Rossanrubble & Achill, Mayo, 13 Feb 05

[kieran]

What can I say?

T'was a mayo blank, I caught three coalfish the whole day.

I recall Paul Kimmage explaining how he had pi**ed on his own hands in the middle of a mountain stage after a descent in the Giro D'Italia, in an effort to get his fingers working again and at a certain point, I confess it began to sound good. Thankfully a seal popped its head up 100 metres offshore and gave me the excuse to head back to the car! :?

NNW Force 8 starting dropping to Force 7 by tea-time and bitterly cold to boot. The plan had been to fish Carrowniskey but all these soft people now resident in Mayo had cried off - you know who you are! :wink:

Anyhow headed for Rossanrubble and the tide being so low I could have practically walked over to the island. Not a nibble, not even a crab. The low water mark is full of small scallops and oysters and quite weedy and snaggy, for future reference. Far steeper than I had imagined too.

Headed for Mulranny looking to test drive the new okuma reel and braid, but no joys - 10 human seals in wet suits on boards. Headed for Achill and decided on the rocks west of purteen harbour. Found an ideal spot for the summer, gives access to deep water, no reefs in front and good casting....

After an hour of fruitless but distance casting with a german sprat on powerpro (testing for the summer and that bass mark MAC!) the seal show edup and ushered me back to the harbour. 3 coalfish fell to sandeel on a rising tide, near high water and in darkness. Bitterly cold. Got a really big hit right at the end and the damn line parted at a knot. Mental slap.

All in all 3 coalfish, that's a Mayo blank, but a bad day's fishing...

Windburnt too. Imagine :shock: :lol:

The bass will have to wait.... oh, and the Berkley fireline braid is awful stuff, whereas the Powerpro easily added 20 metres to my casting with the German sprat. I am a convert. No mono ever again on a spinning reel.

Tight lines

[MAC]

oh, and the Berkley fireline braid is awful stuff, whereas the Powerpro easily added 20 metres to my casting with the German sprat. I am a convert. No mono ever again on a spinning reel.

Told ye the fireline is Shite for spinning......... Nice to see your spacticing for our summer bass trip. :D

Kev

[Adrian]

Hi Kieran,

Roughly how far were you able to cast the German sprat? What rod and reel were you using.
I've often wondered if anyone uses a beach caster for short sessions of spinning e.g. with feathers for bait collecting. I suspect that K2 might.

[kieran]

Hi Adrian

I reckon close to 100 m albeit with a wind behind (and it was quite a wind!).

The rod is an old Shakespeare 10 footer, a bit too short and too stiff perhaps, would probably do better with something a bit longer like the new light bass rods. Anyone recommend one of those from personal experience BTW...

The reel was the Okuma Zircon 50, which came with two spare plastic spools alongside the aluminium main spool. Very nice, retrieve rate is not what I am used to with the multipliers but very good and tried it out with a J11B and have to reel it in very slowly with to get the appropriate effect....

Bit irritated with the reel in that one of the screws was a bit loose which is not what you expect from Okuma. The bail arm is quite wide too and inclined to clip your finger/knuckle if you hold the rod at the reel seat.

FWIW

[Guest]

you were casting 100m with a german sprat??!! :shock:
did this lure have wings?? :lol:

[kieran]

Hi Guest

I put 150 metres of Powerpro 30 lb braid onto the reel with a mono backing and almost emptied it down to the mono on several occassions. To be fair there was a NNW force 8 behind me and I was fishing from rocks about 3-5 metres above the sea, but I kid you not, the lure did travel that far. I'll be happy to repeat it for anyone who wants, all summer long around Achill! 8)

[IDPearl]

Provided you have a NNW force 8 blowing behind you at the time I presume?? :lol:

[jfkireland]

Sorry Lads,
I have to agree with Kieran, I have had consistently 100m plus with a 35gram Yo-Zuri Mag Darter and 50lb Power Pro and a medium breeze behind. The stuff is just manna from heaven - The 20lb is like 4lb diameter but no coils - it just glides off the reel.
Adam in http://www.affordablefishng.com is selling 300 yards for around 20 dollars/25 inc p&p. Highly recommended to deal with.
JK

[IDPearl]

You're a bit like me JK, short of one eye ("i")...
http://www.affordablefishing.com/

[Adrian]

http://www.affordablefishing.com/

I'm having problems with the "contact us" email link on this site and the email address isn't displayed anywhere, I think it could be the fire wall here. Could someone please try it and see if it works and if it does could they send me the email address that it links to or post it here? Thanks in advance.

[IDPearl]

adam@affordablefishing.com

[Adrian]

adam@affordablefishing.com

Mmmm, that was a bit obvious.

Thanks Ian :) .

[SeanP]

They are great prices for the Powerpro line from affordable fishing, less than 1/2 the price of any UK mail order, hope theres is no tax to pay on arrival! :lol:
Cheers for the link, Sean

[jfkireland]

Ask Adam to mark stuff as a gift

[SeanP]

Thanks John, i've just sent him an email asking him that, told him you reccomended affordablefishing.com

Sean,

[jfkireland]

No Problems Sean, I doubt you will be dissapointed
John

[Adrian]

He quoted me $8 shipping + $1.20 insurance, still cheap works out about €22 if ordering 1 spool.

[booner]

would be v. grateful if someone could advise any or best knot for braid.

[kieran]

Palomar is good for hook or swivel link direct to braid. Not much use for a plug as it required you drop the item being attached through a loop... Check back through this thread for link to the powerpro site where it is illustrated. Check out the Rapala loop knot on their website as it is ideal for attaching ... well rapalas!

http://www.braidproducts.com/knots.html is useful but complicated and they are swiped from a Wilson book.

http://www.stripersonline.com is an excellent site with plenty of info on knots especially braid as it is key to that kind of fishing... e.g. Albright knot

http://eis.bris.ac.uk/~cckhrb/fish_knot.html is an excelllent article overall...

FWIW