cork: harbour area, cobh , courtmac : august 18th to 23rd

People: myself

Duration: lots

Tide: all sorts

Weather: mostly sunny

Bait: frozen lug, fresh rag, fresh mack, lures, poppers

Rigs: all sorts

Results: 12 macks, 2 pollack, 1 bass, 2 doggies, 1 flounder, 1 small turbot, 1 whiting and a lost ray

Catch and Release:: Yes, except a few macks.



Report:

was back in the capital for a week and had relocated my beachcaster down there in the hope of getting some fishing in over the week.

First evening wandered down to cobh, must have been 50+ mack bashers on the quay, mostly youngsters casting in every conceivable direction (considered donning a motorcycle helmet for safety) , mackeral were breaking all over the place, everytime they broke the surface 20 young fellas would dash along to where they were and cast frantically (usually arriving seconds after the fish had moved on), it would have been funny if they weren't so annoyingly stupid, a few tangles and threats later they stayed clear of me :-) picked up a few decent mackeral.

August 18th, headed to inch beach (near trabolgan) to try for a bass using frozen lug, mackeral were beaching themselves here at sunset, so was hopeful there would be a few bass lurking, but no joy, a german fella was lure fishing near the rocks but also blanked.

August 19th, headed down to meet some friends in Courtmac, when passing by the burren pier saw two lads fishing so stopped for a chat, one lad had just landed a 4lb bass and a 5lb + gilthead bream, then landed another 3lb bass as we spoke. Ran back to the car for the rod and fished for 20 odd minutes before the tide started to rise again and the weed and crabs made it unfishable. Mental note, low water with rag = possible big bream. Tried the strand in courtmac later that evening on the full tide but quit due to weed again.

August 20th: headed for Aghada, stopped at Rostellan to dig some lug (as marked on the CFB map) couldn't see any casts around so popped into the pub to see if they saw anyone digging here, "not in 10 years" they answered, so got the fork out and dug a load of ragworm for another trip to courtmac.
Fished the pier in aghada on the rising tide from about 11pm to 1 am, had two of the fattest doggies i have ever seen, must have been close to 5lbs and a big change from the usually scrawny things i catch from clare shores. Hooked my first ever ray, no bigger than 1.5 lbs but lost it on the side of the pier. Stopped off in cobh on the way home and decided to try an hour of bottom fishing from the quay, caught one small turbot and a whiting



August 21st, back to courtmac, set up on burren pier with my new supply of ragworm at the same low tide etc. praying for a bream, got one bass on the rag / mack cocktail of about 3lbs. Stopped again as the weed moved in. Went over to broadstrand later that afternoon, met an english lad there also fishing the ebb on the left side but again no bites for either of us over a few hours. I remember catching lots of doggies here at night in years past but didn't have a chance to try a night session again.

August 22nd: headed out to woodpoint in courtmac for a bit of spinning, the beachcaster and belting sunshine made it a tough few hours, had another 6 or so mackeral (kept 3 for bbq) and a few pollack to about 2 lbs.


All in all, not a bad trip, I hadn't really planned on doing much fishing and regret not having had my other rods to hand, especially my spinning rod, would have loved to land a bream but that species will have to wait for another day :-)

Nice fishing/report there...that gilthead must be a record for shore fishing...would love to catch one myself if anyone has any suggestions :?:

low water with rag = possible big bream!

only joking rory :lol:

good few sessions there shambobala

courtmac isn't too far from cork rory, if i was there i'd be down every evening trying to get one of them myself, lovely looking fish. Don't know how long they usually stay so close inshore though, can't imagine there is a big window for them.

You'd be surprised. They seem to be there nearly all year round, although they may feed less when the water temperature is lower. I've caught one in January. It's really a question of finding the shoals. If you're ever getting missed bites while bottom fishing for bass, drop down a couple of hook sizes and you might find that it's giltheads. You have to give them a good solid strike to set the hook, and don't leave the bite develop for too long 'cos you'll miss it. It's definitely worth holding the rod for this kind of fishing, as you have a much better feel for the bite and don't miss half as many.

Ed.

The ould giltheads have become a fairly common catch at this stage. We've had loads in Courtmac along with black bream (as common) and triggers (rare enough).
Burren was the right spot but we always use lug. Theres another spot furether down the road but I can't tell you exactly where because its too hard to describe!
Ring tends to be stuffed with giltheads, Lumpy might be your man for the exact spots there.

Will have to try the burren so...fished ring twice this year and only got small bass :roll: