Donaghadee 12/10/08

People:Me

Duration:1100 - 1300

Tide:Dropping (high at 0940)

Weather:calm, sunny

Bait:mackerel strips, cooked prawns

Rigs:Float and 3 hook paternoster

Results:2 pollack

when I arrived, there were guys fishing at the railings, so I set up the float rig and fished over the back of the pier. Got 3 or 4 good bites, but only landed one small pollack

The guys at the railings left after about an hour or so, so I moved over there and put on a 3 hook rig with prawns in the hope of getting a wrasse, but every time I reeled in the prawns were gone. Not sure if it was crabs or just that the prawns were too soft too stay on the hook.

Switched to mackerel, and got another small pollack, straight down the side of the pier.

Good day out.

Nice fishing. Were the pollack any size.

Myself & Daniel went down for a few hours after teatime.

It was pretty slow to start with only a few small wrasse & micro-pollack. We generally ended up with stripped hooks but at least a few stuck.

As it got dark the pouting came on the feed. We got about 2 dozen in 30 minutes. Those wee pouting give you a really good bite. A couple of times I thought the rod was going to go over the railing.

All the fish took rag. I tried raw prawns with no interest at all. Cooked prawns seem to work much better! There were other guys fishing with mackeral, they barely got a touch!

As we were leaving a guy got a nicer pollack - about 11/2 lbs.

Hi nobuzz

Nice to hear you had a good session

it seems that the evenings are fishing a lot better than the daytime.

Was going to take a run down next Sunday morning, but might try the evening now instead!

How do you manage to get the prawns to stay on the hook? I am slipping them down the hook in the same way as you would bait a ragworm, but as I say, every time I reel in I am greeted with bare hooks!

Don't use the cooked & peeled freshwater prawns (small ones).

Use the bigger & tougher cooked & peeled king prawns.

They stay on the hook much better.

The problem with them is the shape, basically a 3/4 circle. What I do is cut each prawn into 4 pieces and then thread the individual pieces onto the hook alternating them to form a straight bait. This means the bait doesn't spin on the retrieve and also the small fish can only steal one bit at a time.

Cheers nobuzz

Hopefuly going to get a run down to Donaghadee on sunday morning (stopping at Tescos on the way!)