Killiney beach, 31/1/09

People: Me and better half - Steve

Duration: 2 hours (15h30 - 17h45)

Tide: High but retreating. Roughed up towards the end

Weather: Very grey, drizzle but no wind

Bait: Lug and mack

Rigs: Two up paternoster (home made!!)

Results: 4 whiting

Report:

First of all we have to say a huge 'Thank You' to all of the regulars who post things on here. We have learned a lot.

We are shore-fishing 'virgins' as, up until now the only fishing we've done has been with my Dad from his boat out of Trearddur Bay, Anglesey!! Father Christmas bought us both a beach casting rod, reel and tackle etc etc. I spent some time with Dad learning how to tie rigs as well as bait dig etc etc. Being eager we have been down to Sandymount as well as Brittas Bay during the last couple weekends but claim we have just been 'practising our casting' as we didn't catch anything. This morning we decided to have a go at bait digging... after a slow start, we found about 30 FANTASTIC lug worms, so were on a 'high'. So much so, that after a quick call to Dad, who suggested we went out today as opposed to waiting until tomorrow due to the forecast we decided to have another try at 'casting practice'!!

We parked at the lower car park (under the DART bridge) and settled ourselves towards the end of the gabions on the left. Within 30 mins, Steve (grrrrrrrrrrrr) felt a knock, reeled in and had a small but nice whiting. I was a bit miffed as I wanted to be the first, oh well!! Anyway, within 15-20 mins I had a definate knock, which resulted in catching Steve's whiting's twin. I then bagged another, slightly smaller one, then Steve caught a good sized one.

Okay, not a huge catch especially after reading your reports, but bearing in mind that this was our first ever catch on our own without Dad's supervision. By the way, of course, he was notified immediately and was as excited as we were.

I hope I've filled in this report properly as we really enjoy reading everyone else's experiences. A couple of questions though... is Killiney beach 'out of bounds' during the summer? If so, when? Secondly, where else would anyone recommend we try at the moment (nearish) to Dublin??

Thanks to you all and............. Tight lines!!!!

Alison and Steve

p.s. Wanted to add photo but can't for some reason!!

Congratulations on the fishing.

You are doing better than alot of people. I'm seeing alot of blanks recently.

great report Alison.
well done on the first of many whiting .

I'm glad you managed to catch them on lug you dug yourself rather than paying outrageous shop prices .

killiney is never out of bounds just don't fish between lifeguard flags during the summer they don't like it for some reason.

you could try bray harbour plenty of whiting at the moment easy to get to from the dart.
and if you drive greystones or wicklow harbour would be worth a try for handy fishing

try fishing a bit more into darkness for probably better results

and welcome to sai.
looking foreward to some more of your reports

good stuff lads!!! you never said how the casting practice went?!

eye. grand cake, nora.

fair play on getting out today to give it a go, we had a comp on arklow and it was a bit rough down that way, so by the wind direction im sure it was rough enough, and fair play on catching the few fish,,,
there are pleanty of guys from here who fish that mark alot and would be more than willing to help you guys out there on some local tips

welcome to Sea Angling Ireland
very good report

you said not a huge catch,i wish i could get 4 whiting

keep up the good reports
tight lines

congrats and welcome,
checking out the shore reports is a good way to find good locations.
also check out easytides.co.uk for tide timetables to help for
better rusults.

Some good fishing there Alison, good report too. The photos have to be resized before you can upload them. Some of the lads have posted information on how to do this in the below link. All the best in your next session

viewtopic.php?f=3&t=12034

congradulations alison and steve on your first sucessful session if you're ever stuck and need some info there will always be someone willing to help on the site. 3 years ago we had'nt a clue about sea fishing, but with the help of many members of the site our knowledge and sucess has went from strenght to strength. all the best and good luck to the both of you

Welcome on board guys and well done on the fishing. Without this site I'd still be thinking there was no fish out there

Great report so please keep them coming!!

