N Antrim coast rock mark, 23 June 11.

[cathalger]

People:Rab, me.

Duration:7.30- 11.10pm

Tide:dropping

Weather:nice, calm and warm.

Bait:Rag, mackerel, spinner fly.

Rigs:Simple 1 hook and a lead.

Results:Rab 1 pollack (2.5lb) 3 small codling. Me 3 pollack (best 1lb), 1 codling, 1 coley.




Report:

Joined Der Baron and Fishyfingers aprox 7.30pm, high tide was just past. Theyd had some good sport well before high tide but things slowed up except for the many wrasse they were hitting on floated baits, something I tried nearby but failed to get a response. Fishing was slow for us at the start, Rab cocnentrated on fishing rag on the bottom and I spun and had a few throws with the fly rod but the floating line and sink tip I brought was no use in that depth.

The spinner got me 3 small pollack, best 1lb, nice fish and a 12oz coley. Rab got 3 wee cod on his rag. We had a boat rod each dropped over the side with big mackerel baits on just incase there might be a conger to be had but this brought nothing.

At 10.20pm we got the fish that made the evening. Roberts rod and tripod were pulled to the deck with a hard hit. When he got it up he was stuck fast. A couple of mins of steady pressure and coaxing and the fish came out, and came to the shore without bogging again. He was chuffed with a pristine pollack of 2lb 7oz, on the rag bait hard on the bottom.
I gave the rag a go and got a richly coloured wee rock cod which was only hooked just inside the mouth and swam off as right as rain.

Thought we could have picked up another pollack at dusk but it didnt come and we climbed back up the heavily overgrown hill before the light was completely gone at about 11.10pm.

The lobster pictured was the only thing I caught the previous evening, again trying to catch a conger eel, on a short 1 hour session just before dark at a much more accessible mark. I put it back after considering otherwise.

Kev and Paul, thanks a million for the left over bait, I'll hopefully get something good with that over the weekend, good to meet you both.

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Last edited by cathalger on Fri Jun 24, 2011 8:02 pm, edited 1 time in total.

well done cathal,,,with the pic with the baited hook and lobster i guess you were trying for another on of those 51'' congers or bigger

Absolutely Brian, want to experience that sort of fight again.

Cheers.

Well done Good fishing on the nice place

Well done men, great report and pics.

great stuff lads. great pics as usual Cathal.
looks like yous had a lovely evening for it anyway!
great pollack there, nice one Rab.

i'll could maybe join some of yees the next time...!

Alright Cathal, nice action shot there of Rab, that we camera takes a nice picture. I take it the one I took for ya gave the game away a little? It was a good session, pity you couldn't have got there a wee bit earlier, maybe next time. I think I'll invest in a set of ropes and crampons if this adventure fishing keeps up!

Well done lads,

Saving Private Brian,
Billy the fish,
zud25,
conger

Thanks for your comments, it was a grand evening made very memorable by Rabs joy at catching a pollack just short of his personal best.

Charlie, we can do a bit of more explorative fishing when you get back from your trip, and by that time the sea trout might be a bit more numerous to target too.

Paul the only reason I didnt stick that pic up was cos I was in my dirty work clothes and needed a shave badly, I look like someone whos been living down there since last August, sleeping in the bushes and surviving on a diet of limpets and driftwood. Doesnt give anything away at all, just the water in the backdrop. Yeah crampons ? I seriously did think about some sort of temporary rope and peg for hamering into the ground today, just for the haul out of there. Not that you would leave it there, it would be found and burnt for fun.

Cheers, Cathal.

Saving Private Brian,
Billy the fish,
zud25,
conger

Thanks for your comments, it was a grand evening made very memorable by Rabs joy at catching a pollack just short of his personal best.

Charlie, we can do a bit of more explorative fishing when you get back from your trip, and by that time the sea trout might be a bit more numerous to target too.

Paul the only reason I didnt stick that pic up was cos I was in my dirty work clothes and needed a shave badly, I look like someone whos been living down there since last August, sleeping in the bushes and surviving on a diet of limpets and driftwood. Doesnt give anything away at all, just the water in the backdrop. Yeah crampons ? I seriously did think about some sort of temporary rope and peg for hammering into the ground today, just for the haul out of there. Not that you would leave it there, it would be found and burnt for fun.

