Bray Head - 10/05/08

People: Myself and a pal

Duration: 13.00-17.00

Tide: HW - 16.15

Weather: Cloudy, slight breeze, a touch of drizzle

Bait: Lures, Mack/Lug/Rag

Rigs: Lures, Basic 1/2/3 hook rotten bottoms

Results: 1 Pollock, 1 Ballan Wrasse




Report: After having my session mid week at the same mark cut short due to a rod breakage, I was keen to head back and make up for the earlier mishap.

I friend of mine was working around Bray for a few hours so he dropped me off and I made my way round to the mark. Was set up with the bait rod by 1pm and had a basic 2 hook flapper out with mack and rag.

Was setting up the spinning rod and notice a bite on the bait rod, left it a few minutes and got a 2nd bite, pulled it in to find the bait gone off both hooks but no fish :(

Baited up again and put it into the same spot, and started to do my spinning with a german sprat whislt keeping an eye out for further bites on the other rod, 6 or 7 chucks later with the german sprat missed a couple of takes :cry:

Was thinking this was not going to be my day........

Next cast, bite, strike, caught a small pollock of around 1lb, blank saved and maybe this was a sign of things to come :D

A few chucks later no more luck, but noticed a cracking bite on the bait rod, bent it in half :shock: , dropped the spinning rod by my feet and hurdled (difficult in wellies :roll: ) across the rocks in eagerness, left the rod a minute or so, another huge bite, struck, missed the fish, and lost the weight and a hook snood on the retrieve - Frustrating stuff this foul ground fishing.

My pal returned from his few hours work around 14.30 and set up a 3 hook rotten bottom rig baited with rag, mack and lug, and started spinning.
He had been with me only 15 minutes when I noticed a small bite on my bait rod, TBH I thought it was just snagged on the ledge down where I was fishing and reeled in to indeed find it snagged, broke the snag free, lost 1 hook snood, but to my pleasant suprise there was a small wrasse on the other hook length - Whoppie....new species

The water level had started to increase quite substancially now, and with a strong tidal pull from north to south(left2right) it made getting the lure near the kelp/bottom very difficlut indeed (must get some heavier lures I think :?: ), and the waves were now crashing the baited rigs into the rocks with frequent regularity. Even with rotten bottom rigs this still resulted in too much time messing around re-rigging and re-baiting and not enough time actually fishing.

For the last half hour or so we left the baits rod out of the water and concentrated our efforts on the spinning, but with the high tide it was proving increasing difficult to get the lures deep enough, couldnt even get a few snags on the kelp now, so it was time to pack up and head home.....Bring on tomorrow we thought :!: :!: :!:

Nice report Shamoo, havent done much of that type of fishing yet but with the good weather bringing everybody onto the piers , i'll have to try it soon. Would like to get a wrasse, by the way , i must put a few spark plugs in my tackle box :wink: :lol: :lol:

Yeh the wrasse was a nice touch alright.

If you fish out this way you'll soon realise that "junk" leads are the way to go :wink:

I was busy diggin the garden friday evening to find loads of stones/rocks to use as I only had a few old spark plugs :roll:

It would cost you €40 at least in leads only I reckon, not to mention the hooks.

I, like you have overdosed on the pier/beach fishing somewhat since I started fishing in February so the rock marks have been a welcome change(had a trip out on a rental boat from bullock harbour yesterday aswell...that was fun - report is in the boat reports section). BTW the scenery down on Bray Head is something else. If it wasnt for the Dart line behind you, you could be forgiven for thinking you were out way out west 8) 8) 8)

The mark on Bray Head is quite easily accessible, if a bit of a walk from the carpark.