north antrim rock mark monday 2nd august

Wed Aug 04, 2010 11:26 am

People: me dawsey and mark

Duration: 1pm - 8pm

Tide: HW noon LW 6pm

Weather: 5mph westerly, slight swell and sunny skies

Bait: mushy rag, hardback crabs, sand eel and mackeral

Rigs: 1 hook rotten bottom and conger traces (8/0 o'shaunassy 250lb mono running lead)

Results: ME - 16 ballan wrasse, 5 doggies and a 10lb conger eel. MARK - 14 ballan wrasse and 8 doggies. DAWSEY - 2 pollock, 6 coalies, 18 ballan wrasse (new PB 2lb 7oz), 2 corkwing wrasse, 1 rockcook wrasse, 7 doggies (new PB2lb 8oz) and a ling, new species and PB @ 2lb 13oz :mrgreen:

Report: after our excellent boat trip at the weekend there was a good pound of rag that got a bit warm and went mushy so had to be used A.S.A.P. as i could'nt save it. so a quick call to mark and dawsey had a rock session planned. our intended spot already had a few anglers already on it. so i had to do a re-think and came up with a plan 'B' from where we could fish as i had brought about 25kg of frozen rubby dubby with me to groundbait for the conger. but i chose another mark where we stood a chance of an eel and hopefully a huss , ling or cuckoo wrasse for dawsey :wink:

. our first few casts at range proved to be a nightmare as the water was easily 40 feet deep and with a bit of a churn to the water ment the rigs kept getting wrapped round the kelp and lost to the sea. so we decided to fish close in at our feet for a bit and were rewarded with a constant flow of wrasse all day long. dawsey even got a new PB ballan wrasse at 2lb 7ozs and a new species for his list when he caught a nice sized rockcook wrasse. i've been trying without sucess to get one for the last 4 years :roll:

and dawsey gets one on his first trip to this mark, go figure :lol:

. i had my good certified digital scales with me as mark brought the " FISH CUP " out of the house for the biggest fish contest we were having for a bit of craic :lol:

. dawsey's ballan wrasse had him in contention for the cup for the best part of the day as neither me or mark got a wrasse over his new PB. all ours were in the 1lb to 2lb range, but as we approached slack water the doggies came on the feed and a good few were landed threatening dawsey's title until he got the biggest doggie of the day at 2lb 8oz on the nose. the fishing was great with bites coming in thick and fast all day and dawsey had the most species with some coalies, pollock and corkwing wrasse that me and mark could'nt match. then dawsey got a bite that acted a bit differently with a bit of head shaking going on :shock:

. mark quickly jumped down the rocks to get ready to land it with all the dexterity of a mountain billy goat as a ling broke the surface :!:

. dawsey was made up and then the both of them fell silent

. i had my back turned at that point and turned around just in time for dawsey to let out a blue verbal onslaught of words i could'nt repeat in a report

because when he tried to lift the ling out of the water it bit clean through his 15lb snood and escaped back to davy jones's locker :cry:

. mark just stood there speachless and dawsey was ready to turn his rod into a javelin and chuck it into the sea in a rage as he's been wanting a ling for his species list for ages :oops:

. i probably did'nt help matters with my off the cuff remark of "ah well man, at least you got to see what it was" :lol:

. poor dawsey was gutted and quickly replaced his snood lengths with 30lb amnesia and cast back out to the same spot. and would you believe it, within 30mins he had the ling back on

. i jumped down to meet it at the base of the rock we were fishin from and timed lifting it with a wave and got it safely on the rocks. dawsey broke out into song and dance as he thought he'd missed his chance for a ling for the year. but persistance paid off in the end :wink:

. it was a nice ling too as it tipped the scales at 2lb 13oz and dawsey now had the fish cup well and truely in his sights :mrgreen:

. that was until i heard a click,,,, click,,,,, click come from my conger rod

. i tentitevly lifted the rod and and reeled in a few inches of slack until i felt another gentle tug and struck with all my might. fish on!! the rod tip nodded over and i began to make ground on the eel as mark rushed down the rocks to meet it. as it's head broke the surface i could see he was well hooked and i let out a sigh of relief as mark lifted it onto the rocks without incident

. he tipped the scales at 10lb on the nose and the fish cup was well and truely in my corner now :mrgreen:

. so a few pics later and the eel shot of back to his lair none the worse for his ordeal

. i was made up and we called it a day as our bellies were grumbling and burgers were now more on our minds than fishing :lol:

. it turned out to be a great day's fishing after not being able to fish our intended spot. 2 new species and 3 PB's for dawsey was a great result in his book and i was glad to get another conger for my tally and there were some lovely marked doggies landed too. what more could you ask for :mrgreen: