county antrim and down. 4 marks from the 5th to 11th august

People: me, jordan and mark

Duration: see below

Tide: all states

Weather: everything from blazing sunshine to gales and torrential rain

Bait: mackeral and lug

Rigs: 2 up 1 down and single hook rotten bottom bottom rigs

Results: doggies, codling, grey gurnard, whiting, plaice, pollock, coalfish, flounder, dab, bull huss, pouting and CUCKOO RAY!!!

Report:

DAY 1 THURSDAY 5TH AUGUST COUNTY ANTRIM ROCK MARK 3PM TO 11PM
mark phoned me after lunch and wanted to know what i had planned for the rest of the day. nothing, but a bit of weeding in the garden i says,,,,. fish, fish, fish!! says he and a plan was hatched . not wanting to stray too far from home an east antrim rock mark was decided on where we stood a chance of a huss . this spot has a special place in my heart as it's the first mark i properly discovered for myself over a year ago. i never saw anyone fish it, but i looked at it over both low and high tide and reckoned it should fish as it has all the key elements. sadly since my last visit to it i reckon a few people recognised it in my huss pics as the place was an utter tip with discarded bait bags, fishing line, sweet wrappers and beer cans all over the bloody place . i went back up to the car and brought down a black bag and filled it with all this junk. so the first 15 mins were wasted getting the mark looking more like the shore and less like a tip . honestly, some people have no respect for the enviroment at all. but back to the fishing. we fished it from low to high and then dropping a bit again and were rewarded with over 40 doggies between us with jordan getting the biggest at just under 3lb. no huss this time, even thow i was fishing whole mackeral on 8/0 hooks. but we were happy enough to to have a doggie session where all 3 rods were never in the water at the same time as someone was always baiting up or unhooking a fish

DAY 2 FRIDAY 6TH AUGUST NORTH ANTRIM ROCK MARK 3PM TO 1AM
just me and mark this time and another spur of the moment session when i had no intention of heading out fishing as those weeds in the garden are still needing seeing too . but with a call from mark and a bit of arm twisting he convinced me to take him somewhere new he had'nt fished before. so a comfy rock mark not too far from the motor up red bay was decided on and we hit the road. by 3pm we were setting up and from the off it was obvious we were only gonna be able to fish one rod each as the bites and fish were coming in thick and fast from the first cast . some lovely wee codling to 1lb 8oz were going mad for the big juicy lug and mark was off on a flattie fest with dab, plaice and flounder coming in 3 at a time on his flapper rig loaded with lug. even the torrential rain could'nt annoy us. we only ended the session when we finally ran out of bait at 1am. and by then the results stood at MARK- 14 doggies 11 codling 6 plaice 5 dab 3 flounder 1 pollock and 1 poor cod. i ended up with 9 doggies 8 codling 2 plaice 2 pollock 1 coalfish and a wee bull huss just under 2lb.

DAY 3 SATURDAY 7TH AUGUST BANGOR HARBOUR 2PM TO 6PM
this was a pretty short session by our standards with not too much to report. there was a bit of a swell and it rained on us for most of the session which killed the fishing off as all our usual spots were churned up too much to fish them. the usual battery of tinsel tossers were about with only the odd mack being taken here and there. really poor for this time of year. i know the mack shoals are out there, but they just are'nt coming into the shore for some reason . jordan ended up blanking and i only saved the blank by fishing a clearing in the boulders in the breakwater that got me down to the sea bed where i got 5 small pouting. mark on the other hand fished out at distance and got 6 whiting and a GREY GURNARD!! jammy git. that's a grey and a tub for him from there in the last 3 weeks. i've fished this spot hard for 3 years and never got a sniff of either of them .

