Cork Reports

Ferry Point, Youghal, Co. Cork 1/4/2004 flooding tide, wind SE, miserable weather!

Fished for 5 hours with crab, squid and lugworm off the very point into the currents and eddies. Only found out afterwards that you fish this mark on the ebbing tide and that you should try for a spot known locally as the dead mans pole (will update the mark guide shortly)! Caught one solitary flounder on crab on the ebb, and with the wind whipping the rod tip all over the place, never even knew it was on until I reeled in to change bait. Do not use lugworm or squid here as the crabs march in legions.

Thought I was headed for my first blank of the year: the fish was in superb condition, more like an autumn fish. Returned alive and well.

FWIW...

Ballycroneen, 4pm - 8pm, high tide 6pm, blustery/odd shower, sunshine , 2m breakers coloured water.

Full of enthusiasm, and not a little trepidation, I ventured forth with my new Penn Vendetta and 525 MAG (see my post regarding tackle shops in Manchester). It was my first outing with a multiplier. Fishing this mark for the first time I was glad to see another guy set up. It was his first time here also but he had it on good authority that the place to be was on the right hand side of the stream as you face the sea.

I fished with frozen mackeral, squid and velvet crab without so much as a nibble for the four hours. I might as well as been tossing dead fish into the bath at home for all the action there. I have never used so little bait over that period of time. All the time my rod was bucking and twitching like I was into the liveliest beasts that the Atlantic could offer. It was very frustrating.

I managed to keep the reel in check for most of the evening. I didn't manage any great distance but I think it was an improvement on my fixed spool casting. Initially with the Mag on full setting and gradually easing back to half way I kept the blow ups that occurred small and manageable. That was until the end of the day.

Having given up all hope of a fish I decided to practice a bit of casting. Removing my trace and after tidying up I attached a plain 150g lead directly to my 50lb leader. Assuming the position for an OTG cast I rehearsed the movement in my mind. I was an athlete, ready for glory. Immediately I let rip I knew something had gone horribly wrong. My line was slack, there was no sign of my lead and a huge birds nest mocked first feeble attempt. Checking the line I noticed it ended at the leader side of the Albright knot connecting to my mainline.

Maybe I nicked the leader while trimming the tag end of the knot. Possibly I put on the power to soon. Who knows? Suitably chastened :oops: I retreated back to the car, hurriedly packed up and headed off home. I have already dispatched a cry for help from someone who could chuck lead for Ireland. Chris, check your mail, I'm in distress.

So endeth the story of how an evening that went from bad to worse culminated in calamity.

Declan

The next installment of our club competitions it was an open and approx 25 Anglers fished.

Full tide 6.00 pm (4.0M) and comp was between 1 & 6.00 pm.
The fishing was very poor and was not helped by the strong wind against the tide which stirred up the bottom and froze my N**TS off. THe slob is not the place to fish in a wind or maybe I should invest in a shelter.
I think only 4 flounder and 1 Bass were caught . The Bass is unusual for the slob (was not 20yrs ago but its the first I have seen caught there) it was just in size 43cm and was released. Fishing at distance ment the strong tide caused weed to gather on the line and made life difficult to hold the bottom, fishing in close ment the bait only lasted a few minutes as the crabs were out in force. I wasted loads of prime peelers for not a single bite, Jesus I hate that venue if you draw a bad peg.

However on a more cheerful note, some coddling at still in the harbour and loads of doggies all over the place from Waterford to East Cork.

Youghal, Tip Head 15/04/2004 2 - 6pm,
High tide 4pm
Sunny with few showers, little swell.

Fished with velvet crab, fresh lug, frozen mackeral and squid. I fed the crabs for the afternoon and blanked :( . Although I know crab is recommended here I wanted to scout the area anyway. I also note Kierans' advice re. Ferrypoint.

I walked past the competition on Sunday last. You may have noticed me DrSeafish. Wearing a black jacket and green with envy I passed at about 5pm. I had a very cold wife and two sons in tow. It was pretty bleak but wash out your mouth I would have given anything to be there with you! On the positive side, I made contact with a bait collector who was himself fishing from the quay. At least next time I should have some fresh crab for bait.

Cobh 25/4/2004 8 - 11.30pm High tide 10pm

I had planned to fish Ballinwilling or Ballyandreen in East Cork but two miles from home I discovered I had forgotten my rod rest :oops: . Now I needed a railing to rest the rod and so I decided it was either Monkstown or Cobh. Decision time was Dunkettle roundabout by which time I decided on Cobh. I didn't fancy blowing up while trying to reach the channel off Monkstown, especially in public.

After arriving in Cobh I went to jetty in front of the Titanic bar. Just to wet the line I put a plain lead at the end of my shockleader then promptly, and spectacularly, blew up from a OTG cast :oops: :oops: . I forgot that I had loosened the spool tensioner the previous day and didn't adjust the mag setting to compensate. After 15 minutes unsuccessfully trying to untangle the birds nest I reverted to plan B, my fixed spool kit.

