West Waterford - 7th April 2010

People: Me and the two Zoltans

Duration: 8.30 pm - 2.20 am

Tide: HW at 1.15 pm

Weather: Calm, mild, clear

Bait: Razor, rag, lug

Rigs: 4/0 pennel pulley, 2 hook flapper (1/0 hooks), 3 hook flapper (size 4 hooks)

Results: Me: 8 Codling, 4 Coalfish, 2 Flounder




Report: Zoltan (Zoolio) had sent me a PM a while back as he was interested in meeting up for a session. So I arranged to meet up with him last night. The plan was to try a beach for flat fish and hopefully bass. When I arrived at the mark there was practically no surf. Zoolio/Zoltan arrived shortly afterwards with his buddy also named Zoltan. They are from Hungary and apparently Zoltans are as numerous there as Johns are here. I suggested we try another venue that I thought would have a bigger surf.

There was a better surf at the second beach, although not great - from past experience a big surf is needed at this beach to bring the bass in. I set up two rods, one with a 4/0 pennel pulley baited with lug/razor and cast out behind the furthest breaking wave in hope of a bass. Initially I used a three hook flapper with size 4 hooks on the other rod baited with rag and lug and cast in fairly close to target flat fish. I had recently got a couple of rolls of Ultima Power Steel and had the 15lb line on the rod in close. This was to be a test to see how effective it was. As an added test I was using a stiffer rod (Century Carbon Metal) whereas the rod a distance was a much more sensitive Penn Affinity.

Not long after setting up I had the first bite, a 30 cm codling on the Affinity. A little later I spotted a subtle twitch on the CCM and struck - at first I thought I had missed the fish until I retrieved an found one of the smallest flounder I have ever caught - barely more the 10 cm. At about the same time Zoolio caught a more substantial flounder - his first for the year.

A little later I had another codling, slightly larger than the first on the distance rod. This was followed by a small coalfish in close. The bite detection with the Power Steel was superb - although the fish was barely 25 cm it gave a good knock - normally on the CCM I wouldn't even notice a fish of that size on the line.

The bites slowed down for a while, I was detecting a few nibbles but nothing was hooked. The two Zoltans then packed up as they had work early in the morning but I was in for the long haul - well until an hour after high tide at least

I switched the three hook flapper for a two hook flapper (1/0 hooks), baited with rag on the lower hook and lug on the upper, and began to fish mid distance. The fishing picked up considerably then - I hauled in a stream of codling and another three coalfish plus a 35 cm flounder. Nearly all the fish were taken on the mid distance rod with the Power Steel line. Every bite was clearly visible. When holding the rod I could clearly feel the bites even from the mini codling. The only problem was that some of the knocks were so strong that I thought I had something more subtantial each time.

I packed up about an hour after high tide when all the worm baits were gone. The razor wasn't fishing so well - I had a few codling on it on the distance rod but worms, especially the rag were by far the most effective.

If there had been a better surf there might have been a few bass knocking around but give the conditions I was happy enough with 14 fish from the session and more than happy with the Ultima Power Steel - that will be going on all my reels from now on.

It was also good to meet the Zoltans - East European anglers tend to get some bad press here but Zoolio is a serious angler so I will be looking forward to another session with him soon.

Oh and thanks very much for the home made gripper weights.

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Nice fishing seems to be plenty of Cod around at the moment.

Thanks,
Plenty of codling still around. I guess its an indication of how cold the water is at the moment. It will need more than a few days of sunny weather to get the water temperatures back to what they should be - the winter species are still here, bass are still scarce, at this rate it will probably be July before the summer species show up

Good session id say the wee Flounder give a good scrap have ordered a spool of Power Steel the other day cant wait to try it out gets alot of good reviews!

nice session frank ,your putting in plenty of hrs .keep
the reports comming

life is for fishing

Fair play Frank,great report ,plenty for us to read .Nice to see someone catching a few fish, fairly scarce up here at the mo , got a few schoolies during the week and a welcome doggie but apart from these my last few sessions havent been worth a report . We live in hope though and theres always tomorrow night to look forward to Must get some of that Power Steel and a recommendation here from a regular angler like you can be taken seriously . Nice to see a bit of East-West co-operation .

great fishing! i was out same night as you,west waterford beach,same hours and nearly same batch of fish,instead of flounder got a few doggys,hoping for a silver fella but no surf,water still pretty cold.keep up the good fishing!

good to see you get a result frank . i must get myself some of that powersteel to try it out. was fishing beside a guy at the weekend who sweares by it.

Nice report Frank, good to see the Codling still around in numbers to keep the rod going

Thanks guys,

Must get some of that Power Steel and a recommendation here from a regular angler like you can be taken seriously . Nice to see a bit of East-West co-operation .

Definitely worth trying it out.

i was out same night as you,west waterford beach,same hours and nearly same batch of fish,instead of flounder got a few doggys,hoping for a silver fella but no surf,water still pretty cold.

This calm weather is not what we need at this time of the year - but apart from that I think the bass as still very scarce - as you mentioned the water is still very cold.

Nice report Frank, good to see the Codling still around in numbers to keep the rod going

The fact that the codling are still around must indicate how cold the water is - I was out last night and had a few more - so even the warm weather over the weekend hasn't driven them away.

have you managed any Bass in cork yet frank?? that beach i told you about last year is slowly starting to fish again. had a call from a guy the other night who had 3 down there and said there was a few guys 100yards down from them who were taking pics so presumably they were catching also.
havent been out in a few weeks myself, pulled a neck muscle in work so unable to cast , its gettin better now so might try it friday night myself.
hopefully all them mini codling will be back bigger and fatter next year, alto i was hoping that last years mini whiting would be bigger this year but i've only had about 3 in total since christmas.

have you managed any Bass in cork yet frank?? that beach i told you about last year is slowly starting to fish again. had a call from a guy the other night who had 3 down there and said there was a few guys 100yards down from them who were taking pics so presumably they were catching also.
havent been out in a few weeks myself, pulled a neck muscle in work so unable to cast , its gettin better now so might try it friday night myself.
hopefully all them mini codling will be back bigger and fatter next year, alto i was hoping that last years mini whiting would be bigger this year but i've only had about 3 in total since christmas.

I havn't had one in Cork at all yet, but had a few from West Waterford but they are scarce.
Unfortunately it looks like this calm weather is going to persist for at least another week so I cant see too many been caught off the beaches until we get the next southwesterly blow.
Sorry to hear about your neck - hope you get back to normal soon and back out fishing!!!!
Who knows if the codling will be back - might be coalfish every where next year!!!