going cuckoo in co antrim saturday 16th july

People: MYSELF, JORDAN, DAWSEY AND HUGH

Duration: 6.30pm to 4.30am

Tide: HW 0100

Weather: mainly dry, calm and mild

Bait: rag lug peeler mackeral and squid

Rigs: 3/0 pulley and 1/0 2 hook flappers

Results: doggies, codling, pollack, long spined sea scorpions, dab, coalies, ballan wrasse, corkwing wrasse and CUCKOO RAYS!!




Report: with the weekend upon us again we'd been waiting all week for this trip up the antrim coast. after seeing that the cuckoo rays had come in early jordan was chomping at the bit to get out and have a go at them as you only usually get a 4 to 6 week window to target them in the particular area. and sadly last year both myself and mark got a few but they eluded jordan's hooks. so he was really up for this session. as we headed up the coast i got a call from dawsey who was already at the mark telling us both he and hugh had got a few wrasse so things were looking up. word had got out about the rays and all our usual spots had people on them. so we tried a spot a bit more out of the way to target them from where we could fish in relative peace with no tourists or other anglers about. it was a lovely spot apart from the mother of all midgey swarms descending on us. those wee things really melt my head . we were stood in clouds of the bloody things until the sun went down and they dissappeared. i was almost scared to breathe at one point as you kept getting a mouth full of them . i really gotta get my finger out and buy a bottle of that jungle formula stuff as i've heard it's the buisness. the stuff we got out of the pound shop was more like an attractant to them with it not bothering them in the slightest .
back to the fishing jordan was the first to get a fish with a wee cod close in and i soon followed suit with one a bit bigger . soon more codling followed with a good few of them being around the pound mark. no where near big enough to take home for the table, but still a good sign that they are slowly making a return to our shores in better sizes and numbers. provided some greedy trawllers do'nt scoop the area any time soon i have a restored faith that they might actually get a chance to regain a foothold in the coming years . as darkness fell around 10.30pm the doggies came on the feed happily munching our mackeral baits set out intended for the rays. i was'nt too annoyed as we love to see these little guys make an appearence in a session and sadly with the state of our seas it's always nice to get something that at least puts a bend in the rods. some of them had really nice light markings and some of them put up a really good scrap on the way in. espically a few of the double shots that i got on the flapper rig. the heaviest doggie was almost 3lb and was part of a brace i had. so it put a good bend in the 15ft salt rod
some of the pollack were'nt too bad either at around a pound in weight. admittly no monsters but better than the fish fingers we usually get . around midnight jordan got a slack line bite and felt something a bit different come in and sure enough a cuckoo ray broke the surface just yards from his feet. there was a bit of a squeaky bum moment when it almost spat out the bait. but it was landed and we could all breathe a sigh of relief as it hit the scales at 3lb 4oz!!. just making the target weight for a shimano big fish award badge for jordan. not a bad way to get your first cuckoo ray . after many pics were taken the wee fella swam off none the worse for his visit to dry land unaware at how much joy he'd just given to a very chuffed 11 year old
we were all getting fish now with flatties, doggies and codling coming in with the exception of poor dawsey who just could'nt seem to conect with his bites. after an hour or so he bit the bullet and changed all his hooks and was soon hooking fish again . just goes to show the difference a new set of hooks can make . i was making my way through the doggies when i looked up to see the line on my salt drifting off across the surface of the water . i reeled in about 20 yards of slack to feel a nice pull on the other end. after reeling in what felt like forever due to the distance of the cast my first cuckoo ray of 2011 broke the surface. RESULT!! we got her on the scales and it turned out to be a new PB for me at 3lb 12oz. i was made up and she was quickly returned to the briney depths to carry on her buisness in peace. now it was just dawsey and hugh who had to get in on the action. but as we reached high water the fishing died a death and both myself and dawsey made the 15 walk back up to the motor to get the pan on for a monster feed of hot dogs for the lads. jordan and hugh fished on and left us to the cooking. as the half a pigs worth of sausages were sizziling away in the pan dawsey spotted this strange flashing multi coloured light coming from the direction of where we were fishing way off in the distance. i twigged staright away it must be the flashing nemo fishface gave to jordan in wicklow last week and realized he must have got another ray!. so 15 mins later we arrived to see jordan beaming from ear to ear announcing he'd got another cuckoo ray at 3lb on the nose. and this one shared a piccy or 2 with nemo .
we all had a good feed and by 4.30am no more ray showed and hugh had fell asleep. so we decided that enough was enough and began setting the gear down for the drive home.
all in all we had a great night with both myself and jordan getting our target species. sadly dawsey and hugh missed out on this trip, but sure there's another 4 or 5 weeks to get them a ray or 2 yet

the end results were

ME - 11 codling 9 doggies 3 pollack and 1 cuckoo ray
JORDAN - 8 codling 4 doggies 3 dab and 2 cuckoo ray
DAWSEY and HUGH ballan wrasse, corkwing wrasse doggies pollack coalies long spined sea scorpions and dab

i'm sure when dawsey recovers and reads the report he can ammend what he and hugh got and add a few piccys

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last few pics

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good session guys and another good read

Brilliant Sesh Lads!

Great report & session lads some fine cuckoo rays & I see nemo has found a new home well done lads

great report al nice too see jordan catching 1 after not getting 1 last year. id luv to target cookoo ray they look amazing. the midgets were getting us in donegal, there annoying we buggers ya def need sum insect repelant when rock fishing ill def order some for our fishing trips.

well done to all
john

great stuff, i always thought there was no ray fishing left around the antrim coast
good to be proved wrong

great report as usual al ,another nice session and some super fishies well done
to yourself and superstar jordan and of course nemo

great report as usual al ,another nice session and some super fishies well done
to yourself and superstar jordan and of course nemo

well done al and jordan enjoyed reading your report and well done on th personal bests

great read and super session lads and a big well done to the little man for getting his ray.great fishing all round well done

well done lads and nice one on the pb,s with the cuckoo wrasses's.midgy,s lol excellent read and fishing as usual well done !
tightlines fergal

very good read and great days fishing , some photo there of the young lad, smile says it all, well done fella

Brilliant report as usual lads.

Well done on a fantastic session

Well done lads, i'm delighted for ya's . . What a beautiful fish the cuckoo ray is. I'll have to get in on that fishing and hot dog action

Great report Al, some good sport was had by all by the sounds of it, those are 3 crackers of cuckoo ray yous got, Jordan made up for not getting one last year in style, well done Jordan, fine rays!

That wee red cod is a very well made fish. Yeah the midgeys are great fun arent they, the jungle formula aerosol can is the business, Bens 100 very effective too though nasty in eyes or mouth. The former is easier applied, using it at the mo and it really works.

Well done on more good results.

Cathal.

congratz lads!super report Al nd super jealose about ur cuckoo ray .

Well done lads. Fine fishing. Great that ye both caught the rays. The smile says it all in the photos of jordan. After many many hours of ray fishing i'm still yet to catch one so i'd be smiling like that too if i had those fish.

Great to see although where was the invite I mean you took dawsy haha
might have to get a shot up myself this weekend as im off and see if i can land one
dont really have another option as the gf is home next wednesday from her hols.
Lovely report as always Al

good job lads as always!

i'm still after more ray species - what if you put a bucket on my head and took me to one of those marks????

dave

Great report and some cracking fish. Well done lads.