Sligo beach and rock mark, 24th and 25th Oct 2012

People:Myself

Duration:3hrs on 24th, 6hrs on 25th

Tide:low on 24th, flooding on 25th.

Weather:Calm, dry, sheltered from breeze.

Bait:Lug and frozen mack.

Rigs:1up 1down, 2 hook flapper, float and wrasse rig.

Results:Flounder, small ballans and corkwings.




Report:
I was hoping to target some half decent wrasse and had dug plenty of lug in expectation. As always, some mackerel was used on the beach for the flounder. A 3 hour session in darkness on the beach around low tide produced 3 flounder at 34, 28 and 19cm in that order. As the fish were decreasing in size it was probably just as well it was a short session!
The following morning the sun was shining and there was little or no wind so I headed off to the rocks. Getting out of the car, the temperature was only 7 celsius and it felt quite cool but after a hike across a few sand dunes I was almost ready for a second application of deodorant. I had packed a spinning rod to try for a few pollack but when setting up, found I had forgotten to pack some spinners so on with the bait. The fishing started off very slowly at low tide and I was beginning to think the wrasse had already departed, but after about 2 hrs the fish started to feed. One surprise was a nice 37cm flounder which came out of a rocky hole which must have a sandy bottom. (The pic suggests it was less than 37 but the ground was very uneven). The bites on float-fished lug came thick and fast but hooking up proved difficult; strike quickly and you miss, wait longer and the bait is stripped. I put this down to the small size of fish, corkwings are small anyway but the biggest ballan was a mere 30cm. I ended up with 6 corkwings and 5 ballans, where have the better fish gone? Last time, which was also the first time, I fished here I got fish to 2.5lbs. Is that the wrasse over for this year?

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You always seem to find the fish maybe not the size you were after but 11 wrasse in a session kept you busy id say its getting that wee bit late now in the season as the colder water is moving in.
tightlines
fergal

Nice fishing again john,

I have noticed a big decline in wrasse numbers over the last few weeks aswell John so your not the only one, reckon they must be heading to deeper water.

Nice few fish John, They seem to have thinned out the past week, usually the big Wrasse would be around for another while. I tried them Tuesday & there was plenty of small ones & the odd one to 40cm but was out again Friday at the same mark & they seemed to have left was lucky the catch one!!! but will try deeper mark next to see if i can find the bigger ones. There's a mark I fish & always catch one nice size Flounder among the Wrasse there, I am beginning to think its the same fish each time!!!

Tidy flounder John, nice wrasse also. Very nice pics as ever.

very nice JW. great pics.
yeah, thats a very generous 37cm...
nice fish
getting a nice wrasse to win the fish of the month competition though is going to prove tricky!