down and out in donegal 14th & 15th nov 2011

People: me and my mental mutt

Duration: 23 hours in total

Tide: all states

Weather: winds to almost gale force but dry

Bait: rag, mackerel, cooked peeled prwans, squid, razor, peeler crab and sand eel

Rigs: modified wishbone pulley and 3 hook flappers

Results: one single solitary flounder




Report: after coming off the back of the high of winning a comp at the weekend i had a good feeling about my fishing prowess and decided an off the cuff trip out donegal direction was on the cards . i decided to to try 2 completely different areas for 2 different target species. the first was a trip back up to the beach i had the 4 bass off the other week hoping to repeat my success . but boy was i brought back down to earth with a bump after 11 hours and 2 cycles of tide in daylight and darkness all i had to show for my efforts was bare hooks and a soggy dog . i reckon the bare hooks were down to crabs as even the masses of bait elastic holding the prawns, sand eel and mackerel on the hooks was gone . so at 4am i called it a day and crawlled into the car for a kip to recharge the batteries for tomorrow's session. this would have been more easily done had i not had the bright idea to bring our pooch along for the trip as she was doing her damndest to curl up on top of my sleeping bag on my legs!! every time i dozed off she slowly crept, inch by inch on top of my legs . i must have woken up with dead legs 3 or 4 times before she got the message and gave up . i think the poor thing has seperation anxiety issues . by 10am the sun was doing it's best to break through the cloud and i got up and got the coffee on the go. so fuelled up an a pint of coffee and half a packet of orio's (breakfast of champions), i was ready to hit the road south down the west coast to my next mark. i had been reliably informed by 2 different people that this beach was fishing well for big flounder. so after an hour on the road i arrived to see i had the beach to myself. i made the trek away up the far end of it with cody in toe sniffing everything she passed which would'nt have been too bad apart from the fact that every time she stopped her leed yanked my hand and pulled the bait bucket out of my hand . so i picked a suitably fishy spot and set up for the session. i had the big rod nailed out as far as i could cast it with the pulley wishbone baited up with sand eel and rag and the 3 hook flapper at various ranges to try and find the fish. on the first cast the wishbone rig got a hit as i was baiting the flapper and a hand sized flounder came in on the rag. i thought this was gonna be a bumper session, so did'nt bother to take a piccy of it as i was after 40cm+ sized flounder. how stupid was i as it was the only fish in the 12 hours i spent on the beach . i really don't know what i was doing wrong. i tried all distances with various cocktails of baits but everything was coming back in untouched . i even resorted to cliping another 3 hook flapper on the bottom of the 3 hook flapper i already had on as i had over a kilo of thawed out bait to use up. even that did'nt work. so with plenty of bait i resorted to rebaiting every hook in 20 min intervals to be sure they were at their freshest putting out plenty of scent. but alas, to no avail. the fish gods had left me luckless this time and i called it a day and went back to the motor for some sleep. even poor cody looked depressed . but it was nice to get out and spend some time in the fresh air even if the fish were'nt playing ball on this occasion. but not to be too downhearted, we'll be back out this weekend somewhere again

[yngkmd]

its my humble opinion that if YOU cant catch a fish there are no fish there to catch......or maybe you should have taken Jordan with you to show you how its done
at least you beat the blank, and sure if you got a fish a cast everytime it would get boring

Last edited by yngkmd on Wed Nov 16, 2011 1:29 pm, edited 1 time in total.

unlucky, always bloody happens when you have the most/best baits and when optimism is highest. Ah well nothing to be down about, you've had a lot more luck than most lately, without a doubt.

sorry about the smiley face there, i was convinced ye were blessed with superhuman fishing skills great report as usual sounds like one of my typical sessions !now thats out of the system, no doubt about it the fishing gods will bring along that bumper session soon!all the best
ferg
btw saw your report in Norway INCREDIBLE

she was doing her damndest to curl up on top of my sleeping bag on my legs!! every time i dozed off she slowly crept, inch by inch on top of my legs

,,,,This could have been so much better Al, if only it started here and wasnt about fishing .Hard luch on your results on your Marathon session,,,no doubt you'll bounce back soon. Had an overnighter myself last night with just the one fish,but you've cheered me up now, all the best Al

My god Al just one Flounder & no pics at least you beat the blank man could have been worse

Hey Al sorry to hear but I think the Fishy fellas are getting used to us now was out on a boat recently and blanked there myself LMAO!! and then the following day off a mark I normally catch well on , and ya read all the reports coming from cork and wonder ..."What the hell am i doing wrong!!" was out in another mark during the week, bait getting stripped by pin whitting, and first decent hit...was a tree?!?!?! which I even manged to lose in the surf! (hauled the damn thing in from a distance against the current!!) after that sat on the tackle box lit a smoke and watched the surf!! needless to say coffee came out!

unlucky al thats the way it goes some times you know the saying it called fishing not catching but we all love trying best of luck next time

Hardcore fishing man, makes my 5 or 6 hour efforts look pathetic Hard luck on the results, I'm sure you'll do better this weekend!

well AL hard luck but when ya don't bring the lucky man {Jordan} ya know the cards are stacked against ya. . . better luck next time but one is better than none...

