antrim coast port. saturday 11th dec (late report)

People: me, jordan and liam. drew and bingham appeared later for a bit

Duration: 5.30pm to 10pm

Tide: h/w 10pm

Weather: dry, cold and 10mph westerlys

Bait: squid, mack and bluey

Rigs: 3 hook flappers and baited feathers

Results: coalies, codling, whiting and a strap conger.




Report: only getting round to posting this report now as i'm having a bit of hassle with my tempremental computer . we could'nt get any worms at the weekend so it was all gonna be fish baits for a change, so a flattie bashing session was out of the question. so we just settled on a comfy session in a harbour. there was'nt too much to report, the usual shoals of coalies we've come acustom to this winter were about as usual and hammering anything put in front of them. all around the 30cm mark which seems to have become the norm. only thing out of the ordinary to report was a strap conger of about 3lb who snaffled a mackie strip on jordans spinning rod. jordan had fun with it on the light gear and it turned out to be the biggest fish of the session. i also had a lobster who got hooked fair in the mouth while he was trying to eat the match box sized chunk of bluey on my spinning rod. lucky for him he was undersized so went back in to rob me again some time in the future . around 8pm drew and bingham showed up and got set up fishing beside us. with the crew we ended up with, you could have been forgiven for thinking we were back at the dee . not sure how the lads ended up but we ended up with:
ME - 14 COALIES
JORDAN - 20 COALIES, 1 CODLING AND A STRAP CONGER
LIAM - 15 COALIES AND A WHITING.

like i said, nothing to get the heart racing. but everyone caught something and there were no blanks

You do not have the required permissions to view the files attached to this post.

How the hell do you boys manage to catch these lobsters in the mouth, when I struggle to get them with pots!! Nice catch, straight to the boiling pot I hope!

Edit: Just seen he was undersized (hard to tell from the photo), good man for putting him back. I got some handy pre-cut size measures off eBay to keep me right, cheap and cheerful to keep it above board and keep the fishermen happy

Jordan teaching the old man a thing or two again. Well done lads.

Nice pic of the lobster, never had one on rod and line myself. Was hoping the big dead weight I was towing in last night was a lobster but turned out to be just a medium sized edible crab, undersized one.

Well done Jordan on the strap conger, another thing I never had on rod and line. I'll send yous a pm.

well done lads nice session and lobester

Fair play to ye lads good to see ye still getting a few & nice Conger Jordon I forget whats its like to catch a fish at this stage have lots of fishing to catch up on, very soon i hope

Good to see you lads! lol

Excellent report as usual lads, well done.

fair play. another great report. well done

NICE FISHING CHAPS. THE LOBSTERS UP THAT NECK OF THE WOODS ARE DEFINATELY NOT SHY OF MUNCHING A TASTY FISH BAIT!! STILL HAVEN'T MANAGED TO GET OUT SINCE OUR LAST TRIP UP THERE. GETTING WITHDRAWAL SYMTOMS!

well done,great report,good to see the fish still showing up in numbers

great report as per usual. looks like i wont be out this week again, the bloody snow hasnt stopped falling and its falling again here in Ballymena. tho it looks great here sitting in the office looking out at it!

Good job lads nice to see ya's are still out and about catching a few, been in the wars with the ole rugby, so i'll be out for a bit

How the hell do you boys manage to catch these lobsters in the mouth, when I struggle to get them with pots!! Nice catch, straight to the boiling pot I hope!
Edit: Just seen he was undersized (hard to tell from the photo), good man for putting him back. I got some handy pre-cut size measures off eBay to keep me right, cheap and cheerful to keep it above board and keep the fishermen happy

trust me man, it's more by dumb luck than design i think it's because when we see the rod tips give that rythmic nodding, of the tell tale sign of a crab robbing our hooks we just strike into them. usually it will pull the baits away from the wee robbers, but every now and again if the hook happens to be near or around the mouth parts they get hooked . just a pity he was too small to keep as grilled lobster with bread crumbs and garlic butter is lovely . but as a rule we always put them back if they are under 2lb, have a notch cut out of the tail, are clutching eggs or have a claw already missing or just starting to grow back. i kinda feel sorry for the ones missing claws. i reckon life has already been hard enough on the wee guys who are missing body parts without ending up in a pot of boiling water

Jordan teaching the old man a thing or two again. Well done lads.

yeah tom. he's back to his usual form

Nice pic of the lobster, never had one on rod and line myself. Was hoping the big dead weight I was towing in last night was a lobster but turned out to be just a medium sized edible crab, undersized one.

Well done Jordan on the strap conger, another thing I never had on rod and line. I'll send yous a pm.

cheers cathal . speak soon man.

well done lads nice session and lobester

thanks man

Fair play to ye lads good to see ye still getting a few & nice Conger Jordon I forget whats its like to catch a fish at this stage have lots of fishing to catch up on, very soon i hope

thanks brian. you must be getting serious withdralls by now

Good to see you lads! lol

no probs drew. i'm sure we'll see you soon enough out that way

Excellent report as usual lads, well done.

cheers man

fair play. another great report. well done

thanks mate

NICE FISHING CHAPS. THE LOBSTERS UP THAT NECK OF THE WOODS ARE DEFINATELY NOT SHY OF MUNCHING A TASTY FISH BAIT!! STILL HAVEN'T MANAGED TO GET OUT SINCE OUR LAST TRIP UP THERE. GETTING WITHDRAWAL SYMTOMS!

cheers man. seems to be loads of lobster and big brown crabs up that way at the mo

well done,great report,good to see the fish still showing up in numbers

thanks gerry. those shoals of juvenile coalies seem to be all over the place this year. a sad side effect of a re-focusing of commercial pressure on the pollock. sadly a lot of our summer pollock marks were pratically barren this year. but i suppose it's only to be expected with the commercial guys trawlling just hundreds of yards off shore and longlining even closer in . a sad side effect of fishing down the food chain with the same old story of man exploiting a natural resource until it's exhausted then targeting something else . an unfortunate sign of the times

great report as per usual. looks like i wont be out this week again, the bloody snow hasnt stopped falling and its falling again here in Ballymena. tho it looks great here sitting in the office looking out at it!

cheers man. i know what you mean. i went out to the car this morning and the snow is up to the door sills . so it looks like we're housebound this weekend

Good job lads nice to see ya's are still out and about catching a few, been in the wars with the ole rugby, so i'll be out for a bit

cheers man. sorry to hear that. with the rate you've been going with injurys i hope you got a good healthcare plan . i got a few hours doing bar work at the mo, so i have missed your last few calls, but keep in touch man and we'll get out for some fishing whjen we get a break in this weather

Well done guys