Donaghadee Co. Down tue 13th jan 09

People: me, mark and jim

Duration: 8pm - 4am

Tide: low to high, then dropping again

Weather: 2mph winds, calm, dry but freezing (literally)

Bait: rag, sand eel, squid and mackeral

Rigs: one up one down and 3 hook flappers

Results: JIM: 2 coalies and 2 pollack. MARK: 3 coalies, 3 poor cod, 3 pollack, 2 pouting, 1 shore rockling and a lesser spotted dogfish. ME: 1 shore rockling, 3 pollack, 1 coalfish, 1 codling, 2 poor cod, 2 pouting and one very lost mackeral




Report: i noticed there was a break in the weather tonight between 6pm and 3am, so a quick phone call was made to see who was up for a session at the dee mark and jim got back to me and we all met up and were fishing for 8pm. there was only one other guy there when we arrived and he was just getting set up himself as we arrived. i got talking to him and discovered he was another SAI user seems we're everywhere the first hour was a bit slow with me getting a shore rockling and mark a coalie. the other guy behind us got a couple too. things only started to pick up around 10pm when the bites became more frequent. mark got a nice poor cod that was about 25cm then the pollack came on the feed and we got a couple each. jim still had'nt got a nibble which was odd as our rods were getting good knocks my wee rod got a cracking thump and i struck into something that was doing a good bit of head shaking it had me stumped as to what kind of fish i'd hooked into. it was putting up a good fight and through the water i could make out a long slender shiney body shape. my heart was in my mouth , i was thinking sea trout and really getting my hopes up. so you could imagine my shock when a mackeral broke the surface . what the hell was he doing here did he forget to head out to deeper water with his mates in october or something we all just stood scratching our heads in trying to figure out what he was doing here...,now? not the sea trout i was hopeing for, but something different all the same . the guy fishing behind us had a laugh about too, the earliest one i've ever caught before. soon after that the guy fishing behind us packed up and headed on. mark was the next one into a fish getting a nice wee doggie and i got a codling. jim still had'nt got a bite , so he moved in between me and mark and soon hooked into a wee coalie , blank saved i was reeling in my slack line and something tugged back , so i struck into something with a bit of weight to it. it put up a good fight and mark jumped over the rail to hand line it up for me as my rod had a good bend in it. then disaster . the rod bounced up and i heard a splash . fish lost . i did 't even get a look at it. and to add insult to injury mark said it was a good sized doggie that was no more than 2 foot from his hand on the trace i was gutted, it's still bugging me now thinking about it. i supose you can't win em all. anyway back to the fishing. jim got another wee coalie and me and mark another few mixed tiddlers between us and it was high tide now around 1am. jim packed and headed for home as he was froze to the bone and me and mark stuck it out to 4am. we had some good bites, but never caught anything in the last 2 hours. so we decided to wrap it up and head for home. the drive home was pretty dodgey, thick fog with icy roads. not a good mix but we live to fish another day

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4am on a school night, fair play to ya fella, thats some amount of species caught in one session al, well done mate.
cheeky mackerel lost in the dee!

unlucky on the lost doggie, see ya on friday

some nice fishing there again from you. what did you do with the mack?? did ya eat him or use for bait?? i got fresh mack (bought not caught)before xmas and the whiting went mad for it. got some nice sized ones too on it.

Must be the frist mack of the year . If only we had sessions like that down hear in cork

Great variety of fish - well done.
A mackerel

thats a cracker of a report Al' great stuff!!!!!
and a nice mix of species for your session well done. jealous as feck here
first my back go's, got it sorted, then i get hit with this F**K'EN FLU and cant get out anywere
but when i do, i'll make up for lost time
jes' i need a fishing fix big time

Well we are catching more and more Bass during the winter months so if sea temps are rising like they say then who knows what will turn up.


I still think its only a matter of time before some surfer is taken off their board on the west coast by a great white...!

Nice mixture of fish there and cracking report and photo's as usual Alan

Loved the report Alistair, mack must have been a shock for you guys. Ya put the hours in any ways. Conditions were rough this morning never mind, can't imagine what it was like standing out in at at 4AM!! Nice mixed bag to

first macky i have heard of this year id better get my macky traces out

might mean there will be more this year than last year

good sesh lads was hopeing to get some where this week but weather is to be on the bad side although i might get somewhere sunday evening.

well done lads some great fishing there must go up north soon for my self

good amount of species there- happy 2 see

good amount of species there- happy 2 see

well done lads some great fishing there must go up north soon for my self

Nice mixture of fish there and cracking report and photo's as usual Alan

Great variety of fish - well done.
A mackerel

Must be the frist mack of the year . If only we had sessions like that down hear in cork

cheers lads for the replies i still can't get my head around getting a mack at this time of year

you get odd macks out on the boat in winter, but you get more herrings than mackerel. apparently they were gettin them in april last year on the peir, but this is january.

Loved the report Alistair, mack must have been a shock for you guys. Ya put the hours in any ways. Conditions were rough this morning never mind, can't imagine what it was like standing out in at at 4AM!! Nice mixed bag to

friggin freezing was what it was like, i was on the outskirts of belfast before i got any sense of feeling back in my fingers and then they felt like they were burning on fire. they're still red today and sore. i'm really gonna have to get a pair of those neoprene gloves with the velcro splits

unlucky on the lost doggie, see ya on friday

cheers stevie, i just hope the weather is gonna play ball.

some nice fishing there again from you. what did you do with the mack?? did ya eat him or use for bait?? i got fresh mack (bought not caught)before xmas and the whiting went mad for it. got some nice sized ones too on it.

he was dunked on the head and kept for tea. i have'nt had fresh mack since september. we must still have 100+ mack in the bait freezer from the summer, they have saved me a load of cash in bait supplies

Well we are catching more and more Bass during the winter months so if sea temps are rising like they say then who knows what will turn up.


I still think its only a matter of time before some surfer is taken off their board on the west coast by a great white...!

over the last few months, nothing would suprise me. bass on an antrim beach in the depths of winter and now a macky in january, the seasons are truely outta synch

8) thats a cracker of a report Al' great stuff!!!!!
and a nice mix of species for your session well done. jealous as feck here
first my back go's, got it sorted, then i get hit with this F**K'EN FLU and cant get out anywere
but when i do, i'll make up for lost time
jes' i need a fishing fix big time

you can't keep a good man down don. i'm sure it wo'nt be long before you're out pulling them in again

you get odd macks out on the boat in winter, but you get more herrings than mackerel. apparently they were gettin them in april last year on the peir, but this is january.

it was the same last year, my first session of 2008 was at the dee on new years day and i got a nice ballen wrasse . if it keeps up at this rate i'm gonna stop calling it donaghadee and change it's name to the bremuda triangle

good fishing again mate and the mack a nice wee treat too there right wee scrappers lol!! was gonna head for the dee myself last nightbut for some strange reason i headed to carrickfergus for A bash and lasted an hour after bein scared off by a big rat !!!good to see the doggies showin up there too was startin to think we were gonna loose the wee guys

unlucky with carrick man. if i ever had to decide between it and the dee, donaghadee would win hands down every time. i know other guys who swear by carrick but it's never fished that well for us. we love to catch doggies too, i have a real soft spot for them, i just wish we encountered them more often. keep er lit mate.

Hey it's "the other guy" was good you meet you mate. That mackeral was a very odd catch, then again it could've been frozen Just kiddin. Good session anyway, maybe see ya down there again sometime.