South point, Moylawn Goleen, West Cork.

[petekd]

People:Myself, Trev and Dave

Duration:Sun 5.30 to 9.30 Mon 8.30am to 12.30pm

Tide:Rising on both sessions

Weather:Superb, Windy on Sat.

Bait:Rag, King Rag, Mackerel Strip, Feathers, Jellies

Rigs:2 hook rigs for bait, Float rigs.

Results:Pollack, Ballan Wrasse, Dog fish, Coalfish, Mackerel.


Report:

Agreed to head to Goleen as this is Trevs home turf and we were to fish a couple of "out of the way" marks he knew about. The phrase "might involve a bit of a walk" was used and in no way prepared me for what was to follow. The trek out to the first of these marks on the Saturday was possibly the most painful 90 minutes I have ever spent anywhere, dentists included!! Between 60 degree inclines, scrabbling down and up sheer rock faces, brambles and 6 foot high bracken there was many a moment I wished Id stayed in the car! When we eventually arrived at the mark, we tackled up with sliding float rigs and feathers. Rag and king rag were the order of the day on the float rigs (Thanks to Boogaloo for the tip on where to dig)
Feathers instantly picked up mackerel and small pollack and it wasnt long before a mackerel or two had been filleted and dropped in on a two hook trace. Float rigs were picking up Ballan Wrasse, pollack and the odd mack. Trev pulled in a lovely wrasse of around the four pound mark. Large pollack were hard to find with the vast majority of them anywhere between 1/2 and 1 1/2 pounds. We did manage to take 3 around the 4 pound mark however. Disappointing results on the legered rigs as they only produced the occasional Dog and Coalie. Dave switched over to feathers but was plagued with tiny pollack in massive amounts. I switched over to deep spun sandeel and this instantly accounted for better fish, great sport on the spinning gear! Several large pollack were lost on the day due to seriously rough ground. We had delayed the inevitable for long enough and at around 9.30 with daylight fading fast with a few mackerel filleted for the tea we headed home. Another wonderful trek later including several rest stops ended with most of us close to tears of joy at the sight of the car!!

The following day we rose at 7am and after gathering a few mussels as wrasse bait and taking breakfast we headed for another known wrasse mark. Thankfully this didnt involve too much of a trek, which was a good job as my legs were still like lead from the day before! Wrasse were however conspicuous by there absence with only 2 being caught, 1 small Ballan of about a pound for me and a fine big Ballan of four pounds or so by Dave that nearly tore the rod out of his hands. At that hour of the morning we encountered another problem, plagues of midges which didnt die down till about 10.00. With Wrasse being few and far between we went to the lures and soon were getting stuck into decent pollack, up to the 4 pound mark again, in bright hot sunshine on a low tide! We had an enjoyable hour or two until at 1230 or so we packed up and headed for home with a few more mackerel for the lunch. On leaving we had the pleasure of watching 2 dolphins rolling on the surface not 50 yards from where we stood.

All in all an enjoyable weekend however I am in no hurry to repeat that trek out to south point again in a hurry. Legs are still aching from it!