co. antrim harbour sunday 13th feb 2011

People: myself, jordan and drew

Duration: 4pm to midnight

Tide: HW 6.40PM

Weather: GLORIOUS!!! no wind or rain and calm seas. felt more like july

Bait: rag, lug, squid, peeler, mack, razor and sand eel

Rigs: 3 hook flappers, 2 up 1 down, wishbones and 2 hook clipped rigs

Results: coalfish dab flounder plaice 5 bearded rockling whiting and codling




Report: well after nearly being blown off bray harbour on saturday we had driven up to port oriel clogherhead co louth to see about fishing there until dawn. i thought the high wall would have afforded us some shelter from the gales and torrential rain. but on arrival just after 1.30am it was as bad here as bray was earlier . so a rethink was in order as we had a mountain of bait to use up that sparkie, roger and eyes had given to us. (thanks lads). i knew the following day's forecast for the north antrim coast was to be a good one. so we took a vote and both drew and jordan opted for us to cut our losses and head back up north for a more comfortable sunday session. we had drew safely dropped off home in millisle for around 3.30am and we got into our beds for about 4.30am.
so a 10am alarm call had us back up but blurry eyed and ready to do it all over again . we picked drew up in belfast for 1pm and headed on up the coast. we took our time and even had a munch on the way which we all needed to get the energy levels back up again. added to that 3 cups of coffee and a red bull loaded with a red bull shot soon had me back to myself again and ready to go!. we arrived at our intended mark to find 2 lads already fishing it. so a quick rethink was in order and we decided to fish a spot another angler was packing up at. there was enough room for us to get 2 rods out each but jordan had'nt bothered with his beachcaster as his tiny telescopic spinning rod was getting hits from the first cast. he was having a ball with it catching coalie after coalie. so that was his new rod and reel from the angling show well and truely christned . i was'nt expecting too much during the day, but was surprised when my first cast had me into a wee plaice. nothing to write home about, but another species ticked off the 2011 list all the same. this was great even drew had a few before the light left us which really surprised me. soon after dusk the coalies came out in force attacking every bait we put out there which was good craic. but drew was on fire with the flatties catching every dab within a mile radius . honestly,,, he was pulling them in 2 at a time. i don't think i've ever seen so many dab landed by 1 person in a single session . then the other species came on the feed and a nice variety was caught by me and drew. but jordan had'nt bothered to chuck out his beachcaster. he was having too much fun coalie bashing on the mini rod .
as we got towards high water the fishing died off for a good 40mins which gave us a chance to do a bait inventory and get the coffee on the stove. it was only when doing this i realized my packet of supposed wexford peeler was in fact brown crab and not shore crab as it said on the packet no wonder it never got a touch all night well that will teach me for buying cheap bait off the internet. thank god i only bought 1 packet of it and the rest was sand eel which was spot on. anyhow back to the fishing. as the tide turned the fishing picked up again with rockling, flounder, codling and dab all coming on the feed again. yet again, nothing of any great size but the sheer numbers of them about was fantastic. jordan and i were keeping a carefull count, but drew was on fire easily outfishing us 2 to 1 and had barely a chance to reel in one rod and re-bait and cast out again before the other one was nodding away furiously. cathal even appeared from around the corner looking for charlie. so we had a chance to catch up and have a yarn and get jealous at the decent pollack he had from earlier in the day. good to get a chat again man and cracking fishing by the way .
so cathal headed on and we got back to the fishing. it was pretty constant again for a few hours and i decided to put on big baits in the attempt for a doggie or 2. sadly no doggies showed but jordan and drew both had a chuckle at me being demented by the little bites from the whiting shoals that had moved in just in front of us. my rod was nodding away, but obviously the wee fish were just plucking at the bigger squid and mack baits i had on with no fear of getting hooked up . every time i struck into one of the little blighters the avoided the hooks and i just reeled in half munched baits. frustrating as hell for me but it had jordan and drew in wrinkles. as we got towards low water the fishing died a death and we decided to call it a day and head for home. besides that. all the driving and travelling from the past 48 hours had started to get to me and sadly there is only so much caffinee can do for me and i could hear my bed calling
this session and weather had more than made up for the day before as it felt more like july than feburary .
so a great weekend was had by all and we got to meet some old friends and put some new faces to names at the angling show in swords and at bray. good to meet you roger, sparkie and jim . and a big thank you to sparkie, dave and roger for all the bait at bray as it served us well on sunday
the final scores on the doors for me and junior were

