Bray Harbour, Co Wicklow, 11-02-11

[eyesreilly]

People:Me, Al, Jordan, Drew, Roger and Sparkie

Duration:Sparkie, 4-30pm-11pm approx, rest of us , 6-30pm-11pm approx

Tide:high at 5-30 approx

Weather:Wet and windy

Bait:lug,squid,mack, sandeel

Rigs:allsorts.

Results:5xbeard rockling, coalies, doggies




Report:With the lads down for the Swords Show and Sparkie wanting to meet some of us from the site, I rang the font of knowledge that is Roger the Dodger and begged him to come up with a venue on the East Coast that would at least throw up a few fish . When he finished laughing , and myself having discounted the "Bring 'em to the pub instead " option, it was decided to meet in Bray. With a strong Southerly wind and rain forecast we opted for the shelter of the pier rather than the beach. The rest of us arrived to see Roger and Sparkie set up and they had already had some fish , so there was hope .We then had all the introductions and with the wind and rain starting to get heavier we set ourselves up and prepared for a rough session. After a while the tripod was put away and I used velcro straps to tie the rods to the railings, then at least I could go and have a chat without worrying about the rods blowing over. Sparkie(Mark), had already had a couple of rockling when he then pulled in a doggie on sandeel, happy days. I had 2 rods out , one at distance with a 2up ,1 down set up carefully and professionally tied by young Jordan, who would put a lot of us to shame , and I was delighted when this rig caught me a rockling , on the bottom hook. My other rod was closer in , no more than ten yards out, and I caught 6 more rockling on this, on lug/squid combo. My lug were very large, and my main problem was getting them on the hook.The rain was fairly persistant at this stage and everyone was well soaked but the craic and banter was good as usual as we swapped stories and bitched about people who were supposed to be there but never turned up .We wont mention any names as its not fair, as there may have been medical or psychiatric reasons .By the way, Jordan was very disappointed not to have seen Fishface there , but he said I more than made up for it . I gave Jordan my close in rod to hold and within minutes he had reeled in a 5 beard rockling, then he dived for the car as he was wet through. Sparkie was still bringing in Doggies, while Roger on the other end had a coalie on plain squid to add to his tally of 5x beards. We fished on in the wind and rain for 4 hours, catching mostly rockling, but we were all well wrapped up so it was tolerable.Roger packed up and said his goodbyes, then Al and the Northern Crew started to pack up as they were heading to Clogherhead to fish through the night,,,,,,and I thought I was a glutton for punishment . The tide was well pushed out at this stage so we all packed up our wet gear and started the cars to warm up,,,,,,,,,one of the advantages of Bray Harbour .It's nice to hop into a warm car after a night like that. Still,,,,everyone caught a few fish, with Sparkie getting 2 doggies which at least put a bend in his rod so it wasnt so bad,,,and at least it wasnt bitterly cold. If it hadnt been for the torrential rain and gale force winds it would have been a relaxing experience.Good to meet up with some lads off the site and thanks to Roger for putting us on the fish I'm sure Al will add to this when he gets back from Clogherhead and i'm looking forward to the report


EPILOGUE

Remember what I said about it being great getting into a nice heatedup car after a wet session ,,,well I drove out of the Harbour and into Bray, all was well , went about a mile and a half then I felt water drippindg down my neck. I still had my hat on, silly me,,,,,,,,,,but not only that, my headlamp was still on I'm sure Sparkie, who was behind me, had a good laugh

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Last edited by eyesreilly on Sun Feb 13, 2011 1:42 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Nice read Dave. I haven't got the papers yet so that did nice with my coffee Sounds like there was a bit of craic lads fair play.

Fair play lads on getin a few fish, look forward to hearing how the rest got on in clogherhead.
Good report as usual Dave

Well the rain wasn't for stopping, so we headed on home.... Meeting Al in a few and we're heading up the Antrim Coast... No doubt there'll be a report from that some time tonight or tomorrow!
Good to meet Eyes, Rog and Sparkie, Pity about the Weather, but as above, the craic was mighty and the hospitality was second to none! Tyvm to Al who Drove, Rog who chose the venue, and Eyes, who makes a decent cuppa tea!

well done to all with a few fish for everyone in that weather

sorry about not turning up but with being in bed all week with man flu , i thought that staying in would be a better bet, sorry i did not phone you but left my phone in work, got it back this morning and phoned al with an apology, will be in touch, good to see some fish turning up for you, brave men in that weather, dawsey will have to wait a bit longer for his rod

Well done to all the lads for braving the elements and getting a few fish.