Using frozen crab and fresh ragworm on a two hook flapper I took three LSD's, one 60 cm, a pin whiting, a dab and a 20 cm codling. The dab and codling took the crab off the top snood. So that's me happy, I've broken my run of two blanks and caught my first flattie :D.

As I had plenty crabs but limited timewise to Sunday afternoon. I decided to fish the Quays in Youghal as it was a sheltered spot and my fishing partner was a novice, so we needed a bit of deep water. The tides were big 3.9M full tide 5.30pm. It was impossible to hold the bottom at any distance over 50 yards as the weed was on the move. Crabs were again out in force. Just before full tide I had a flounder (30cm) and a doggie, but we got nothing else. A few other quys were fishing and I did not see anyone else get anything. Darkness may have brought on the coddling, but I suspect most are gone by now. It was nice to wet a line anyway, but Youghal should be avoided on large tides and on incoming tides when the wind is against the tide.

White Bay, 5-10pm, HT 9pm calm and cloudy
Frozen peeler, sandeel, squid. Week old King rag and a few clams. Spinners and plug.

Bloody blank.......................... aaaaaaaaaaaaaaagh :x .

We had a closed competition yesterday the 9th May on Packs strand in Youghal. Not a venue most people bar the locals would be familiar with. Its only fishable at low water and is between the quays and green park. The comp was not well pegged due to the state of the tide and after a late start we began at 1.30 and fished to 5.30pm (LW was at ~4.00pm). Some decent flounder were caught on the dropping tide to crab and at low water those that had access to the main channel picked up a few doggies and the odd coddling. Fishing was not bad as the mark is a better winter venue for coddling, but apart from the pegs directly in front of the lane the rest can be a tackle graveyard as you can easily get caught in the channel ledge and in god knows what crap is dumped in the channel. Still a good few fish were caught but the venue cannot hold that many anglers.

Cobh, Footbridge: 8 - 11pm; HT 1845
Frozen sandeel squid and peeler.

I decided to go late in the day with what I had in the freezer. Having blanked last time out and still not caught anything with my new kit I wasn't fussy. Finished with one LSD on a pretty quiet night. At least I broke my duck and proved my new kit is not jinxed. :)

P.S. No blow ups but I lost a rig at the leader knot. I was using the Grinner shock leader knot I found at the Neil Mackellow site.

Dunbogey, South Cork: 1800 - 2000; HT 2100.
Frozen sandeel, frozen crab, spinners, feathers and sweet corn.

Having been told that this was a fine Pollack rock mark I checked my route on an OS map and headed off. I found it easily enough and was given directions from a few anglers who were finishing up. The session started badly when I found I had drown my ragworm :oops: , collected with a lot of sweat the previous day. After trying spinning, floating and legering, I only managed a tiny pollack and lost a few rigs to boot.

Lightly toasted and very fed up :cry: I left for home.

Rocks just East of Roches Point, Cork: 1830 - 2200; HT 2200.
Spinning, feathers, storm shad and plugging.

I wanted to check out some place off the beaten track so on arriving at Roches Point I set out across the field behind it. I fished three marks up to the next headland but blanked. I had high hopes for the more easterly mark because it appeared unfished, being quite difficult to get to.

How many blanks can a man take?

Ballybrannigan, Cork: 25 June 2004, 0800 - 1100; HT 1200.
Spinning, feathers, and plugging.

Having missed the Saturday low tide for fresh bait I decided to go bassing with artificials as Plan B. I chose Ballybrannigan as I caught a bass there last year, my one and only, about this time. Unfortunately another blank!.

I had a quick look up around Knockadoon Head, slightly West of the listed mark, but came up blank there also having fished it for about a half an hour.

I can't say I am very happy at the moment with all these blanks, but after a three week break I was just relieved to be out.

By the way, why am I the only one posting for Cork marks here? I am urgently in need of fish so I would appreciate any tips on hot marks, otherwise its doggy hunting in Cobh for me.

Dunbogey, South Cork: 3 July 2004, 0800 - 1100
Spinners, feathers and plugs.

I found a nice rock platform and immediately caught a large pollack on a German sprat that fell off the hook as he existed the water. This happened again on my next two casts after which the I got nothing. The sad thing about it is that I had just replaced the hooks on the spinner the previous night so they were plenty sharp.

More woes, but I will prevail!

Hiya Read

If its any consolation I was down in Roches Point there about a week ago and the only thing I caught was a rock thrown from the cliff above by some brats!

I was really surprised, not having fished it in ten years as there was a good swell going and you normally pick up mackerel pollack and wrasse there. I was only using spinners, a German sprat like yourself and some leadheads with various soft body tails, but all to no avail. Maybe it is fished out given its proximity to Cork and the easy road access?

In terms of the beaches in East Cork, have you tried Inch on the back road to Ballycotton. Bass and a nice stream to one side for the flatfish. Now that the dusk is coming earlier, I would pick one on a decent tide and try it out...

FWIW...

Thanks for consolation regarding Roches Point Kieran. It really does look like it should fish well but maybe as you say it is being over-fished.

In answer to the Inch question I have fished it twice into a big surf and high on-shore breezes. I barely made 50m with my casts and there was so much movement on the rod tip from the surf that I really had no idea if I was getting bites. I don't think I got a touch anyway. Chris Lipinski (Billy the Bass) recommends lug only for this beach but I note he hasn't had much success, this year at least.

