Blackwater Flounder, 23rd of May

People: Me and a pile of non-angler male relatives

Duration: 3 hours

Tide: Flooding

Weather: Heavenly

Bait: Frozen crab and lug

Rigs: 1 hook flappers; short snoods, mounted high

Results: 2 fat flounder

Report:

For a lot of reasons, I wasn't able to get out much lately, so I took the opportunity of little one's birthday to drag the male relatives off for a few casts. Two of my young nephews tagged along, so I was anxious that they'd catch a fish and maybe come down with the fishing bug. Also, most non-fishermen are under the charming illusion that catching fish is easy, not realising that blanking is always a possibility. My first thoughts were to go along to Helvick and maybe pick up a few tiddlers; but to be honest, I hate pier fishing, and in any event I had no life jackets and the like for the kids. Instead, I headed up the Blackwater a bit to a spot that even up to last week was still producing nice fat codling on pretty much any bait that you cared to chuck out.

When we got there the beach was deserted and the sun was splitting the stones, so it would likely be a nice day to be out regardless. I got a line out quickly and then the fun began: as no one but myself had any fishing experience or fishing gear at all, it was like fishing six rods simultaneously. 'Can you put the bait on?' 'Can you tie the hook?' 'Can you perform open heart surgery? (Well maybe not the last one.) Also, the venue is pretty snaggy, so my supply of 3 oz leads was diminishing at an alarming rate. And I'll not mention the stomach churning anxiety of seeing a novice nearly let go of a conoflex rod while 'casting'

Things were slow to begin with and I started to wonder if I'd made a bad mistake coming here, but after an hour I heard a shout of delight as my six-year old nephew brought in a nice flounder. I was off the hook! After that, the bites started coming fairly frequent, which is good considering we were using frozen crab, which is generally rubbish. The next fish was brought in by my brother-in-law, but it turned out that he'd got tangled in my trace and the fish was actually mine. While we were sorting out the mess, a commercial trawlerman came by walking his dogs, complaining that pollution was wrecking his livelihood by killing off the fish. Might want to look a bit closer to home there, mate.

After that we got the summons to come home, so we packed up. All in all, it was hardly a remarkable day's fishing, but seeing the young lad's delight at his first fish definitely made it one to remember. Goes to show: it's not all about 10lb bass and 16lb huss: sometimes a few flatties in a muddy estuary are all takes to make the day!

P.S.: No pics, as the kids are in all of them and as they're not my kids, I don't want to put them up. Anyways, you all know what a flounder looks like

I bet your nephew will be harassing you non stop from now on. Its more important that the kids catch fish because they WILL get bored very easily if they dont.
Congratulations

You're spot on about the kids getting bored Tom. When an hour had passed with no fish, they were already well into messing with the bait and making a general nuisance of themselves. Of course, afterwards there was a proper little cold war when one caught a fish and the other didn't, but then that's a life lesson in disappointment we all had to learn. And yes, I'm already being pestered for another trip

great report james i would say thats like being on duty with the gang, give me a shout when the ban is over for a session

Cheers for that Sean. My palm has yet to be crossed with silver this year, so a bass outing is definitely on the cards once the ban ends to change this deplorable state of affairs. Will be in touch ...

Fair play ,,,,,,,,,,nice trip there and especially for the 6 year old catching his first fish,he wont ever forget it ,,,,,,,,i enjoyed that report, and youre right ,its not all about 10lb bass,,,it can be great to just get out to keep yourself sane,the fish are a welcome extra

great stuff