Cape clear co. Cork

[Al]

People:myself and mb3

Duration:25th-28th

Tide:splishy and splashy

Weather:sunny, calm, windy

Bait:jellyworms and rag

Rigs:float gear and jelly worms

Results:Pollock, Wrasse and a small pouting

Headed to the beautiful island of cape clear island for some fun frolics and a little bit of fishing.
Main plan was to fish for the mullet in the north harbour on the island and try some of the deep water marks (basically the whole island) for pollock and wrasse. After a night of wine, beer and bushmills myself and mb3 headed for north harbour on Saturday morning to try for the mullet, We wanted to try a few marks that Paul, aka Caz-Galway was kind enough to put us onto but unfortunately the wind was blowing at 35km with 66km guests, so the shelter of the north harbour was the choice of the day. Things didn't start off to well as the harbour which can be absolutely stuffed with mullet was showing only about a dozen or so which were spread out around the harbour, the plan was to try and get them feeding by groundbaiting with bread in a particular area to try and attract the majority to where we wanted them, also we realised the shop wasn't open and we had no bread which was going to be a bit of a problem After a half an hour the shop opened, and armed with the finest loaves of 'fields bread of Skibereen' we went down to the harbour to start getting the mullet feeding. We spotted a few in the harbour and started to feed the bread , which the mullet were starting to get interested in when next of all a swarm of seagulls like something out of a hithcock film came down and decided the bread was for them and spooked any mullet which we had attracted to our swim...this didn't help the hangover! We didn't bother taking the rods out of the car and instead tore up the bread and hid it under the weed and hopefully the mullet would start feeding on it towards high water, we headed off and treated ourselves to ice cream to ease the pain and a spot of unsuccessfull spinning with jelly worms in South harbour, we headed back to the harbour that evening and after hours of trying for mullet and trying to out smart seagulls we gave up
We headed over to the rocks just at the mouth of the north harbour and float fished rag for wrasse, which it turned out were only too obliging, thank god! We had a good auld session for about 2 hours or so with corkwing, ballens and a small pollock and headed off happy that we had finally caught some fish and cursing ourselves for trying for the mullet for so long
The next day the wind had quitened down, and it was decided to try a mark on the north side of the island that paul was keen for us to fish, so at low water with sore heads, pinks eyes and a pack of jelly's myself and mark went after pollock,
We got to the mark and the sea wasn't completely flat with a bit of a swell but it looked like a mark that could hold some fish we loaded up our rods with 1 once leads over a jellyworm on a size 2/0 and cast into the deepwater trying different depths, first cast for mark and he was hit straight away as I saw his rod bend over and a look of panic on his face and after a fight that had quite a few swear words mark brought in a pollock of about 6lbs and he was a happy man, I changed over to the black and red jelly then from the white and counted to 25 seconds as I let the jelly sink and started to retrieve slowly and bang, pollock on the cheap spinning rod and light set up were absolutely great craic and the fish was nearly pulling the rod out of my hand as it was diving for the kelp, this was the best craic fishing i've had in a long time, after a few mins a pollock of about 5 or 6 pounds was landed, this was the way things were to be for the next half and hour or so with fish ranging from about 3lb at the smallest up to about 7lb, things quietened up then for a while but a few cast in different directions had us in the fish again, after about 2.5 hours we finished up as the swell was getting a bit freaky at this stage but we didn't mind too much and we were happy with the quality of fish in that few hours
Absolutely dying to go back to such a beautiful place with this quality of angling, and if I could have I would have stayed the rest of the week but alas work always gets in the way of fishing.
We stayed at http://capeclearholidayhome.com/ and the accomodation was fantastic and it sleeps between 6-8 people at a very reasonable price, the views are unreal also! I will defo be back by the end of the summer as I definitely left there addicted to Pollock fishing

And thanks again to caz-galway for putting me onto some marks, didn't get to try them all but next time

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Last edited by Al on Tue May 29, 2012 11:10 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Some more pics

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Nice Pollock, on light gear they can really account for themselves, just the thing to shake off the hangover!

Nice Pollock, on light gear they can really account for themselves, just the thing to shake off the hangover!

Thanks!
Just the thing indeed, at one point the two of us were just laughing at the fight off them, serious fish! Hadn't had them over really 4lb so it was a good proper introduction
I'd be very confident of some ridiculous size pollock coming from there

well done lads

looks like good craic was had lads, havent been down there in years but a beatifull spot. i remember asking the bar girl what time they shut and she told me september
do they let cars onto the island now? they didnt last time i was there.

looks like good craic was had lads, havent been down there in years but a beatifull spot. i remember asking the bar girl what time they shut and she told me september
do they let cars onto the island now? they didnt last time i was there.

Haha what better answer could you have asked for
Still just a passenger ferry red, sure you wouldn't want to bring your car anyway, it'd end up looking like one of the locals there's the island taxi/bus service run by the co-op anway which costs hardly anything and everything is within an easy enough walk...well maybe not an easy walk but close enough :p

Excellent Lads,good stamp of pollock and fine wrasse fair play it is a great spot allright(but only remember it as a kid getting sick on the way over on the boat )haha
tightlines
fergal

great fishing lads great to see pollock of that size from the shore well done

Hi Al,

Glad that I was able to see you right. I didnt mention those Mullet for a very good reason. They drive you mad , especially after a hard night. Lovely pollack though bringing back great memories.

Caz

great report, pics al and some lovely fish caught by all
well done man

Cheers al

good stuff lads and nice report!

good stuff lads and nice report!

Put the pics up just for you roger