Whitelady, Clifden, Co Galway 26/8/08

People:myself and saltydog

Duration:4:30(ish) - 10:35(ish)

Tide:falling and beginning of rise

Weather:SW winds with Heavy mist

Bait:sandeel squid mackerel

Rigs:floats, 1 up one down, one hook clip up

Results: 6 dogfish, 5 mackerel, 4 pollock, 1 dab




Report:eventually made it to the mark after a small bit of what seemed to be mountaineering, bog trekking and what was like running the gauntlet..
finally got set up on a rock that is only accessible during falling tide, and both cast out with baits for the bottom, not too much of a flow (neap tides are handy for this) so baits stayed where they were cast, and then set up spinning rods with floats and 9' drop to hook with a drilled bullet a foot from the hook, wrasse pollock and mackerel were the target here..

i started off with a great start catching 2 pollock on the float, and during a bait change to the main rod i noticed something was coming in with it.. woohoo a good sized flattie, what i thought could be a place soon turned out to be a dab as it got closer tot he shore.. biggest one i have ever seen.. a couple of photo's and a quick measure (36cm) i was straight on the phone to see what the specimen size for a dab is.. (apparently it's 1lbs 8oz, thanks jd ).. the scales we had with us weren't the greatest, so it was a quick knock on the head and i noticed my spinning rod was going mental... woohoo.. another species... mackerel are about..

karma was in my favour this session as i managed to pluck a doggie from the depths, well salty, you had your fame of catching wile i blanked, now it was my turn to show you how its done

salty changed tactics and gave up on the float and went with feathers (macky bashin)..

after a few chucks and nothing much happening, i pulled out another mackerel finally though he did manage to get a string of mack.. blank saved.. i think at this time i pulled out another pollock and shortly after another doggie, then salty caught a proper fish, a doggie arrived to the shore.. by this time the tide was slowly starting to turn, and salty picked out another doggie.. time went on and it was getting dark and my float disappeared, which turned out to be a nice pollock of about 2lbs.. darkness prevailed and time to put away the small rods and concentrate on the bigger ones (the zzippy's) after a quick phonecall from nige i noticed my line had gone slack.. another doggie just made it to shore, but it had other ideas as it somehow managed to bite through 25lbs snood and make a quick escape from under my feet back into the water.. time to go and salty felt a bit of weight on his rod.. yup another doggie...

now for the hard part.. getting back to the jeep in the dark through bogs and firstly getting back off the rocks.. even Sir Edmund Hillary would have been proud of our attempts to climb off the rocks.. now its not as if they are high or anything, just very wet and slippery and quite a few slips were made thankfully no rods broken (who cares about bones when you are carrying 2 zziplex) finally made the climb ,after what must have been 15 minutes(only takes 5 in dry conditions) and back through the marsh lands for the bog walk completely exhausted we made it back(just about)

good session, pity there was no ray but thats the way it goes, and the dab weighed in at 1lbs (454gramms) exact on the scales at home.. just shy of specimen, so onto a try and dinner it was.. i'll be having that again absolutely gorgeous

pics to follow (over to you salty)

Well i think we earned our stripes when it comes to mountaineering definately bring sherpas next time and lets try a different venue if its raining that was a pretty ropey journey back to the jeep!! Steve got of to a great start and was making up for the last session and (rubbing it in) reminding frequently that i still hadn't caught anything But persistance paid of with a few mack and doggs shame about the ray a little bit calmer and i'm sure we would've connected, well it was nice to get a early session in during the week fine tune everthing for the weekend trip!!

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nice dab steve Connor just as well you caught fish or you would have to listen to steve the full way home

Good sized Dab Steve .

Sounds like the rocks were treacherous!

Conor, best of luck with the new wheels. Any sign of the boat to hitch onto the back?

nice fishing steve/saltydog, nice looking dab too.
sounded a bit hairy getting back thu;...

at least you pulled the blank saving out of the bag salty! wasnt sounding too good when i was onto you

nice dab there steve - so whats it taste like plaice flounder - mackeral

at least you pulled the blank saving out of the bag salty! wasnt sounding too good when i was onto you

nice dab there steve - so whats it taste like plaice flounder - mackeral

was really nice.. even tastes nicer than plaice too... probably the best flattie i've ever had to eat

i couldn't let salty blank, but thankfully he managed to get a few doggies on his own before I was going to intervene


will be fun to see what happens Friday though

i feel a count back on pin whiting coming on

oh god i hope not.. i reckon a few bass and smoothies with the odd appearance of tope... and not a doggie in sight

not bad going lads, bet your a bit sore today then

i feel a count back on pin whiting coming on

Just printing off scorecards now

i couldn't let salty blank, but thankfully he managed to get a few doggies on his own before I was going to intervene

careful or i'll make you listen to my Woody Guthrie cd's on the journey across

Conor, best of luck with the new wheels. Any sign of the boat to hitch onto the back?

working on it hope to get a deal tied up shortly

nice dab steve Connor just as well you caught fish or you would have to listen to steve the full way home

Was safe either way poor fella only got his breath back when we got back to Galway

even tastes nicer than plaice too... probably the best flattie i've ever had to eat

Great dab - that has me intrigued now to see what they taste like - I will have to target a few - since I am unlikely to get one that big I will have to catch about 10 or 15 to make a meal of it.

i couldn't let salty blank, but thankfully he managed to get a few doggies on his own before I was going to intervene

careful or i'll make you listen to my Woody Guthrie cd's on the journey across

pity we dont have something to play vinyl.. i have Arlo Guthrie: Alice's restaurant (the whole 18 minutes and 34 seconds version)

note to self.. bring some proper music

...
pity we dont have something to play vinyl.. i have Arlo Guthrie: Alice's restaurant (the whole 18 minutes and 34 seconds version)

note to self.. bring some proper music

Hey, don't get me going on vinyl - best friggin' sound around, still! And, speak for yourself when you say you've nothing to play vinyl. I can guarantee you, I can play you vinyl through on a good turntable through a tube headphone amp that'll kick ass against anything you can reproduce on digital format I could [re-]introduce to a good sound