2 antrim rock marks 21st and 22nd may 2010

after my sucess on friday jordan was chomping at the bit to get out and try to get himself a wrasse. so an early morning bait collecting session was in order. we got to our lug mark to discover they were all heading for china to escape the baking heat i dug down a good 3 feet into the mud before i found the first worm and thought, bugger this. i ai'nt digging in mental heat for worms and a crab collecting session was hatched. i already had a pound of rag so we went to check our traps and were rewarded with 6 peelers, 22 hardbacks and 3 softies . not a bad result for 15 mins and one of the softies was as big as my hand and would provide enough bait for 6 hooks .
so we put the dog into the motor and picked up our mate mark and headed out for a doggie session. by 2.30pm we had a rod each out in the water and saw merv from shore angling ireland heading towards us with his mate steve. introductions were exchanged and we all got to fishing. it was a scorcher of a day and my old crocodile dundee hat came out of the loft to protect my already burnt head from another toasting. not exactly the greatest fashion statement, but pratical none the less there must be some truth to this old "lucky hat" theory as i was first to land a fish with a wee doggie taking my mackeral bait with gusto so a quick pic and he was back in the water. steve was next in on the action with a doggie himself and mark soon followed suit making it a doggie treble . our own poor dog cody was feeling the heat and found a rock pool to lie down in to escape the sun . so it was merv up next and he landed a doggie too before myself and mark got another each. by now the only person not to have caught was jordan, but he just was'nt quick enough to strike his bites before the fish had him into the kelp . by now we were nearing 7pm and merv and steve were gonna wrap up and hit the road. steve reeled in to discover he had a wee red reef cod on and that was the last fish of the day as we never had anything in the last half hour after they left. great to meet the lads and catch a few fish togeather. the end results as far as my memory serves were,
MERV - 2 dogs
STEVE - 2 dogs and a codling
MARK - 2 dogs
ME - 2 dogs
JORDAN - cheque book and pen

DAY 2,
me, jordan, mark and belfast dan headed out for a dawn raid to another deep water wrasse mark. the alarm went off at 5am and i had all the lads in the car and on the road leaving belfast for 7am. by 8am we were at the mark and fishing . the sun was blazing high in the sky and the sea was like a pond with hardly a breath of wind. the bites were coming fast and very aggressive, but you had to be on your toes and hit them quick before they got the head down and into the kelp . we were getting the same ratio of landed fish as to lost fish from the other day. working out at about 3 to 1. but at least they were feeding. i spent a good bit of the day sorting the fish out in preperation for their return to the sea in a wee rock pool as quite a few of them had swim bladder issues as a result of being brought up from depth but they got sorted handy enough and returned ok bar 2 who the gulls ended up fighting over. but thats just one of those things i suppose we had a great day out right up until about 4pm when a sea fog rolled in and a mighty swell kicked up from nowhere accompanied with a strong northernly wind all the wee fishing and sailing boats we had been watching all day raced for shore at some speed as things seemed to be getting worse on the weather front. and not only that, the fishing died a death and not a single fish was caught from 4pm to 6pm when we admitted defeat and packed up and hit the road. everyone except jordan caught and i got broke off by something really big that severed clean through my 20lb snood length after a spirited 40 second fight
the end results stood at,
ME - 6 ballan wrasse with the biggest at 2lb 7oz
MARK - 4 ballan wrasse and a male corkwing wrasse
DAN - 2 ballan wrasse and 2 coalies
JORDAN - another blank

i reckon there might be something to this lucky fishing hat theory where as jordan reckons it's put a serious jinx on his mojo

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more pics

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you guessed it,,,,, more pics

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last pics,,, i promise

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great days fishing by all accounts and great report as always Al, like the idea with the recovery pool for the wrasse

some great pics there al.tell jordan that the next day will be better. looks a good mark ye got there

see! i told you that the hat works! but that hat will be the only one that will work now! hard luck jordan,think dad is beating you this year!

Great session lads, looks a good spot alright. Nice healthy looking fish

Al - great to see you are now properly attired !

Remember - if you want to get ahead get a hat

Great report and photos as always Al. Never mind the blanks Jordan they only make the good days even better and things can only get better. Well done to you all.

Nice to see the wrasse back Al.

great fishing again guy's well done, + cracking pic's. some nice wrasse there and if i know jordan he will come back with a bang!!! so jordan let them get ahead for now for when you get your mojo back, it will be time for sweet revenge

A couple of great days to be out fishing.

Was out float fishing for wrasse/pollock myself yesterday morning, I noticed most of the wrasse had their swim bladder out, but its not a deep water mark - I was only fishing between 6-10ft

well done great fishing and great report and better luck next time jordan

It was a great wee session great company and great weather thanks again al for letting me tag along and another great report

Nice one lads, was like a wee mini meet. Is that a new rod I see Al?

Al,

Some nice Wrasse there nice to see them making a return.

Jonny

Lovely fishing again lads!

Lads great session and report is top as always not to mention the photos.

Hard luck Jordan but I am sure the big one is out there... (nice to see the jacket on a rock mark - nice one Al)

Mick

Well done Al,,,,,teriffic photos, and as said earlier., like the rock pool idea . The hats great,,,kinda reminds me of Hedley from Daktari,but youre too young to remember that far back Get young Jordan a hat asap

Nice to see Jordan stepping back and giving the old man a chance, well done lads.