turbottastic trip to galway/mayo 26th & 27th oct

People: me, jordan, doggie3131, jason, john and a few others along the way

Duration: not long enough

Tide: all states

Weather: stiff breeze to gales and rain

Bait: lug, mack, squid, rag, razor and sand eel

Rigs: flappers including jordan's longline

Results: see below




Report: doggie3131 kindly invited us down to try and get jordan his first ever turbot as they did well for them the other weekend. so far we've travelled around 1200 miles on different trips and always came up short of landing jordan his first . not that we were finding them hard to locate. other anglers including myself have been getting them at marks i've brought jordan along to, but they always seemed to avoid his hooks . we left belfast around 4am and were sitting down to a fried breakfast at doggie's house around 9.30am (top man). we planned where we were gonna hit first and a few of the other lads were already off to a galway rock mark. so we loaded up my car and hit the road. on the way through westport we stopped off at "a shore thing". a cracking wee tackle shop which was surprisingly well priced. so much so that i came outta it 40 yoyo's lighter than i entered
we arrived at the mark to discover it was like a wid tunnel . the only reasonable shelter we could find was in a gully in the rocks base. but we set up anyway as this wee mark was good to us on our last visit earlier in the year. a few of the other lads had already got a flounder and a few dogs and a mackeral who looked like a plump sea trout. so things were'nt all bad. but sadly i blanked and doggie got a wee coalie and jordan a wee 2lb huss. not what we expected from this mark but it seems to have been heavily fished on a regular basis since we were last there. there were a few dog and huss heads laying discarded on the hill so i think it was fair to say there's been a brave few fish removed since our last visit a few months back when the fishing was dramatically better. but not to get too down about things as doggie had an evening session planned on a beach where turbot were on the prowl very recently . we arrived to find jason and john set up and catching a few flounder. and doggie reckoned the turbot would'nt be too long in following them in on the incomming tide. jordan was adamant that the turbot were'nt gonna escape him this time and pulled out his bling loaded 7 hook flapper yes, you read right. 7 feckin hooks it was nothing short of longlining so jordan's new nickname for the trip was "LONGLINER". the first fish to fall to his contraption was a rather plump 35cm flounder. a new p.b. for jordan so after a few quick pics he baited up and cast out again. doggie was getting a good few knocks on his rod and called jordan over to catch whatever was on the end of it on the off chance it was a turbot. but in came the first of many doggies of the evening . so flounder followed dogs for a few hours and time began to run out for jordan as we only had an hour or so until we had to leg it as this mark has a river around the back of the sand bar that floods and cuts you off . doggie was an excellent host calling jordan over every time he got a bite in an attempt to get him that elusive turbot. and with only minutes to go jordan finally got his turbot (allbeit on doggies rod ). the quest was finally over and many pics were taken before the wee fella was released to swim for another day. i've never seen a child look so happy before. and it was all thanks to doggie3131. we quickly packed up and attempted to find our way back to the carpark, which turned out to be a bag of laughs. in the darkness we kinda got lost for a bit and deviated from our original path and i stood in some very soft sand and all 15 stone of me dissappeared to my knees thank god doggie had warned me to wear waders and that i had the reflexes of a gazel on the plains evading a cheeta after lots of splashing and almost having a brown heamorrage in me cacks i made it across and jordan and doggie followed suit. a great day out and jordan got his target species. after all, he's only been trying for one for the last 18 months . we slept well that night and got up refreshed in the morning ready to do it all over again . sadly the weather had other ideas doggie3131 had planned to take us out to a mark where he had got some stonking huss and thornies but the weather made that mark unfishable . so plan "B" was hatched and he took us to his failsafe harbour mark that never fails to throw up a good few fish . we had a blast with the rods bouncing away from start to finish. there were loads of dogs, ballan wrasse, pollack, coalies a bull huss for jordan and even corkwing wrasse about. doggie had never used rag at this mark before and it proved to be deadly for the corkwing wrasse with about 15 of them being landed. a new one for him at this mark. just goes to show what results you can get from introducing an alien bait to a mark where the fish are'nt used to it
it was over all to soon and we hit the road for belfast again. i gotta say a massive thank you to doggie3131 who not only put us onto the fish in good numbers but also put us up for the night. a truely top bloke if ever there was one . he also gave us an open invitation to come back any time to do it all over again, and it goes without saying he's more than welcome to come up to our end of the world at any time so we can return the favour so yet another species ticked off jordan's 2009 wish list and session 116 of the year. we're well on our way to hit out target of 125 sessions

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the last few pics i had taken, but doggie3131 has more which i'm sure he'll add to the report

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great fishing there lads, big well done to all and congrats on the new species Noel is a true gent, fair play and he surely knows his marks, hats off

cracking post al and a big well done to j on getting his turbot, did noel give ye two eggs or one with the fry fair play to him for a most enjoyable trip

Well done Jordan Looks like yis had a great time fair play to doggie for his hospitality.

