Clogherhead - County Louth

People:Myself and 2 friends

Duration: 8.30pm to 12.30am

Tide:HW just after midnight

Weather: Breezy but Dry, not cold

Bait: Rag Tipped with Mackerel

Rigs: Hokai Feathers and Normal Feathers

Results: me - 3 Mackerel, 1 Pollack and a small whiting ( i think)
Len - 2 small pollack, 2 small whiting ( at least thats what we though they were)
Rua - 3 mackerel and a very small Pollack


We have fished Clogher a few times in recent weeks , and anyone who fishes there knows if there is a smell of a mackerel to be caught the pier is fairly crowded and somewhat dangerous, its not comfortable to fish with rods flying backwards and forwards up to your ears in feathers and 4 oz weights ! so we decided to fish the rocks at the back of the pier. I tried to ground fish some rag tipped with mackerel on a 3 hook flapper while spinning aswell, the other 2 lads just used feathers. There were a few guys further up along the wall spinning. It wasnt long before Rua hot a fish on a lure, he changed to feathers then and hit 3 mackerel but he had cast a good distance out to hit them, then Lenny and as it was getting dark we decided to move off the ricks and back on to the Pier. The Rocks are difficult enough to get up and down from, not a place to be when its wet i think. My Pollack hit just as i was at the end of my retrieve at the base of the rocks, it came out of no where ! just before we left the rocks On my last cast I hit my 3 mackerel and again it was a monster cast out. I spoke to one of the local lads and he was saying there is any amount of mackerel a mile out if your on a boat but very little around the pier.

and now for a few pictures !

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i suppose i should add that it was easier to take a picture of the Pollack than it was to try and talk a picture of my 3 mackerel whilst balancing rod line and tackle on a rock

Good going

roughly how big was the pollock

well done, good to get a few from the pier, pollock looks about a pound and a half? seems to be more fish around clogherhead this year, plenty of pollock and codling up to a month ago which weren't there the last few years.

Thanks for the replies guys - the pollack was indeed about a pound and a half , nice pollack, plenty of small stuff there this year, im wonderign is it because of all the fine weather we had earlier in the summer, higher sea temperatures and all that ??

i used to have a caravan up there abouy 8 years ago and along with the mackrel i used to catch pollock off the head up to 3lb as well as the odd plump codling and loads of nice flounder off the beach... so there is fish to be had

yea theres allways a few fish around the head but the pier was fairly barren the last few years, the old pier used to be alot better, maybe its because the new pier is a few years old now