Blackhead Antrim thursday 23rd abd saturday 25th september

People me

Duration thursday 10am-5pm saturday 6pm-10pm

Tide thurday hw 10am saturday lw 4pm

Weather thurdays pure shite saturday nice but a bit nippy

Bait thrusday rag and mack saturday mack

Rigs float, freelining, conger traces

Results see below

thursday

planned to spend the day fishing, weather was looking iffy but thought "what the hell". landed down and had misjudged the tide so it was already on rull rip right to left which made float fishing quite difficult, still managed to pull out a few pollock, coalies and wrasse. went to set up the conger rod but i forgot my traces. still had hooks so just stuck one on the main line and chucked it out with little hope. didnt get a run but got snagged and lot the hook when the braided was rubbing on the rocks. decided to packed the conger rod away and just concentrating on freelining bit of rag and mack. the tide was still ripping but it was actually working to my advantage. due to little weight the tide swept the bait round but was running so strong it stopped it from sinking all the way to the bottom once the line tightened so it was flapping away nicely in the tide and bite were pretty constant. biggest fish was a wrasse around the pound mark and no end of pollock and coalies under half a pound. in the afternoon the wind the wind picked up somethin rotten from left to right and that made casting nearly impossible. between wind and tide the elements were against me but struggled on for the next hour and still managed to scrape out a few more then went home. happy enough.

saturday

sat in work all day thinking i should be fishing, come 4 oclock there was a brian shaped blur heading ou the door and away. was down at the mark by 6. first things first i threw out a conger rod. then set up a freeline set up and started fishing. it was prettey slow from the off on the freelined mackerel. only caught about 3 fish in the first hour but on the conger rod i got a run with the first 30 minutes, it was short sharp runs about half a yard at a time and when i hit it there was nothing there, i reckon it was a doggy. that was one whole mackerel down and i only had 3 with me so threw out a half a mack and within 20 minutes i got another run. a bit more definite this time. hit it , but it would apprear the line had caught around some weed or rock and the fish had actually run towards me. everytime i struck i could feel the line snag and then ping off whatever it was caught on and go slack, reeled in the slack and had to repeat this 3 or 4 time before i made contact with a solid mass. whatever it was, was back in its hole and was stuck fast. slightly dismayed i kept pressure on it for about a minute. then gave it some slack line for a minute, then pressue and so on and so on. after 5 minute i was putting pressue on it. was it seated position leaning into it then suddenly the lined parted and i fell backward cursing as a i went. started reeling in the line to rig up again but i started fighting back again. WOO HOO. got it to the surface and then realised there was no way i could land it where i was so had to walk it round 20 yards to small ledge which wasnt easy on the uneven rock, a few time the braided came close to rubbing on the rock edge and i though i was gonna lose it but fortuntely not. down on the wee ledge i got a hold of the trace and hauled it in. right on top of spinner and tinsel trace someone must have lost the day or 2 before. double bonus. grabbed both fish and spinner and headed up to the bag to get it weighed, unhooked and photo taken. when trying to unhook it i could see the hook in its mouth but the line didnt seem connected to it. took a second to join the dots, the hook on my trace was swallowed deep so cut the line. the hook in its mouth had a small piece of my braided line attached so it was actually the hook i lost on thursday.got that out, it was too rusty to reuse to chuck it when i got home along with the tinsel trace. kept the spinner though. fish weighed in at 7 and a half pounds. went back to freelining a few times near the edge i saw a huge shape about 2 feet down come in and out of the weed. dropped a bait down and it came out and took it straight away, it was a very nice pollock at a pound and a half. considered taking it home for sunday dinner but let it go again. dropped it down again to see if there was anymore and this time i pulled out a wee pouting around 8 inches. bout half 7 a shoal of coalies around the half pound mark moved in and took residence below my feet so it was almost a fish a cast after that. they kept me more than occupied for the rest of the session. me da rang me about 9 and asked hows it going, just as he said that the conger rod started screaming at me so hung up and hit it but it was solid and after 10 minutes of keeping the pressue on and off the line gave way. kept catching away at coalies and a single rockling. uptill 10 then called it a night and headed home.

all in all 2 productive sessions and was happy with the results.

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nice one mate, looks like a good days fishing

congrads on the eel mate there are some monsters down there saw a pic last year of one not too far of 30lb landed down there you'd have some fun trying to land that fella on your own

you'd have some fun trying to land that fella on your own

im sure id be more than happy to try

ur the main conger man now.well done

congrads on the eel mate there are some monsters down there saw a pic last year of one not too far of 30lb landed down there you'd have some fun trying to land that fella on your own

your rite about the monsters al. my biggest off it this year is 29lb 7oz but i've hooked bigger and lost them. but the place is full of them this year in total i've had roughly 20 plus eels off it this year. oh and congrats yngkmd on getting the eel it can be quite trickly landing them at that wee ledge nearly went for a dip the last time myself

nice eel well done

nice fish mate. Sounds like you had fun....

Good report. Nice eel too. I'd say your finding it hard to pull yourself away from that mark when it's fishing that well. I'm goin conger hunting myself tonight so i hope some of your luck has rubbed off on me from reading your report.

I'm goin conger hunting myself tonight so i hope some of your luck has rubbed off on me from reading your report.

Good luck, make sure you let us know how you get on

Nice fishing there mate, patience is a virtue with those bucko's!