16 and 17 Jan
Coliemore and Shankill
Crab, lug and mussel
Had a couple of days off to try get some fishing in and despite the weather, managed to make the most of it. Thursday I planned to fish Corbawn lane but when I went to Killiney to check it out, the conditions were not in keeping with the Westerly winds I was expecting! Six foot plus swells onto the beach, not a hope of leads holding and a pretty unpleasant fishing environment.
Moved on to Coliemore thinking I'd have a look at least. It was quite fishable so I said I'd give it a try. Amazingly, 6oz was holding bottom even with the tide running quite strongly and a decent bit of swell moving through from the east. No bites despite my best efforts and when the weed started coming through in rafts and knocking all rigs free almost as soon as they touched bottom I called it a day before I started feeling battered by the weather. Tomorrow's another day! On the way back I said I'd check out the conditions around the east pier in Dun Laoghaire and while it was getting hammered out by the bandstand it was very settled in around Scotsman's Bay. Definitely noted for future rough conditions. Looks like there would be some codling and pouting about. Anyone even drag much out of there?
Decided to give Shankill another go and thankfully the weather played ball today! Went down in the afternoon and set up. High tide was about 1650 so getting there for about 1400 I knew I could be waiting, and I've never done well there in daylight, but it was a great day to be out, and I got to admire my newly rebuilt AFAW Match done by Mike Roache in the sun!
I started getting a few knocks after moving about 30m to get away from persistent snags and managed a 22cm five bearded rockling, so a good start before it even got dark! As the light faded the hits started coming, typical coalie type smacks, and eventually connected with a nice 32cm coalie which somehow managed to get foul hooked with both hooks of a pennel rig, one in the head and one in the side like a pike deadbait! Next up was a 27cm codling and by now I was pretty delighted with myself and had declared the expedition a roaring success (my bar is low at the moment...)
Got a couple of good thumping bites then so picked up and struck into it and felt a good weight. As I wound in it started scrapping and was running up the beach close in. I wondered whether it was a bass or something at this point, but it eventually hit the stones and was a lovely fat codling. 42cm and a good three pounds. Over the moon! Things went quiet shortly after that about an hour down the tide. Still occasional bites but they weren't connecting and the small edible crabs along that stretch were hammering baits. All the fish came to lug and mussel. The crab only seemed to be feeding their brethren! I hooked another good fish and got it about halfway in before it buried itself in a snag and that was sadly not to be, felt similar to the previous codling, which has a date with homemade chips and tartare sauce tomorrow now. Packed up shortly after that, having taken the good fish on the AFAW so a nice return to the shore for it. Only took a photo of the good codling as the rest went back as quickly as possible.
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