Ferrypoint, Ballyquin, Ardmore––Sat 16th, Wed 20th, Sat 23rd

People: Me

Duration: 3 Different Days

Tide: Various

Weather: Generally good, if cold

Bait: Frozen crab, razor, mackerel, lug

Rigs: Various

Results: Coafish, Coalfish, ... and more Coalfish




Report:

I hadn't got out in a while, so I thought I'd hit three marks on three different days to see what was about––and maybe bag some nice codling. Bait, however, was a serious problem: recent storms seem to have stripped three of four foot of sand from all the major digging beaches in my area, so there was little chance of getting anything fresh. Worse, it seems the bait merchant for Baumann's in Dungarvan was ill lately, so they had nothing in stock. Thrust back upon the resources of my freezer, I had little choice but to use that awful Ammo frozen crab for for my first trip to Ferrypoint; though to be fair, it didn't fail to deliver some OKish fish over the big freeze.

Anyway, I went to Ferrypoint in pretty good weather with the tide on the rise, and cast into the channel. However, it was clogged with weed (and not kelp, but that horrible stuff that wraps around your trace like something from a horror film). Also, it seemed more snaggy than usual and I lost two rigs. The final straw came when I tried to change reels after I lost a leader and the rubbbish coasters the conoflex included with the Maverick 6 I got recently wouldn't mount my Greys G-mag 7 (rubbish reel and rubbish rod, by the way). I moved over to the mud-flat side of the point and sent out a few there, but no joy––ditto when I crossed to the other side of the point, though someone there did pick up a flounder. So, my first session of 2010 was a disappointing blank. As Rockhunter (I think?) pointed out, this is probably because the Blackwater was in spate from the night before.

The next Wednesday, I decided to give Ballyquin a goon the flood to see of there were any flats about, but was still stuck with the crab for bait. There was a guy there ahead of my for two hours, but he hadn't even a bite, so it looked ominous. He was fishing the main beach while I was fishing near the rocks, however, so it wasn't long before I started to pick up a few coalies: nothing of any size, but if the small ones are about, there's always the chance of big 'un. Nothing else cam apart from that, but the night was mild enough and taking on advice from site members, I avoided the dreaded corpse hands syndrome.

My last trip was to the town side of Ardmore, fishing from low water to mid tide as the sun was setting. I'd heard that there was a reasonable bass caught there recently, and better yet, Baumann had got in a new supply of bait with some handy frozen lug. It was a nice evening and I was picking up coalies with nearly every cast, even if this got irritating after a bit. I changed to a pennel pulley so there's be at least one big hook free for something handy, but all that delivered were small colies with bigger mouths Also, fishing on Ardmore seems to make you public property for everyone with a dog to walk and too much time on their hands, so spent a lot of time teaching fishing 101 to the general public. My personal favourite was the codger who marvelled at the resemblance between a small coalfish and a small trout. Well, y'know, they both have fins, live in water, eat food; it's not that surprising––you'd think he expected tentacles or something. Anyway, things slackened off when the tide rose and it got darker, and while I was still getting bites, I couldn't connect with them. (Someone else mentioned this happening to them recently, and I've noticed it before quite often––any explanations?) I called it quits after than and sifted my focus to a crate of beer.

All in all, the three sessions were enjoyable; but it's a bit disappointing that coalies––and small coalies at that––were the only thing around. Guess that's the consequence of giving commercial fisherman that lone and exclusive rights to a resource that, by any standard of justice, belongs equally to everyone in the country.

No photos as I'd say we're all depressingly familiar with small coalies by now ...

Lodore

at least you're getting out there man and getting a few . the whole country seems to be coming down with 20cm coalies at the moment . just hope they make it back for next winter with a bit of weight to them . well,, we live in hope

hi iodore least your getting out them 3 spots could fish very well on a given night. was down ballyquinn last night for 2 hours for nada think clownfish got 2 coalies, nice surf all the same

Cheers for the comments guys.

Seanie: I've had luck at all three of these places individually (thanks to your previous advice), so I hear ya.

Al: I think giving it a go is what it's all about. Considering the alternative is sitting inside staring at the walls, I can't understand why everyone isn't out fishing