Island Hopping South Connemara 12.10.09

People: stevecrow74 & myslef, jason and doggie3131 joined for the last few hours

Duration: 17:00-05:00

Tide: HT @ 01:30

Weather: gentle NW and "its only a cloud" according to crow

Bait: Lures, Rag, Lug, Mackerel

Rigs: Booms, Simple Ledgers, Conger Rigs

Results: Pollack, Coalies, Whiting, Pouting, Poor Cod, Cod, Conger, Long Spined Sea Scorpian.




Report: Myself and steve decided to do a bit of island hopping around South Connemara we travelled light we just spinning rods and lures a mix of jellies plastics and metals. We had some great Pollack fishing with fish to over 5lbs hitting us like torpedos. It was great watching them hit on the surface or coming charging out of the kelp at our feet and smashing the jelly's. We have a few cracking marks on the Sat Nav some incredibly deep water spots (Winter Cod ) to try over the coming days. There are a few reefs which hold good wrasse we just didn't have time to fish for them. We were against the light as we had to do some cross country hiking to get to a few of the spots and with hoppy just about back to two functioning legs it wasn't worth the risk of him going over and being back to square one on crutches again. Steve had 5 pollack and i had 4 in just over an hour and that was over low water definately heading back there again soon.

We made are way back towards Galway and stopped of at another Island where we had some Pollack Wrasse and Coalies from a beach mark recently. But a combination of wind weed and "it's only a cloud" put us off so we moved closer again towards Galway. I set up a Conger rig and we both fished booms with rag and lug to see what we could tempt. It was pretty much non stop from the moment we started till we finished at 05:00 we lost cound of the amount of fish we caught well in excess of 30+ if not 40+ I was trying for something new to give me my sought after 30 species for the year and a pouting duly obliged so was happy out. Steve was hitting Poor Cod in double shots most casts he got a cracking Pouting and i had a cracker of a Poor Cod. Next the rachet went on the Conger rod got a good fish to the surface and he got off he was just holding the bait we both had some more pollack but tiddlers compared to what we were getting earlier. Then steve had a sea scorpion to put him 5 species to 4 ahead as he was quick to point out I then got a Conger to make it 5 species each then steve pulls a whiting out to nip back in front 6 but not to be out done i pulled in a few coalies to make 7 species to me 6 to steve
At about 01:00 we saw a car pull up who's this we thought.... next was the "any luck?" question followed by an "ah jaysus steve, conor whats the craic" it was only doggie3131 and jason They had sent me a PM earlier to say they were fishing one of the Galway City beaches but i hadn't picked it up as we'd left early to top up the lug with a bit of digging. So we all fished on with both Noel and Jason picking up new species for the year in the form of Pouting and Poor Cod I was busy comparing maps with doggie3131 discussing marks on the Islands and was just saying one of the deep water spots we fished earlier should be good for Cod as the tempature is starting to drop. When low and behold the crow pulls in a wee Cod then another on the next cast with that i shuffle in beside him and duly sent a bait out on the spinning rod (newly loaded with braid) tight to were steve was and in comes a slightly bigger Cod (or codling as some like to call them ) steve not to be out done got a 3rd Cod bigger than mine I landed another Conger and dropped another also. Then doggie3131 and jason with a trip back to Mayo ahead of them headed off i can't remember what time as i was becoming delirious due to sleep deprivation and was singing songs of the sea to myslef. They headed off with (correct me if i'm wrong) a tally of Pouting, Poor Cod, Pollack, Coalie and Whiting between them. doggie3131 has a few pics to add...

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more pics....

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great wee session.. ya can see people on the islands with your conger pic.. wonder could you swim it next time when i push you in... cos i will if you start singing again..

more pics...

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great wee session.. ya can see people on the islands with your conger pic.. wonder could you swim it next time when i push you in... cos i will if you start singing again..

Part of the reason i bought a self inflating life jacket yesterday

nice fishing lads. are ye sure ye fished for long enough? and conor please no singing tomorrow night

good session their lads and some nice fish well done

will the singing voice switch be in the off position on Monday with the captive audience Conor or is it everyone bring ear plugs ?? Promise I wont try to sing with ye

Warren

westport session gave you ideas then? , some excellent fishin lads

davy

jesus, he would not stop singing,major sleep loss!! and to correct you, all myself and jason caught were poxy pollock tiddlers,cause crow would not let me in to get a poor cod see you finally learnt how to pick up a conger

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all myself and jason caught were poxy pollock tiddlers,cause crow would not let me in to get a poor cod

Jason got a Poor Cod it was a new species for the year for him.... you have to muscle your way in at times just like i did when the jammy git got the wee Cod

Well done, that was a nice haul of fish - and well done for sticking it out to 5.00 am

cod on the west coast i guess its there instead of waterford this december Steve

Well done lads, some nice fish there and congrats on reaching the 30 Conor

Nice tally and selection of fish there. Could be the singing lured them in. Well done lads

14 hour session thats what i need , well done lads

Thats more fishing in 1 session than I've managed in 2 months, welldone all for getting a few fish

Some session there lads nice one, great selection of fish & some fine Pollack

Some nice eels there conor i know what you mean when they break the water and let go of the bait but if you let them bite for too long they will be back in there hole and u wont budge them 14 hour session

well done lads lovely conger,great pollack,must have put up a great fight