How Leenan pier reminded me why I came to love fishing in th

Had a spare hour or two to kill, so headed off to Leenan pier, brought all the right gear and the best of bait. Met two guys with a couple of spinning rods and a packet of Tesco's prawns! You guessed it, they spent the evening pulling in little pollack and coalies while I went without. The following night I went down, tooled up as usual, but I also tool a little five piece, six foot traveller rod teamed up with a tiny fixed spool reel loaded with six pound braid. Bait was Saisbury's king prawns, each one providing two or three baits when mounted on a size 6 hook and presented Aussie style with a 10 gram drilled bullet sliding up to the hook. In under two hours I had several dozen fish, mostly small pollack, coalies and whiting, including three coalies to just shy of three pounds, the largest requiring backwinding (definitely a dying art). Almost every lob or drop produced a bite within seconds of hitting the water. Of course most of the catch were tiddlers, but on ultra light tackle even these provided more sport than a dour little dab on proper beach gear. It was fishing like I enjoyed as a boy. I would recommend it to anyone, get back to the basics and rediscover what made you love fishing originally.

I know exactly what you mean, many long forgotten childhood fishing images and memories have returned already in only reading your post. Light and easy fishing, you just can't beat it. First class!

No cod when you were down Joe?

reminds me of fishing as a young lad many years ago didnt even have a tackle bag or box just a bucket with a few weights a spool of line a pack of hooks and 20 rag ,sandspike and a 10 foot spinning rod ,rigs where made on the beach without swivels or crimps just two simple blood loops with the hook on the loop oh yea i had a reel too

those WERE the days roger no messing about with rigs or leaders, just what ever line you had on your reel did the job, with a nut or bolt as your weight....happy days

didnot think yous old guys would remember back that far don and rog!!!!!

didnot think yous old guys would remember back that far don and rog!!!!!

hi john my first fishing rod was called a willow ( after i upgraded from a handline ) just a bloody long branch me ma wouldn't even allow me to use a hook in case i got it stuck in myself had to settle for a bent safety pin

that brings back memories of enniscrone where we went on holidays for years when i was a kid,the hours we spent catching shanneys and crabs of the pier with a hand line and limpets,and later, as i got older, getting my first fishing rod and catching mackerel on homemade feathers,(we had chickens)for us poor culthies hooks were precious,and if you lost a rig near the pier,you went diving for it and we loved when the "tourists"lost rigs as we would go searching for them after they left. many a good rig was salvaged this way!

sessions like that are great joe the big coalies must have been great fun on the light gear. sometimes it's good just to get back to basics

didnot think yous old guys would remember back that far don and rog!!!!!

Tuesday, October 6, 2009. the world blacked out and had a flashforward myself and don where the only ones that had a flashback

Nice post, Joe; it really captures the fun and relaxation of fishing. After a long break, I met up with a few of the lads I learned to fish with a while back for a cod session, and everyone had all the top gear in terms of rods, reels and tackle; I'd say with every rig lost €10 went down to the bottom of the sea. I was a great session, but I felt that we'd missed out on something by being able to afford all of this. Back in the day, a new rod meant picking spuds for a summer and saving every penny you earned; and if you lost a grip lead, well, that was minor tragedy. And as for trying out new marks? There was no hopping into the car then; you hoofed everything onto your back and took a walk. And then there's family responsibilities, debts, mortgages––but we'd better not go there

Lodore

didnot think yous old guys would remember back that far don and rog!!!!!

hi john my first fishing rod was called a willow ( after i upgraded from a handline ) just a bloody long branch me ma wouldn't even allow me to use a hook in case i got it stuck in myself had to settle for a bent safety pin

mine was called 'hazel' and what a set of lovely brown eyes she's got they must have been related somehow and safety pins weren't even invented yet, had to use a nifty modified 'whishbone rig' ( - now that's where the name comes from ) from our sunday lunch. Leftover stale bread was my bait, needless to say I caught absolutely zilch, and right, I've used a piece of a branch from an elderflower bush as float Ah well, great fun altogether, escaping the bailiff and the lot...

Noel your still doing that. any way how can you remember that far back

[quote="SeaShark"]No cod when you were down Joe? [/quot
Sadly no cod They are few and far between at Leenan. But as my wife likes to say, give a man a fish and he will eat for a day, give him a fishing rod, and you can get rid of him all weekend! I like to enjoy catching whatever is there, but don't quote me on that from the end of May when the packs of doggies are marauding the seabed.

nice one man .. its great crack and sport on the light gear.. i do the same back in rossaveal harbour great crack....