Donegal Bay, 25/26 June 2019.

Tuesday, 25th June. First launch of 2019 and the forecast had been predicting light winds and reasonably “summery” weather. I barely had the boat in the water when the Coastguard announced a Small Craft Warning for the evening and following day. “Sure I’m here now!”The sea was glassy calm as I reached my first mark to try for mackerel. If this mark fails to provide mackerel, it can usually be relied on for pollack, a standby, better than nothing bait. Today there was nothing on the mark. The fish-finder was well set up as I could see the feathers and lead jigging up and down quite clearly but there wasn’t a fish to be seen; “Feck all le feiceal”, if my Irish and english serves me well. On to a deep water mark (70-80ft) and I started hitting pollack and 1 solitary mackerel.
In the distance, Ben Bulben stood sentinel over Yeats Country and I was reminded of him talking of “mackerel crowded seas” while Sailing to Byzantium, how things have changed.
Just on slackwater, the sounder was showing lovely fish arches in mid water as the pollack came up off the bottom. A couple of bigger pollack reached 4lb 8oz on the scales; apparently there are bigger ones being caught from the Antrim shore? With a supply of bait, I could start proper fishing so I headed for the sand and switched to drifting long flowing traces with a sandeel shaped strip of mackerel. The first two drifts produced nothing, perhaps one mackerel would be more than enough bait, but it’s a large area and the fish move about. At the very end of the third drift, just as I was reaching to retrieve the second rod, it gave a couple of kicks; these were the calling card of a plump little turbot, 1lb 2oz. He’ll be plumper next year. An hour later, the second bite of the day produced the first and smallest of 7 thornies ranging from just under 2lbs to just under 5lbs. Less than 10 mins later, another determined rattle announced the arrival of a nice little plaice, 1lb 3oz, no monster but I don’t get many so I was happy enough. He’ll be plumper next year too. The tide turning seemed to have encouraged the fish to start feeding though the day was never hectic. Something out of the ordinary turned up a while later, I knew it wasn’t a flattie or ray and when I saw something grey emerge from the water, I thought perhaps it was another smoothhound ( I got one here last year) but when I lifted it into the boat (it had taken both baits) it went crazy and thrashed, bashed, crashed and lashed about. I thought perhaps a small tope but just as I reached down I glimpsed the give-away spurs. I’ve fished this mark a lot but this was the first Spurdog I’ve had though I had one from the shore nearby a few years ago. A short while later I was bitten off, presumably another spur. A few more thornies, half a dozen doggies and a small tub gurnard came to the boat in the next few hours but there was one more bit of excitement, a second spurdog, bigger than the first. All these fish were caught on strips from just one medium mackerel. Things slowed down as low tide approached and I headed in. With the boat recovered I was ready for the road, no sign of the Force 6 winds yet but who knows what tomorrow would bring, I pondered if I would need to head for Byzantium to get a few mackerel?

Wednesday, 26th June. I launched from a different slip today to better suit tide times for boat retrieval if things did blow up, the Small Craft Warning was still in operation. The winds were forecast as NE so hugging the shore would give protection though the drifts might still be faster than ideal. I steamed west along the coast and after trying various spots with no mackerel to show, I headed in very close, almost casting range, to try a spot which can throw up launce. As I was about to lower the feathers, a shoal about 15ft down appeared on the sounder; mackerel! Though not big they were numerous and I had several full strings in no time. No need to Sail to Byzantium today. Down with the flowing traces and as expected the drift was a little on the quick side though with 5 and 6oz leads I could still hold bottom. The fishing was slow with a couple of small dabs showing before the first of 3 spotty rays appeared with the best at 3lb 12oz. A couple more dabs, a solitary dogfish , a tatty-tailed wrasse and a tub gurnard, bigger than yesterday’s, made up the catch. At one point I headed for a couple of rock marks to try for a bigger pollack. I put on an old trace of 3 RedGill sandeels and half way down on the first drop all went light. I reeled in a trio of proper mackerel but the shoal was gone by the second drop. Pollack were scarce, just the one at just under 4lb. The wind was fresh and with the sun low in the sky it was getting cool. With a long drive home, I didn’t see much point in persevering. Still, it’s great to get the first trips into the 2019 diary and with a total of 11 species and a couple of rare spurdog, I was content and looking forward to the next time.

You do not have the required permissions to view the files attached to this post.

As usual....

You do not have the required permissions to view the files attached to this post.

Nearly done!

You do not have the required permissions to view the files attached to this post.

Well done, Great report!!

Brilliant Paddy. Great number of species there and great pics, love those flats and rays.
Keen to get out now!

Fair play to you johnwest! Great report, great fishing and great pictures! It feels like summer has landed at last!

Pajo

Great report and some cracking fish. Well done!
My trip scheduled for this Sunday has been cancelled so no report from me this week I'm afraid.

Cracking fishing, beautiful Spurs!

Excellent report. Great fishing. Well done!