Whitehead Antrim Friday 4th March

People Me

Duration 730-10pm

Tide push

Weather spooky

Bait mackerel

Rigs float, running ledger

Results coalies, pollock, shore rockling

with all the reports showing rockling being caught recently and me not having got any myself i was determined to get one. having had 2 trips to bangor pier which produced fish but no rockling and only having 1 spare evening at the weekend i headed to whitehead for some after hours coalies bashing and hopefully a rockling. the last trip i took up there with ocean roar was a complete blank but this was during daylight hours and i knew it would be better after dark.

finished work at 6 was at whitehead for 715. the path was closed and barricaded off with a big sign stating WARNING EXTREMELY UNSTABLE CLIFF FACE. i figured in this day and age of an over protective nanny state and the fact i was already there i may as well. walked round the barricade easy enough and the fact im still here means i didnt succumb to an avalanche. which was nice.

so was down and had the first rod in the water by 730, and had the first first coalie on the rocks by 735. nice wee coalie about half a pound.
the condidtions were quite spooky. the was a fairly thick mist and i couldnt see the lights on the other side of the lough, i couldnt even see the ferries going up and down even though i could hear them. i could barely see the orange glow of whitehead itself which is only a mile away, the mist really over emphasised the darkness and i was overcome with a feeling of isolation which, ill be honest, started to give me the willies a wee bit. i got over this soon enough as the fish started coming thick and fast. most were coming in on the float, which was hard to see, and was picking up the odd coalie and a pollock of 3/4lb on the running ledger i had out on the bottom for rockling.

since it was flat calm i was down standing a wee ledge thats about a foot above the water, i could see the woodlouse things you find down between the rocks swimming about on the surface a foot or two from the rocks and coalies were up actually feeding on them off the surface. id never seen such a thing before but i gave me an idea. earlier in the week i had been to the pound shop and purchased a telescopic 7ft pole for £1.50. you can imagine from the price what a cheap piece of crap it is but i thought it would be handy for the mini species. so i tied on 7ft of line and a hook and dropped in a chunk of mackerel where the louses (lice?) were swimming and soon was into a nice 30cm coalie. it put up a good aul scrap but got it landed and managed another 3 like this. went back to the float and continued to pull in coalies. it was just like my last trip to bangor pier except the fish were big enough to put up a fight on the roach rods this time.

by about 930 the tide had started to rip out again and the bites stopped dead, i knew from expierence that the shows over but stuck it out to just before 10 and then the wash from one of the ferries came crashing on the rocks. i wasnt in any danger but i couldnt really see the waves only could hear them pounding on the rocks and even though it only lasted a few minutes the sense of the willies returned and i started imagining becoming a statistic so i knocked it on the head for the evening.

in the end i had about 20-25 coalies, 4 pollock and i actually caught one single tiny 15cm rockling.
i love it when a plan comes together.

if i had that many coalies in a year id be happy not to mind a single session well done great fishing

great trip. like the sound of that wee cheapy rod too - i think i have the same one! the eyes will start falling off it soon enough..

Great result!

great trip. like the sound of that wee cheapy rod too - i think i have the same one! the eyes will start falling off it soon enough..

its not a rod its an actual pole with just one eye on the end to tie the line to but ive already broken the tip off it anyways, it got stuck when i was trying to take it down and tried a bit too hard and snapped it.

will definitely get another one and be more careful with it

nice one on getting your rockling,another species for the list

Yeah that last trip was a bit of a let down :/ Although some of the passers by in leggings were nice to look at.

Good to see you catching fish :/ I caught crabs this weekend past

Although some of the passers by in leggings were nice to look at

you should be there on a sunny day in the summer

Although some of the passers by in leggings were nice to look at

you should be there on a sunny day in the summer

I intend to visit regularly

well done,its great to get the target species

Great session........