Fair play lads excellent sessions there, and Noel is a top bloke no mistaking.

No I know why you took the nickname doggie it aint because they follow you it because you they have a close resembalence to you Noel they even got your moustache

Keep up the Longlining Jordan it will pay dividends eventually, youll get them muscles like Arnie when you hook 7 at once


Warren

well long liner was a good nickname,it was the biggest rig ive ever seen!! it took about ten minutes just to bait the thing up as for the turbot,my rod mabye,but he cast it out and landed it,so it was truely his fish and that was a cracking flounder!!two top class lads,so it was a pleasure to have ye,ive enough tobacco to last till the next time ye are down! SOON!!and al,it was james not john that was with jason but john very dissappointed to miss ye,so he will deffo be out the next time ye are down,the gang is growing allready

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Absolutely made up for you Jordan .... news of your longline reached Wexford Well done you've put in alot of time and effort and your Turbot is very much deserved and well done on the PB Flounder too Fair play to you Al for all the hours and driving put it and to Noel and crew for looking after you sound bunch of lads. Sorry i didn't get back over to fish with you guys but left the East coast at 05:00 yesterday morning to be back in work in Galway so was too shattered to venture out again the weeks fishing had caught up with me. Next time your heading West we'll definately hook up (pardon the pun) and i'll try and get a mini species session in with you guys on your patch before the year is out... well done again to all great fishing

brilliant the wee man finally got his turbot , and a nice one at that - sounds like great crack was had by all - yous did well enough with some of the weather w'eve had.

sad to see the heads of dead huss and doggies - dont know where that sort of Sh***t is goin leave fishin in the next few years

nice one on the wrrasse too - fished that spot a million times and never had a sniff of one so it just goes to show what the rite bait can do.

havent been out in weeks meself


keep it up lads, an maybe jordan will return the favour by getting doggie that bass


davy

nice one on the wrrasse too - fished that spot a million times and never had a sniff of one so it just goes to show what the rite bait can do.
keep it up lads, an maybe jordan will return the favour by getting doggie that Bass


davy

ya,never had a corkwing from that mark before,it was deffo the rag that did the trick! as for the bass,thats hard, davy thats hard!!

Congrats on the turbot jordan

But Al your probably right given the current cost of fuel/bait/car ins etc - EXPENSIVE , @ 55 miles per cm........it IS likely to be the most expenise turbot in history

By the way, that 35cm flounder is no slouch of a fish

Suprised you didnt try Lettergesh for turbot great spot from what I'm told, (or maybe you had done )

When ya down this way again, must make a better effort to get out with ya next time

well done jordan on the turbot and thats a fair chunk of flounder aswell, sounds like ye lads had a right houlie

Well done lads, and congrats Jordan on the pb flounder and that elusive turbo. Maybe next time you'll fill the long line with them. I'd like to see da's face then

Fantasic Jordan, good to see you got your long awaited turbot. And well sone on pb for the flounder.
Al you sure do some fishing and traveling, wish i was able to be in your boat, this is coming from someone who's only caught a mackerel. Maybe my wee txt brought a bit of luck lol jokin. doggie3131 sounds like a top bloke indeed fair play to him.

Tight lines dude. take it easy.

well done lads...
Jordan well done on your turbot wee man your longliner tactics is deadly,i must try that as well .great location you got there noel and camaraderie

brilliant report al. well done on getting your elusive turbot jordon. 116 sessions.. amazing sir. Im sure that scared the life outa ya when your feet went from under you.... my worst nightmare tbh

Your reports as always lads make very enjoyable reading , cool to see the young fella getting his turbot to boot. Think we might have seen your car at Little Killary on Monday afternoon, we were down on the middle of the beach

A Turbot & pb Flounder nice one Jordon Great fishing lads

Well done Jordan on the PB and new species Great report Al and well done Doggie on looking after the lads so well It's good to see someone else has impeccable taste in the headwear department!

Remember-if you want to get ahead, get a hat

glad to see the wee man finally getting a turbo