Portrush, BluePool Saturday 5th June

my first report so bear with me if i ramble on a bit

People: me and the mrs

Duration: 4 hours

Tide: low tide onwards

Weather: perfect (sunny, no wind)

Bait: rag and mackerel

Rigs: sliding float, 2 hook paternoster, and spinning with hockeyes

Results: Pollock, Wrasse, Colefish, Plaice, Dab, Whiting, Dogfish, Mackerel and an octopus.




Report: decided to take a spur of the moment trip to portrush afterwork to fishing the fading light. arrived down at half 7 or so and put a float on. dropped it in and as soon as is righted itself it went under. stood there thinking "thats odd that size of weight shouldn't the float down like that......." finally twigged and pulled in a 1lb pollock. because thats about as big as you'll catch on the float round there i always use a match rod with 6lb so got a good ole scrap off it. the guys fishing either side of me were looking a bit sick, turns out they had been there for a few hours and caught nothing. the fishing stayed good from then on. fished away with the floats using rag and we were cathing away at pollock, colefish and wrasse. nothing bigger than a 1lb but on light gear still good fun. on the "big rod" fishing on the bottom i had the bottom hook on rag and the top hook on mackerel, got a few small colefish and plaice and dab up to about half a pound. then it went quiet. still catching on the float but the big rod hadnt had a knock for about 20 minutes which was strange as the bite were continuous. so reeled it in, could feel straight away there was a heavy weight on the end and figured i had picked up a load of weed. when i pulled it to the surface all i could see were legs sticking out in every direction and was thinking "look a starfish". then lifted it out of the water and realised it was octopus. in all of the 25+ years sea fishing i have never even seen an octopus nevermind caught one. 10 minutes of faffing about trying to get it off the rock, then off my hand, the get the hook out, then get it off my hand again it was back in the water and with a puff of ink disappeared. during this kerfuffle the guys either side of me came to see and after we compared tactics as they had yet to catch anything yet. im a firm believer that you should fish for whats there and not for what you hope to catch. being the bluepool i know big fish are not exactly common (at least not in my experience) so i find a 6lb hook length and a size 6 hook coated with a 2 inch chunk of ragworm will catch pretty much anyfish thats in the area. they had on big hooks and big baits to match. got the impression they didnt fish there much but advised them to scale down a bit and soon they were catching, dont know what cos my fishing adventure was getting better all the time. the mrs had stopped catching on the float and was reading her book so i was focusing on the big road at about an hour till darkness. the flatties decided they all wanted fed so it was pretty manic and a fish a cast. again nothing huge but still good fun. it was during this time i also got 2 dogfish biggest being about 2lb. in they very last dying embers of the light i could just make out a few spashed on the surface to the left of me so i figured i'd chuck the hockeyes in and see whats doing. spun for about 10 minutes and caught 2 mackerel. round about this time it was near proper dark and the whiting moved in. catching away at them 2 a cast though the first one i caught i though i had foul hooked a sandeel. that should give you an idea of tiny they were, barely longer than my finger. fished till about midnight then headed home. all in all there fish werent huge but they were many and they were varied. 8 species in all plus an octopus. certainly the best sea fishing trip ive had this year.

thanks for reading

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welcome to the site, fantastic report and well done, a lot of fish and a lot of species too, Congrats

Nice Report and the Octopus looks savage, nice little session, well done!

Welcome and great first report

well done man,welcome to the site and a great first report! some great pics there,that second one looks like something out of alien!

good first report and well done on the species,fished the blue pool about four weeks ago but no luck.but it was during the day ,and i know it fishes far better at night.

Welcome to the site. Good fishing with a good report and pics. Well done.

nice report & pic's welcome aboard!!!!

Very nice read yngkmd and sounded like a nice session. Small wrasse and pollock are great craic on light gear alright. I love fishing like that but I've never done it on a float. I will try it though!

Nice session there , well done, and great read too.
Tight lines.

well done man

Welcome to the site.
Great results, report and pictures. Hopefully it's the first of many.
That first picture is class! Well done and good luck to you

Nice session chum!

great pics and report man . welcome aboard