I got there early to try get an extra hour or so fishing time in the day light, But ended up stood talking to some guy who wouldn't leave me alone! The best part off an hour and a half this guy was talking to me! I had my 2 rods out with the 1st casts for nearly 2 hours due to it!

I was just on my 2 cast when eyes rang me, to see if I was on the pier! And asked me what the weather was like, I didn't really want tell him the truth, that it was horrible and looking to be a real bad nite, as i was out and was looking forward to company on such a misserable nite. Then soon as eyes hung up I had a double off 5 bearded. So with the dreaded blank out off the way I decided to just throw out sandeels at range and hope for a doggie, was real lucky as I bagged 2 of them. Was also fishing mid range with lug but it was only managing to pick up rocklings, as the lug I had wer just way to big for my 2,0 rigs.

Was a really enjoyable nite, getting to meet a few guys who love to fish like I do! Was just a shame the tides and the weather wer so bad. But next weekend the tides are good so hopefully it can be the same again, a few ppl out fishing and enjoying themselves.

Hard luck with the rain and wind

wish we could have joined this session,but work got in the way! well done on the beardies,did jordan use his new rod yet?

well done lads.is this the session after the show that ye were panning

great meeting up again man. just a pity the weather gods had different ideas that was a bit mental gale force winds and horizontal rain is'nt exactly pleasure angling . like drew said we drove up to clogherhead under that band of raincloud and conditions there were the same as bray. so we decided to high tail it back north, get some kip and head out in the afternoon as it was a great forecast for the day and boy am i glad we did as we had an amazing session i'll get a report up this evening when i get the car mot'd and resize all the many pics

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Well done for sticking it out in that weather and getting a few fish. It wasn't great down south either.

Well done lads, ye were became men after staying out in that weather and ye got a few fish too well done

Fair Play lads, and some good results even with the weather.. Looked like a hardy one..
Always good to meet up with the lads again after a while for a bit of banter and crack..

Glad we got to say hello to Al, Jordan and Drew at the show, but as we said unfortunately we also couldnt make it due to other, lets say engagements Any next time for sure...

Mick

Lads,what part of bray harbour is the best to fish without getting snagged up,looked at the harbour on google maps and it shows pretty clear from the bend on the nearest pier to the end fishing out seaward.Would fishing into the harbour produce anything too because im trying to break this 8th session blank and going to try the ol salted lug,cheers

Lads,what part of bray harbour is the best to fish without getting snagged up,looked at the harbour on google maps and it shows pretty clear from the bend on the nearest pier to the end fishing out seaward.Would fishing into the harbour produce anything too because im trying to break this 8th session blank and going to try the ol salted lug,cheers

Don't know about salted lug but you'd get flounder and other mini fish inside the harbour. As far as I know it's not really snaggy at all. Just fish off the end of the pier on the Dublin side.

Lads,what part of bray harbour is the best to fish without getting snagged up,looked at the harbour on google maps and it shows pretty clear from the bend on the nearest pier to the end fishing out seaward.Would fishing into the harbour produce anything too because im trying to break this 8th session blank and going to try the ol salted lug,cheers

Don't know about salted lug but you'd get flounder and other mini fish inside the harbour. As far as I know it's not really snaggy at all. Just fish off the end of the pier on the Dublin side.

Cheers dfella will give it a go so with fingers crossed,meant to ask do you have to pay for parking down there on sundays

Lads,what part of bray harbour is the best to fish without getting snagged up,looked at the harbour on google maps and it shows pretty clear from the bend on the nearest pier to the end fishing out seaward.Would fishing into the harbour produce anything too because im trying to break this 8th session blank and going to try the ol salted lug,cheers

Don't know about salted lug but you'd get flounder and other mini fish inside the harbour. As far as I know it's not really snaggy at all. Just fish off the end of the pier on the Dublin side.

Cheers dfella will give it a go so with fingers crossed,meant to ask do you have to pay for parking down there on sundays

Just drive on and fish mate, no paying for parking! Just cast toasted Dublin and not into the harbour, you should def catch a few fish!

Lads,what part of bray harbour is the best to fish without getting snagged up,looked at the harbour on google maps and it shows pretty clear from the bend on the nearest pier to the end fishing out seaward.Would fishing into the harbour produce anything too because im trying to break this 8th session blank and going to try the ol salted lug,cheers

Don't know about salted lug but you'd get flounder and other mini fish inside the harbour. As far as I know it's not really snaggy at all. Just fish off the end of the pier on the Dublin side.

Cheers dfella will give it a go so with fingers crossed,meant to ask do you have to pay for parking down there on sundays

Just drive on and fish mate, no paying for parking! Just cast toasted Dublin and not into the harbour, you should def catch a few fish!

yesus mark what you drinking