Cheers, Cathal.

Lovely big pollack Rab is holding there Cathal! Great pics. Good to meet you both, the fishing definately made the haul back out of the place worth while. Will be back before long.

Looks like plenty of great fun fishing you've been having lately guys, can't wait to get a bit of that type of action in myself. It's great to take advantage of the summer months as often as you can especially around the Antrim coast.

nice pollack there mate, is that redish fish a coley looks strange? prob had a night in with the cod aboves mother

nice pollack there mate, is that redish fish a coley looks strange? prob had a night in with the cod aboves mother

Aye a night in Cian, theyve no morals down that bit of shoreline at all! Its a very young pollack from a kelpy bit of ground. Its probably so red for the same reason the codling is, ie living amonst kelp and not over sand.

I think those wee red pollack are incredible looking fish, have to photo them when I see them.

Cathal.

Lovely big pollack Rab is holding there Cathal! Great pics. Good to meet you both, the fishing definately made the haul back out of the place worth while. Will be back before long.

Kev he was made up with that fish. I remembered following a post I made above re the fish being close to his PB pollack, thats his shore caught PB. Last year he had an 8lb plus fish out in the boat, not far from that mark. Another fella we work with was out that day too, he doesnt really fish at all, just went for the crack. The other guy had the best day of all with several good pollack inc an 8lber and a 10lber. Theyre out there.

We'll arrange another spin down there as soon as we can.

Cathal.

Looks like plenty of great fun fishing you've been having lately guys, can't wait to get a bit of that type of action in myself. It's great to take advantage of the summer months as often as you can especially around the Antrim coast.

Cant agree more Dave, its a nice time of year to fish with the long evenings, and it has been interesting lately, long may it continue. Get yourself up a spin, do you have to travel far?

I'm from Carrickfergus mate, but I normally spend a hell of a lot of time up there over past 30yrs, especially in Summer as i absolutely love that area, but I don't drive myself. My dad's more keen on gardening these days as he's getting older (he even has an excellent boat going unused for god's sake) and I fish a lot with my sister who is expecting her 2nd child (she is fanatical and everyone had to really force her not to go out fishing for safety sake) She aint too happy at the moment and to be fair my mother was still heading out fishing on the back of a motorbike when she was 8 months pregnant with me, lol. I myself have been kept busy with my own young kids in recent years and last year I was for the most part out of action for it's entirety through recovering from an operation. Any friends I have who fish and drive are not serious about it the way I am and I can't expect the mrs. to drop me off too far. I just get out these days every time there's an opportunity and I have been fishing a few local marks that I always ignored to actually have some surprising results.

I reckon my da will be up for a few sessions soon as he has been on holiday and I texted him the photos of the rays I got recently. Maybe I'll bump into you some time soon and it's great to see you have your sons into the sport so keenly (loved the conger pics btw). I have 2 sons myself and fingers crossed they will love fishing, camping etc too as 3 against 1 would leave the mrs. no choice of where to go on daytrips, lol. I love reading all the reports on here the past few years as it's the next best thing to going as i'm usually chomping at the bit. Getting an earbashing about driving lessons again lately though so maybe i'll go for it for my own sake.

cheers

DAVE!--- sorry its taken me so long to reply, sorry this one will be short and sweet also (on Thur eve I lost a response to you as this vodafone dongle went offline just as I hit submit!) Was well after midnight and I gave up battling with this thing.

Give us a shout if you are coming up this way and Ill give you any local updates I can. Yeah if you had the licence youd have a lot more freedom to fish, bit of a pain getting it no doubt but well worth it.

Pity your Da's boat wasnt moored down there in the marina!

Talk soon,

Cathal.

Was up last night mate. Plenty of tiny flats, and got codling, rockling and started getting some decent bites, but then the doggies came in full force and just took over. Pity as was such a lovely night, but I did witness a guy catch a small ray which was nice to see.. The guy was all the biz, could hear him and seen him posing for photos. Well done for him if he's on here and hopefully the pics go up to see which species it was.