Portaferry, Co Down 11.01.10

me and GHRE

16.00 - 21.00

Tide incoming

Very cold and windy with light rain towards the end of the session

Mackeral

3/0 pulleys and a conger rig

3 Coalies, 5 Codling and a pouting




Decided to give portaferry a blast and there was a strong easterly winds and anywhere along the antrim coast would have been windswept. We started off at the ferry terminal with no success (first 2 hours) and ended up moving to the pier at the end of the town. Started getting bites almost instantly with the biggest fish being a codling just short of 30cm. We had no takes on the conger line. We could actually see good sized fish swimming (50+ cm) close to the surface every so often as a red light from the pier lit up a section of water beside the pier. Next time we'll be bringing float/spinning gear to the mark, no idea what type of fish they were? All in all a good session apart from the weather. Headin to Waterfoot tomorrow evening to see what it can produce this time of year.

nice one gareth , and welcome to the site man. i've not fished there since the summer but good to hear there are a few big fellas scooting about down there. just a pity you did'nt have a float set up with you . sounds like the move was a good idea thow . keep the reports coming mate (how did you get on at waterfoot?)

Welcome mate. Good report. It would be interesting to see what the fish on the surface were. Could maybe even be sea trout. worth a trow with a float or a spinner.

Nice one on the fish caught- 30 cms isnt too bad a codling in my book (given my pb is around 10 cms). Congers can frustrate from tiime to time... .

Well done Gareth and welcome to the site!

Cheers everyone, I'll definitley be back there with float gear to try it. You can literally only bottom fish for the first 20-30 meters out from that pier then its tackle graveyard. Has anyone ever caught sea trout off the pier? I think strangford is well known for its sea trout population.

well done! those fish could also be mullet?