Portrush Saturday 3rd October

People Me

Duration 1230 to 430

Tide Rediculous

Weather Mixed

Bait Rag Mackerel Squid

Rigs Freelining, Float, 1 Hook Bomber, Conger Trace

Results

woke up on saturday morning and had that itch to catch a fish. i knew it was a bit blowy but reckoned it shouldnt be too rough since it was blowing from the south. couldnt go to blackhead cos of the wind direction so was trying to decide between bangor and portrush. ruled out bangor since i wanted to catch something a better than a picker so of i headed to portrush planning to fish ramore head.
Earlier i had read an email from my dad and he sent me this link

http://youtube.com/watch?v=5MtdIO23MKM so i had the songs stuck in my head and was happily singing them into my helmet on the way down. since i didnt really know the words, just the tune i rewrote the marine anthem so it was about my trip to portrush. the closer i got the more excited i got and the louder my singing got. i was a good job no-one could hear me cos my singing is terrible. but thats one of the things i love about fishing, even though ive been doing it for 25 years i still get really excited about going.
got down there and came over the hill in full view of the skerries. i could see there a wee bit of surf at the white rocks and there were a few waves crashing on the islands but it looked flat enough there were no white horses or anything so looked ok. went on down round past Barries and checked out the west strand. the surf was up and i could see waves smashing into the coast as far as i could see. Didnt look good anymore and when i arrived at ramore head and made the "long" walk up to it the conditions were terrible. the spots i wanted to fish at were underwater and the first 25 yards of water from the edge were just a white foam. sod this i thought and headed round to the blue pool. due to being sheltered by the islands its usually a lot calmer. got down and there was a guy in my spot so found somewhere else close to but a respectful distance away and started fishing.
i had quite a bit of bait with me, i was planning to fish from 12-6 or later depending on how it was going. so had 3 whole mackerel and a 6 pack of 6 inch long squid. i would be using a half mackerel and whole squid for conger bait so that would give me 6 chucks and then a 6 pack of small mackerel fillets and 1 bag of rag.
conger line went out and i wedged the rod into a crevice. set up the freelining rod and cast out. first cast was a tiny pollock about 5 inches long, and in the first half an hour i had about 3 or 4, during this time the conger was acting strange. everytime the waves dropped 2 or 3 yards of line was stripped off the reel, at first i thought nothing of it but it kept doing it, usuallys when the wave comes in again the line slackens but it stayed tight this time. then some line got stripped when the wave was coming in so figured "OI OI" chucked out the freelinging rod and went to investigate. reeled in the slack and it went solid, figured it was either snagged or maybe a fish had got back into its hole so sat down put the rod between my legs and really leaned into it. the rod was completely bent double but rather than being tight the weight was coming in. it was really really really heavy but it was coming and for the first 10 seconds i though i had a huge weight of weed on until it started to fight back. it was pulling so hard i could hardly hold on to the rod. i need both hands so couldn't do any reeling, just haning on and it pulled and puled and pulled for about 30 seconds until eventually it bit through the trace. i wasnt too gutted as thats how it goes, i was more excited that there was something big out and i was gonna get it next time. rerigged and baited and cast out to the same spot. wedged the rod back into the crevice and went to check the other rod. its a very very light rod dont forget. started to reel it and the line just got tighter and tighter until it went solid. Snagged again, damn, gave it a bit of pressue and the line started to come in but didnt get any slacker and then it started to fight back. and boy did it fight, after probably the best fight ive had all year and huge fat wrasse came to the surface. i got it into the edge but have a really light rod and only 6lb line i doubted very much i would be able to get it out but the guy in my spot had a landing net so shouted over and he was happy to come and give me a hand. got it weighed at 3 1/4lb took a photo and returned it safely. i says to the guy if i dont catch anything else that fish has made this whole trip worth while. if only i knew.
the swell started to play silly buggers. everyone that was there was on the relative safey of the high ground, the swell was bigger than normal but was it was fishable. but every 5 or 10 minutes a huge swell would hit that would cover everything including some of the lower "high grounds". when the conger rod disappeared under 2 foot of water in a swell that caught me unawares before reappearing again i unwedged it from the crevice and packed it way. i couldnt freeline anymore as i couldnt get close enough to the edge so broke out the carp rod and stuck on a float. this wasnt easy fishing either i was standing on a rock about 15 feet about the water level and abut 10 yards back from the edge. it was realatively safe as even the big waves came close but didnt threaten the rock. floatfishing was a dead loss, the float was getting tossed about like nobodys business, even chucking it out as far as i could it was being ripped all over the shop so gave that up as well. i only had 12lb line on the reel of the float rod but thought id try a 1 hook bomber anyway. chuck it out with a 2 ounce weight as i couldnt really put on a heavier weight due to the light line. but it was still getting pulled all over the place. so gave that up as well. the swell was getting worse and worse. in between it wasnt too bad but every 5 or 10 minutes and a huge swell would cover everything. ive never seen it so rough but you if you paid attention you could see the water drop and the wall of water heading towards you so you had a good 10 seconds to get out of the way. to give you an idea ive attached 2 photos, the before shot is of the rock i was standing on which was about 8 feet about the water lever and the second was taken about 2 minues later. the bit circled in red it the same bit of rock in both photos and was where i was standing earlier. it was too dangerous so gave it up and retreated to the high high ground and sat and smoked and considered my options. as i was doing this the biggest swell of the day swamped every including the high ground and nearly swamped the high high ground as well. i shook my head in disbelief, i had been standing down there just a few minutes earlier. i had a very very lucky escape as it came out of nowhere and if i had been fishing and retreated to where i was retreating to i would have had 2 feet of surging water to content with. silently berrated my self for being so stupid and risking trying to fish these condition in the first place and headed round to the harbour figuring i could at least fish for pickers. got round and cast out then realised something was very wrong. the storm conditions was causing the tide to surge in and out of the harbour. it was like a river that didnt know was way it was flowing and every surge carried about 3 ton of weed with it so was completely unfishable. i had had enough and headed home. no singing this time.
the thing that annoyed me the most was having so much bait left over. i hate wasting bait and had 4 fillets, 4 squid and 2 whole macker left over. as it had all been frozen once already it cant be reused and it all costs money. stuck it back on the freezer, i figure it will do for ground bait the next time i go on a conger hunt.

