donegal rock mark 12.12.09

People:me

Duration:12-4pm

Tide:high at 3

Weather:mild dec day, flat calm

Bait:mackeral, squid

Rigs:pulley, spinning rod+lures

Results: 11 coalfish, 18 pollack





Report:Decided to fish a rough ground rock mark that I've had some good 4-5lb pollack from while spinning during the summer months in past 2 years. So convinced that it would hold fish during the winter I packed up the box(complete with back pack strap/seat conversion thingy) expecting to loose a lot of tackle prompted me to through in just about every lead weight I could find(forgetting that this would add weight to backpack ). Strapped rods and stand together and started off on the hike(which was always easy enough with a spinning rod and box of lures). Got to my ledge convinced that the effort would be worth it and got bait in the water, an hour passed without a bite, bait not even touched(apart from a small red crab and a starfish) , and I even had size 1 hooks on flapper rigs as well as 3.o on pulley rigs dropped into the rough ground(thankfully got most of them back, thanks to rotton bottm weak links). So decided to chuck around a lure to see if that would create any interestand had a fish almost every cast , where did they come from and why didnt they see/smell my bait. Lots of fish mostly over 30cm and up to about 1.5lb. So to sum up slightly dissappointed not to land a monster on bait but plenty of action as long as I kept the spinning rod going
But I'm still convinced its a mark that could hold a few surprises
One fish seemed to be like a cross between pollack and coalie what do you think it is

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very nice fish, well done, the first one looks like a small Coley, don't get fooled by the colouration, this can vary. They don't cross-breed with Pollack either, more here: http://www.divemagazine.co.uk/news/article.asp?uan=3646 and here: http://web.ukonline.co.uk/aquarium/pages/coalfish.html
Strange they didn't take the bait but were attracted to the lures, they might have been feeding on something higher up in the water column and simply didn't care about your bait on the ground Was there any unusual activity in the water?

thumper of a catch for four hours fishing well done

Well done, some nice coalies and pollock there

Great haul of fish well done

Super session for 4 hrs top pic looks like a Coaley that was around the kelp/seaweed for a while

nice going

Is the fish in the top pic not a whiting?

29 fish on the lure in December? That's an interesting mark all right! Congrats.

Is the fish in the top pic not a whiting?

i would have said whiting straight off meself on seeing that one - best way to find out is feel for his sharp teeth if hes a whiting

Is the fish in the top pic not a whiting?

Its a coalfish the head and mouth are a completely different shape and the whiting has a curved lateral line more info here: http://www.cfb.ie/pdf/fishbook.pdf

Is the fish in the top pic not a whiting?

Its a coalfish the head and mouth are a completely different shape and the whiting has a curved lateral line more info here: http://www.cfb.ie/pdf/fishbook.pdf

The mouth on the first and second fish are completely different? I cant make out the laterial line at all on the first fish?

first fish is without doubt a young coalfish,i cant even see how it might look like a whiting?

Is the fish in the top pic not a whiting?

Its a coalfish the head and mouth are a completely different shape and the whiting has a curved lateral line more info here: http://www.cfb.ie/pdf/fishbook.pdf

The mouth on the first and second fish are completely different? I cant make out the laterial line at all on the first fish?

To be honest I really dont know what it is, but I'll just keep on concentrating on catching and leave you guys to ID them for me