Lough Swilly 10th May - 16 May

People: Myself and Dad (John) all week and Derek and Dave 15th and 16th

Duration: all week on the day we went home i didn't fish

Tide: in out in out in out

Weather: Sunday windy, Monday nice little breeze, Tuesday Sunny and again little breeze Wednesday Rain and windy, Thursday Rain and slight wind, Friday cold windy, Saturday Windy all day. Sunday no wind in the car on the way home

Bait: Lug, rag, mussle, squid, mackeral, sandeel & Razor

Rigs: everything we had

Results:Thornback Ray, Dogfish, mackeral, Flounder, Pollock, Conger, Spider Crab




Report:
Needed time off work so headed up to Donegal as its my yearly pilgrimage. Headed up Sunday morning and got up to the house i had for the week and got everything set up. Went to a local Pier and nothing for the 2 hours headed back to the house due to my girlfriend parents coming up so needed to show them where to go. Went back to the pier that evening and we fished it for another two hours resulting in a lovely Ray. We called it a night soon after that due to the amount of weed we were taking in that night. I think we got all the weed out of the Swilly that night as we didnt get any more all week. Tuesday we went to our usual rock mark and spent hours and hours without a bite then my road hopped and a double of Pollock came a shore smallest was at 38cm's larger one was 43cm. that day we went to the swilly angling centre
and ordered our Rag and lug for the week, i've being passing the shop for years not knowing it was there. John in the shop is a great guy and we spent alot of time in there talking to him and got great advice. The Tuesday we heading to a new beach that was suggested to us, ended up with ray and flounder worth the trip and nice for new mark. Wednesday not alot of fishing was done due to the amount of wind we tried two spots nothing happening very windy but at least we got out.On Thursday we went back to the our usual rock mark in hope it would produce more than the first day. We had conger and Pollock. I'd didnt measure the Pollock as he took the hook deep and just wanted to get him back safe and sound, great fight as i used my little Penn firetuff 10ft telescopic rod it was the first time i used it looking forward to float fishing for mackeral later this summer. We got conger also not major just a few small strap ones. I cant remember what day the mackeral was caught i think it was thursday from the pier we went for a little while before we hit the dinner and pub. Friday we waited for Derek and Dave to come up and we went to a new beach mark that i drove passed for the last few years without fishing it. It produced plenty of dogs and was good fun, would of liked to fish it well into the morning but we didnt but next time i will, as i was told it fishes well into the dark. On Saturday we went back to the beach mark that produced the ray on Tuesday and hoped that Derek would catch his first one ever. He didnt buy Ray were biting we got one in the region of 6lb and Derek got to see his first ever Thornback ray. Went back to the local pier that night and dogs were in called it a day and week that night. All two fish were returned alive only two flounder's died due to swollowing 3/0 hooks. I must look and study Steve Crows tips for getting hooks out of flat fish as i hate not getting fish back alive. All in all great week. May be back up in the next few weeks as we were asked by a local to come and fish with him so that is what i will be doing a weekend soon.

Plenty of fishing wish I could get out that often

i know wasn't out for weeks before i headed up, and now back in work during the weekdays this weekend i have a christening to go to, and next weekend i have to two birthdays to head to so that's me out for a few weeks. Unless i can get out for an hour or two after work some evening.

not bad plenty of fish there, always wanted to try swilly , nice session lads..

sounded like a decent trip and donegal is a great place to go, I wish I could get out that much on holidays. well done

Nice trip you had there. Well done

sounds like you were kept well busy lads .good to see a report from you again.