Dunfanaghy Beach Donegal Sun 6th Jan

myself and 2 friends

Fished 2pm to 6pm HW @ 5-15 approx

Bait . Lug, Frozen Mackeral and Crab.

Weather cold and windy at first ,calmer @ warmer later.

Sea-fairly rough with a good sized swell.

Catch And Release \ Yes

Catch me 9 flounder 39cm,37cm,35cm 33cm,29cm, 27cm,26 cm and 2 @25cm + 2 small Turbot and a suprise 39cm Sea Trout. Friends, 13 flounder up to 38cm.

Day started well with fish being caught on a regular basis. Flounder and Turbot were taking lug tipped with mackeral . Crab baits were not producing anything. Several double shots of one large and one small flounder came ashore. As darkness approached i got a very different type of bite { just like a frantic bass bite } my rod nearly coming out of the rest. The fish had hooked itself and took of along the surf line. When finally landed much to our suprise it was a 39 cm Sea Trout which was quickly measured and carefully returned still alive. The fishing then died of as HT approached with only 1 small flounder caught after dark.

All in all a great start in the first outing of the new year

:P :P :P :P

nice fishin there 8)

fished that place last summer, found the LW to be the best especially at the mouth of the estuary. everything in the bay gets washed out as the tide completely empties here to just an inch of water and about 2 feet across so everything holds up here to wait for the flood.

the only baits that produced for me was crab. had a brilliant session..... cast out about 10 yards, wade out to the rig, hold the top snood out of the water, watch the first two flounder and plaice take it, then drop the 3rd snood back in and by the time you wade back to the beach and reel in you would have 3 flats, all over 30cms.

must have had about 40 flatties and my one and only mullet from that place

Good bit of flattie fishing there, not too many folk beachfishing up that direction Beachfisher :wink:

heard of this beach, but never fished it, how do i find it?

mc Take the Kilmacrennan road out of Letterkenny go through Kilmacrennan and continue on until you come to the outskirts of Dunfanaghy. Turn right at the Golf Club and drive through until you come to the beach car park. We were fishing about 300 yds to the right hand side of the entry point to the beach.

lovely beach only ever fished it once and didnt have any luck. sounded like a great wee session there beachfisher. well done fella.

mc Take the Kilmacrennan road out of Letterkenny go through Kilmacrennan and continue on until you come to the outskirts of Dunfanaghy. Turn right at the Golf Club and drive through until you come to the beach car park. We were fishing about 300 yds to the right hand side of the entry point to the beach.

thanks beachfisher

Hi

Bizarrely I was up there last week, bitterly cold, took photos and a piece on it will appear in the April ? edition of Irish Angler. nice to see it is producing - always did give up the odd sea trout, used to be famous for them but salmon cages were reputed to have destroyed the local trout?

Did fish a mark on Horn Head once before, excellent rough ground spinning for pollack and big coalies, tried to get down to it and decided against it! :roll: :shock: Madness... the things you do in your youth!

Great fishing btw...

good fishing lads!! have fished that beach a few times myself, always get the flounder there, got a couple of good sea trout there last year on the sand eel.

Kieran i've been eyeing Horn Head for a while now, had planned to get up at Christmas but as usual a whole pile of stuff got in the way. I've been trying to persuade Tanglerat to join in but I think he is afraid of heights after the last time we had him out at Melmore :lol:

Kieran i've been eyeing Horn Head for a while now, had planned to get up at Christmas but as usual a whole pile of stuff got in the way. I've been trying to persuade Tanglerat to join in but I think he is afraid of heights after the last time we had him out at Melmore :lol:

Never mind Melmore (and that is bad enough :D ) but I tend to treat Horn Head with the greatest of respect and not a little outright fear! I've seen that place close up from a boat, and it's the sort of place that would be merciless to any mistakes. Merciless as in lethal, I mean.

Anyhoo, what happened to you since? Last I heard we were going exploring and nothing since. I thought you'd gotten sense........ :D

Good fishing report. Interesting that you caught on turning right from the car-park, the left turn looks more fishy. That's one of the beaches I'm keeping in mind for some Bass exploration this summer. I reckon they're due to turn up in the Sheephaven sooner rather than later.

Aye

Horn Head is a dodgy spot and no doubt. Extremely slippery and very difficult to get down to the shoreline, if it could ever be called a shore line. The one spot I did fish some years ago was excellent - I went to it last week and could not believe I ever went down there. Scared me rigid thinking about it with an adult head on...

If you were to fish it you might try looking for rock marks in the area east of the channel facing back into Rosguill and Portnablagh Bay. You could inspect it with binoculars from the beach on the far side then drive up and use the holiday homes (!) as markers. Bound to be a way down off the road, although parking is very limited once you go past the cattle grids.

I was told there is a few goods marks on the far side, facing west to Tory, up from the beach formed by the sand hills to the west of Dunfanaghy but it would be a fierce long walk no matter what route and you would need to know where you were going before heading off...

While we are in the area so to speak, has anyone ever fished the beach above Tranarossan, I think it is called Ballogeether or similar...

FWIW

Fished it the summer before last, plenty of flounders but not a pile else. Mooched about scouting the rock marks either side of it but wasn't particularly impressed. More research would probably be needed though.

Best place to fish in the Tranarossan area is over the other side of the hill at the right of the beach. Its a long trek from the car park but its well worth it.