Glenarm Breakwater 22 Oct

People: Sean, Conor and me

Duration: 1000 - 1800

Tide:1359 HT

Weather: Good all day!!! - No rain, no wind

Bait:Rag, mack and sandeels

Rigs: pulleys, paternosters and single hook bombers. Also 1ox pollack lure

Results: 7 species - 20ish fish


Report:Good morning all,

My bro, nephew and I tried a new mark yesterday and some new tactics which resulted in a great day.

First of all the weather was very pleasant, no rain, no wind and no coats/hats needed all day.

We have been meaning to give the Breakwater at Glenarm a bash for some time now so we located here yesterday from 1000 to 1800.

We brought along our big rods and mainly fished with pulley rigs and single hook bombers ***be aware that this mark can be a bit of a tackle graveyard - best to use rottom bottom links*** we also recently purchased a coulple of 11' spinning rods and we used these along with 1oz lures.

The species count was high -

Mackerel x 1 at 1.5lbs
LSD x 1 @ 2lbs
Pollack - several, biggest was about 1.5-2lbs (pic to follow)
Coalies - several, but small
Cod x 1 very small
Flounder x 1 very surprised to see this over rough ground
Ballan Wrasse x 1 @ 6ozish

And the fish that made the day was a 7lb Salmon out of the harbour - no joking lads!!

We spotted it cruising around the harbour and tried to get him with bait and spinners, I finally hooked him with a silver/blue lure but I was suspicious about his lazy movement - this became clear when we got him out of the water - he was badly diseased and decayed all over his body. We reckoned that he had been up the river to spawn and had came back down the river where he was destined to die. We had a look, took a pic and put him back in the water but I'd be certain there were only a few hours life left in the big lad.

Using the lures from the rocks was great fun and we landed lots of pollack and coalies, we were targetting the pollack mainly but we only managed small ones - I think the larger fish had gone shopping for the day leaving the smaller one to look after themselves.

There were a few other lads fishing too and they caught lots of LSD's, Pollack and Coalies.

A great day was had by one and all and as the saying goes - you learn something new everyday - yesterday I learned that I am not a wee lad anymore and that rock-hopping is not as easy as it was 15 years ago - my legs, thighs, arms and back all ache today - I feel like I was subject to a paramilitary beating :shock:

We will defo be back to this mark.

GG

Hi Gav - sounds strange about the salmon. October is way too early for it to be spawning, most don't spawn til around Christmas. Even the trout haven't started spawning yet and they are at least a month earlier than the salmon. More likely the fish never made it as far as the river, may have had a compromised immune system and had a fungal infection, have seen this with salmon before. When they come back the coast its a very stressful time as the body changes to adapt to fresh water and sometimes this causes the immune system to crash....

Any idea if it was a wild salmon or a farmed one? Usually on the farmed ones the corners of the tail fins etc are all rounded from hitting the cages and other fish nipping them. Did it have any lice on it? Wouldn't put it past a fish farmer to chuck any diseased ones out of the cages.....

fish which have lice on them are not nessecarily diseased, in most cases it means they have travelled from deep ocean water which in the case of salmon is quite normal.

and the cages are not very far offshore here either!???? :? :roll:
wre you casting in towards the corner that you were in the rough ground?all the most productive fishing ive had at the breakwater has been on the clean ground with the only possible snags being the odd lobster pot?

Any idea if it was a wild salmon or a farmed one? Usually on the farmed ones the corners of the tail fins etc are all rounded from hitting the cages and other fish nipping them. Did it have any lice on it? Wouldn't put it past a fish farmer to chuck any diseased ones out of the cages.....

I've posted a pic of the salmon in the photos section - you can see for yourself what condition it was in.

GG

and the cages are not very far offshore here either!???? :? :roll:
wre you casting in towards the corner that you were in the rough ground?all the most productive fishing ive had at the breakwater has been on the clean ground with the only possible snags being the odd lobster pot?

Hi Phil,

we were positioned to the right of the two blue lamposts in the car park directly in front of the Lime Works, if that's what you mean by the corner.

Where do you locate to get to the smooth ground and how far do you need to cast?

Thanks,

GG

was here myself this time last week. anywhere to the left and not that far out seems to be clean ground. over the right and close in is very snaggy. managed a nice pollock close to 6lb close in the rough stuff though :D

cant find the pic please post link to it.

http://www.sea-angling-ireland.org/bull ... pic_id=452

was taken on a phone hence poor quality lol

nice fish i never got them when i was a fluff chucker lol

was a bit of a lucky one lol.

effectively it took a spun mackrel strip :D

baited up with a new mackrel strip for doggies, cast out and the reel birdied :( spent 5 mins sorting that, and then reeled in to re cast. was hit very very hard close in and line ran off the reel lol. never caught anything that fought like that one did lasted a good 2mins or so between it pulling and me trying to get down the wet rocks and not lose it.

walk over the concrete to the point where the it runs onto the rocks, just where the locked bridge comes up from the pontoon where the feeding boat for the salmon cages.cast over towards garron point, this will put you on the clean ground

http://www.sea-angling-ireland.org/bulletin%20board/album_pic.php?pic_id=452

was taken on a phone hence poor quality lol

Nice fish thompo.

I'm going to Glenarm again on thurs night - hopefully I'll get one similar.

GG

maybe head down tonight myself.

was meant to go again last night, but the GF came and got car sick around Drainsbay so had to head back :(

got a load of rag and mackrel here so would be a shame to waste it not out of work to 9 though :(

Finally got a few hours on the breakwater last night, still a few dogs about.

was down tonight for a while 9-10.30

got:

2 small codling about 25cm
1 small pollock about 1/2lb
and 3 dogs 1 was a decent enough size and actually fought a little!

all taken on mackrel fillets.