east cork beach and ballycotton pier... 19-10-2012

People:me and sailnfish and kieran for a while

Duration:19.30-01.30

Tide:high headed low

Weather:very mild

Bait:fresh lug and fresh peeler

Rigs:pulleys and flappers

Results:4 coalies,1 junior conger,1 doggy,1 pollack,1 whiting,1cod




Report:after a week of salt less air and carrying elephants up staircases,myself and sailnfish headed out to rendevous with the 4.1 rocking its way in at 9 bells.
we met up,drank half a bucket of coffee,a quick root thru the gear and chewed up the road to pauls for some peeler that had been awaiting their inevitable and impending doom,patiently for the 2 days previous.
cool to be able to book and collect and not without service with a smile.cheers paul.lively fellas too,at the time i couldnt help but think that they knew they were on a green mile of sorts.
after a wander and gander thru the wares paul had to offer,(aaaagh,really want that century,some rod man) and a bit of chat with roooster,cheers for the fist of lug too man,nice wan..myself and sailnfish decided that we were'nt special enough for the tide to wait for us,so we made like bananas and split.
with high hopes we left pauls,but rooosters mention of alot of weed floating about,was hanging over me like a cloud.sh*te neither of us checked the weedwatch thread.brilliant that is.
twas like the van knew where it was going and the journey a blur with anticipation.
we mule'd up and started on the half mile hike to where we throw lead,a beauty of a spot, where rarely we have ever seen other anglers and where a couple of weeks back we landed 3 bass between us all in and around the 6 lbs mark.nice and quiet.3/4 of the way down we spotted a blue rod tip light.aw shi*t...i had an all merciful sinking feelin,ya kno the way it is,once the word is out that the bass are in,they can descend like some sort of biblical plague of locusts,we had only told a couple of heads,so we were very happy to see it was one of the chosen few.
kieran informed us opon our arrival that he had been there for the flood and that there was nothing showing in the way of bass..yet! i thought to myself,but he had landed 2 coalies...how bad..
the beach bore no weed but held no surf either,with no moon showing at all,the contradictions in the conditions were rearing their ugly heads.
after a couple of biteless hours the high water yet again decided that we were not worth its presence,turned and started to fall back,much much faster than the waning gibbous the last session,but slow enough for kieran to land another 2 coalies,sailnfish hawling in one for him as he was preoccupied with natures call.
with the high waters departure came kierans with it,generously leaving us more fresh lug.cheers lad.
we waited,the reason being that sailnfish' last bass was taken here at almost half way to low tide level,but no bass for us this night.
after the white wash on the beach,we said we'd suffer the 7/8 mile drive to ballycotton pier to finish off the last few crab and lug,even an aul doggy now would see off the blank.neither of us said it but we were both thinking it.
off we went.
4 rods out off the garryvoe facing side of the pier.2 each.
round midnight i had a small doggy take my bait and not long after a small pollack for sailnfish.
then we nearly lost everything,rods reels stands,the whole sha-bang.
a trawler pulled out off the pier,whose deckhands had clearly saw us fishing an instead of taking the usual route out of the harbour,like every other F#*king boat in there,they held her tight against the right hand side of the pier,boot down and took our 4 lines in the direction of the lighthouse,accident or not i dont know.sailnfish was lucky to get both his lines back,i lost one,but the other i had just cast used the bow as a pulley and catapulted my trace and weight round the boat from port to starboard.
im sure if one of their lads ended up with a 5 oz gripper embedded in his skull and a 3/0 flapper wrapped around his head,they wouldnt think twice about giving us a heads up in future. langers like.
the next cast for sailnfish landed him a double shot consisting of 1 whiting and 1 cod,his last providing him with a foot long silvery junior conger.lovely stuff.
with blanks banished and our gear still intact and present,we called it a night.the only regret being i didnt drag out the camera for any of it...next time.

as always,lately,sometimes...good fishing

Fantastic Report a pity about the bass hopefully they will be about the next time and you wont have to head off to Ballycotton and risk your gear going for a swim
ferg

You'll win the 'Shelter deck trawler' nominated species competition hands down

You'll win the 'Shelter deck trawler' nominated species competition hands down

You'll win the 'Shelter deck trawler' nominated species competition hands down

fu*king return button...