The good the bad and the ugly. Waterford/ Youghal 9-10/11/12

People: Tightlines and myself

Duration:Too long

Tide:High to low to high to low

Weather:

Bait:Fresh and frozen Crab, Lug, Sandeel, Mussel and squid

Rigs:Pennel pullys

Results:Codling, LSD, Coalie, Bass, Flounder, Whiting and silver eel




Report:

Friday 9/11/12

Well the weekend was an eventful one, The good bit was the fishing, we had high hopes for some good results over the weekend so when we arrived in Youghal we were in high spirits, we got set up alongside Tippjohn and James, space was tight so i set up further down the promenade, suited me as i had more space for casting. Fishing was slow to start, there was alot of weed catching on the lines and dragging our gear. Weed finally cleared up for us and some fish started to show, first in was James with a small Codling, i soon followed with a small codling, James then got himself a nice 2.5lb codling, Alan in the meanwhile had got himself some doggies, we were picking up small codling fairly regulary after that, whilst we were fishing away a big Ship went by, after it passed i noticed a couple of hard knocks on my rod, watched the tip intently in the hope there may be more, instead the tip was giving the very subdued pull that would normally be expected from weed wrapped around the line and trace, decided to pull in and crear the weed, reeling in was hard, there was like a dead weight coming in so i was far from impressed about having to clear weed again. I was watching out for the lump of weed coming in but as i reeled in i couldnt see any, was starting to wonder what was going on until i seen a big flash of silver just below me, in my excitement/ panic i grabbed the line and pretty much dropped the rod, handlined the fish up the side and over the wall, a quick yell to the lads along the lines of 'you can keep your poxy codling, i have this!!!!!!!! ' A quick weigh showed it to be a very nice 6lb Bass for me, my biggest ever so i was super chuffed with myself... Things went quiet again after that, the decision was made to pack up so i had my gear pretty much put away when Alan suddenly pulled in a 2.5lb codling, decision was made to stay on, great, ill just unpack my gear again eh... , shoulda left my gear packed away cos nothing happened after that.... Myself and Alan moved to Ferrypoint then to fish the drop over there and to set camp, Alan could do nearly nothing wrong there and had a fish nearly every cast, i on the other hand was struggling to find anything out there, had 1 decent Coalie at about 1-1.5lb but after that it was just small Codling, I went off to bed soon after but Alan continued on fishing, he had a couple of decent coalies and a couple more decent Codling...







Saturday

Fishing was non existant on saturday morning, so once Alan finally woke up we headed off to get food, from there we went in search of 'the Abbey' mark, we took a walk down to the mark first to check it out before bringing the gear down, there were already some guys down there fishing but there was still space, (nice to meet you Conger) so back to the car to get the gear, got back down and got set up. Fishing here was near impossible due to the rip of the dropping tide, i lost 3 sets of gear so enough was enough... Back to Ferrypoint we went! We got set up again and decided to fish to low water than head home. My first cast saw me land a good coalie, few casts after that gave me small Codling, Alan was landing small codling near every cast again, things for me went quite for the next couple of hours, i noticed a small rattle on my rod tip so guessed i had another coalie on, as i reeled in i couldnt feel a strong fight, was more like a lazy fight, as i got the fish to the waters edge i could see it was a good flounder, wasnt until i went to pick it up that i seen it was a very good flounder, this thing was huge, unhooked it and got it onto the measure, 45cm long and 2.5lb in weight I was fully pleased with myself, my weekend was well and truely made!!! had a few more small codling after that and a silver eel to end the session....






So that was the good part of our weekend, the bad bit was what happened as we were leaving, for whatever reason best known to myself (tho i have no idea why i though this was a good idea) i stuck the jeep into 4wd and reversed onto the pebbles to make it a (marginally) shorter distance to bring the gear up for packing away, got the gear packed away and we were in ready to go, drove the car onto the grassy area and tried to disengage the 4wd, it wouldnt disengage so i thought drive on a bit and try again, still wouldnt disengage, ok then, we will just need to drive home in 4wd drive, will be a slower but at least we will be on our way, about 15-20km outside Youghal i noticed a smell of burning oil or something coming from the car, pulled over to the side of the road and as we stopped we could see a cloud of smoke coming from under the car, i jumped out and had a look underneth, oil dripping from the front diff, great stuff, so, decided to call my insurance since i have breakdown assistance. This is where the ugly started, Took out my phone, battery dead, Alans phone was nearly dead, didnt have the ins company number so had to get that somehow, we finally got the number and called them, girl on the line was nice enough, i explained what happened and she arranged for someone to call out to tow us, as we were waing for the tow truck i got a call back from the ins company, was explained to me what they could do for us, car would be towed to Dungarvan, from there we would be given 70e towards getting us back to Dublin, thats fair enough i though, so the arrangement was to get a taxi to Waterford then a rental car back to Dublin, sounds good, she went on to explain id need a drivers licence and a credit/debit card, ok, i have the licence but the debit card bit may be a problem, having not been paid in the last 4 weeks my laser card account statement does not make good reading, so the rental car wasnt happening, the next offering was we would be put up in a hotel for the night then we could work out how we would get home, ok i said, but how exactly do you suggest i get a room in a hotel when my laser card isnt worth the plastic its made of? She didnt have an answer for me this time, instead it was apologies that she couldnt do anything for us, so it was looking like it would be a cold night in Dungarvan for us.... Thankfully she called back after 10mins, she had sorted us a room in a hotel so at least we would a warm bed for the night. Following morning a quick call to Sparkey+1 (Greatest guy in the world) and we had a lift back to dublin sorted...

