belmullet & erris marathon trip 7th to 10th april

Fri Apr 13, 2012 6:54 pm

People: myself and jordan. with doggie3131 and jason on tuesday

Duration: see below

Tide: see below

Weather: patchy rain and sunshine. 15mph sw gusting to 30mph

Bait: lug, rag, razor, mackerel, cockle, mussel and sand eel

Rigs: 2 up 1 down 3 hook flappers

Results: flounder, launce, plaice, turbot, dab, brill, pouting, whiting, pollack, dogfish, shore rockling and the most sea trout we've ever caught!!

Report:

well, sore thumb or not this trip had been made months in advance so it was wagons west yet again

i've been researching a few marks around the area for a while now and some of the mayo lads put me onto a few too. thanks doggie3131 :wink:

. so with my folder of maps, ariel photography and admralty charts we headed off to our first intended mark determined that the forecast of pretty grim weather was'nt gonna get us down.

BEACH 1 SATURDAY 7TH APRIL 7PM TO 1AM. HW 7PM. JUST ME AND JORDAN

we got onto the beach just at the top of the tide and it was a flounder a cast. mostly palm sized, but a few nice ones over 30cm

. jordan was fishing a beachcaster at range and messing about with his little telescopic rod bouncing a 3 hook flapper around in the surf with a 1oz ball lead. oddly enough it was the little telescopic that he had most of the fish on which was great sport for him as it's an ultra light set up.
around midnight he let out a yelp that had me thinking he'd got a trout. but he came running up the beach with a big launce wiggling about on the end of his hook that had tried to eat the ragworm on the tiny size 4 hook. yet another species he has on me for the year now :roll:

jordan was made up and added to the little plaice he had the cast before it, it now had him on 3 species for this beach while i was still fighting my way through the flounder on just the one :oops:

. by 1 am we called it a day and went for some well deserved sleep. the scores on the doors ended up with me getting 15 flounder and jordan (in usual form) giving me a proper thrashing with 24 flounder, a plaice and a launce.

BEACH 2 SUNDAY 8TH APRIL 1PM TO 1AM. LW 1.30PM HW 7.30PM. JUST ME AND JORDAN

after a good sleep we got up ready to do it all over again on a new beach

we had a good feed and a pint of coffee each. so were ready for a marathon 12 hour session. i wanted to get 2 cycles of tide in on the mark to try and sus it out a bit for future reference :wink:

. i scouted out a nice few gullies and we got set up and cast out for 1pm. there was nothing for the first hour or so, but as the tide began to turn and come back in the flatties came on the feed with me getting a few turbot and jordan getting a few flounder. no monsters, but some did get over the 30cm mark which is always good. the only odd thing was that all the fish were crawlling with lice :shock:

some of the poor flounder had massive lice on them that looked like tiny sting rays

. we sort of felt sorry for the wee fish and gave them a good de-licing with the foreceps. we counted 32 lice removed from just one fish :!:

while we were doing this i noticed that my in close rod was slack lined. so i gave the flounder to jordan to return to the sea and i reeled in my slack line and struck into a nice sea trout of 40cm :mrgreen:

happy days!!! he fought well and even did a wee leap out of the water in an attempt to throw the hook in the shallows. but we got a few piccys, removed the lice and returned him none the worse for his ordeal on dry land. this picked us up no end as we now knew that there was trout out there

and jordan fancied his chances for one too :wink:

. but it was'nt to be as i got the next trout while jordan was still getting flounder. a smaller one this time at 33cm which was almost the same size as jordans flounder. so a quick pic and they both went back after another de-licing. we were now 2 hours into the flooding tide and jordan was'nt impressed at not getting a sea trout after watching me get 2. but his patience was rewarded when he finally got one measuring in at 33cm. not the biggest, but jordan was just made up to have got one on his little rod. this wee fella got the same treatment with a quick de-licing and snap before returning to the suds. jordan had only rebaited and got the little telescopic rod back out when it got smashed good and proper. it almost leapt off the tripod and jordan started to reel in the heaviest fish he's ever had on the tiny rod. he gave it some slack and let it run up and down the surf and it even did a bit of tail walking which was heart stopping to watch as it thought it was gonna throw the hook on a few occasions. but jordan kept his cool and landed a lovely trout which turned out to be the biggest of the session at 44cm

to say jordan was well chuffed was an understatment :lol:

he was beaming from ear to ear and recalled the tale of how he fought it in the surf a good dozen times or so before he gave my ears a rest :lol:

so we both baited up and got back out again and it was the turn of the flatties this time. i had a little turbot and jordan got a brace of flounder on the little rod again. then nothing until we almost lost the light and i got another slack line bite with a trout of 41cm on the end

. this one was a bit sluggish and did'nt really fight, so was easily landed. just like the rest of the fish off this beach it was covered with lice so got the same treatment before getting released again. then nothing for almost 5 hours. so we called it a day and went for some well deserved sleep, chuffed to bits with our best ever sea trout session

MONDAY 9TH APRIL

we woke up to see the skies were black and the rain was hammering down with a vengeance. so a quick call to doggie3131 confirmed our worst fears with the forecast for the rest of the day. we decided on a change of plan and we drove over to his place in mayo to spend the day and get beds for the night

top bloke. we arrived around dinner time and we caught up on all the usual fishy gossip and got to planning for our up coming trip to norway in july :mrgreen:

he even had a roast chicken dinner waiting for us nom, nom, nom!!. we hatched a plan for the following day while sinking a few cans and got some kip with the intention of getting doggie3131 and jason over to a mark we had been put onto for the afternoon.

