antrim and down 2 marks 2 days mon 26th & thur 29th july

DAY 1 Bangor harbour monday 26th july 1pm to 6pm

with some bait left over from our boat trip at the weekend we deceded to use it up at a local mark and tried for some mini species at bangor. we picked mark up and arrived as the tide was dropping off and conditions for the mini's looked perfect as it was flat calm. other than the odd light shower it was a pretty decent day too. both mark and i put a rod out at distance to see if there was anything with a bit of size to it knocking about while jordan got straight into the mini' with a constant procession of rockling, shanny's and sea scorpions . both mark and i were having a bit of a nightmare with the pin whiting stripping our hooks within seconds of hitting the water with the odd one impaling it's self on the hook every so often . then i heard mark saying, " what's that?,,, it's not poisonous Al, is it?. the lucky git had got himself a lovely wee tub gurnard . not any kind of monster in gurnard standards, but pretty decent by bangor standards , and the only type of gurnard i have'nt caught yet . so with a few pics taken he swam off with his free feed of ragworm. i decided to try a different spot for a bit and had around 20 pouting in under 40mins. nothing to get excited about in the size department but great craic on light gear . so by the end of the session the scores on the doors was
ME - 20 pouting, 3 whiting, 1 ballan wrasse, 1 sea scorpion and 1 poor cod
JORDAN - 3 pouting, 4 shannys, 1 mackeral, 3 shore rockling and 1 goldsinny wrasse
MARK - 1 tub gurnard and 11 whiting

DAY 2 antrim rock mark thursday 29th july

mark called me to see if i was finished the job i was doing as he'd finished early and was up for a session somewhere. now any one who knows me will tell you it dose'nt take too much twisting of my arm for an impromptue session and a plan was hatched so armed with some mack out of the freezer and a few lug i had in the fridge we hit the road to try a mark another angler had put me onto recently . we arrived as the tide had started to drop off and i got to fishing 2 rods on the bottom and mark had one on the bottom and a sliding float rig out to see if he could maxamize the species caught with different methods. before too long a doggie onslaught began and they were flying in from all rods . it was great craic and for a good part of the day you could barely get one dog off the hook and before you got it back out you had another dog on the other rod. frantic fun and a really enjoyable session. mark got a ballan wrasse on the float before he put it away to concentrate on his bottom rod. we both got hit by something big that we just could'nt get in from distance, so we decided to tackle up onto 30lb snood lengths and heavy 3/0 hooks to see if we could land whatever it was. i got a wee nod which i thought was another dog until i began to reel in when i realized it was something heavier than usual and was made up to see a lovely big huss break the surface i began to panic as there was a bit of a drop from where we were to the surface of the water. but mark did a great job and lifted it in, and just as well he did as it had no sooner got on the rocks and it gave a shake of th head and cut clean through the snood and snapped it . we quickly got it on th scales and it weighed in at 7lb 12oz, a new PB for me then it was marks turn for a huss and put on his lucky fishing hat and would you believe it, he got one on his very next cast weighing in at 4lb so we both got new personal bests and i got another smaller huss as dawsey and his mate arrived to see what was happening. i also got the reddest reef cod i've ever caught as the wee guy was almost blood red we left dawsey and his mate to fish on as we hit the road 2 very happy campers indeed

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some more pics

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last pic

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well done lads nice going i have never seen a cod as red as that well done again

nice report and some good pics the last doggie bashing session i had was with forest 2 years ago of portstewart rocks we had 11 doggies each and i had a huss at 15lb. it was great nights fun

Well done lads and congrats on the new PB Huss. Al.

Great session & pics, nice one lads well done on the pb Huss Al I haven't been out in a while due to car trouble & work but there will be no stoping next week

well done al and company.nice huss too.ya she sure is an irish cod with being as red as that.a rock cod i think.lol

Was an absolute crackin session for you boys up at antrim, I have never drove that coast road as quickly to get down to see this beast of a huss!! Crackin tub for mark at Bangor!!! Headed that way 2nite lotsa small stuff but needed them for the species list, i'll get a wee report

Nice Gurnard.

The very first fish I ever caught was a Gurnard (not sure whether a Grey or a Tub) off the the old wooden North Pier in Bangor.

Would you believe I got it on a Red & Gold Mepps spinnner!!!!!

That was 30 years ago. Never had one since.

Also, my second fish was a sole from the same venue. Again, never had one since.

Well done lads nice fishing .well done with the Huss Al nice fish

well done on personal best huss nice fish

Well done on the PB Huss man

Congratulations on the PB huss Al - that is excellent! Well done to Mark as well, his huss is a fine one also, it's a lucky hat alright!

cracking report and pic's al' and nice one on the pb huss mate

some nice fishing there al,two cracking huss,well done on the pb

few nice fish there lads well done

Cracking session Looks like quite a unique spot

Well done lads ,some cracking fish there,congrats on the pB,thats a fine huss and the Gurnards are always welcome in my book,i'll have to get myself a lucky hat when i get rid of me lucky yellow trousers .

Well done on 2 cracking sessions. Great report, and well done on the PB!