didnt even get a bite after i caught that wrasse but as i said to the guy it still made the whole 120 mile round trip worth while.

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Bloody hell, even Henry Gilby would be callin you a wild man this morning! Nice Wrasse tho'

hi mate it was the same at portbaddon, flat camp because wind behind us but ever so often three waves in a row would just appear a cover the place.

Fair play for fishing in those conditions and for jacking it when the tide got angry! The swells up that neck of the woods can be huge and catch you totally off guard. Anglers are swept in all over the UK every year, not worth risking your life for the sake of a few fish! Nice fish too!!!

Cracking wrasse considering the conditions, maybe best to check the swell reports for portrush before you trek up to fish next time, it was predicting 13 foot swell for yesterday afternoon. http://magicseaweed.com/Portrush-Surf-Report/56/

Cracking wrasse considering the conditions, maybe best to check the swell reports for portrush before you trek up to fish next time, it was predicting 13 foot swell for yesterday afternoon. http://magicseaweed.com/Portrush-Surf-Report/56/

nice one, will find that site handy in future

i did check this one http://www.westbaysurfboards.co.uk/whitepic/ and there was little surf and seemed calm enough obviously it was subject to change

i should have got a clue on the way down when i passed so many cars with surfboards strapped to the top

sounded like hairy enough conditions man we had a scare at ramore head last year when a freak wave came outta nowhere and shot a good 25feet up the rocks to the platform we were fishing from since then i never turn my back to the sea up on those marks

i was the same on sat mate in ballycastle. shocking at times and the waves scred me a bit that i moved and called it a day

it was a rough oul day alright
it would have been a bit of a wasted trip it wasnt for that wrasse
was ragin on sunday though when the wind situation had improved a great deal
couldnt shake the feel that then would have been a better day for it but i had things to do, things i shouldve have done on saturday instead but hey theres always next weekend.

sounded like hairy enough conditions man we had a scare at ramore head last year when a freak wave came outta nowhere and shot a good 25feet up the rocks to the platform we were fishing from since then i never turn my back to the sea up on those marks

The only time you turned your back mate was when you fell flat on your back into that 3ft rock pool in front of a small audience


Cracking wrasse though man.

nice fish.... wise move gettin outta there!

sounded like hairy enough conditions man we had a scare at ramore head last year when a freak wave came outta nowhere and shot a good 25feet up the rocks to the platform we were fishing from since then i never turn my back to the sea up on those marks

The only time you turned your back mate was when you fell flat on your back into that 3ft rock pool in front of a small audience


Cracking wrasse though man.

well at least i gave them all a good laugh and it was'nt a slip man,,,,, just wanted to show the tourists what a wee crab on his back with it's legs waving about in the air looked like ........ honest