Wicklow Rock Mark 8-06-08

People: Just me

Duration: 14.30 - 20.45

Tide: HW at 16.15

Weather: Over cast, spells of sunshine, calm sea

Bait: rag, mack, sandeel

Rigs: Pulley, 1 hook, 2 hook ledgers, float

Results: 6 Wrasse ( Corkwing, Ballan), 14 Dog's




Report: Arrived at the mark to find nobody else around, and was quickly set up and fishing with a 2/0 pulley baited with sandeel out at around 120 yards, and a simple 1 hook ledger rig with the hook around 12" of the bottom fished down by my feet, baited with rag.

Didnt have long to wait for bites on both rods, it was a tell tale doggie bite on the distance rod, so left that will I attended to the rod close in, reeling in resulted in a very small female corkwing wrasse.

Left that rod down while I reeled in the distance rod, sure enough a doggie.

2 fish in my first 10 minutes.

I re-baited and put both rods back out.

Straight into bites again on the rod close in, but not hooking into a fish, this continued for around an hour, very small wrasse picking at the bait I presumed.

I was catching dogs with every cast on the distance rod, so had decided to change tactics and try for some flats.

I set up a 2 hook rig, baited with rag and mack, and put it out around 75 yards.

It was only out for around 15 minutes before I got a double of dog's.

All the while I was getting bites on the small rod, but missing them, only catching the odd wrasse - frustrating as hell

I had become bored with catching the dogs, so set up a conger trace/bait and dropped it in down the side of the rock face - more in hope than anticipation I might add :roll:

A couple more wrasse on the other rod, and plenty more missed bites, at least kept me busy, until..........the conger rod was tapping away.....no it couldnt be my first conger surely......struck, reeled in, a bit of weight........a doggie :shock: Damn you doggies, dont they just get everywhere.

Biggest wrasse of the day was only around the 25cm mark :oops:

The highlight of the session was to see a dogfish swimming around by the kelp/rock below where I was fishing, by now I had packed up the big rod and had just left the wrasse set up down. I scrambled for my camera, as I though it would make a great shot. It was strange to see him (or her) swimming so high in the water, in and out of the kelp, and though it was only a matter of time before he hunted down my bait (which was never more than 10 feet away from where the doggie was swimming), sure enough he found the bait, the tip started going, and he was to be the last fish of the day.

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More pic's

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A few of the wrasse

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Very good session there - 20 fish!!

Dogfish can be annoying alright after a while when they keep taking the bait without a chance for anything else - they are really suckers for sandeel.

It could have been a lot more fish, but for the missed bite's.

I even tried down sizing to a size 6 hook :roll: , but even that didnt help with the hook up rate :oops:

Yeh the dog's get a bit much after a while, they were not fussy about the bait, even taking rag.

I reckon I could have caught dog's on my packed lunch, if I was prepared to waste it :shock:

Nice report and pictures, especially the picture of the Doggie.

some wee dander down there u bring ur rock climbing gear lol, good post with some great wrasse there. good job

some wee dander down there u bring ur rock climbing gear lol

The climb down is way easier than it looks.

There is a path(if you can call it that) down to the mark to the righthand side out of shot of the camera.

Maybe next time I'm there, I take a few pic's of the climb down.

not too bad then, just knowing of some marks u have to be a mountain goat to get to them

just knowing of some marks u have to be a mountain goat to get to them

:lol: :lol: :lol:

Yeh, your not wrong there.

They tend to be the marks I give a miss :wink:

I've not got the best head for heights :oops:

Well done Mark, looks like you had a good session after. Dont know if i'd have been able for that climb though :oops: , might have had to call the Mountain rescue team and the coastguard for me :wink: :wink: . Great pics , by the way, and dont be too hard on the poor old doggies. I went to Greystones after for a "spin" with the missus and got 1 doggie in 3 hours :shock: .Put him back in at the steps and he sat there for a few minutes before moving off, never thought to take a photo :roll: .

I had 6 macks and 5 Pollock at this mark on Saturday, all at high tide except for 1 Pollock at low tide on a float with a sandeel, good craic.

well done shamo, some nice pics der,

had 6 macks and 5 Pollock at this mark on Saturday, all at high tide except for 1 Pollock at low tide on a float with a sandeel, good craic.

I have fished here 5 or 6 times now, and never seen anybody there before, thought I might have found the jewel in the crown, but obviously not

Dont know if i'd have been able for that climb though

Dont worry Dave, it looks a lot worse from the pic's.

Cheers wayne, when ya off on honeymoon?

We used to fish his mark when I was a kid. The local anglers called it Dog's Rock (for obvious reasons!) and we've got some great catches here including some nice huss, conger and in the winter some nice red cod. It was rare to ever see others fishing it - the walk dissuaded a lot from going there, and I'm rarely there myself these days, but it seems to be getting more popular these days! Its a great place in introduce people to fishing because they're more or less guaranteed some decent wrasse with a small lob out and quite often the mackerel come within a few yards of the rocks in the eveing...

There's a rock we used to call 'Split Rock' (again, for obvious reasons!) on the way here and we used to get some great flatties from there - you can pick out the sandy patches and aim for them for flounder, dabs and the odd good plaice.

There's another rock we called the Fingers on the Greystones side of Bray Head which has a shallow reef some 50 or 60 yards out which was great for Pollock, but it really shouldn't be approached from the Bray side of the tracks as you would need to get there via the large train tunnel, which really shouldn't be attempted!

There's a rock we used to call 'Split Rock' (again, for obvious reasons!) on the way here and we used to get some great flatties from there - you can pick out the sandy patches and aim for them for flounder, dabs and the odd good plaice.

Yeh, the ground out infront of my spot was quite clean, and I was suprised not to get a flattie or 2, but it was hard to get the baits past the dog's.

Did you get the conger and huss in daylight?

It looks great conger ground, but I dare say it needs a lot of patience (not a skill I am blessed with :roll: ) and a few sessions to get at them.

I havent bothered walking further round the head yet, but I'd say I will soon, as this mark as only given me relatively small wrasse thus far. The biggest being around 30cm.

Thanks for the help

Mark

yeah - we caught everything during the day. The conger were never exactly plentiful, but you could realisticly target them. The huss we caught were in the rough ground so short enough (30-40 yard) casts were all that was needed. In saying that, we only caught maybe one or 2 a summer and it was always by the guys with the shorter casts, which hardly seemed fair! Otherwise, all we really caught out further was dog after dog...

We found the better wrasse were to the left as you look out to sea (the North side) and about 15-20 yards out. The small 'inlet' to the right of the rock was a complete tackle graveyard and never really fished as well anyway.

Over the years, It also threw up the odd bonus fish. I've seen a few large Red Gurnard being caught here as well as some really nice rockling and one genuine ling and a couple of (very) small ray. We've also hooked a few hefty fish over the years on the clean ground that we couldn't get up over the rough ground and lost in the rocks. To be fair though, in our mid teens we used to go to this rock literally every day during the summer, so I'm sure if we had have spent the same amount of time fishing anywhere, we'd have similar stories...

Hope this helps
Pete

Looks like a nice spot to fish. Do you have to walk on the tracks at all to get to this mark or does the trail to left of fence get ya there?

s. feesh

Do you have to walk on the tracks at all to get to this mark or does the trail to left of fence get ya there?

Yeh the trail down from the fence leads you down without having to cross the train tracks