Down Coast -27-8-07

People: Moi

Duration: 10.30am - 18.00

Tide: ht 10.33am

Weather: overcast with nw winds with sunny intervals

Moon: full moon 28-8-07

Bait: Mackerel, squid, prawns (johns manky prawns )

Rigs: Pullyes, clipped downs, 3 hook clipped

Results: Pollock, Cod, Mackerel, Launce, coalfish, dogfish


Report:

I love when a plan comes together
awaken by a very rude girl going to work this morning I decided to do something with my lovely bank holiday monday off. I was out the door for 9am and in BAC to see if I can get some bait. picked up some squid and mackerel and headed for the down coast.
There are so many places to fish on this coast that produce some cracking fish.
Got to the mark and rigged up a very cheeky pulley rig on the AA match rod paired with a penn 525 mag xtra, this was sent about 100 yards to the right to enable to try for some pollock with no obstructions.
Loaded the AA surf up with a firetail worm, set the brakes to full on the mag elite and had a couple of chucks with that before all hell broke loose. After getting the 'fish's' head up I could see it was a nice pollock. low and behold I wasnt ready for the dive and the wee brat found safety in the rocks. With my impatience and pure ignorance I tried coaxing the wee bugger out but he wasnt havent any of it. low and behold ten minutes later I was sorting out a smashed line.
at this point i decided to move to higher ground. This proved to be a pot of 'fish gold' As the next 3 hours were like being on a boat it, 'was hectic'. I put on some cheeky mackerel feathers and caught a full house 3 times in a row with the top hook being a launce. after bagging up a nice bounty of mackerel and launce I put the feathers away and decided to get some serious fishing done
I cut up the smaller of the mackerel into equal fillets and launched them as far as i could manage. (by this stage john joined me to give me some smelly prawns ). I noticed some very suspicious activity on the match rod. I lifted into it, at first I thought it was a dogfish but what broke the surface was a very cheeky cod of 43cm's. i rigged up again and again and by the end of the session I had accounted for 6 cod, 2 dogfish, 1 pollock and 1 coalie.
john stayed for the first cod being caught and left about 20 mins later. cheers for turning up john - good to see ya again and cheers for the manky prawns .
A great day's fishing at even better when I hadnt planned a thing until 10 mins before.
Just to mention I lost a double figure cod .I was actually crying driving home. It had the match bent double - but with a day like that I certainly dont mind.

I will not defuldge were the location is because it is john's cheeky mark. U will just have to come out with us

great fishing there mate!! i will take a guess that you weren't too far away from ardglass??! you don't have to answer that by the way. :)

that should read down coast btw, :lol:

some pics for ya. All the mackerel were caught & sandeel were caught by feathers with size 8 hook. approximately 10 gulls were diving no more than 50 yards out from me.

[img]http://img518.imageshack.us/img518/2410/dsc00561te3.jpg[/img]

[img]http://img484.imageshack.us/img484/4154/dsc00562cn3.jpg[/img]

[img]http://img528.imageshack.us/img528/1051/dsc00563gs6.jpg[/img]

[img]http://img169.imageshack.us/img169/6386/dsc00566ri2.jpg[/img]

nice pics and good post round our way been reading up on the reports for a good while now and you always seem to do well

i wish i had such luck have been fishing mainly the north east antrim coast most of the summer but only had small fish, think i will give the down coast a go, i fished killard point before and had a few pollack but again no decent size, any handy hints or tips for around the ballyhornan/ardglass area a cheeky pm perhaps lol?? i would really appreciate it as am losing heart in the shore fishing recently :cry:

cheers

Barry

first of welcome to the site

tbh barry. I dont think im catching anything special, just getting lucky sometimes. I owe alot of my success to the guys on this site both north and south. alot has to do with bait presentation and 'hook-ups'. I have now started to use a scratching technique where i try to get as many species in the same day rather than trying to get the biggest of fish, with of course a big fish a bonus.
But I never reported on the excursion to we had last week to benone and caught one flounder for our efforts in a 5 hours period. we were after the infamous bass that day.
keep it up and if all else fails go to bangor harbour with a light spinning rod and catch some mackerel :D .
get the best bait out there. if you can get a spot where u can dig ur own rag/lug. I get all my bait out of belfast angling as it seems to be the best out there.

good luck barry.

thanks for replying :-)

yeah suppose i will just have to stick at and makesure my bait and timing with the tides etc are good, i do feel the fishing is quite poor along our coasts though, ah well beats sitting in the house if anything

hopefully ill have a good report to put up soon :)

personally i think the down coast bigger fish than the antrim coast just because of the deeper marks it can provide. good luck and keep her lit

hi lads! burt, definately get yourself a trip to ardglass and i guarantee you will have a great session. park beside the golf course, then cross the golf course and fish the rocks at the bottom. as round_ourway mentioned its a deep water mark so you can catch big fish close in, whereas on most of the antrim coast marks you really have to get your bait out at distance to catch a decent fish. anyway, ragworm will catch decent cod, pollock, coalfish and big wrasse. spinning will get you mackerel, pollock and coalie. there is some big pollock around this area and the best technique for the biggy's is sandeel whipped onto the hook with bait elastic and slowly spun along the bottom. i hope this helps mate, never failed at ardglass. :)

the moon 8) nice fishin.

thanks lads appreciate the tips, yeah im def goona try ardglass next trip, used to all around there maybe 15 years ago when i was a kid as my uncle and cousins live in kilcleif, i remember a spot called the canyon(i think) somewhere near kilclief it had very steep rocks down to it and was very deep clear water with a sandy bottom could always see the fish swimming in it, would love to find that spot again lol

ive been at orlock a few times rab01 think i might have seen u there before, me and a mate were fishing the higher rocks to the left of the entrance a few weeks ago, got a mix of mack, pollock and a red cos there one evening, seems a good spot

ill take the tips on board fellas and give it a go, cheers! :D

Just to update I went back to the same spot last night at low tide and did not get a tap in two hours. Lost 4 rigs and managed to whack myself in the head with the rod (dont ask :oops: :lol: ). we all have those days where they arent going the right way at all.
so on discovery it is definitely not a low water mark.

cortaz I have read your posts on the moon phases and find it very interesting and apply alot of the theory when fishing different spots on the down and antrim coast. I have yet to get any real sequence because i havent been fishing that long in particular spots.
we were in benone last week on a half moon and didnt get a single tap. would love to try it this weekend but hopefully going for some cheeky rays.

Nice to see you were able to sneak out again pitty you didnt get anything but we all have are blank days. I have fished that spot quite a bit and have noticed that it has fished better on the ebb and at low tide as compared to the flood maybe the reason for losing the rigs is you might be casting to far and in the wrong spot :wink:

Tight Lines and good Luck
John

Last edited by lazycod on Fri Aug 31, 2007 4:15 pm, edited 1 time in total.

if only i had the local knowledge :x

true john its a part of the country that is still very fresh to me. hopefully gain some more fishing miles under the belt down that part of the world