One final problem here is surfers. It appears to be a popular haunt for them winter or summer.

[Read]

I fished it once about two years ago using frozen sandeel, as far as I can remember. I was eaten out of it by crabs. Speaking to a local he told me that he has never seen anybody fishing from the shore. He pointed out that there was a deep hole about halfway between the Southern shore and Great Island. You would need a substantial cast for it though. By the way, he was up minding his mussel beds from nasty trawlerfolk who were trawling in pairs around the back of Great Island. I also spoke to a guy while fishing in Cobh some time later, he informed me that it was years since anything was caught there. I wonder if this was due to the aforementioned trawlerfolk. The tourist blurb on the web and elsewhere indicates that thornback ray can be caught there. Maybe they can but I don't get out often enough to give it a good rattle.

One fish that I see in abundance there is mullet. Real big 'uns wallowing in the muddy channels at low tide near the jetty where you park up. Send me a PM for some more info if you are interested.

PS. Unselect the "Notify me when a reply is posted" option in your profile. It causes problems on threads by preventing new posts being registered.

Last edited by Read on Thu Aug 05, 2004 11:32 am, edited 2 times in total.

[Read]

Ballymacoda, Cork: 1 Aug 2004, 1800 - 1900; HT 183000.
Spinning, and plugging.

I was at the beach with my family and decided to check this mark out. Arriving there I noticed some disturbance in the water about 30 - 50m offshore. So, as luck would have it :wink: , having my spinning gear in the car I had to give it a crack. Unfortunately whatever was there did not respond to my spinners and plugs even though I did bring them across their path a few times. Even though it's possible that it was sea trout or mullet out there. I still suspect it was bass.

Bottom line,........... blank :( .

Last edited by Read on Wed Aug 04, 2004 12:38 pm, edited 1 time in total.

test

Barry's Head, South Cork: 15 Aug 2004, 0615 - 1200
HT 0600, calm sea, sunny
King rag, German sprat and feathers.

Near the Dunbogey mark I previously fished this is a bit a of a clamber to reach but some nice person has provided a rope to make life a bit easier. I set up a single hook rig on my FS setup and let rip. First cast a mackeral, next cast, another mackeral. I wondered should I put bait on the next time :shock:. The hook wasn't even silver, it was black. Anyway with 25 king rag to fish I set up my multiplier rig to fish the bottom. I then put some feathers on the FS setup and caught seven more mackeral and a couple of small pollack.

I had enough mackeral to be going on with so I decided to run the feathers down a gulley for pollack. Something slammed into them and fought like a demon. The tip of my rod was doubled over and the gears of my FS began to slip. I managed to bring it in several meters when it stopped and I could no longer move it. I eventually lost my rig above the shock leader. Next rig, same result. I did catch a 4lb pollack eventually but there is a monster lurking in the depths still.

My multiplier setup had been stripped a few times up to now. So setting up my FS to float some rag I paid more attention to the multiplier. I quickly got a bite but lost my rig to as whatever I had went to ground. Being a bit cuter next time I struck early and maintained steady pressure on the line until it started to come to me. The result was my first wrasse ever :D .

My float bait by this time had been stripped. I had the same results several times after that without detecting it. Perhaps I should strike at any movement I see in the float in future. Obviously float fishing needs some more finesse.

I ended up with 10 mackeral, 4 pollack and a wrasse when I had to go. I returned 10 king rag to the sea when I left. That was about an hour of digging on Saturday for them alone :( . Anyway happy as hell I made my way back up the cliff and home. If I had focussed my fishing a bit more I probably could have done better, but I did break my blank streak and added a new entry to my species list. No complaints from me I enjoyed my morning immensely.

Ballycotton Pier, 18 Aug 2004, 1800 - 2200
HT 2000, calm sea, heavy showers
Mackeral, German sprat and feathers.

A mate of mine persuaded me to go fishing despite the fact that a thunderstorm was ensuing outside. Though extremely reluctant, mainly due to being at the end of a carbon fibre lightning conductor about, I succumbed to his conviction that the it would pass. We decided to go to Ballycotton pier because we could fish out of the back of my car in relative comfort with the hatch up.

Anyway, to cut a long story short, he was right. Though it rained initially it fell away by 7pm. All the time we caught mackeral, more mackeral, some more mackeral and a few more mackeral on top of that. We were also treated to the savage spectacle of the mackeral driving the sprat into the the seaward side of the pier and then devouring them. You wouldn't see better on Attenborough :shock: .

I tried to leger, you guessed, mackeral, for about an hour on the seaward side of pier. Usually LSD's are a dime a dozen there especially with a high tide, dusk and fresh bait, but I had none. I did catch a small Three Bearded Rockling though, the second new species for me this week :D .

There were also some lads fishing over the edge of the pier for conger without much success. Speaking to them we came to the conclusion that either the disturbance of the mackeral in the water was putting other species off or there was so much fresh debris on the seabed that our baits were being swamped. Any thoughts out there on the matter?