All in all, a great start to the weekend and a poxy end to it, on the upside tho, we are now home but my car is still in Dungarvan

Nice to meet ye lads, sorry to hear about the jeep lad

nice report, a good read and some nice fish,bass was a nice suprise,shame about the motor

Lads it was no bother... What are good friends for

Ah laurance maybe you should of called it BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN Fishing trip.... 2 lads in one room guess the hotel were asking questions..... whos the DADDY.....


When I pulled over at the Gaa painting on the wall and asked if you needed a lift Laurence your eyes lite up like a Xmas tree... and Alan looked fcuked.....

1st time i drove down south so far without my rods..... and what a catch i landed with.... You would swear I had a barrel load of fish in the car with the smell and the crab were alive... Ah Dublin crab hard as fcuk...

Well all home safe and sound well that's all that's matters in the end... Oh by the way misses said thats its grand to go rescue your mates I have housework to do so cheers you 2 got me out of that 1 and the dinner was made when I got home.... " hope I didn't lose the BROWNIE point i have for next weekend...

Made it up in 2 hours the longest part was getting out your front driveway Lau ...... it not like the car needed a run or anything like that.....

So next time who's driving, glad we didn't ask you to drive over to the that other mark with the 35min walk guess we see the jeep sailing by with the ship from Youghal.....

Anyway lads you 2 had a great session and plenty of fish caught....

Lets stay local for a while we just go to the hospital mark r local one...

Enjoy the fish for dinner for a trip like that you 2 deserve a good meal as I am sure both of you lost a stone since I saw you last time during the week..

Dave

what an adventure lads, fair play to all the helpful people, that's what it's all about

Smashing session lads, you's really put in a long shift, well done

Feck it lads ye were drawn thw short straw on that one.......well done on the fish tho good weekend of it.......ye were glad to get home id say

lovely fishing

Lads it was no bother... What are good friends for

It was very much appreciated

Ah laurance maybe you should of called it BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN Fishing trip.... 2 lads in one room guess the hotel were asking questions..... whos the DADDY.....

Dunno about that now, tho we did get a funny look as we were checking in, coulda been down to Alans smelly jacket tho..

Well all home safe and sound well that's all that's matters in the end... Oh by the way misses said thats its grand to go rescue your mates I have housework to do so cheers you 2 got me out of that 1 and the dinner was made when I got home.... " hope I didn't lose the BROWNIE point i have for next weekend...

At least there was one good outcome for the car 'blowing up'

Made it up in 2 hours the longest part was getting out your front driveway Lau ...... it not like the car needed a run or anything like that.....

Yeah, my driveway is something else eh

Nice to meet ye lads, sorry to hear about the jeep lad

We shoulda stayed at the mark where we met you, yeah i would have lost more gear but at least i wouldnt have broke the car...

what an adventure lads, fair play to all the helpful people, that's what it's all about

An adventure i have no desire in doing again.... Well, maybe the fishing part, not the car dying on us part...

Epic stuff lads. There's a book in that!

Smashing Bass Congrats id say that was a nervy one handlining it up the wall happy days congrats on the PB and the overall session

Epic stuff lads. There's a book in that!

Rory if i put a book together that would only be a chapter in it with all the adventures we have had fishing together with the lads

Nice to meet ye lads, sorry to hear about the jeep lad

We shoulda stayed at the mark where we met you, yeah i would have lost more gear but at least i wouldnt have broke the car...

Laur did you get the quote yet for the jeep...

Fair play lads nice few fish there.
Sorry to hear about the car Laurence hope it doesn't cost too much to get fixed.
And Dave fair play for goin to collect them. I'm guessing I would of been getting a phone call if u couldn't make it.

fair play to sparkey+1 good session lads and a lovely bass Laurence .

Great report and congratulations on the bass and flounder. I assume the flounder was probably a PB as well? Too bad about about the car changing from a 4X4 to a 4X0, that would certainly take the shine off the trip. Sounds like your insurance company looked after you reasonably well; I thought you were going to tell us how they found innumerable small print clauses to get out of doing anything but credit where it's due. In the future you'll enjoy the good fishing part of the trip and the car problem will just be a story to out-do someone else's tale of woe!

I spoke to the Garage which has the car now today, they have the car back to 2wd but they are saying the front diff has no oil in it, they're gonna top up the oil and go from there, with a bit of luck that will be the end of the saga.... Well no, the end of the saga will be when i head back to waterford to get the car and bring it home,

If that doesnt fix the issue im probs looking at a new front axle....

nice 1 laurance well put together report and dave you dont know much we owe you would not want to go trough that again the fishing was great but the breakdown took the whole shine off the weekend