Hi Guys,

Many thanks for the words of encouragement. Have just been out back to check on lug remains and have 10 juicy beauties still wrigging, so very tempted although weather seems to be deteriorating. We'll see!!

Thank you also for the tips on other locations. Have to admit, really like Killiney and it will always remain special now, for obvious reasons.

I was asked about the 'casting practice', I really enjoy it, so cant wait until we can use feathers/lores and spin etc. When can we do this and where's the best marks for this?

I'll try to attach a couple photos next.

Tight lines

You do not have the required permissions to view the files attached to this post.

congrats on ur first fishes and welcome 2 the site.

Well done, there is nothing wrong with that catch especially as it was only a short session in daylight, its blanking you've gotta worry about. Next time maybe try fishing into the darkness, it usually fishes a bit better at night and I've no doubt that you'll catch a plenty more whiting.

Welcome to the site

Thanks again for feedback. I have to admit we had planned to stay later well into the dark, but in our excitement to go out, we forgot Steve's headlamp so it was the case of squinting in the dark and relying on Steve's touchy feeling about on the gabions to make sure we didnt leave anything behind as it was very dark when we packed up. Likewise baiting up would've been impossible.

We're still very tempted to go again later, will wait and see. Just been watching Country File on BBC, weather for next week looks very interesting!!

Well done and welcome to the site Toffeesmum, you did well enough for daylight catching 4 whiting. I was in Bray Harbour around the same times yesterday and got nearly the same results , 4 whiting ,,and 1 flounder. Congrats on your first fish

Hi Alison and Steve, welcome to the site. I started back fishing last year after a 20 year lay off. Killiney beach was the starting point and very enjoyable. You could try Whiterock which is at the northern end of the Beach but better approached from Vico Road. You get good flat fish there and lots of the usual whiting and rockling. You can also make your way down to the tea rooms which is to the left of the other car park on Killiney beach. The ground is rougher and you can loose tackle but it can throw up some good fish. You could take a trip towards Bray or Greystones which are usually reliable. As soon as spring comes and the temperature rises you can start spinning or plugging. I'm certain that I'm going to get my first good Bass this year, (said that last year too.) If you want to get a few mackerel wait until at least late April and you can get the feathers out. Try Collimore harbour, Bray harbour, Wicklow Harbour or the West Pier at Dun Laoghaire. Well done on the session and tell me where you dug the lug? I'm still spending too much good money on packs of often mushy and sticky lug from shops.

fair play to yus great to see people new to the sport posting reports if you need advice on marks ect just put up a post ,some marks can be hard to find,greystones south beach by the stream is good for those new to shore fishing as good sport can be had in quite close ,fish it on a rising tide preferably a few hours before and into darkness ,i,d be very suprised if you didnt treble your catch

Reply to Stephen8wood (any all those other lovely sea anglers out there!)... regarding the lug digging... we parked at the small car park at Sandy Mount (the one with the recycling section) and headed straight out to sea directly from the Martello Tower. We went out pretty much at low-tide and walked roughly 150 metres out. (We had tried towards the right hand side where the water runs from the land towards the sea (if that makes sense) as I'd spied couple guys digging there on Wed, but this was no good and almost left us down-hearted enough to give up ).

Anyway, back to our patch... once we found an area with a lot of casts we got into a routine... Steve doing the initial hard graft digging a decent hole about a spit depth, then I had the best bit , digging the part where the lugs live. Of course, Steve was on 'lug-spotting' duty. Paid off as we started getting some damn fine specimens. We were digging no more than one hour and we had 30 juicy beauties. I have to admit at one stage (bearing in mind that we'd previously been out and caught nothing (ooops!, sorry that was for 'casting practice', forgot that bit!! )) that I suggested we didn't bother going out to catch our supper and ate the lugs instead!!

Anyway, we must've done okay cos the whiting certainly enjoyed our foraging.

Didn't end up going out today. Oh well, theres always next weekend, weather permitting!!

better tides towards the end of the week