ballycastle beach & waterfoor harbour Co. Antrim tue 6th apr

People: me, jordan windy and his son ethan

Duration: 3pm -3am

Tide: hw 9pm

Weather: 5mph sw occasional rain but mild

Bait: prawn, squid, mack, bluey, sand eel, razor and lug

Rigs: 3 hook flappers and 2 up 1 down rigs

Results: flounder, coalies, whiting and pollack.




Report: i had promised to get out with windy from the site and his young lad for ages, but weather and free time had put this session off for a few weeks, but today everything was set and we hit the road with the intention of fishing waterfoot beach. but we arrived to find the beach deep with kelp and weed. so plan B was hatched and we went back up to ballycastle as we kne from the day before the beach was clear of weed. by 3pm we all had 2 rods out each but sadly the first fish was'nt landed until after 8pm . but we had a chance to catch up and have a chat while jordan and ethan played in the sand finding good skimmers (not bream , bouncing stones) to throw out towards rathlin island across the water. while waiting for darkness to come we went up to the cars and got the pan on and got the kids and ourselves sorted with hot dogs and bacon baps . 3 other lads arrived for a session and set up to our left, but dissappeared after an hour or so. we must have been fishing where they intended to fish, so i don't know how they faired but left pretty soon and must have moved on somewhere else. windy was first into a fish with a flounder, and a nice one at that . then it was jordan's turn and got a nice coalie which turned out to be the biggest fish of the session . windy got another flounder and a wee coalie. his son also had a few too and i was beginning to wonder what i was doing wrong . i was'nt even getting any bites. so i decided to re bait and have a chat with windy when my rod almost bounced off the tripod. i my haste to run and strike the fish i did'nt have time to turn my headlight back on and went head over hells on a log which i had pulled up the beach during daylight hours thinking if i did'nt move it then, one of the kids might fall over it in the darkness . i did a full sommersault and was layed out on my back like an upside down turtle with my arms and legs flailing about as a wave swept over me . needless to say windy and his young lad were in kinks and wrinkles laughing their heads off at me,, but like a downed gazell on the kalahari i was back up on my feet in a split second and got my fish allbeit wet and dusted in sand . once all the laughter died down i was the one laughing as it was a decent coalie and that sort of set the pace for the rest of the night. the coalies were all pretty respectable ranging from 33cms to 37cms . a welcome change from all the tiddlers we usually have to contend with by 1am we decided to wrap it up and head for home. the end result stood like this.
jordan got 4 coalies
i got 6 coalies
windy got 4 coalies and 2 flounder
ethan got 3 coalies.
all in all a great day's fishing. there was'nt a lot of fish about. but what we did catch was pretty decent by our normal standards .
on the way home jordan begged me to drive past waterfoot pier to see if there was anyone there that we knew. oddly it was deserted and jordan twisted my arm to get the spinning rods out for a quick chuck the usual dose of wee puckers were hanging around just off the edge of the pier and within 90 mins jordan had 5 coalies and a pollack and i got 3 coalies, 2 pollack and a whiting a great fun way to end off the trip

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nice work boys if only the coalies down here got that big off the shore nice when you hit a few decent one,s they go well for their size as for falling over and ending up wet if you wernt hurt i,d have to say i would have had a good laugh too

no harm done, just my pride that had taken a bit of a bash i was chuckling away on me back until the wave swept over me then i moved sharp enough a lesson a few premiership footballers could learn from

did a full sommersault and was layed out on my back like an upside down turtle with my arms and legs flailing about as a wave swept over me
good job i wastent there al' i would have burst my sides

nice session al well worth a few blushes

some nice size coalies there lads well done.

lovely colies there lads, well done!

well done lads,there some nice coalies there,nice to see a few decent fish being caught!!did nobody get a pic of you "surfing" al?

a couple of nice colies there, well done

Nice one lads I dont think I had one coalie over 25cm this year myself:x

great report al,:lol: and even better fishing,wish i could have just one night like that

nice one lads.. nice coalie in the picture... well done

well done all better coalies than what we have been getting hopefully they stick around for a while

gave me a right laugh that report, nice size to the coalies! Always nice to see.

Sounds like a good we trip. After reading about your incident i had a chuckle knowing that no damage was done !!

great result lads and big well done to yous

:lol:
did a full sommersault and was layed out on my back like an upside down turtle with my arms and legs flailing about as a wave swept over me
good job i wastent there al' i would have burst my sides

thank god it was dark and the beach was deserted the place was packed with famalies, tourists and dog walkers during the day. i would have been well red faced if i had of done it when there was an audience there

nice session al well worth a few blushes

cheers ger. at least it gave them something to laugh at

some nice size coalies there lads well done.

cheers, it was good to see them about. they seemed to be working the bottom of the sand bar just in front of us. so you were'nt even casting, just flicking it out 20 feet in front of you. so when they hit they went ballistic on the short reel in

lovely colies there lads, well done!

thanks chris. makes a welcome change from the wee puckers

well done lads,there some nice coalies there,nice to see a few decent fish being caught!!did nobody get a pic of you "surfing" al?

thank god no noel . if it had have happened out at galway with you or wicklow with eyes and fishface i'm sure my disgrace would have been well captured on camera but it was at least worth a 8.5 for the dismount on it's own

a couple of nice colies there, well done

thanks kaylem.

Nice one lads I dont think I had one coalie over 25cm this year myself:x

well hopefully all those 25cm puckers will be back next year with a bit of weight on them for you to target al seems odd thow as the coalies vastly outnumber the pollack up this way this year. but 3 years ago it was the other way about

great report al,:lol: and even better fishing,wish i could have just one night like that

well man if you ever fancy a wee scoot up north just give me a shout only an hour and a half up the road from bettystown

nice one lads.. nice coalie in the picture... well done

cheers. they tasted even nicer yesterday in beer batter accompanied with a dose of home made chips 2 of them were gut hooked and bleeding heavily, so that was tea sorted

well done all better coalies than what we have been getting hopefully they stick around for a while

hope so dan. you should have seen jordan at his work. i was unloading the motor and he was no where to be seen the crafty wee git lifted his tripod and went down to stake his claim to your spot from the other night he was making sure he nabbed the best spot . but the irony was that the most fish were caught from where dawsey was fishing at the other night

:lol: gave me a right laugh that report, nice size to the coalies! Always nice to see.

cheers dawsey. your spot was the goldmine on tuesday amazing the difference a few days can make . i think next time you should borrow my hook sharpener

Sounds like a good we trip. After reading about your incident i had a chuckle knowing that no damage was done !!

ahh well jonny. if everyone is laughing at me, at least they're leaving some other poor sod alone . althow i gotta be honest,, if i had of seen someone else take the same tumble i'd have wet myself

great result lads and big well done to yous

thanks zeke. i was just glad that everyone had a nice coalie and no one blanked funny thing, the way you always feel a bit of pressure when you take other lads out with you to one of your marks. you can never breathe easy until everyone gets a fish and all blanks are beaten

brilliant report al.. sounded like a cracking session... do u think if u havent fell u would have got the fish? hehe

:lol: gave me a right laugh that report, nice size to the coalies! Always nice to see.

cheers dawsey. your spot was the goldmine on tuesday amazing the difference a few days can make . i think next time you should borrow my hook sharpener

That's typical man, I was having a shocker the other night, I blame it on not being very well prepared with my special vibro rigs (no witty comments) for the flounder