Antrim Coast, 31st March 2012

People: Me and Dad

Duration: 230pm - 930pm

Tide: HW 530

Weather: Sunny ,Bright, Dry but a wee bit windy with a nip in the air

Bait: Rag, Mackerel

Rigs: 1 up 1 down blinged out flattie rigs and float

Results: Plaice, Flounder, Dab, Pollock, Coalies, Codling

Bought my first beach quiver during the week and after breaking it in with a foul hooked sandeel i wanted to give it a proper bash at flatties, combined with the fact my dad was complaining i dont go fishing with him any more plans were made to head up the coast to the spot i had heard that good number of (albeit small) flats were being caught on.
so off we went, landed at the mark and found the wee pier empty, i got out of the car grabbed my gear and headed down to set up while dad dicked around gathering his stuff together. A guy came over to talk to him saying he was waiting in the car for his mates to show up and they were gonna fish there (sorry man). so, sent out my newly tied up flattie bling rig and within 10 minutes had a double of plaice before dad had even cast out. Cast out the carp rod and was steadily getting knocks on both rods and bring in fish after fish. Dad meanwhile, after an hour, hadnt even had a bite, i put this down to the fact he was using big heavy rods and the wee fish probably wouldnt even register a bite on them so i told him to pack them up and gave him my carp rod to use, while i broke out the roach rod and lobbed it out with a straight 1 hook running ledger. Dad soon had his first fish and i was bring in a steady stream.

By about half 6 the fishing had died off a bit, i was on about 20 fish but dad was still sitting on just one. with few bites to talk off i decided on a change of tactics and as there was a big rock jutting out to the left i stuck a float on the roach rod and out it went. literally 20 seconds later the float went under and the rod buckled over, after a good wee scrap i landed a 35cm pollock. First float caught fish of the year (my favourite tactic for summer fishing ), next cast on the float produced a nice plump wee codling of around 30cm. these were the biggest fish of the day. After these 2 fish on the float the codling and coalies came on the feed in force. dad soon started picking up fish after fish on the bottom rod while i just stuck with the float and was pulling them in every other cast. even as the light faded and i couldnt see the float any more i just kept in contact with it and felt the line for the bites. Once it got proper dark the rounds disappeared and the flats came back but more sporadically. so with no rag left and only 2 fillets of mackerel we packed up and headed home. pleased as punch i got to give the new rod a proper breaking in, lost count of how many i caught but 40 wouldnt be far wrong. none of the flats had any size and quite a few were see through but sure i knew that before i headed down, and its not about the size, its about how much fun you have

Good job, sounds like a fun session on the light gear and a great day out. Nice to hear somebody getting good numbers of fish and probably one of the busiest sessions anyone's had so far this year!! Gave it a miss myself this week as the crabs had drunk me off in recent weeks.


lol, p***ed gets changed to drunk automatically here.

well you outfished the old man by a country mile and blessed your new rod in style yup thats what its all about and a nice collection of species to keep you happy good going !
ferg

nice one brian drew was cursing you up and down the beach last night when you were updating him with your catches. the fish were flying in to the left and right of him while he sat watching motionless rod tips
thats a great spot you were on did you not have a bit of craic with the flats on the clean sand down the side. mad fun watching them attack your rig on the bottom. jordan has a tiny rod and reel set up with 5lb mono on it. he's gonna annoy them fishing by sight the next time we hit there freelining bits of rag on wee size 4 hooks. great craic

Good job, sounds like a fun session on the light gear and a great day out. Nice to hear somebody getting good numbers of fish and probably one of the busiest sessions anyone's had so far this year!!

is certainly the best session ive had so far this year

well you outfished the old man by a country mile and blessed your new rod in style yup thats what its all about and a nice collection of species to keep you happy good going !
ferg

i usually do outfish, he taught me everything he knows and i went learned some more
havce to make sure i outfish him as well otherwise ill be hearing about it for weeks afterwards

nice one brian drew was cursing you up and down the beach last night when you were updating him with your catches. the fish were flying in to the left and right of him while he sat watching motionless rod tips
thats a great spot you were on did you not have a bit of craic with the flats on the clean sand down the side. mad fun watching them attack your rig on the bottom. jordan has a tiny rod and reel set up with 5lb mono on it. he's gonna annoy them fishing by sight the next time we hit there freelining bits of rag on wee size 4 hooks. great craic

well maybe next time me and drew are out and he's catching and im not he might show me a bit more sympathy
i did try the wee bit of sand down the side but couldnt see anything other than a portable bbq someone had chucked in
i did have a bait in there on the wee rod pretty much the whole session but nothing, tried bouncing it about on the sand a bit too but couldnt see anything moving, was surprised esp considering the number of flats i threw into that section i thought i would have at least seen 1 or 2 of them wandering about.

Sounds like a good fun session.

Great report man