West cork, east cork and west again

I travelled a fair few hundreds of miles in the last week in search of some good fishing and the results are as follows.

Wednesday 27th April
Place: West cork
People: Me
Time: 11.00 - 17.00
Bait: Mack and Sand eel
Rigs: Pulleys, pulley pennels, long and lows. Hooks: Size 1 up to 3/0
Weather: Scorching in the morning and a bit breezy in the afternoon but the sun kept shining

Results: Poor
Hit the beach and set up two rods. Ran back to the car for sun screen and fished like a mad man for a few hours. The coast was deserted and the water flat calm for most of the day. all looked well for a good chance of my first ray. A pack of hungry doggies moved in. I hooked 3 and that was it for the day.

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Thursday 28th April
Place: East cork
People: Me and fishy 1987
Time: 13.00 to 19.00
Bait: Bread, mack, lug, rag and spinners
Rigs: Rotton bottom flappers, floats, spinning gear
Weather: Beautiful

Results:
Me and fishy decided to try our luck at mullet in rostellen but we couldn't get them feeding and the only interest shown in our ground bait came from ducks. We hit the road in search of another mark at about half two. We landed near the mark and walked for about 10 mins and shuffled our way down a cliff onto the mark. We set up floats and rotten bottom rigs hoping that the wrasse had turned up inshore. I did a bit of rock hopping with a float rig trying to find the fish while fishy stayed put. I gave him a rig to try and pointed to a likely looking spot to cast. He loaded his hook with old leathery lug worm and lobbed it out. I was about 50 meters away over the rocks when i heard some commotion and say the top of fishys rod bent seaward. I skipped back over the rocks to help with the landing a photography. No need to help him with the landing as he had his first ever wrasse at his feet by the time i got to him and a few holes in his hand from the wrasse spines. We got the fish photographed and returned. We carried on bait fishing but nothing else happened besides a few baits being stripped. Fishy was the first to start spinning and lost what he thinks was a pollack in close. I went for a few chucks soon after and hooked up on my first cast. Fishy thought i was snagged due to the angle of the rod but i insisted it was just a good fight. At first i thought i'd hooked a strap conger when i got it to the surface but saw a fine garfish as i got it closer. I pulled the fish into a gulley and fishy landed it for me. When the fish was by my feet on a pile of weed, it locked onto my shoe lace and did a combat roll. Took me a few minutes to untangle the mess, got a few snaps and back he went. That was it for the day.

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Saturday 30th april

Place: Back down west (2 marks)
People: Me and fishy
Time: 11.30 - 18.30 i think
Bait: Lug, mack, rag and sandeel
Rigs: Rotten bottom flappers, long and lows, pulleys, floats
Weather: Sunny but a bit windy at times

We started the morning off at a mark that's throwing up good ray in the last few weeks so we set up a few rods each on the rocks after a long walk that involved a short scuffle with a tree resulting in me losing 3 ceramic ring from the eyes of my favorite rod. Fishy also lost his good filleting knife so we both started badly but we'd push on through and try to find a few fish. That didn't happen. We snagged, snapped, cursed and screamed and after a few hours of no fish we headed back to the car depressed but not yet beaten. We'd both decided that we weren't going to return to cork fishless so we drove about a half hour and set up at a huss mark. After a few minutes the dogs came on. We hooked two each and that was the lot for that session. 160 mile round trip seems a long way for 4 dogfish. We enjoyed our day out anyway and we'll be back in search of the ray as soon as we get the weather playing ball again. Fishy will add his photos later.

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Good report, well done on the garfish. Shame the fish were scarce but at least you had some great weather.

fair play on the sessions. Some distance travelled allright, nice catch with the garfish.

That was one of the best sessions ive been on with you Mr wrasse on my first cast and mr.beaky on your last i would have been a dead man if he were to escape when you were landing him lol

good to be out in the fresh anyways nice gar btw, if you want them eyes fixed give me a shout i owe you turn

[fishy1987]

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apologies for the humungus pictures the best i could do without them looking like postage stamps

Last edited by fishy1987 on Tue May 03, 2011 9:26 pm, edited 4 times in total.

nice garfish,hope fully you will get those ray and huss another time

Nice Garfish evan & well done on your first wrasse fishy,I usually get a few garfish every year on the spinners class looking fish, on the calm days you can watch them skimming over the surface of the water

Well done lads, nice fish to catch, good craic too!

Thanks for the comments lads. Nice photos there too fishy. I hope we will get the ray soon. Wait till the weather turns summery again and hit the road in search of them. I've a few marks on my mind if we could just get the right weather we'd be flying. The garfish was a nice surprise alright. I didn't know what i'd hooked at first. Some teeth on them.

well done on the garfish,great report and photos,if you don't get the ray soon head up my way and you wont be long getting one,the ray are starting to show up in numbers now

nice pic's bud

well done on the garfish,great report and photos,if you don't get the ray soon head up my way and you wont be long getting one,the ray are starting to show up in numbers now

Thanks gerry. Me and fishy will try to make it up for a weekend at some stage during the season alright. What time of year do you find best up there for ray fishing.

I know that mark on the photo between the wrasse and dogfish photos - a great place for big wrasse and a well sheltered spot too.

I know that mark on the photo between the wrasse and dogfish photos - a great place for big wrasse and a well sheltered spot too.

Paul Harris told us that he had a group staying with him last week and there wasn't a sign of wrasse at that mark. We said we'd throw a bait out for them anyway and i hooked one. Didn't feel like a very big fish but i lost it coming over a submerged ledge infront of me. They're only starting to show up now, which is surprising considering the water temp is up to 15 degrees down that way.