North Antrim, 3 Marks, 08/05/12 "What a Plaice"..

People: Dan and I

Duration: Think we made it north for about 11ish, left again at 6pm

Tide: Dropping, low, and what looked like a bit of push

Weather: Lovely!

Bait: Rag, Sandeel, Lug, White, Mack, Squid, Launce

Rigs: 2up1down, 2up, Scratchers, Mini Rigs, DDP, Feathers...

Results:
Dan : 1 Launce, 1 Dab
Drew : 6 Flounder, 2 Plaice, 1 Coalfish

Report:

Venue 1 :

Sheltered harbour fishing, plan for today was to go mini bashing in a few cracks and holes around the harbours around the North Coast, we settled on Portrush, which always seems to throw up a good variety of Gobies and Blennies... Sadly, for whatever reason they weren't playing ball, I moved to the end of the harbour and fished one at range over the back, which produced nothing, while the one I'd plonked in the harbour mouth accounted for 6 Flounders to 25cm, and a mini Plaice, epic! Meanwhile Danny had perservered with the mini attack, only to be rewarded with his first Launce for the year, bumping him up to an unbelievably impressive 28 species for 2012 so far!!! We decided to try another rock mark close by for a change...

Venue 2 :

We got the gear back in the water, and were feeling pretty optomistic as we started the second part of the session, that was a mistake... the ground rods didn't get a sniff over an hours fishing.. My only saving grace was a Coaly of around 1lb4oz which tested my spinning rod to the limits, Dan saved his blank with a postage stamp sized Dab... A brief stop for something to eat, and off to the final mark..

Venue 3 :

More rocks this time, Dan and I got set up again, and were treated to the sight of 4 or 5 gannets diving on something... just out of casting range... typical... So down to the fishing, Dans Launce from earlier was yet to be touched, so I asked (honest), if I could wack it onto a drop down pulley and try to catch something a bit bigger. In honesty I was hoping for a big Turbot, which I'd heard this mark produced from time to time, We went exploring for a bit and got back to the rods after about 5 minutes, it looked like I'd been slacklined, happy days, so I hit into it, to feel a dead weight, Dan saw the bend in the rod and came over for a nosey... "It's a bit of Kelp and a stone, or a bloody crab" was all he got from me... until about 10 yards out the fish started giving an account of itself... had half the tapered shockleader on before I saw the fish (I nearly keeked the whips), within a couple of foot of the surface the fish started really giving it some, but luckily it was easily controlled with the zziplex, only think I was truely worried about was a knot or the snood giving way.... luckily it didn't and in one swift motion the fish was on the rocks... Caught somewhere between relief and disbelief I got it unhooked a couple of pics, and attempted to measure it, its tail lay a good 3 or 4cm over the end of a 45cm rule (its really 46cm as there's a cm after the last mark), so I'm gonna call it a 49/50cm fish, with a good 2cm depth, the converter I was checking online put the fish between 2lb13oz and 3lb, and it felt every bit of it, a new PB for me, and a hell of a fish to end the day. Release was perfect, I didn't want to simply chuck the beast back into the water, for fear of it having tired so much during the fight, so I kicked off the socks and shoes, and released it on a little beach just round the corner, I held it for a minute before it left my hands and swam off strongly... Great end to a pleasent day....

You do not have the required permissions to view the files attached to this post.

Brilliant plaice, well done. Nice to see it returned to fight another day

Stonker Drew fair play lad.

cracking fish well done. greta catch .

Well done drew thats a crackin fish and on the zippy too,bet you were loving it

Lovely fish drew
U won't forget him in a hurry

A cracker of a fish well done

don't forget to post it here too viewtopic.php?f=65&t=38624

Thats a proper plaice well done

That is a screamer of a Plaice dude, well done to ya

Nice bit of fishing done, great day for it

Monty

fantastic plaice havent seen one like that for a long time
fair play Drew
and great to hear it returned

Well done with the plaice, not many good ones like that around these days sadly, congrats!!

epic

Very very nice way to top off a nice day out.

Congrats.

well done mate cracking plaice.

Good stuff Drew Been many a year from I seen a plaice any were near that size...

Well done on the Plaice!!

Thats a beauty well done

fantastic plaice well done and great report.

Absolutely crackin plaice, a rare site, well done.

cracker of a fish, well done drew