County Antrim beach monday 12th april

People: me, dawsey and dan belfast

Duration: 6.30pm to 11pm

Tide: HW 10.30pm

Weather: calm, dry and sunny

Bait: rag, lug, mack, squid, sand eel, white rag and mullet strips

Rigs: 3 hook flappers, 2 up 1 down, pulley's and 2 hook clip downs for distance

Results: DAN: 8 flounder, 2 plaice, 1 coalie and a sand eel. DAWSEY: 8 flounder and 2 coalies. ME: 7 flounder and 1 coalie




Report: we had intended to head up the coast for a bit of flattie bashing and to try our summer huss mark. so from 3pm to 6pm we sat eagerly waiting for the huss or dogs to take the mullet, mack and squid cocktails we were launching out at them. dan's mate is a keen pike angler and gave us a packet of 4 wee vietnamese mullet out of his freezer as i've had good sucess with them here in the past. but it must still be early for them here as i was the only one to get a knock in the 3 hours we were there . and sadly that ended in a lost fish and hook length . so we decided to hit the chinese in carnlough for a snack box each and plan the rest of the evening out . before too long we were set up on the beach waiting for darkness to arrive and the bites to begin. as expected we got diddly squat while the sun was out, but as soon as we lost the light the rod tips were all twitching away . there was a good mix of fish coming in and dan even managed the smallest sand eel i've ever seen hooked in the chops fair and square it was no bigger than the hook it was attached to . then another angler came over for a chat and introduced himself. it turned out to be crazyfish from the site . great to meet up with some more lads form SAI and put names to faces . he was out with 2 of his mates and got set up to our left but did'nt fair as well as we seemed to do. we were out of bait by 11.30pm and decided to wrap it up. there was plenty caught, even thow it was all small stuff. but with the blanking we've been doing lately it was just good to get out and see a fish again . dan even managed 3 plaice which was handy as we were getting a few spotty orange flounder at the same time. it was good to be able to put them side by side so you could see the differences in them . like i said, nothing of any great size, but plenty to keep us happy
i'll add a load of pics so you can play "spot the spotty difference"

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last pics

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Well done lads. Handy to pick up a few different species even if they're not to a huge size. Hard luck losing the huss or whatever it was. Hopefully a few more will turn up at that mark for ye in the next few weeks. Good ta be getting a few fish anyway. Keep at it and it's bound to pay off with good results soon.

Fair play lads, great weather & everyone catching a few Happy days

Well done Al, Dawsey & Dan. It looks as if you's had a busy and productive session. Nice one

well done lads flattie bonanza

not a bad bit of fishing there, still find it difficult to tell the difference between the too,especially when the flounder have the spots.

hard luck on losing the huss al ,but it sounded like you all
had good nights fishing fishing very slow here at the
moment but there is a good forcast for tommorow night so hopefully we'll have a good session

nice flats well done always nice to be getting a few hours in with this weather

Well done lads, always the same, wait for hours and no bites until the light starts to fail.

Well done Al ,,,,,,,fishing sporadic down here,,,,,,,,South Wicklow beaches throwing up schoolies,Greystones hit and miss,,was on North beach last night and same as you ,no bites while bright ,,then it got dark and still no bites ,facing the blank tnen 10pm one codling followed by a dog,happy days and head home .Maybe these NE breezes have slowed it down again as we were starting to get a few in daylight recently.Well done on the plaice btw,,,,,,,,,,have tried here for one,sunny days,calm spell etc but no show

cracking session there guys well done and nice pic's al' for the comparison of the two species

well done lads good session there,good to see things picking up now.

Well done lads. Handy to pick up a few different species even if they're not to a huge size. Hard luck losing the huss or whatever it was. Hopefully a few more will turn up at that mark for ye in the next few weeks. Good ta be getting a few fish anyway. Keep at it and it's bound to pay off with good results soon.

cheers evan. that beach never lets us down usually a lot of small stuff with the off chance of something out of the ordinary from time to time . i just wish they'd start feeding during the day. hopefully not too long to go

Fair play lads, great weather & everyone catching a few Happy days

thanks brian. just a pity our pollack rock marks are'nt fishing that well. i was just informed the other day that there has been a lot of illegal long lining going on at that stretch of coast

Well done Al, Dawsey & Dan. It looks as if you's had a busy and productive session. Nice one

thanks paula. always good to have a safe bet, fallback mark to fish

well done lads flattie bonanza

cheers zeke. i'd have traded them all in for just one of the big chaps you got the other day

not a bad bit of fishing there, still find it difficult to tell the difference between the too,especially when the flounder have the spots.

i know what you mean plumster. our first year of flattie fishing was a steep learning curve . but the 2 biggest differences between the 2 are that the plaice have the ridge of 4 or so boney nodules behind the eyes, where as the flounder has just one continueous ridge and the plaice's spots are way more vivid than the dull orange spots that some flounder have . we can tell them apart straight away now, but the first 2 years were full of miss I.D.'s

hard luck on losing the huss al ,but it sounded like you all
had good nights fishing fishing very slow here at the
moment but there is a good forcast for tommorow night so hopefully we'll have a good session

cheers ger. a lot of our marks are still waiting to turn on yet . hope things improve with this spell of settled weather

nice flats well done always nice to be getting a few hours in with this weather

thanks man. seems odd planning a trip without having to pack all the wet gear

Well done lads, always the same, wait for hours and no bites until the light starts to fail.

cheers nite owl. can't wait for the wrasse to return so we have something to target during the day

Well done Al ,,,,,,,fishing sporadic down here,,,,,,,,South Wicklow beaches throwing up schoolies,Greystones hit and miss,,was on North beach last night and same as you ,no bites while bright ,,then it got dark and still no bites ,facing the blank tnen 10pm one codling followed by a dog,happy days and head home .Maybe these NE breezes have slowed it down again as we were starting to get a few in daylight recently.Well done on the plaice btw,,,,,,,,,,have tried here for one,sunny days,calm spell etc but no show

cheers dave. i know how you feel. a lot of our summer marks are still waiting to switch on. but sadly one particular stretch of co. down coast we usually rock fish from has been cleaned out by an illegal longliner recently . spose it was only a matter of time before this happened as the price of a box of pollack has went up in recent years it's prompted me to do a bit of research regarding reporting suspected illegal fishing on northern ireland's shores. i'll do a post in the news, comments and opinions section on the site. that way all the important contact numbers will be there for all to view.

cracking session there guys well done and nice pic's al' for the comparison of the two species

thanks don, if only they were all about 2lb . now that would make for a good session

well done lads good session there,good to see things picking up now.

thanks beachcaster. let's hope it continues to get better

good one lads.. pleanty of flatties to keep ye busy.... keep it up......

nice one lads thats a nice mix of species there. your on a roll al!

Hard to beat a bit of flattie bashin, was very productive indeed. Strange how when the light is on the turn the switch is turned and the fish start feeding hard! Those spotty flounder are sometimes hard to id that's for sure

nice flatties lads
well

YES ANOTHER GREAT WEE SESSION HAPPY TO CATCH A FEW DIFFERENT SPIECES AND WOULD OF PROBELY CAUGHT MORE IF WE DIDNT RUN OUT OF BAIT THANKS AGAIN AL FOR LETTING ME TAG ALONG HOPEFULLY GET SOME MORE ON MONDAY

Plenty of Flatties nice one!!