Clifden co.galway

People:myself and davy

Duration:1 week

Tide:

Weather:hot ,bright ,sunny . not normal weather :D

Bait:12lb rag worm ,30 mackerel ,8 packets of squid .

Rigs:mainly pulley rigs and feathers

Results:plenty of wrasse (ballen,cuckoo,corkwing,rockcook) to 3lb , 8 congers to 9lb, 25ish rays to 7 1/2lb ,small pollack a couple of mackerel


Report:

we've been planning to head down clifden way for a while after hearing reports of brilliant wrasse fishing around the area from a couple of friends ,so after getting a caravan booked and finding out as many marks as possible we set of from bangor with a car full to the roof with a mountain of bait and tackle .
first day saw us fishing the white lady in clifden bay managed to pick up a few wrasse on the rag and some rays on mackerel ,nothing big but good craic ,got talking to a local guy who mentioned the red tide that seems to have killed of the fishing on the west coast .
After a contacting Jakes from the forum we decided to try little killary the next day and see if we could pick up a bull huss or some more rays , bit of a disaster with nothing but a tiny wrasse so after 7 hrs of bringing baits back in the way they went out we packed up and headed back to the caravan stopping of at Augrus point for a bit of spinning for pollack and some wrasse fishing ,got a good few fish here taking wrasse upto 2 1/2lb on slow spun ragworm .
fished augrus point again the next day and found a massive gully running back into the rocks ,parts of which were 30+ feet deep ,between the two of us we managed to pick over 100 wrasse up to 3lb and both of us even managed a cuckoo wrasse ,very good fishing here with loads of spots to fish from with a couple of small offshore islands to fish behind and holes and channels to fish in .
Decided to fish augrus again the next day so on the way there stopped of at the small pier facing out towards omey island to try for some flatties ,davy managed to get one tiny turbot about 3" long ,then a crowd of kids arrived and started jumping in and swimming ,so packed up and headed round to augrus point ,see if we could pick up a bigger wrasse , not as many fish but a few 2 1/2 lbers to keep us amused .
tried little killary again fishing into dark this time ,caught a load of small congers ,but still no flatties out on the sand .
the last day saw us back at the white lady fishing for the rays and wrasse , most fo the fish seemed to come on the filling tide up to an hour before high then the bites stopped ,most of our mackerel was a bit manky by this stage and catching fresh ones was proving at bit of a challenge .
Had a great time exploring around the place ,i think the best way is to buy an ordanence survey map of the area and get your rucksack on cos there are loads of likely looking spots ,we even went to the expense of buying an admiralty chart of the area and theres loads of marks with deep water close at hand ,its just hard to try them all in a week .
big thank you to kieran and jakes for their help in pointing us in the direction of some places worth a try .
ps. not one dog fish ,flounder,dab or plaice , just wonder what sort of effect this red tide has had on the fishing!!

I've fished the Little Killary and surrounding area a lot in the past. Flatfish are always hard to come across and have only had flounder, and very small turbot like you caught even though fishermen I know get plaice and dabs on the nearby beaches. Mind you, they don't set nets there often at all so that wouldn't explain the lack of flatfish. Was always plagued by dogfish though!!

I fished the white Lady before (right where the white marker is at the South side of the Bay). Memorable for the fact that when I was striking into a ballan wrasse, my beachcaster was pulled out of the rod stand and into the sea. Luckily I was able to grab it and land the culprit (thornback about 6-7lbs). I lost the wrasse though as it dived into the Kelp!! Mind you, would rather keep the rod than the wrasse!!