All over ireland june and july 2011

where do i start with this one i have'nt had the chance to put up a report in a while with one thing and another so i'm just going through our recent sessions in our diary and gonna roll all the sessions into one report. no sense in flooding the boards with multiple reports clogging the thing up. we start back in june saturday 25th after the SAI mini meet north v's south at leenan that dawsey won for the north (keep an eye out for the august copy of irish angler magazine for a full report )
after the comp we had intended to fish rathmullan, but as we drove into the town at buncrana we saw the ferry heading out so gave it a miss and decided on fahan instead. myself jordan and dawsey fished the beach from 7pm to 1am. we all got thornies to 6lb and we met weedave from the site. it was only days later that we realized who eachother was, so we'll get a better chat next time man . for 6 hours it fished well enough with me having the best of the fishing with both rods going at the same time pulling in thornies and doggies. i even had a tope rod out on a 8/0 pennel pulley rig that got hammered with a doggie and thornie on each hook a first for me getting 2 fish on a pennel . by 1am my eyes were crossing and dawsey fell asleep on his seat box so we decided it was time to head back to belfast. jordan played a trick on dawsey when he spotted he'd fell asleep by giving his line a good pull making the ratchet scream as if a tope had hit it . dawsey jumped up in a daze falling about the place in the dark, pure comedy gold
in the end the scores on the doors were,
JORDAN - 2 thornies to 6lb and a flounder
ME - 6 thornies to 6lb and 5 doggies to 3lb
DAWSEY - a few thornies to 6lb and a few doggies

WATERFOOT PIER THURSDAY 30TH JUNE 2PM TO 8PM
this was a spur of the moment session. i was supposed to be going out with my missus but dawsey phoned me saying himself and stuarty were heading up the coast after work and did i fancy it. i thought i could mabey kill 2 birds with one stone and asked caroline did she fancy a run up the coast as it was such a nice day . she said ok and i said "great i'll bring my rods and you can soak up the sun and relax and i can show you what this old fishing malarky is all about" sneaky or what we had a great day with us all getting loads of fish with the usual flatties happily gobbling up our worm baits and i even got a grey gurnard too . althow caroline now thinks we're all mad in the head. a bunch of grown men getting excited about catching wee fish from the sea
the results at the end were,
ME - 6 dab 4 flounder 5 plaice and a grey gurnard
DAWSEY - countless dab, plaice, flounder, coalies and a few pollack
STUARTY - same as dawsey apart from loads more dab. i think he found a dab hot spot.

THE MOUTH OF MULROY BAY SATURDAY 2ND JULY 1PM TO 7PM
it was the weekend again and my dad was well enough that we could pack the tent and head off out to north donegal for a few days . we decided on trying a few new marks i had been researching round the mouth of mulroy bay where we stood a good chance of some nice pollack and wrasse. we got to the mark and conditions looked perfect at low water but as the tide rose the swell built up and i was'nt happy with our safety so lef about 2 hours before high water. we were fishing single 1 hook flapper rotten bottom rigs as we were casting into an underwater kelpy forest. tackle losses were high but we also got smashed up by some massive fish that went to ground and were'nt for coming out . we would have tried a sliding float rig to save on the tackle but the wind was blowing in at us so you could'nt cast out to the spot we were getting all the hits. but we will be back there again some time in the future and we will get one of the big fish out of the kelp we both ended up with 2 small ballan wrasse each and lost a dozen good ones we reckon. but hey,,, you can't win them all i suppose
we moved on round the corner to try another fishy looking spot and gave it a go for 2 and a half hours over high water. sadly we only got 2 doggies each, but i'm sure it would throw up some nice ray on the right day . another one for a bit of future exploration me thinks

FANAD HEAD LIGHTHOUSE SATURDAY 2ND JULY 11PM TO 5AM
we got round to the lighthouse and got set up at our usual spot on the rocks with the intention to fish it through to dawn. the fishing was really good with me getting a bite a cast at distance on the pulley rig. jordan was persevering with the float and a conger rod, but did'nt get a touch. by 3am i had 6 thornies and 5 doggies. the thornies were only babbies at around 1 to 2 pounds but good fun all the same. by now i was shattered and got some sleep in my chair and jordan put away the float set up and fished my bottom rod getting 4 doggies in 2 hours. but he was shattered too and got a bit of kip in his seat. we woke up at 7am and got the sausages and burgers on all washed down with about a gallon of coffee and headed to rathmullan to spin for some fresh bait while waiting for the first ferry to get us over to fahan for another thornie session

