West Cork, 29th July to 9th August
Sun Aug 12, 2012 8:59 pm
People:Just Me
Duration:Various sessions of various lengths.
Tide:All stages
Weather:Very mixed.
Bait:Fresh lug, maddies, frozen sandeel and razorfish.
Rigs:2 hook flappers, single clipped, float, lures, plugs.
Results:A couple of mullet, blennies, wrasse and pollack.
Report:
Spent a fortnight’s holiday in West Cork but I have to report that the fishing was disappointing this year, largely due to the patchiness of mackerel and abundance of weed! At least there was no red tide (unless you count the hurlers and footballers).
Sunday 29th July. First session was a short one after mullet which produced 1 fish at just under 2lb to breadflake.
Monday 30th July. After digging some lugworm and a few maddies and buying some sandeels and razor, I headed off to an estuary which produces bass, flounder and giltheads but as the tide started to fill the weed became overwhelming; every cast smothered in the stuff. So I moved to another spot and was “rewarded” with 5-6 blennies which I suppose spared me a total blank.
Thursday 2nd August. Headed down towards Castletownbere area and spent/wasted 2-3hrs failing to catch any mackerel. (No consolation in that 6-7 others also failed to catch). Luckily I still had the remnants of my lugworm from the previous trip so a trip to a nearby rock mark saved the day with a small pollack and two ballan wrasse at 2lb and 2lb 6oz, all on floatfished lug.
Friday 3rd August. Back to the sand with a lively surf and a couple of hours with the whole beach to myself. Not a bite, every bait coming back just as it went out. Then a couple of surfers arrived and insisted on surfing right in front of me, I suppose close on a mile of beach just isn’t big enough for 3 people. I’m still trying to decide whether there would be any point in showing these people what 5oz of breakaway lead towing a couple of sharp 3/0 hooks travelling at speed (any estimates?) looks like and whether they are happy enough to accept the risk of being struck by same. Or should I be the one who goes elsewhere (to put it politely)? After another hour, I left to try another spot which is usually reliable for a few humble but very welcome dogfish....not even a bite. Did I mention that there are some great pubs and restaurants in West Cork?
Saturday 4th August. The weed in the estuary wasn’t so bad today so I decided to give spinning and plugging a go but 3 hours produced no signs of interest at all. I did get some useful info from a couple of guys who had got some bass earlier in the week by drifting in a boat with the tide in the estuary and floatfishing sandeels. This way your tackle is moving with the weed which becomes much less of a problem, something to try next year!
Thursday 9th August. At this point the weather had improved considerably allowing me to take the boat out for a few trips so I had just 1 more short shore session when I managed to tempt another mullet at 3lb 4oz, again on breadflake.
All in all, not exceptional this year but it’s called fishing not catching and it can’t be good all the time.
Duration:Various sessions of various lengths.
Tide:All stages
Weather:Very mixed.
Bait:Fresh lug, maddies, frozen sandeel and razorfish.
Rigs:2 hook flappers, single clipped, float, lures, plugs.
Results:A couple of mullet, blennies, wrasse and pollack.
Report:
Spent a fortnight’s holiday in West Cork but I have to report that the fishing was disappointing this year, largely due to the patchiness of mackerel and abundance of weed! At least there was no red tide (unless you count the hurlers and footballers).
Sunday 29th July. First session was a short one after mullet which produced 1 fish at just under 2lb to breadflake.
Monday 30th July. After digging some lugworm and a few maddies and buying some sandeels and razor, I headed off to an estuary which produces bass, flounder and giltheads but as the tide started to fill the weed became overwhelming; every cast smothered in the stuff. So I moved to another spot and was “rewarded” with 5-6 blennies which I suppose spared me a total blank.
Thursday 2nd August. Headed down towards Castletownbere area and spent/wasted 2-3hrs failing to catch any mackerel. (No consolation in that 6-7 others also failed to catch). Luckily I still had the remnants of my lugworm from the previous trip so a trip to a nearby rock mark saved the day with a small pollack and two ballan wrasse at 2lb and 2lb 6oz, all on floatfished lug.
Friday 3rd August. Back to the sand with a lively surf and a couple of hours with the whole beach to myself. Not a bite, every bait coming back just as it went out. Then a couple of surfers arrived and insisted on surfing right in front of me, I suppose close on a mile of beach just isn’t big enough for 3 people. I’m still trying to decide whether there would be any point in showing these people what 5oz of breakaway lead towing a couple of sharp 3/0 hooks travelling at speed (any estimates?) looks like and whether they are happy enough to accept the risk of being struck by same. Or should I be the one who goes elsewhere (to put it politely)? After another hour, I left to try another spot which is usually reliable for a few humble but very welcome dogfish....not even a bite. Did I mention that there are some great pubs and restaurants in West Cork?
Saturday 4th August. The weed in the estuary wasn’t so bad today so I decided to give spinning and plugging a go but 3 hours produced no signs of interest at all. I did get some useful info from a couple of guys who had got some bass earlier in the week by drifting in a boat with the tide in the estuary and floatfishing sandeels. This way your tackle is moving with the weed which becomes much less of a problem, something to try next year!
Thursday 9th August. At this point the weather had improved considerably allowing me to take the boat out for a few trips so I had just 1 more short shore session when I managed to tempt another mullet at 3lb 4oz, again on breadflake.
All in all, not exceptional this year but it’s called fishing not catching and it can’t be good all the time.
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Re: West Cork, 29th July to 9th August
Mon Aug 13, 2012 1:03 pm
disappointing mate at least you got some fish nice mullet
Re: West Cork, 29th July to 9th August
Mon Aug 13, 2012 3:06 pm
At least you caught a few, that's a nice Mullet & Wrasse 
I was out last week & had just one micro Pollock to save the blank 
between the weather & red tide the past while its very slow to pick up on some marks!!!
I was out last week & had just one micro Pollock to save the blank between the weather & red tide the past while its very slow to pick up on some marks!!!
Re: West Cork, 29th July to 9th August
Tue Aug 14, 2012 11:31 pm
FisherKing wrote:At least you caught a few, that's a nice Mullet & Wrasse
I got a couple of those myself but was too embarrassed to say so!
Re: West Cork, 29th July to 9th August
Wed Aug 15, 2012 10:07 am
Thanks for the nice report johnwest and sorry to hear that the fishing was poor. I usuallly spend a week down there ie West Cork fishing at Rosscarberry and Courtmac and hope to travel there when I return home in a few weeks . Without asking you for any marks etc were you anywhere near either of my two venues as I might change my location to the Dingle area .. best regards and tight lines ..John