Donegal Bay 10-12-2011
Sun Dec 11, 2011 2:53 am
People: Me
Duration:3 hrs
Tide:Hi tide down to half.
Weather: Strong southerly wind, mild with some light rain.
Bait:Frozen lug, mackerel, squid and trout fillet.
Rigs: 1 up 1 down, 3 hook flapper.
Results:8 Whiting, 2 tiny pouting.
Report:
Overall a pretty dull night out, started badly as I forgot my Penn 535 + 35lb line so no fishing in the rough stuff tonight! Also only started fishing at hi-water down and probably missed the best time which is usually the flood tide. However it beats watching re-runs of Top Gear etc. Got a decent whiting first cast on a piece of trout fillet, not sure how long it had been in the freezer so decided not to eat it myself. I got a few fish on the trout bait, it's a lot tougher on the hook than frozen mackerel and it works. The whiting were all (except for 1 small one) in the 27-32cm range though 1 or 2 were very skinny with massive looking heads tapering away to nothing. It set me to thinking about the best way to record/measure fish; weight or length? These skinny fish with big heads must have grown in proportion and then lost condition due (most likely)to parasites. The palm sized whiting swam with an east coast accent, one of your hordes of pin whiting get lost? The variety of species was poor as well as the fish count, just a couple of small pouting for interest, one of which had a nasty gash on its back. Not a single doggie to put a bend in the rod. I tried using semi circle hooks on one rod to see if it made a difference to unhooking fish, whiting tend to gulp hooks down at every opportunity. Some of them were hooked in the corner of the mouth and a few which had the hooks further down were easier to unhook as the semi circle hooks are short enough in the shank (compared to Aberdeens) to turn around in the mouth and remove. I think I'll try these hooks more often as I put almost everything back. Of course once the bass and cod start turning up here that might change....
Duration:3 hrs
Tide:Hi tide down to half.
Weather: Strong southerly wind, mild with some light rain.
Bait:Frozen lug, mackerel, squid and trout fillet.
Rigs: 1 up 1 down, 3 hook flapper.
Results:8 Whiting, 2 tiny pouting.
Report:
Overall a pretty dull night out, started badly as I forgot my Penn 535 + 35lb line so no fishing in the rough stuff tonight! Also only started fishing at hi-water down and probably missed the best time which is usually the flood tide. However it beats watching re-runs of Top Gear etc. Got a decent whiting first cast on a piece of trout fillet, not sure how long it had been in the freezer so decided not to eat it myself. I got a few fish on the trout bait, it's a lot tougher on the hook than frozen mackerel and it works. The whiting were all (except for 1 small one) in the 27-32cm range though 1 or 2 were very skinny with massive looking heads tapering away to nothing. It set me to thinking about the best way to record/measure fish; weight or length? These skinny fish with big heads must have grown in proportion and then lost condition due (most likely)to parasites. The palm sized whiting swam with an east coast accent, one of your hordes of pin whiting get lost? The variety of species was poor as well as the fish count, just a couple of small pouting for interest, one of which had a nasty gash on its back. Not a single doggie to put a bend in the rod. I tried using semi circle hooks on one rod to see if it made a difference to unhooking fish, whiting tend to gulp hooks down at every opportunity. Some of them were hooked in the corner of the mouth and a few which had the hooks further down were easier to unhook as the semi circle hooks are short enough in the shank (compared to Aberdeens) to turn around in the mouth and remove. I think I'll try these hooks more often as I put almost everything back. Of course once the bass and cod start turning up here that might change....
You do not have the required permissions to view the files attached to this post.
Re: Donegal Bay 10-12-2011
Sun Dec 11, 2011 12:21 pm
loving the "posh spice" whiting man 
all head and not much else
all head and not much else
Re: Donegal Bay 10-12-2011
Sun Dec 11, 2011 2:41 pm
lol, good analogy Al, it does actually look like her.
Re: Donegal Bay 10-12-2011
Sun Dec 11, 2011 3:34 pm
Al and Jordan wrote:loving the "posh spice" whiting man
all head and not much else
OUCH!
Re: Donegal Bay 10-12-2011
Sun Dec 11, 2011 8:38 pm
dave316 wrote:lol, good analogy Al, it does actually look like her.
i'll bet it weighed more than her too