causeway coast beach mark wednesday 24th march 2010

People: just me

Duration: 5pm to 2am

Tide: HW 9pm

Weather: 4mph easterly dry mild

Bait: lug, mack, squid and razor

Rigs: 2 up 1 down, 3 hook flappers and 1 hook rotten bottom rough ground rigs

Results: 1 sea trout 2lb 1oz , 1 coalie, 1 strap conger and 3, 3 bearded rockling




Report: after my recent sucess with the sea trout i decided to have a bash at the elusive north coast bass and turbot. i decided to hit the beach where i got my last trout as you can usually get the odd turbot off it too and a really odd bass. added to that, if all else fails you can up sticks and move to the extreme left and get into the rough ground and target the 3 beardys . i arrived to see a nice surf breaking about 60 yards off the shore. so getting the rigs out to the classic "third breaker" would be handy enough. i was'nt gonna mess around and decided to fish 3 rods as i'd done a bit of mc guyver work to one of the legs of my tripod . so i got set up with a different rig and bait on each rod to broaden the spectrum of what could be caught. never let it be said i don't cover every base in my efforts to scratch out different species . thankfully the 3 rods had me busy for the first 2 hours as i did'nt get a single nibble, just correcting slack and re baiting every so often. but i really did'nt expect anything until the sun was well and truely settled beyond the horizon. around 8pm the wee spinning rod with the 3 hook flapper for turbot doubled over . i struck hard and felt lots of head shaking going on and knew straight away it was'nt a wee turbot. i kept in contact with the fish all the way in until it was about 20 yards in front of me. then the line went slack and i heard a splash . worried i may have just lost him, i reeled faster and ran backwards up the beach and a sea trout popped out of the surf HAPPY DAYS!. i got him beyond the surf line and unhooked him for his pic. while weighing him i noticed he'd 2 identicle cuts in his flesh either side of his gills, . must have escaped a gill net recently as i've seen marks like that before on some flounder. but it was his lucky day as he was returned with a kisser full of squid strips he pinched off my rig that was intended for the turbos .how's that for murphy's law. i tried for one of these for ages including 3 trips to sligo and now i get 2 in 2 weeks form a mark close to home . so after all the excitement, things died off a bit apart for a wee coalie who'd munched some lug on my distance rod. i decided a re think was in order and i moved up the beach to the rough ground. i lost about 3 rigs before landing the first 3 beardy of the session . and would you believe it,,, it's the second time we've met, as it was ronald's 3 and a half beardy from a month ago . just goes to show just how territoral these wee guys are. so he was photographed weighed and released to grace us with his presence again some time in the future . next up was the smallest strap conger i've ever caught, and for a moment in the darkness i actually thought i managed a silver eel. but i was'nt that flukey. he was actually lighter than the 3 beardy , but another species all the same . i began to pack up, putting one rod away at a time. and i reeled in my last rod to discover there was a smaller 3 beardy on the end . i did'nt even know he was there . but not a bad way to round the session off .

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last pic

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funny the wee 3 and half showed up again! that's a real nice mixed bag btw man, time and effort payed off for ya. Off uni tomorrow, hmmm wehere will we go?

Nice report Al and yet again a good result!

Im gonna have to go searching out new marks up around there i tried ballintoy harbour and another small derelict harbour at Torr Head last week but yet again no joy.

Barry

well done Al good session, myself and my mate need to do a bit of mc guyver work on our tripod

Nice mix there Al, another Sea trout you are an expert now.

well done there al nice session,lets hope things are on the pick up now all around.

nice trout again al' and a nice session, good clear pic's too haven't been out myself since paddys day, dam flu',

Nice one Al.

nice report and fantastic results

nice going ,that mark sounds nice best of both worlds

Nice session al- you are becoming a bit of a trout expert now. Good mixed bag.

Al More fantastic fishing you are on a roll with the trout !! I hope they pester you every trip Would be nice wouldnt it

:shock: funny the wee 3 and half showed up again! that's a real nice mixed bag btw man, time and effort payed off for ya. Off uni tomorrow, hmmm wehere will we go?

cheers dawsey, not gonna make it out on friday it will be another dawn raid on saturday night, sunday morning for us again . but catching that rockling again just goes to re-enforce how territorial these fish are . just sad that the other mark has been hammered as word got out about it i spent 5 hours at it last week and got diddly squat as i was setting up a few lads were leaving and had 3, 3 beardys all under 1lb in a bag i asked them were they taking them to eat, but they said they were taking them to get weighed on a set of shop scales as they might be specimens....... they did'nt even know what the specimen weight for them was, as they were well of it by at least 10ozs

Nice report Al and yet again a good result!
Im gonna have to go searching out new marks up around there i tried ballintoy harbour and another small derelict harbour at Torr Head last week but yet again no joy.
Barry

don't give up hope yet barry. still a bit early in the year. those marks should be fishing in 4 weeks or so . we made the same mistake last year with a few marks. we tried them and got nothing in march/april. so we forgot about them until october, and they were fishing really well , probably fished well all summer. but we'd given up on them because of a few bad sessions early on in the year . ahh well,,, we live and learn

Nice mix there Al, another Sea trout you are an expert now.

cheers man,,, don't know about expert.... jammy git is probably closer to the truth

well done there al nice session,lets hope things are on the pick up now all around.

thanks man.... all we'll need is a week or so of warm weather to hopefully get things going again. wrasse and mullet have returned to a few co antrim marks already so things are looking good.

nice trout again al' and a nice session, good clear pic's too haven't been out myself since paddys day, dam flu',

cheers don. hopefully you'll get rid of the flu soon enough and get back out catching again only a few weeks to go until our first trip to fahan for thornies

Nice one Al.

cheers rab, have you had any more luck yourself?

nice report and fantastic results

cheers man. if only all our trips could be like that

nice going ,that mark sounds nice best of both worlds

well handy for a bit of variety in a session roger and i have yet to see another angler at it yet great for a bit of peace and quiet

Nice session al- you are becoming a bit of a trout expert now. Good mixed bag.

thanks man, i was'nt even targeting them that time. one of the great appeals of sea fishing,,, you just never know what's out there until it's on the end of your hook

Al More fantastic fishing you are on a roll with the trout !! I hope they pester you every trip Would be nice wouldnt it

that would be great jonny but i think i've used up all my luck with them on my last 2 outings . but even if i did'nt get another one the rest of the year i'd still be happy. a 3lb 10oz and 2lb 1oz fish is'nt bad considering i've only ever caught 3 sea trout in total for the year

fishermannum1 wrote:
nice trout again al' and a nice session, good clear pic's too haven't been out myself since paddys day, dam flu',

cheers don. hopefully you'll get rid of the flu soon enough and get back out catching again only a few weeks to go until our first trip to fahan for thornies

sod the flu al' i'm going to try and get a run out da' marra, but will probelly pay for it da' marra night

Fine trout Al great to get a few different species on a session Im going through a blanking spell again roll on May

nice session, some nice fish there

great session al and a super mix of fish your getting to be a dab hand [excuse the pun] at
catching those trout

well done man, lovely trout need to get myself a conger too

nice fishing Al.Great report and pictures as always.
rhe 3beard is class!!