Ballycastle Beach, Co. Antrim 13 May 07

Mon May 14, 2007 11:56 pm

People: 19 Members of GADSAC

Duration: 17.30 - 22.30

Tide: HT @ 16.45

Weather: Moderate N, no rain, sunny spells

Bait: Rag, lug, mackeral, squid, prawns, :shock: Vietnamese Sandeels from BAC :shock: They could easily have passed for Jelly worms....

Rigs: Too many to mention

Results: 1 x Turbot, 7 x flounder (all 20 - 25cms), 1 x LSD and 1 x 40cms Bass


Report:
After much careful planning and furious tying of rigs, bait selection, deciding what rods to bring, checking the weather daily and torturing other forum members for tips for fishing this beach, Sunday finally arrived......

Sean picked me up at 14.30 and we journeyed down to Cushendun to pick up Conor and then on to Ballycastle Beach to meet the rest of the club members. Conditions looked favorable when we arrived -

Looking West
[img]http://img337.imageshack.us/img337/3359/dscf0741ks5.jpg[/img]

Looking East
[img]http://img337.imageshack.us/img337/5737/dscf0742wc1.jpg[/img]

The pegs were quickly drawn - I drew 12 and had a free peg beside me (more ground to exploit :D but it was unlucky 13 :roll: ). All competitors managed to get set up quickly and everyone had a line in the water for the 17.30 'chuck-in'.

Junior A. Snoddy landed the first counting fish - a flounder at 21cms, his Dad landed the next counter - another flounder.

I managed a flounder soon after also, but it failed to reach the 20cms minimum, most of the competitors were landing small flounder but very few of them were making the minimum size.

The action slacked off considerably as the tide began to drop and with the northerly breeze making casting difficult, punching a bait out far was proving troublesome (I managed to birdie twice :oops:, saved one but had to strip a fair bit of line off the other).

As darness fell, the fishing was still very slow, but the scenery made up for it -
[img]http://img409.imageshack.us/img409/6061/dscf0744ek3.jpg[/img]

[img]http://img409.imageshack.us/img409/9357/dscf0745oe8.jpg[/img]

Into the final half hour and a report emerged of a 28cms turbot being landed at one of the lower peg numbers, this was later confirmed at the check in.

Steve Hewitt (he of Norfolk & Goode fame) managed to hook a doggie in the last 10 mins, dropped it on the way in, immediately recast to the same spot and picked up the same (!!???) fish.

Also in the last half hour a 40cms Bass was landed by a relatively new club member - well done Sam - sorry I have no pics of this fish, the catch and release system and Sam being 10 pegs away made it difficult for me to get there on time...

Just goes to show, travelling all the way to Cork is not always necessary (sorry Stevie - couldn't resist that one :p :lol: ).

The LSD ended up putting Steve in 1st place -well done pal, you are well placed to do some damage tis year.

Needless to say, I failed to score again......

Anyone wanting to see the club scores can visit the GADSAC site here - http://www.gadsac.com/

Roll on the next outing (best to forget that one, for me anyway)...

Jude

Tue May 15, 2007 9:22 am

great report jude, really good read pal, the pictures set the scene really well

Tue May 15, 2007 9:52 am

Interesting report, somewhere else to put on my list of places to try. Cheers

Tue May 15, 2007 12:53 pm

Nice one jude. Fair play for the report

Tue May 15, 2007 8:35 pm

Great report Jude, 8) although you did have plenty of time on your hands between casting and reeling in. (nothing) :shock: :lol: :lol: :lol:

Great pictures and a cracking sunset. :shock: I must have had my head stuck in my beach buddy at the time as I never noticed the sunset :oops:

Portsalon, here we come, to see if I can continue my roll........ :wink:

Steve

Tue May 15, 2007 10:21 pm

Norfolk and Goode wrote:Great report Jude, 8) although you did have plenty of time on your hands between casting and reeling in. (nothing) :shock: :lol: :lol: :lol:

Great pictures and a cracking sunset. :shock: I must have had my head stuck in my beach buddy at the time as I never noticed the sunset :oops:

Portsalon, here we come, to see if I can continue my roll........ :wink:

Steve


Alright Goldenballs!!! A flukey doggie and you are getting on like Henry Gilbey... :roll: :roll: Must be those Magic Tablets you are taking - Can you get me any??????

Tue May 15, 2007 11:15 pm

Steve (H.G) Hewitt, has a certain ring to it doesn't it?? :shock: :roll: NOT..

I wouldn't worry too much, my luck has surely to go stale sometime soon. :shock: :cry:

Keep plugging away, your day will come soon :shock: :wink:

Steve

Wed May 16, 2007 7:19 am

:lol: :lol: :lol:

Well done again mate....

Jude