RATHMULLAN PIER SUNDAY 3RD JULY 8AM TO 9.30AM
as we were almost out of bait we decided on a bit of fluff chucking while waiting for the first ferry to get us across the swilly at 9.40am. there were 2 local guys there tinsel tossing too and they sounded like right characters from the conversation they were having added to that some wee drunk old man was wandering up and down the pier giving abuse to everyone within earshot which was halarious to watch. angels was down preparing the swilly explorer with some other charter skippers and the wee man tortured them for an hour. we were chuckling away to ourselves at his antics as he was giving them dogs abuse. nothing malicious or nasty, just the usual funny drunk routine . the 2 local guys soon filled a bucket of macks each and jordan got 1 full house with 5 macks. but as he was reeling them up 2 got off, but we still had 3 fresh nice sized ones for bait to target thornies with

FAHAN MARINA BREAKWATER SUNDAY 3RD JULY NOON TO 4PM
armed with 6 fresh mackerel fillets we decided on the marina breakwater for the finish of our trip. we lobbed out a rod each with a 3/0 pulley rig loaded with mack and sat back soaking up the sun. it was a really relaxing session apart from the crabs making a bit of a nuisance of themselves eating our baits. but a couple of meters of bait elastic soon remedied that problem . i was still wrecked from the day before and got a bit of sleep in my chair and jordan stood drooling at the big mullett in the harbour milling about. why is it you only see them when you do'nt have the appropiate tackle and rods to target them with . it was slow enough with us both getting a few bites, but no hook ups. that was until jordan asked for a go with my salt 15ft long surf rod. he had one cast and a vicious bite and duely landed his biggest thornie yet,,,, typical . he did really well wanting to land it himself without any help and scampered down the seaweed covered rocks with all the dexterety of an old mountain billy goat rod in hand. he got the ray all the way in and beached it. i was made up for him and he was as proud as punch with his biggest thornie to date. so i'll have to send off to the sea angler magazine for another shimano mission accomplished badge for him a great end to a great weekend

WICKLOW HARBOUR SATURDAY 9TH JULY 3PM TO 6PM
the weekend was here again and my dad has been responding well enough with the chemo that we could get away for another fishing trip. so a few calls to my mates in dublin and wicklow soon had a weekends fishing planned. we went round to eyesreilly's house for a feed and a cuppa and decided on a plan of attack. we would head down to wicklow harbour to try to increase the species count for a few hours while we waited for fishface to get out of work and meet up. it was good fun messing with the minis again as we had'nt done it in a while. there were a few lads tinsel tossing and getting results with mackeral being landed all along the harbour. i even had a few chucks and got myself a fresh mackie which i gave to eyesreilly as we had enough mackeral down with us. soon enough it was time to go and we went to the chipper for a few bags of chips which eyesreilly kindly covered. (top bloke )
we ended up with,
ME - 3 ballan wrasse 4 corkwing wrasse 1 mackeral and 2 tompot blennies a new species for 2011
JORDAN - 4 corkwing wrasse 1 ballan wrasse and 2 long spined sea scorpions
EYESREILLY - corkwing wrasse, ballan wrasse, pollack, coalies and i think a flattie of some description

WICKLOW BEACH SATURDAY 9TH JULY 8PM TO 11AM
after meeting up with fishface we went to the chosen mark and got set up. the fishing was a bit slow but fishface reckoned it would pick up in the wee small hours. both him and eyesreilly got smoothie pups and a couple of decent ones. i'm not completely sure what they ended up with as a lack of sleep was kicking in at this stage, but i'm sure they will ammend the scores . they both left around midnight and we said our goodbyes and fished on. great to see old friends again and many thanks to eyes for the hospitality and to niel for the prezzies. jordans flashing nemo and ufo's will be put to good use. watch the forthcoming weeks reports . around 1am things got a bit mad. both our 2 rods were nodding away furiously with fish coming in everywhere!! at one point i dropped down to 1 rod as i could'nt keep up with 2. jordan even got a full house of doggies on a few occasions on his rod with the 3 hook flapper each time putting a good bend in his rod. added to that these were the liveliest doggies we've ever seen. they actually fought well with plenty of head shaking and darting about in the surf. not like the usual dead weight that could be easily mistaken for a clump of weed . it was great craic even the hounds turned up and were happily munching the peeler both eyes and fishface left us (thanks guys). by 3.30am i could'nt keep my eyes open and crawled into the tent for some kip. but jordan got a second wind from somewhere and decided he was gonna fish all 4 rods . but fair play to him as the fish were flying in on all rods with a decent smoothie to boot i woke up at 9am and jordan swapped over and crawled into the tent exhausted. i then fished on for 2 hours before calling it a day.
the end results for us was,
ME - 2 starry smoothound 1 common smoothound 18 doggies and a dab
JORDAN - 3 starry smoothound 1 red gurnard and 48 doggies!