DAY 4 WEDNESDAY 11TH AUGUST NORTH ANTRIM ROCK MARK 7PM TO 7AM
with a pound of lug in the fridge needing to be used up i called mark to see if he fancied a trip up the coast with me and jordan for an all night session. the rain was gonna hold off for a bit but the wind had got up. not unfishable, but pretty uncomfortable all the same. but it was ment to drop off around 3am, so we'd just stick it out and see what happened. when we arrived over to mark's place he came out with a cauldren of fish curry he'd made up with the 3lb of filleted, boned and skinned ling i'd given him from our boat trip. there was enough to feed a invading roman army so that was the midnight munchies sorted . we got to the mark and i was pleased to see the rocks were'nt too slippy underfoot and pretty flat so footing was'nt an issue. i have'nt fished this place since last summer so did'nt know what to expect from it. but when i cast a 3 hook rig out i was happy to feel a smooth sandy bottom not too far out . this was great as tackle loss was'nt gonna be an issue. my only worry was that the rough ground seemed to have all but dissappeared. so i was'nt sure just what species we were going to encounter. but we just cast out any how as we were here for the night. both jordan and mark had a good mix of pollock, plaice and codling in the first few hours while i sat on as a fishless by-stander . then darkness came and i thought it was time to strip all my hooks and load up on mackeral, as i was sure the doggies would sniff it out from miles around and save my blank . while jordan and mark got into a doggie fest i noticed a slack line bite on my rod and began to reel in something that felt a bit different. i did'nt care what it was as i was just happy to have something finally on the end of my line . mark made his way to the edge and blurted out something i never expected to hear in county antrim,,,, "it's a weird looking ray al!!!. i thought, "yeah man, pull the other one , but nearly fell over when he lifted a cuckoo ray up the rocks to me . we all broke out into the fish dance with jordan hopping over the rocks to see if we were telling him fibs or not . i was made up as i've never caught one before and certinly never expected to get one at this mark. he tipped the scales at 2lb 4oz and went back strong. i sat down for a wee bit to get my head around what had just happened and did'nt even put a bait in the water for a while. jordan and mark were still pulling in fish, but if that was the only fish i was to get for the whole session i was still grinning from ear to ear . i left them to it and went back up to the motor to get the curry on the go and after a massive helping of tasty ling curry we all went back to the rods and got back into the fishing. i started off with more dogs and mark got a few dab and jordan proclaimed that every doggie bite he got was a ray bite . but they all turned out to be dogs . then i noticed another slack line bite and thought, " it can't be, not another ray bite ". and how wrong was i as a bigger 3lb 2oz cuckoo ray broke the surface . this was magic. after never having caught one before i now had 2 in one session . he swam off strongly after a few pics and i was chuffed to bits to say the least. after all the congrads from the first one, both jordan and mark were calling me all the jammy gits under the sun . a new PB and a pretty decent cuckoo ray as i think the irish record is only around 5lb. then mark asked me, "what sort of bite did those ray give you al?, cos i'm slack lined man!". and sure enough he duely landed a cuckoo ray too at 2lb 1oz!!. this was great and it only left jordan to get one. he stripped all his hooks and loaded up on mackeral, but sadly only got the attention of the doggies all night. mark was exhausted and sat down for a sleep content with his ray while me and jordan fished on. there were some more doggies taken and i got a few codling and you guessed it,,,,, another cuckoo ray weighing in at 2lb 7oz mark woke up when he heard all the commotion and called me for all the jammy gits once again . as the sun broke, the rain came on and the fishing died off a death. but we held on in hopes of getting wee jordan a ray, but had no joy. one of the best sessions we've had in a while and the scores ended up at
MARK - 9 DOGS 1 PLAICE 2 DAB 4 CODLING AND A CUCKOO RAY (new species and pb at 2lb 1oz)
JORDAN - 9 DOGS 3 CODLING 2 POLLOCK AND A PLAICE
ME - 7 DOGGIES 3 CODLING AND 3 CUCKOO RAY (new species and pb 3lb 2oz)

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fantastic fishing guys, and again al' a great report with fine photo's
love the cuckoo rays they are class looking

cheers don. i never expected to get them from that mark. let alone 4 in a single session . the other good thing was that the spot we were on had no signs other anglers were fishing it . so i think we'll keep that spot under wraps

great report with the great catch, fair play on yas lads, congrads on cockoo ray super great looking fish, well done lads

Well done on a few greta sessions lads, and congratulations on the cuckoos

i have to agree with you about litter being left on marks . If everyone just took 5 mins at the end of their session clear up their rubbish.

Well done lads great report & pics Al, would love to catch a cuckoo ray or any Ray

well done! that looked like a belter of a session would love to get one of them rays!!!!

well done lads

Hi Al

There was quite a few cuckoo rays caught last week from the same area. But they are very hit and miss. You could fish that same mark the next night and not get any.
Well done and I am sure young Jordan will get one soon enough. My own young lad loves catching rays or any flat fish ( as he likes to call them)

George

well done on the fishing but great to see ye get ray off yer mark.nice pics

Well done on the Ray, cool as...

Them cookoos have to be one of the most beautiful fish on our shores

That was just marvellous Al, great reading altogether . You well deserve it for your efforts and I applaud your anti-littering message. And by the way,,,,,,,,,,you're a jammy git!!!!!!!There again , as the man says, the more you fish , the jammier you get ,,,,,,,,,,,well done again

Who was it that said 'the more I practice the luckier I get'. Great report.

well done lads what a report a great read
and great fish and photos excellent

great report al
those cuckoo rays are beautiful looking fish ,you guys have
some super looking spots for fishing and great variety of fish .keep the reports comming al .

Great read as usual Al and the ray are beautiful as they lads have said. Very well done