New to Sea Fishing - Moving To Ireland -

Hi ALL !

I will be moving to Ireland near the end of this year to Carndonagh,
I have never done sea fishing and have only done a little bit of canal fishing over here in the UK.

What advise can you guys & Girls give me ?
Are there any good Irish web pages i can check out to prime me for when i come over ...

All the best

Steve Homer

Hi Steve,

Welcome in advance. As to the best web site for Irish sea angling, you've obviously found it.

My advice if you want to catch up on the sea angling scene is to a) get a map - most of the posts just give the names of piers and beaches - not a full address and postcode. I've lived here all me natural and still have to look up a lot of places mentioned. b) read the posts in the relevant forum for areas of interest for the last few months.

The tips and tricks and tackle review sections should help as well. There's also a link on the main page to the Book of Bait.

Once you decide what you want to fish, when and where, any particular type of gear (spinning, beachcasting, boat etc) and so forth, pop a specific question on the relevant board and we'll try to help.

If you are coming from a canal fishing background where you would I guess have little need for casting, getting some light spinning gear and learning casting from piers is probably a logical first step.

Many thanks for the quick reply,

Ok ill have a look for some equipment, i would have no clue where to start with a rod & reel as i use the pole at the moment (Nice easy start into fishing lol)

Steve

here's a website that might help. It gives details of shore marks in the area, and also where bait can be collected.

http://www.visitinishowen.com/activities/angling.html

I'm sure some of the Donegal contingent will happily provide you with some info too.

It's difficult to know what to suggest in terms of tackle. If you have the cash, go for both a spinning outfit and a beachcasting outfit. If you're short on cash, you might look around for a suitable carp/pike/bass rod, that will allow you to do some spinning and also allow you to do light to medium bottom fishing on beaches etc.

Whatever happens, I'm sure you'll love Dùn na nGall, it's a gorgeous part of the world!

Hello Steve.

I see you are worried about what gear to buy. Shore (Beach) Fishing.
Your carp rod and spinning reel will be plenty until you find out if you like it.
Rock Fishing spinning for Pollock. same rod and reel, light weight and jelly worm. I woul advise you to adapt what you have until you make up your mind.
Remember the fish never know what tackle you have.

Dingbat

Des Mills runs a good boat out of Culdaff. I'm pretty sure he has gear on board and would accomodate you to give you a feel for boat fishing.

We go out of Rathmullan and you are welcome to join us as well - with the ferry from Buncrana it makes it an easy run from Carn. Just leave the car at Buncrana and come over on foot.

Hey Steve,

That isn't a radio hame callsign by any chance?

Hi another newby who is coming your way early next year.
Living in Devon at the moment, and I am looking at moving to Kerry early next year.

I only started fishing when I came down here a few years ago, and the first mistake I made was buying myself a beach caster and I couldn't get on with it.

Soon after wards my brother came down from London and brought me one of his old carp rods and I couldn't believe the difference, easy to get a bend in, nice and light and even though they are whip thin they can take serious fish out.

So If you are thinking of a bit of surf fishing or light beach casting (3-4oz) or even plug fishing get yourself a good 2.75 lb carp rod (fox warriors are good for the money)

Reel wise I prefer a daiwa regal bite n run to any of the more expensive baitrunners. My brother kept saying I was an idiot and should have spent the extra on a baitrunner as the daiwas are made of plastic and not metal
like his nice shiny shimano XTE 10000s then after more than a year of coming down and cleaning the corrosion off his ones he got the point PLASTIC/GRAPHITE DOESN'T ROT.

For light work I love those little Daiwas and would recommend them to anybody, and you can pick them up for less than £40. :D

I dread to think what any self respecting charter boat captain is going to make of my boat gear..........I have just ordered a 500gram catfish rod and baitrunner 6500. :roll:

I like sea fishing I just don't seem to like sea fishing gear.......hmmm