Clifden Bay july 1st- a great day

People: Meself and the lady

Duration: 7pm-10:30pm

Tide: low water approx. 6:30pm

Weather: overcast but warm, dead calm

Bait:Mack, sandeel, rag and lug

Rigs: 3/0 pulley, float, drill bullet simple leger

Results: 3 Corkwing(?) wrasse, 3 dogfish, 2 thornback ray, bullhuss and giant starfish

report:


I Had paintings to collect from galway yesterday, so took full opportunity to get in some great fishing. This week has been my karma payback for saving that red setter a while back in Portmarnock - Sold a few paintings, caught a bull island Bass and then THIS fishing session.....

Went out wednesday night at 11pm digging bait, haha, never done that by headlamp light, interesting, hard to spot the hoors..
Got up early then and got some mack in howth, the shop had a weird selection of fish on it's slab- mack, bream, then lots of huge wrasse and A Tope, but I d o like the shops out there, always a great choice of fish..
anyhow, rang ahead to stanleys , clifden to secure sandeel, as they sell some monster sandeel there, always work well for me...

got setup to fish at 7pm, water so calm , was great. had 2 rods out with 3/0 pulleys and sandeel on one, sandeel/mack on other.
five mins later- the sandeel rod started bobbing... i lifted into somethin decent...my first ray....ever... the beast stayed down in the water right til the edge of rocks, then loomed outta the kelp.. Jaysus! big fish... I was so chuffed.. Of course, then the main line snapped attached to the rig.. fish gone.
bait back up and fish on..
while waiting for the big fishies, I put out my telescopic zebco rod, a small travel rod that has slayed many sea beasts. Had a float, and was catchin a few small wrasse, one had some horrid tumours on it's side, just under it's gill
AS i reeled in what I thought was a doggie, I got a pleasant surprise of a giant starfish scoffing my bait, and i mean giant, I had large 3/0 on, as you can see from pic. girlfriend had great fun examingint this creature, then back to the gobies and bleenies she was tormenting in the pools/

Bisandeel/mack rod started hoppin, so i grabbed it, thinkin ray on.... a dogfish was all i was rewarded with. quick pic, then back with it.
as i rebaited, the sandeel rod went again, slowily, but surely.. Finally got my first ever ray, a thornback of 4lb 13 oz.
2 more doggies after this, standard size, nice chaps
I had taken float off telescopic rod, opting for drilled bullet, swivel, 1/0 and a sliver of mack belly, hoping for some minis, just down off the weed, about 10 ft from shore. this rod began movin soon, I presumed crabs... as I tightened line, it started to take off!! Icrazy! It came to surface after bout 4 mins battlin the unknown, a bullhuss! on 10lb line, 1/0 and an inch of mack!!! i managed to get it just over a small lip of rock, then crack the line snapped. as quick as it happened I decided to get a foot soakin in the puddle he was writhin in, grabbed his tail and hoisted him up top.. 8lb 10oz, a new personal best. my girlfriend was petrified of it..
he went back with the usual arrogance of them, but I do love bull huss, aim to catch a 10lb plus before emnd of summer.
after this I missed a few bites, before landing a smaller thornback, just over 2lb. what awhat a session, I could not stop smiling, even the 3/0 I took to the finger couldn't pry the smile off, I had been holding the wet hook lenght, and foolishly tripped bale arm off a rock edge, causing 6 oz lead to plummet, hook into index finger, with the bone stopping it short of the barb going in!!

what a classic session, one for the books, Had to leave only due to nightfall, and the walk across rough ground.

tight lines


Dáire

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to give yis an idea of the size of the huss, here is a pic of a standard doggie

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Geat report congrats on your first ray,cracking huss well done.

cheers.. I'm already planning my return trip, hopefully next week..hahah

Nice huss and a great coloured wrasse. Well done.

great session and report, I've yet to get a ray or a Huss I'd say they put up a decent struggle

well done Dáire,thinking of selling my rods fished there a few times and not a bite
don't know what i am doing wrong
nice ray,well done on your first ray,the other mark i told you about is producing ray now,had a 7.5lb one there last week,might be worth a shot as well

ah every dog has his day, guess that was mine.
I got most attention from one sandeel, head snippped off.. the large ones stanleys sell..
well done on the 7.5lber.
Perhaps I'll give ya a shout next time I'm plannin a trip and we can fish the spot.
contemplating either back there, or a great spot I know in kerry for my next trip...decisions, decisions...

ah every dog has his day, guess that was mine.
I got most attention from one sandeel, head snippped off.. the large ones stanleys sell..
well done on the 7.5lber.
Perhaps I'll give ya a shout next time I'm plannin a trip and we can fish the spot.
contemplating either back there, or a great spot I know in kerry for my next trip...decisions, decisions...

if you are heading down this way give me a shout,should be able to get the day off,you can teach me how to get big huss and i will teach you how to get big ray

sounds like a plan hahah

What a session, fair play on all the species caught.

well done mate nice ray and huss just wondering why do you use yellow trace

Congrats Dáire on your first Thornie sweet and to cap it a PB huss fine fishing well done

cheers conor

youngrod- I use the yellow trace simply coz it 50lb leader, the colour doesn;t matter to me. and more importantly, the fish don;t seem to mind the colour

nice fishing and a lovely spot too.

cracking huss daire ,looks like i was a month too early for the ray.in cobh weekend and had 12 blonde ray on the boat a 21lb and a 19lb among them brilliant fight of the ray damian

wow, that's a lot of blondes.. I'd love to be on a boat surrounded in blondes.. preferably in capri or cannes

what a great session,and no tiddlers involved all man sized fish just wondering how deep did you fish on the float thasts allways been my prob, but well done thats what its all about

what a great session,and no tiddlers involved all man sized fish just wondering how deep did you fish on the float thasts allways been my prob, but well done thats what its all about

with the float, I just try fish it bout 1 - 3 ft above the kelp fronds, so i was bout 8 ft down there, I usually start bout 6ft, then go down a couple feet each try til i hit the band where the fish are...