Dingle, Kerry

Arrived down in Dingle on Friday night with plans to fish until Tuesday afternoon. Unfortunately we had a bad call and news that forced us to return to Dublin due to a family illness in my other halfs family. So we returned the next day at lunchtime.

So I just had one session at my famous dingle mark on Saturday Morning. Dawn from 5.30 am til approx 11am.

First cast and I missed a good fish. Drag not set tight enough and the fish ran with the lure for about 2 seconds before slack line. Schoolboy error. Powerful enough for me to know it was a Bass. Thought I was on for a good morning. Usually if you don’t have a Bass within 10 casts there then it wont be a good session. It was still dark at this stage. But no other Bass took interest in my lures.

As first light started to peer into the gloom the macks turned up and became very annoying after a while as they make a mess of a lure
With a couple of trebs in it. I switched to a mackerel type plug only for the Pollock to take a shine to that.
It continued like that for hours until as the sun started to climb higher the macks and Pollock died off.

Fished until low tide and moved to a low tide reef mark I fish with a popper.
After about 10 casts or so as I was watching the popper come towards me my peripheral vision picked up on a very large grey shape following the popper. My heart began to race and I was saying “ take it, take it” over and over in my head but it didn’t. I ran out of water and the fish bolted when it got close to the rock. The easy thing to say was “it was definitely over 10Ib” but I can’t be sure, I do know it was a very large fish and certainly over 7Ib but hard to estimate when in the water.

So that’s was that. Have a few pics to add to the post, some of fish, some of anemones in a rock pool and other arty farty stuff I saw when walking home. Bit of an anti climax but life doesn’t always work out how you plan it.

Til next time..!

sorry to hear the bad news on the family. At least that 10 pounder will still be around the next time you get down.Were the mackerel actually taking your lures?

Tnks mate. Appreciate that.
Yeah the macks were hitting the yozuri crystal minnow I was using. (See pic of bass below with lure)
I have also posted a pic of the pollock and the lure they were taking. I was trying to "Match the hatch" so to speak with a mackerel plug.

I also switched to a green kilty lure with the treb swapped for a single circle hook to make things easier on the mackerel.

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thanks Eoghan, nice photos at least you didn't blank.

To be honest I consider it a blank as I was only after Bass and its hardly science catching Pollock and Macks..!

No sea trout ehich was strange. usually over a 5 hour session at that mark we would hook up with a few. Dont always land them though.
So maybe the sea was still unsettled from previous bad weather.

Good report Eoghan,sorry to hear your trip was cut short with bad news. At this particular mark have you ever tried a live mackerel freelined or under a float,might be worth a try.

Mark.

Hi mark, I tried a live lip hooked mack last year but only once at it is a bit cruel. I did plan to lob a mack head n guts into the gully and see how that went but as things turned out I never got to.

A few years ago myself and my bro in law watched a very large bass harassing mack at the surface for about 10 mins.
Tail and fins etc all visible and macks going wild. We couldnt get a large enough plug out to tempt it.

There are very large bass there but we have never really tried hard to fish for them I suppose.

is it any worse than hooking mackerel to catch them in the pirst place???


i don't think so!

Eoghan, Sorry to hear your trip was cut short with that bad news. That mark you were fishing wasn't by any chance the one you were telling me I should have tried. I was hoping I might get a chance to try it before the year was out but unfortunately its looking it'll be next year before I get a chance.

is it any worse than hooking mackerel to catch them in the pirst place???


i don't think so!

Well it kinda is. A mackerel hooked will usually be released/dispatched within minutes of being initially hooked.
A lip hooked mack for a bass can be out there for up to 20 mins or more.

Im not having a go at anyone who does this, just not my prefered way to do it, that all.

Eoghan, Sorry to hear your trip was cut short with that bad news. That mark you were fishing wasn't by any chance the one you were telling me I should have tried. I was hoping I might get a chance to try it before the year was out but unfortunately its looking it'll be next year before I get a chance.

It is indeed Dave, its a cracker.
I will tell you about the low water mark too for popping.
I have a few marks withing 200 yards of each other for all stages of the tide and they hold good Bass.
I have fished that stretch for years now and I know what time of the tide the bass will be at a certain place.

I would have liked to fish the low water mark again but will do next year.

Some other random crap I took with the camera while out in Dingle.

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Very unfortunate Eoghan, hope everything is OK. Pity the big fella didn't take. I plan to get down next month so i'll drop you a line.

Tnks F. Unfortunately he passed away but my other half got some time to say good bye which is priceless. So definitely glad we cut the weekend short. Very sad.

Do, drop me a line and i'll tell ye where that low water mark is. You have probably fished it before but I have overlook it a few times and thought about fishing it. Definitly holds passing bass for a time so well worth trying a popper there.

cheers

Sad indeed. I'll be in touch.