JORDAN 36 coalfish, 1 whiting and 2 codling
ME 16 coalfish, 3 dab, 3 flounder, 3 plaice, 2 whiting and a 5 bearded rockling.

as for drew, he lost count of what he was catching after about the 50th fish . he must have ended up with easily 70 fish or so and 20 of them must have been dab i've honestly never seen so many dab caught by one person in a single session before. great way to round the weekend off in style

forgot to mention drew got some pics and video of the wee man at work with his mini spinning rod and even me catching the elusive co antrim crab fish (who i honestly thought was a doggie)

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last pics

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Great fishing and a load of different species

Cracking session,Jordan's new rod looks like it would be brilliant fun.

Brilliant report and lovely pics as ever Al, lovely flatties, really good to see the plaice putting in an appearance, with a bit of luck one of us might hit a good plaice in the months ahead.

Good to see you again that evening.

That fella that had the good flounder to your left, he said he caught strange little brown fish with its eyes on top of its head and it was very slimy/slippery, it had to be a rockling?

super session lads that some amount of fish very well done to all

class fishing there lads.well written report too al.never caught a plaice of the shore

thats fishing i got home from work a bit early put on the dinner as herself wasnt well ,loaded up my gear and arranged to meet gordy and connor down wicklow way ,by the time i had scoffed my tea it was pelting down ,a quick call to the boys confirmed it was bucketing down on the beach too my bait is back in the fridge and i just finnished servicing two reels FOR TOMMOROW NIGHT SORRY LADS (their are only so many pelting down sessions a man can do in one week!)

Great fishing lads Well done Nice fish there

That was a great haul off fish, that really does make up for the nite we had Saturday! I'm glad the bait we gave use worked and was put to a good use, as it didn't really do to good for us on Saturday nite and my bait was only going to go to the bottom off the sea!

Hopefully this Saturday evening/nite is going to produce some decent fish for me! I'd settle for one flattie and no rocklings!

sweet fishing lads,and great to see jordan getting so much fun outta that rod roll on the summer and wrasse fishing!!

Great fishing lads I could do with a session or two like that great report & pics Al

Lovely plaice, boys, things are looking up for this year if they are showing already

Lads that sounded like some cracking session, good to see drew out and in good form, thats some tally of fish and species And ye had the weather with yous as well, first session on saturday night in a couple of weeks and got slaughtered with wind and rain but thats the joy of sea fishing

great report al. and nice pics too.good to see jordan making good use of his new rod. its time to get making plans for the mayo session.... . but dont tell drew or there will be no flatties left on the west coast . .

nice picture

I can't thank Al and Young Jordan enough for going to the effort of picking me up, and dropping me home! First full session up North with these 2 fishing nuts and all I can say is, their enthusiasm is contagious. It was great to see the flats in such numbers, and a good variety of species making things interesting. Jordan is king of the Coalies with his new rod! As I've said I havent enjoyed a fishing weekend like that in some time. Makes me happy to be a member of S.A.I, and proves what the lads on this forum are capable of when they get together! Thanks again Al, for the cracking Coffee, the Banter, and putting us onto such great fishing. Legend.

nb... The Videos are on my Iphone, which I decided to drop into a little saltwater puddle on a certain Antrim mark tonight, its looking bleak for it, but if I can salvage the videos off it tomorrow when I take it out of the hot press I'll certainly post them.

nice one guys nice to see plan b working out for ya's, more often than not the back up plan is required that wee rod looks great jordan, you'll have some fun with the wrasse in the summer.

WOW that was a great session, nice to see the plaice and your pis are very, very good. s tat a casting rod that Jordan has, I have never tried one and doubt I would be able to cast one, a beachcaster is another animal.
Sleep time is near, but very well done to all, I am of to Youghal tomorrow hoping for a few cod and a chat with seanie.

Regards Wez

that super session i think its the best what you can get in february al, it would be very hard to get that many dabs in one session anywhere alse drew
good craic lads, well done