waterfoot harbour thur 30th dec portrush harbour sat 1st jan

[Al and Jordan]

People: waterfoot ME, JORDAN & DAN. portrush ME, JORDAN & MARK

Duration: 30TH, 1.30PM - 9PM. 1ST, 2PM - 9PM

Tide: 30TH HW 5PM'ish 1ST HW 5.05PM

Weather: 30TH, 8MPH WESTERLY DRY. 1ST 3MPH EASERLY LIGHT SNOW SHOWERS CHILLY

Bait: peeler crab, mack, sand eel, rag, lug, bluey, king prawn, squid

Rigs: 2 up 1 down. baited mini feathers. 8/0 conger rigs

Results: whiting, pollack, coalfish, flounder, doggies, pouting, codling, dab, 5 bearded rockling, short spined sea scorpion, poor cod & a lobster

Report:
THURSDAY 30TH DECEMBER WATERFOOT HARBOUR
well this spell of polar weather finally decided to sod off and let us get back out fishing again . we've been going stir crazy since our last trip out on the 11th december and getting serious fishing withdralls. so this was one of our most looked forward to trips this year. a quick call to dan belfast confirmed he was up for it too and we hit the road and were set up in waterfoot for 1.30pm. with only 1 other angler fishing beside us it was pretty uncrowded for a change . jordan and dan decided to set up with 2 up 1 down rigs on size 1 hooks at distance and baited mini feathers on thier other wee spinning rods cast out just feet from the edge of the harbour. i opted for a 2 up 1 down rig on 3/0 hooks at distance to try for something a bit bigger with big baits. whole peeler, 5 inch bluey sections and whole 6 inch calamari were the order of the day . as we expected it was pretty quiet until it started to get dark when the hoards of 25cm coalies came out in force hammering anything that was'nt nailed down or on fire . added to that a whole procession of anglers started to appear looking for a spot to fish from. so turning up early was a wise move in the end . jordan and dan were having a coalie competition with dan winning in the end with 111 to jordan's 66 . while i was holding out for something a bit bigger. sadly it never came but i did get a few doggies which were a welcome addition to our tallys. jordan put the mini feathers away and changed over to a spinner he found lying on the ground. he'd never caught a fish on a spinner in the sea before. so with a bit of coaching from dan he was soon pulling in single coalies and achieved another wee milestone in his angling career . we all ended up with a good mix of species and the final scores were:
JORDAN - 66 COALIES, 5 POLLACK, 1 WHITING AND A DAB
DAN - 111 COALIES, 9 POLLACK, 3 CODLING, 1 FLOUNDER, 1 DAB, 10 WHITING AND A 5 BEARDED ROCKLING
ME - 14 WHITING, 9 POLLACK, 28 COALIES, 2 FLOUNDER, 2 DOGGIES, 1 POUTING AND 3 CODLING

SATURDAY 1ST JANUARY PORTRUSH HARBOUR
dan was working today so mark was out with us this time and portrush harbour was decided on. things looked a bit gloomy on the way up the road with big dark clouds filling the sky. so we abandoned our intended first stop off at the blue pool for some spinning and just headed round to the harbour. we got set up in quick time with us all fishing 2 up 1 down rigs with size 1 hooks and baited mini feathers on the light spinning rods. we all had a conger rod out each hoping for a flukey conger but none showed . as expected it was pretty quiet until the light began to fade when the usual coalies appeared. these ones were a bit bigger thow all averaging between 30cms to 35cms. great fun at 2 or 3 at a time on the spinning gear . a few other species did show up, but not in any great numbers or size. i got a funny bite and reeled in a lobster. at first my mouth was watering at the prospect of some yummy grilled lobster with garlic butter and breadcrumb. but i noticed she had a clutch of eggs on her tail so she had to go back. the funny thing was that one of her claws had been rubber banded. so we did'nt know if she had escaped from somewhere or what the deal was . when we were removing the band it was almost rotten so must have been on her for a while. a local guy with his SLR camera came over and asked could he take a few pics for his flickr account and we had a good chat about all the local sea life in the area. as we were doing this some ignorant muppet had pulled up in a car and almost reversed over jordan, parking only inches from him . both me and mark let out a yell at the same time and he got out and began ranting about how we should'nt be there and we should fish somewhere else. the local guy with the camera informed him that he is the one who should'nt be there as this was the harbour beyond the security barrier and not a car park for the bar. he was actually gonna leave his motor literally inches behind jordan almost forcing him off the harbour. so i told him that any damage caused to his vehicle by an accidental cast was his own look out. he picked me up wrong and said "so does that mean if i leave my motor there it WILL be damaged". to which i replied "take from it what you will mate". the joke of it was, that he got back into the motor and parked in a spot just feet from the front door of the bar 80 yards from where we were in the first place some people eh!. the only other incident worth mentioning was a stupid cormorant who decided to swim off with my conger bait!. the first i knew about it was when my ratchet started screaming and i saw my leader line shoot off at speed into the harbour. i nearly cacked myself as for a split second i was thinking some sort of shark species had lifted my bait and made off with it at speed . i was getting excited because the outfit i was fishing with could have done the buisness with a tope, blue, or porgy . so you could imaging how deflated i was when a stunned looking cormorant popped up out of the water shaking his head wondering what the hell just happened when i tried to set the hook . so another sucessfull session in the diary and a good start to 2011. the scores on the doors ended up:
JORDAN - 44 COALIES, 1 SHORT SPINED SEA SCORPION AND A POLLACK
MARK - 31 COALIES
ME - 19 COALIES, 3 POUTING, 1 POOR COD AND A LOBSTER.

as with 97% of our fishing everything was returned to the sea to live another day on both trips.

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Last edited by Al and Jordan on Sun Jan 02, 2011 6:28 pm, edited 1 time in total.

more pics

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last pics

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well al you sure got rid of the cobwebs that was some haul
of fish and a great way to start as new year well done

Very good fishing again there guys. Well done

Nice fishing lads well done, Have to get out during the week myself & get the new list started & happy new year

Nice one A&J + Mark! Terrific end to one year and a brilliant start to the next! Hope to see u guys on the coast again some time soon!

I REALLY ENJOYED IT THANKS AGAIN AL HOPE TO DO IT AGAIN SOON MATE

Well done Al , some interesting sessions there , to say the least,and some decent fish by the look of it. A great start to the year for you, all the best , Dave.

wide variaty of spesies in this time of the year lads well done, super
Happy New 2011

SOME NICE FISH THERE GENTS AND A GOOD MIX TO BOOT! BAD CRAIC WITH THE A**HOLE ENCOUNTER. SOME PEOPLE SHOULD TAKE UP FISHING FOR A BIT OF STRESS RELIEF!!!! HOPING TO GET OUT WITHIN THE COMING WEEK, HAVEN'T MANAGED A TRIP IN NEARLY 6 WEEKS.

Well done lads what a mixed bag of great fish more species than ive ever caught

great report/s. great photos.
pity about the header turning up... screw him i would have used his car as a rod rest..

nice variety ov fish ther lads,and a good start to the year,,,,well done...

Really great session Al. Pity about that clown with the car in Portrush. Perhaps it was the banjo man as he has not been seen on the pier in Leenan for a while now.

great start to the new year for ye lads!! that was some ammount of coalies! and what is it with you and lobsters al?

super session as usual lads happy new year and tight lines for 2011

Nice one guys good to see ya's finally maade it out and are doing the business.

Thats some load of fish well done lads

it amazes me how you can keep track of so many fish
usually i lose count or stop counting at 10

do you take a notebook with you?