Donaghadee Pier, Co Down 24th May 09

People: Me & Daniel

Duration: 8:00am -11:00am

Tide: Rising

Weather: Bright & Breezy

Bait: Rag & Ammo Sandeels

Rigs: Spinning, Float, 2 Hook flappers

Results: Me - Nil! Daniel - Wrasse & Scorpion




Report:

Decided it was time to start the season so we headed down to the Dee.

After we'd been fishing about 10 minutes I noticed a Tern diving over towards the North Pier. I thought nothing of it until about a minute later it came back for a repeat performance. This time I noticed that it dropped what appeared to be a herring fry (small & very silvery). I had just rebaited so I cast over to where it had just dived. A couple of seconds after my bait hit the water my line went tight as something grabbed the bait and headed for the Copelands. It felt like a full house of 6 Mackeral (unlikely as I was only fishing two hooks, one baited with rag, the other with sandeel). Next thing I knew I was stuck solid in weed, I eventually managed to pull free but the fish had gone.

Lets just say I was gutted!

My guess is that I had hooked a largish pollack which had been harrying herring fry, it took the sandeel, had a run & then crash-dived into the kelp at the outside of the North Pier.

After that good start the rest of the morning was a bit disappointing, lots of tiny bites but none stuck. At 10:03 (I told him 10:00 was the expected prime time! LOL) Daniel got a tiny wrasse. It was bright red. About 10 minutes later he got a nice sized Scorpion Fish.

After that everything went even quieter, we weren't even getting the tiny bites anymore.

We packed up at 11:00. As we were leaving a local arrived to fish on the outside of the pier. We chatted to him briefly. It did however give me a chance to checkout the back of the pier. It looks very fishy and we'll definitely give it a throw next time we are there. It might even be a back-up plan for when the end of the pier is overrun by "kids" in the summer. I might even try my fly-rod (nice space for the back-cast).

Unlucky but at least you got the added bonus of good weather. A local I know fishes off the back using a float as the bottom is snaggy. He also swears by the rocks just past the bus station using the same method for pollack.

Yeah, I'd say a float would be a must! It looks pretty snaggy.

I was thinking that our usual spot at the end of the pier must be "snag city", just imagine how many hundreds of yards of rigs, mono, feathers etc are strewn across the seabed, not to mention the rocks and kelp which claimed the tackle in the first place!

unlcky lads but hey at least you managed something for your time and effort............

I was thinking that our usual spot at the end of the pier must be "snag city", just imagine how many hundreds of yards of rigs, mono, feathers etc are strewn across the seabed, not to mention the rocks and kelp which claimed the tackle in the first place!

and about 5 stone of leads belonging to us too . fair play to daniel showing the old folks how it's done glad to hear it's not just me who gets thrashed by the kids . donaghadee still seems pretty hit and miss at the moment, certinly not at it's usual form yet

Unlucky Nobuzz with the one that got away. I don't fish Donagadee much but once in a while it can produce a decent fish or two, just most of the time you have to get through shoals of small fish. The rocks just past the bus station sounds interesting.

Unlucky man, sounds interesting with the one that got away, It'll be there for ya next time Wrasse not there in numbers just yet.

Fun thing about the wrasse.

We got about a dozen wrasse on Easter Monday, including a decent sized one for Daniel.

They seem to have been pretty thin on the ground since then though. I did notice that one guy on the boards had a few out the back of the pier!

must get onto the dee soon again, i miss good sea fishing