Thats fishing al.it has ups and downs.

serious effort there mate, serious fishing, even without the fish!

there simply ws no fish about

and to have battled against those winds too the whole time ...

brave effort. great report

Sounds like hard going. Better luck next time.

Fair play al for sticking it out,that was some marathon but i know you
will bounce back and im looking forward to your next report

next time bring jordan and leave the mut at home

its my humble opinion that if YOU cant catch a fish there are no fish there to catch......or maybe you should have taken Jordan with you to show you how its done
at least you beat the blank, and sure if you got a fish a cast everytime it would get boring

very true man. i was offering the fish up the best of baits and still no joy . if anything had of been out there in front of me it would have taken one of my baits. i suppose it just makes us appreciate the good sessions all the more when you get a howller like that

unlucky, always bloody happens when you have the most/best baits and when optimism is highest. Ah well nothing to be down about, you've had a lot more luck than most lately, without a doubt.

i think i've used up all my luck reserves in the last few weeks . a session like that was due to be on the cards

:D sorry about the smiley face there, i was convinced ye were blessed with superhuman fishing skills great report as usual sounds like one of my typical sessions !now thats out of the system, no doubt about it the fishing gods will bring along that bumper session soon!all the best
ferg
btw saw your report in Norway INCREDIBLE

lol, just a mere mortal man
and we're back off to norway again in july 2012. this time jordan is coming too. can't wait to see him get into contact with something big

she was doing her damndest to curl up on top of my sleeping bag on my legs!! every time i dozed off she slowly crept, inch by inch on top of my legs

,,,,This could have been so much better Al, if only it started here and wasnt about fishing .Hard luch on your results on your Marathon session,,,no doubt you'll bounce back soon. Had an overnighter myself last night with just the one fish,but you've cheered me up now, all the best Al

ahh well dave, at least i cheered you up time to get the lucky charm out with me again at the weekend (jordan) the fish are in trouble

My god Al just one Flounder & no pics at least you beat the blank man could have been worse

very true brian. on the plus side, at least the beaches were free from weed and it did'nt rain on me. small mercys and all that

Hey Al sorry to hear but I think the Fishy fellas are getting used to us now was out on a boat recently and blanked there myself LMAO!! and then the following day off a mark I normally catch well on , and ya read all the reports coming from cork and wonder ..."What the hell am i doing wrong!!" was out in another mark during the week, bait getting stripped by pin whitting, and first decent hit...was a tree?!?!?! which I even manged to lose in the surf! (hauled the damn thing in from a distance against the current!!) after that sat on the tackle box lit a smoke and watched the surf!! needless to say coffee came out!

at least i did'nt have to contend with doing a bit of underwater gardening kevin sadly sometimes it just dose'nt matter what you do,,,, you just ai'nt gonna catch any fish . just chalk it up to experience and look forward to the next session

unlucky al thats the way it goes some times you know the saying it called fishing not catching but we all love trying best of luck next time

very true man

Hardcore fishing man, makes my 5 or 6 hour efforts look pathetic Hard luck on the results, I'm sure you'll do better this weekend!

cheers man. it could'nt possibly get any worse ,,,,,,,,,,, could it

well AL hard luck but when ya don't bring the lucky man {Jordan} ya know the cards are stacked against ya. . . better luck next time but one is better than none...

i need the lucky charm to be there dan

Thats fishing al.it has ups and downs.

lets hope the next one is an "up" brian

:shock: serious effort there mate, serious fishing, even without the fish!
there simply ws no fish about
and to have battled against those winds too the whole time ...
brave effort. great report

cheers charlie. i did'nt honestly have too high hopes for the session man. checked the sonular theory chart before i headed off and it was predicting very low fish feeding activity for those days, but the weekend is some of the highest peorids of activity for the month HAPPY DAYS!

Sounds like hard going. Better luck next time.

cheers alan. it will not put me off too long man

Fair play al for sticking it out,that was some marathon but i know you
will bounce back and im looking forward to your next report
next time bring jordan and leave the mut at home

cheers ger, bringing the dog is ok if we're just heading out for a few hours, but man no more overnighters trying to get some sleep when you have a stealthy ninja dog trying to sleep on top of you is not conducive for a good nights sleep

wow what a long session unlucky on the result enjoyed the report none the less keep em coming reading reports like that makes me realise how lucky i am to be living on the doorstep of such good fishing grounds