have been caught - but who'd be hardy enough to fish round there during Winter!

Like you say, water temperature and all other local conditions very similar to NW Scotland hence you'd think they must be here?
I had a few good snap offs when reeling in Pollack and Coalies last Febuary at the laurentic - I'd like to think it was a Shark though who really knows - bringing in pollack when the rod doubles over mid water and the line snapped - 3 times on one trip and again a few days later - I wasn't alone either!
If you look through any shark book they show Ireland as in the distribution of Porgies and I do believe a few have been caught off Galway. Then again there where confirmed reports this summer reporting a small Great White in Cornish waters - whos to say he's not up here too?? Think we're gonna need a bigger boat - the immortal line from Jaws!
Have the commercial men had many run ins with Porgies being caught in their nets in these parts?
It probably is a case of trying to put in the man hours (weather permitting) to see if they out there. Are Porgies only a winter Visitor here or would they be around in the summer/Autumn - there isn't too big a range in our water temperature through the year though the Blues arrive in Numbers off the Swilly late August/Spetember though can I believe be caught all summer - again time and effort required.
Paul

Pat Robinson reckons Horn Head is worth a try trolling deep close to the cliffs with preferably live pollack. I have 2 mako deep trolling lures to try this year.
http://www.charkbait.com/cs/css.htm

I've got a bait-o-matic deep diver and a ballyhood top gun.

Saw a couple on Ballintoy Bank, Sept a few years ago. Accidently had one on for around 20 seconds just couldt stop it, I think it didnt realised it was hooked.

Tope and porbeagle make the odd guest appearance in gill nets. It's difficult to say how prevalent either are, but they're certainly around the NW coast.

Whether it would be worth targetting them, I don't know. I suppose if you have your own boat, all it'll cost is fuel and time...

Paul, JGF.. from what your saying the wrecks might be a good place to target first. Bound to be apex predators feeding on all those coalies. Phenwick Mist I was thinking of trolling for them but round Rathlin O'Byrne. In fact myself and another lad were thinking about booking a charter boat for a weekend out of Donegal Bay in February to give them a go, be an experimental trip but if anyone is interested send me a pm.

Pete

If you search the doc below for porbeagle, it returns a few hits. Check which ports they were landed in.

As you will also see, tope are landed.

http://www.dcmnr.gov.ie/NR/rdonlyres/41 ... ch2000.doc

There should be a full list of yearly reports here

http://www.dcmnr.gov.ie/Marine/Fish+Landings/

but so far my repeated requests to get this updated have not even been answered.

Pete

Definitely most sightings of Porbeagle taking fish from anglers etc were off the wrecks (primarily the Laurentic and Audacious).

McVeigh had a few sightings of one on the Audacious in July and I had a shark rod out livebaiting one of the days we fished the Audacious with him a week or two later but as expected no action from said monster.

McVeigh did land a smaller Porbeagle, though i think it wasn't at the wrecks - it was while targetting Blues i think.

I have had a number of bite offs while fighting pollack off loop head (CLARE) in june.Hook the pollack, it comes 20 or 30 feet up then over goes the rod for a second and up comes your rigless braid. No visible sign of any fish, but always fairly close to the bottom in a 150ft of water.
FWIW
Kev

Sounds to me like deep fished live pollock would be the best method to target porbeagles. And I guess if you have a strong enough wire leader and quality mainline, we'll see if someone can land a seal as well. :lol:

Big livebaits would probably be the way to go. I've been talking about them for ages but this year gonna spend some time specifically targetting them. One problem I'm forseeing would be seals, Adrian Molloy was pestered by them when livebaiting for bluefin over rocky ground and I can imagine they would willingly gobble a live polllock. Be a bit of a leap of faith to spend an extended period specifically targetting them at them but rewards could be spectacular.

Pete

There is a picture in the Irish Whale & Dolphin News winter 2005 of a porpoise that met a pretty nasty fate one mile south of Strangford Lough. "spotted a harbour porpoise floating in the water not far from his boat and could clearly see that it had died from large wounds to its underside....revealing that the wounds were bites roughly eight inches in diamter." A guy from the Shark Research Committee confirmed that the most likely culprit was either a mako or porbeagle. The report goes on to say that a porbeagle had been spotted at the mouth of Strangford two weeks prior to the finding.

Pete