Sat May 24, 2008 10:33 am
Got invited to join a few lads and David Dinsmore on the Sea Hunter skipperedby Gavin out of Youghal in east Cork.
Early morning mist eventually got burnt off by midday in fact I burnt to a crisp from the neck up! Winds were very light but from the east! :?
David has great success with a big 400 g (?) stinger rig that he picked up in France. We were fishing rough ground and a selection of wreck sites. Pollack to 6 lbs was the mainstay, with smaller fish, small coalfish to 2lbs and the odd cuckoo coming up. Donal and John and Pierre scratching brough in some grey gurnards. The first ling was a decent fish around 8 lbs but there was no mackerel about at all. As the tide dropped away we anchored up and went conger fishing. I had one good run but the line came back up hookless - and that was on 40 lbs mono. The quality of the congers was surprising... on any wrecks that I fished before you had to get rid of the small ones first but Clinton landed a nice fish around the 20 lbs mark and several more came abroad or were unhooked in the water and I doubt any were under 10 lbs. A few more ling came in and Donal went species hunting with a scratching rig. I picked up a few species with some baited feathers with ragworm picking out pollack and even our mucky mackerel helping as a tipping bait. A nice cuckoo and a female corkwing were landed in quick succession and then it was off to another wreck once the tide has started to move again.
The loss of the big stingers was a major loss. I had 220 gram pirks on and it was not getting down to the bottom (which was very foul). A few more pollack showed and John Warner landed a fine ling that only hit 14 lbs - it looked a lot fatter. That and Clinton's conger were the top fish of the day. On a final bit of rough ground, Donal and PIerre landed fine cod, around 5 lbs on crab baits. Examination showed they were focused only on crabs. I foul hooked a big launce which explained why the stingers were working so well, they were a perfect match, shape and size...
Overall I think around 12 species which is very good for early season. They are out again today but I had to head home with regrets all around.
David will doubtless write up a bigger piece for the IA in August etc.
Thanks to Donal for the expertise imparted. Mental note: always bring your own rod and reel - I found switching to mono and other set ups hard yesterday... that and being badly out of practice!
A great day out, excellent skipper and what a selection of wrecks he has!
Sun May 25, 2008 11:20 am
kieran wrote: David has great success with a big 400 g (?) stinger rig that he picked up in France. .
A great day out, excellent skipper and what a selection of wrecks he has!
I hope David got some pics of that Stinger I'll be making a few copies of it :oops: :roll: when it appears in the IA. It worked well on the day and kept him on a steady run of fish.