West Cork 5th August

[fishy1987]

People:Myself and Evan699

Duration:5.15-7.30 and 8.30-11.45

Tide:High at 10pm

Weather:Typical Nice/overcast/windy/raining/monsoon like

Bait:Ragworm Mackeral

Rigs:Conger Rigs,3 Hook flappers, Float Gear

Results:Myself 3,Pollock 2,Conger Eels. Evan 699 2,Conger Eels


Got a call Friday morning from Evan699 who was heading down to west cork later that night in search of Conger eels.Couldn, t pass up on an opportunity of catching a conger, been trying now for a while but with no luck. This spot has shown up good eels in the past which was music to my ears! So got organized quickly with the plan to camp nearby the mark!

on the road for 3 and hit our first mark at 5pm in the hopes of a huss /ray before darkness set in then we would hit the conger mark! We had recently fished this mark with only 2 dogs a piece after copious amounts of lost gear on rough ground so we thought (Karma)it owed us 1.Evidently not after a couple of hours without a sign of a fish we packed it in and hit the Conger mark.

Fortunately there weren’t too many feathers being flung about when we set up at 8ish.2 rods out 1 for wrasse in close with rag and 1 with Mac for Conger .Nothing was taken on the rag infuriating knocks which didn’t turn into hook ups! Evan was using floats with rag on a single hook but no results. The water was very deep and the high water mark was at about 10pm.evan was badly sick during the week and was feeling terrible! We gave up on the wrasse and I had 2 rods out now for the congers .Got 3 Pollack all small but still made my heart skip a beat when it took a mackerel fillet on a 8/0 hook not happy! I was after my first eel which I began to think couldn’t be caught!

Evan was soon off the mark with an 11lb 11 oz eel. Gave a ferocious scrap I could see it in the rod and Evans arms. Several dives for the bottom but Evan kept him up and got him in safley! Not a huge fish by some standards but I was jumping for joy. The kids seemed to sense something unusual(something other than a mackerel being caught)and congregated around whilst Evan was unhooking a very angry conger I can only imagine they’ll have had a few nightmares that night word spread quick on the grapevine and 1 r 2 anglers came down enquiringly quoting the weight of the fish and all!suprising how many ppl fish and only think of pollack and mackerel in the water.

Shortly after I was on to a eel my god never had anything like this for a fight! Brilliant Rod held high trying not to panic with Evans guidance I landed a 7lb 7 oz strap absolutely thrilled! we both lost 1 Evans Rod was lifted off the ground a frantic race over to the railing and a mighty few bends on the rod later the conger went to ground! no budging him but a sign there were bigger fish to be had. I lost one on a 3h flapper with size 6 hooks early on assuming it was another pollack I panicked when I saw the eel which easily bit my 15lb snood

At this point evan really was off form and wasn,t even going to rebait anymore! Of course he couldn’t rest when the rod went again this time he landed another eel of around the same weight as the first. The weather was turning something frightful I convinced Evan to go to the car and get a rest!it was very hard to see on the pier no headlights or any sort of buildings nearby! My rod went mad again (from all the descriptions and what ive learnt about congers I knew nothing else could be on the other end! I got the eel up to the surface quite quickly (maybe to quickly)he seemed possessed as I gathered line on him. Much more difficult to land w/o someone else I immaturely bullied him up onto the steps then got him frantically onto safe ground 7-8lbstrap again he kindly unhooked himself on the pier! Did a few cartwheels and back he went!

The one that got away!

tucked away 1 rod! With my last bait out! Gazing peacefully into the darkness wolfing down a cigarette in a world of my own interrupted by the clatter my rod falling over no need to even check if there was a fish on my arm was almost pulled from me as soon as I had the rod in my hand. Struck bang the eel headed straight down looking for the Bottom.
THIS WAS AN EEL. The pier was so slippy I had to kneel down for more control. Violent dives but I didn’t give him a thing. I can still feel the strain in my arm!8-10minutes of pretty much all my strength he broke the surface about 10 feet form me and what a size. Im estimating at 15lb-20lb but I really couldnt be sure. It didn’t stop there though this guy had other ideas he wanted to test my rod properly and exhaust me at the same time! I used every muscle in my upper body to guide this beast to the steps! Panic set in how the hell I would land this thing! If I let go of the rod one jolt and he would have taken it! And it was extremely dangerous due to the slime on the ground and the weather conditions. I had him on the bottom step feet from me. foolishly attempted to drag him up toward me just a few feet away SNAP leader broken best fish of my life gone hindsight is a wonderful thing. What I should have done was grab the leader let down the rod safely and grabbed the line and work down to the fish keeping it tight then grab the 200lb trace! as I said ive never caught a conger so I am very inexperienced! To add to the hole in my heart I saw him for 2 seconds on the step before he tore off!(and I was seriously tempted to go down and try and cheekily grab him
I was shaken my body from the fight and heartbreak of loosing him!

2 eels a piece delighted a spot I would love to fish hard in the future. Back in the tent at 1am no hope of sleep with the adrenaline running through me! Eventually drifted off for what seemed 10 seconds when a hard knock woke me from my sleep. Evan was soaked to the skin the rain was so bad it had covered the end of the tent with pools of water! Even dripping from the roof of the tent! 3am and not risking our health decided to head home a few red bulls and on our way!

A few lessons to be learned!
Most of all never ever ever by a tent from Argos
(sorry cant get pics to scale)

Tightlines everyone

The 2nd conger in the last pics

Last edited by fishy1987 on Tue Aug 09, 2011 8:39 am, edited 7 times in total.

nice report and nice fishing mate.

congrats on the eel bro havent got one yet meself!!!!!

great report, fairly racking up the species list now.

well done lads enjoyed reading that unlucky on the biggie fishy youll get him next time

nice one,lads

great report fergal and great fishing bet you have the conger bug now

nice report, sound fishing lads, well done

Cheers for the replys everyone!i know not specimen fish or loads of species.but we r all at different levels i finally got a conger next report will be the big one(i hope)
tightlines

Nice one lads & well done fishy, good report & nice conger

congrats on your first conger well done, nice report too, enjoyed reading it

Great report and fishing Fergal, very well done. Nice conger Well done Evan also.