People: Me
Duration: 13.00 - 17.15
Tide: HW 12ish
Weather: Overcast, breezy
Bait:Rag
Rigs: 2 hook flapper, 2 hook clipped, Float
Results: 1 x Dab, 1 x Plaice, 1 x Pollock, 1 x Gurnard, 1 x LSD, 1 x ?????
Report:
First report in a while due to work commitments and car troubles.
Fished a new spot for me in Greystones so was unsure what to expect and having missed high tide and seeing the water level fall wasnt too optimistic.
Fished 2 rods, one at distance and one at around 60/70 yards.
Caught a tiny dab (so small I just had to take a photo) 1st cast on the rod close in.
Caught my first ever plaice on my 2nd cast on the rod close in, he gave a savage bite and gave a real good scrap, very thick fish around 35cm.
Didnt get a sniff on the distance rod, not a single bite, but on every retrieve the bottom hook was stripped of bait.....damn crabs.....but more about them later......
Things went quiet then for about an hour.
Missed a bite on the rod close in, then as I was bringing it in, bang, felt a bite.....fish on..... resulted in a small pollock.
Quite again then for a while, a few timid bites and reeled in a small gurnard.
Tide had dropped now quite significantly and there didnt seem to be much depth of water out in front of me, so persuaded slightly by the suprise pollock I thought I'd bang a float out over the kelp/rocks I could now see quite clearly in front of me, I sacrificed the distance rod seeing as it hadnt got me a fish.
By now the rod close in was intermitently hopping all over the place, reeled in to find the bottom hook stripped of bait and the top one untouched....damn crabs again....
Had a couple of very shy bites on the float rod, struck, hooked into a fish, but he dropped off 20 yards out..didnt see what he was.
The rod fished on the bottom was hoping all over the place again, now I should probably mention, its an 11ft spinning rod so has a very sensitive tip, however I have never seen crabs bite with such ferocity, you'd have sworn it was a good sized flattie having a go. Any how, reeled in and deja vu, bottom hook stripped, top hook untouched.
Rebaited and cast out again, more in hope than anything else.
Had a really small bite on the float, left it a minute or so, no more interest in it so reeled in, as it got very close to me I could see a tiny fish on the end, now I was fishing with a 2/0 hook, and the hook was nearly as long as this fish!!!!
I have a suspicion that the fish was a tiny cod as he had a barbel under his chin and colouration/spots/markings similar to that of larger cod.
I would appreciate a bit of help from anybody as to what the fish is, but apologies for the poor quality photo, its the 2nd photo down.
It was getting a bit depressing now with the nature of the bites I was getting on the bottom fished rig, seeing the rattles on the rod and just knowing it was crabs, so I had said to myself...ONE LAST CAST..
After packing up the float rod, just leaving the 2 hook flapper rig out, I had started to chat to a guy who had been fishing the bottom end of the beach spinning for sea trout. He had no luck, nice fella mind you.
He was jumping up and down screaming...you got a bite, you got a bite..... whoooa thats a good fish he yelled.....
Alas, just the same old crab bites I'm afraid, he couldnt believe though, that the strength of the bites I was getting were from crabs, he said he'd have put money on it being a good fish. Its a good job I have some morals, otherwise he'd have been a skint old man an hour later.
He soon left to catch his train back to Dublin, and I thought...ONE LAST CAST....as I tidied up the rest of my gear.
Had a good bite 5 minutes later, not to dissimilar to the knocks the crabs had been giving me, but this fella was hooked, I just knew I was gonna finish the session with a doggie..and I did.
That was enough for one day, so was now on my way home.
One positive, whilst it had threatened to rain all afternoon, it didnt.
I put this down to the fact that I had put my waterpoofs on when I got out the car to get down to the mark, rather than carry them...must do that more often...
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