SUNDAY 10TH JULY 2ND WICKLOW BEACH 6PM TO 4AM
after some well needed sleep and a good feed we went on to the next venue to meet up with mitch and fishface. it was pretty quiet to start with and only really livened up when the sun went down. both mitch and fishface were getting hounds but our rods were oddly quiet . we could'nt figure it out. we were hitting the same range not more than 20 feet apart but the hounds just had no interest in our crab. we just could'nt figure it out . fishface had a look at our peeler and was'nt too impressed with it as the juice in the packet was black and the crab was very dark too compared to the stuff he and mitch were using. the juice from their crab was a yellow green coloue as was the crab. as niel left he gave us his left over crab and would you believe it i had a hound on the first cast . all evening we watched fishface and mitch get about 5 hounds each while we did'nt get a sniff and yet as soon as we changed over to the crab they were using we were landing hounds!!! mitch went on at about 1am and we fished on. great to meet you again man and we'll get out with you again on our next run down the east coast . and many thanks for the crab. it kept us going to 4am and all our hounds were on the crab you and fishface gave us. you saved our trip!!
in the end the results were,
ME - 6 doggies 1 common pup 1 tope pup and 3 starry hounds to 4lb 14oz a new PB
JORDAN - 1 starry 1 common and 2 flounder.

sorry for such a long report lads, if you made it the whole way through fair play to ya

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more pics

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some more pics

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last few pics

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Great photos and report!

i made it the whole way through that report, excellent read and good job on the hounds lads!!!!

all the best
dave

Serious Report,great reading should have made it longer,lovley rays/smoothies congrats on ye,re pbs and the new species aswell top notch report and photos to match nice one
tightlines
fergal

Super report & pics Al well done lads, some fine fish there

Good report thats a brave few hours fishn congrats on th new personal bests

do yus ever go out great fishin lads glad you got a few smoothies down this way some long hours and a lot of bait

brilliant report as always Al nd excellent session lads well done

great stuff lads gerry can turn up anywhere

Where do I start; that's is a good question!
However, another unbelievable good report, excellent pictures and congrats to the 'billy goat'(new name now on the cards me thinks , a dedication I can only admire, fair play to all of ye's.
After reading about the hospitality and helpfulness you've encountered, I'm certainly convinced that nothing has been lost on the good old spirit and comradeship between like-minded souls. Some have it into them and some don't. Keep it up folks, that's all I can say! Pure class

Great report and a great sessions with some nice fish thooo Well done lads

Al,,,,,,,you should be sponsored by Red Bull,,,,fantastic fishing over the last few months Hope to see you all again soon and i'm delighted you both goth your decent hounds ,,,,,,,,,,and mighty relieved too the pressure was on . The little lad better remember us when he makes it big,he already must be the most famous young angler around,especially since Eric retired And Mitch,is that the Petzl Ul,,,,,,,,,,,,,aw forget I mentioned it
Dave

just goes to show how good bait will catch, and is;nt alful that tackle shops will sell you crap bait and expect to get you to come back for more,i know what i would tell them, thanks be to god that the shops down this way are as good as they are, so glad that both of you got your hounds in the end, see you soon i hope and hope that jordan has fun with his toys

Cracking report and some class pictures as usural Al. You sure have been busy lately and congrats the Jordan on the new PB, and it was only a matter of time before you hit for the East coast to add the Smoothies to the species list. Always good to meet up with old mates and put faces to names for new ones.

You will have to hit west soon and have a go at the Turbot and allusive Westie Bass...

Mick

a long and enjoyable report their al,,,well done

Brilliant stuff lads! You put in some serious hours and some serious mileage Great fishing

Well, I can confirm that the fishing all over Ireland is better than the fishing in Brittany at the minute. 4 sessions so far, one pouting, one conger & one mullet.