10/11 July 2011, Varied fishing in various spots, NE Antrim.

Just to throw a spanner personaly I think pound for pound there's no other fish that can compare to a coalie on a fly rod

Aye John, Colin, a coley is a great fighter on a fly rod, very big difference when you hook one and youve been catching small pollack. Was thinkin more about the mack v sea trout thing, hard to compare them as fighters as they behave so differently (I can only relate to playing macs on spinner from the shore at this point).

The one thing I would say re mac/coley/trout is that when playing coley or mackerel the angler is more in control of the fight, on the other hand when hooked to a sea trout you have zero control about what happens next. In my experience they dont fight as other hard fighting fish do. They just go completely apeshit on the spot on the surface and far too often the fight is over before it even gets started because they throw the hook and you can almost hear them say 'wise up' as they swim off giving you a big middle finger.

I wish they would fight as other fish do, ie run about and dive instead of that frustrating churning on the surface. No other fish not even mullet (crazy but different fight again) do that virtually indescribable surface churning that a sea trout gets up to. They have my head turned these past few years, but Ive nearly lost hope in landing the better fish on spinner, I think I may just keep trying to get one to take a fly. Then there might be a chance.

The sea trout I fish for would be smaller than in other places, eg Strangford. To be honest I cant comment on what the fight of a sea trout larger than 2.5lb is like because I havent been able to keep them on the line for more than 5 seconds.

Cheers Brian, John, Colin.

I know what you mean Cathal, I landed one at 1 and a half pound and lost one close to a pound at the edge in Glenarm 2 nights ago. The rest came off the hook after a few seconds. The one I landed, which I think was a pretty good one for there, leapt out of the water 3 times, inbetween alternating swimming towards me and going bonkers. It was hard to tell what was going on at times, lol. I was using a small Dexter's Wedge and out of interest I also had 4 runs on the Conger rod, but was using old dried out looking mackeral and herring from God knows when and I think they were spitting it out.

hi cathal i was talking to you yesterday at a mark yesterday....... did you have any luck ????

we headed rpund to dun but was not great conditions at all... so headed to another beach mark and had an excellent nights fishing with a lot of codling and pollack and dogs........

all my codling was takin spinning on beach and i will be taking my fly rod next time as there were plenty on the beach chasing sandeel...

i must have had 25-30 fish in two hours flicking lures up the beach GREAT SPORT on my light spinning rod!!!!

will bump into you again im sure nice meeting you

Dave well done on a nice sea trout at 1.5lbs, nothing wrong with that, fair play for staying connected, the hooks must have been well in.


Bertyboy, yeah good to bump into you both yesterday, I'm sure Ive spoken to your mate before, cant remember when or where though. You found some good sport then, very well done.

I was at Cdun too and somewhere else, waded out over some rough ground exposed at low tide on the beach, got up onto a big stone and fished for about 50 mins, amazing looking bit of ground for sea trout but only caught 5 wee pollack on the fly and 1 absolutely tiny sea trout smolt. I forgot about the advancing tide. The water around the big stone was about 3 foot deep when I climbed up onto it. When I caught myself on it was about 4 foot and there were waves. Water into the chesties and a pretty frightening experience getting back to the beach. Very dodgy. Didnt lose a thing and the camera was saved by the case it was in.

At dusk I tried a rock mark with fly and spinner and caught another small 5 pollack to 1lb. So nuthin to report this time, except a very big reminder of the danger of the incoming tide.

Talk again sometime,

Cathal.

Well done Cathal, some great fishing and great pics. Have to get back up again before too much longer. Definately bring the fly rod next time, the sport looks awesome.

Well done Cathal, some great fishing and great pics. Have to get back up again before too much longer. Definately bring the fly rod next time, the sport looks awesome.

Give us a shout Kev when you are thinking of coming up again, bring the fly rod for sure, it could produce something you wont get by other means!! Having said that the spinning rod is crucial too, my bro connected with 5 sea trout this evening on spinner but alas he only got one of them landed, 2lb, a happy boy.

It aint always that busy, he's been putting the time in and had a few frustrating losses up til now, you know the crack yourself.

I have had nothing but small fish since that nice pollack, puttin the time in myself but the rewards have been meagre, nuthin else for it, gonna just keep pluggin away.

Thanks Kev,

Cathal.

Nice to see the Gurnard on the spinner.

My first ever fish was a gurnard caught from Bangor Pier on a red & gold Mepps.

Incidentally, when were were in Brittany we was several mackerel for sale in the markets which were well over 2lb! so they still exist.