BEACH 3 TUESDAY 10TH APRIL 3.30PM TO 7.30PM LW 3PM. MYSELF, JORDAN, JASON AND DOGGIE 3131

things did'nt get off to a good start as we could'nt find our way to our intended mark at pollacappul. the sign posts leading to the beach had been turned around by some joker. so were pointing in all the wrong directions :roll:

we drove down the road that looked right, but it left you overlooking the beach from a hill from across a few fields. we did spot a road running down to the beach, but it went through a farm and when we asked the farmer for directions he began shouting at us in a very hostile manner and turned his back on me while i was trying to talk to him :shock:

. all i could make out from what he said was that the beach was private and we were'nt allowed on it. but due to his tone and behaviour we decided just to leave it and go else where. the guy seemed pretty miffed off and not in the best of moods. mabey we had disturbed him while he was interfering with the livestock or something. after all i would imagine that it's a pretty tricky prospect trying to get just the right ammount of lipstick on a sheep in his barn without us coming along and disturbing him :lol:

he deffo had the banjo playing four toed look about him :lol:

but this area is an angling mecca, and there were plenty of other less hostile spots to explore. doggie and jason led the way and we got to another mark in just minutes

. this beach had a mighty surf running and if there was ever a spot where you could fluke a mayo bass, this looked like it :wink:

. before i even had a rod in the water both jason and doggie3131 were into the flats. jason with a lovely flounder and jammy doggie3131 with turbot and a brill!. so things were looking up. i did finally get a bait in the water and within seconds it got smashed. i was thinking all the way in " please let it be a bass, please let it be a bass!! ". but it turned out to be a 38cm sea trout. so no complaints there, still a great fish :mrgreen:

. this got the attention of the rest of my fishing buddies and the fishing began in ernest. jason was still nailing nice 30cm+ flounder and doggie was on a turbo quest and poor jordan was still waiting for a bite. i had only cast the rod out when it got thumped again

something a bit heavier this time that was giving a good account of it's self. another sea trout broke through the surf and this fella measured in at 44cm :mrgreen:

i was made up and got a few piccys and returned the trout minus 18 monster sea lice. these things had eaten right into his flesh below his anal fin, poor guy. one had even attached it's self to his eyeball :shock:

i was well chuffed, another 2 trout to me. i had more in the last 2 sessions than what i had for all of 2011. brilliant!
the only thing with this mark was that the floating weed was getting to be a real nuisance and jason had a surfer turn up and kept zipping about straight in front of him

. the guy had a good 1km stretch of beach to surf in but decided that just in front of jason was where he wanted to be :roll:

. so by 7.30pm we called it a day and moved to a harbour mark where doggie3131 was sure he could finally get the dab he has been chasing all year for his species list :lol:

MARK 4 TUESDAY 10TH APRIL 8PM TO 1AM

with all the rest of the lads heading down the harbour to get to fishing i stayed up at the motor to get the grub on. all the lads bellies were grumbling so i got the pan on. so after 20 sausages and a bag of chicken fillets dished out between rounds of bread the fishing began again. jason had a few flats and so did doggie3131 (i think). before it got too late they headed on back up the road home to mayo and both myself and jordan fished on. it was great to see you lads again and we'll see you soon enough back out west or over on the east coast for the smoothies :wink:

.
the lads had only left 20 mins before i got a bite and reeled in a little dab :lol:

just what doggie3131 was after :lol:

. jordan was having a bit of fun dangling a set of mini feathers up and down the harbour wall annoying all the 10 inch pollack that seemed to be about in good numbers. i had a little whiting and pouting before i began reeling in something that felt pretty heavy. i was hoping for a ray but was even more surprised to see a big spider crab clinging onto my gear

i've recently had the notion of trying one of these fellas for the table. so i was convinced it was gonna pop off the hook as i tried to hand line it in. but the fishing gods were smiling down on me and he made it up the wall and into my cooler bag :mrgreen:

. i was well chuffed now and jordan put the feathers away and got back to bait fishing on his big rod. he ended up with a doggie, whiting and shore rockling before we called it a day and hit the hay as we were both exhausted.

all in all it was a great trip away and i could'nt thank doggie3131 enough for putting us up again. the hospitality he has shown us over the years has been amazing and i can't wait for july when we all head off to norway togeather to annoy some cow sized cod :mrgreen:

we barely scratched the surface of the angling possibilities of this region in the short time we were away. so we'll deffo be back again in the summer with the tents to do a bit more exploring. while we were away we only saw another 2 anglers fishing the marks we were on. which seemed like madness with the fishing that was available from these venues. a truely untapped part of the coast that deserves a lot more exploration :wink: