Donegal Bay, 14th and 15th Feb 2013

People:Me

Duration:3 sessions of 3-4hrs each

Tide:Last of ebb to high water.

Weather:Breezy on 14th, beautiful on 15th

Bait:Frozen lug, prawn, herring plus fresh mackerel on 15th.

Rigs:3 hook flappers, 1 up 1 down and single hook clipped.

Results:Rockling, small coalfish, whiting and a couple of dogs.




Report:
Thursday 14th; This was my first run out for a few weeks and I must say I was less than optimistic. However I set up 2 rods sending one out far and the other in close. The far rod produced nothing, baits returning untouched. The close rod wasn't that much better yielding only a greedy shore rockling which managed to take both baits, a fat 5 beard followed by another shore rockling and a small coalfish. One other half-hearted bite and that was it. At least the 2 types of rockling boosted the species list for 2013.
Friday 15th; I obtained some fresh mackerel today (as fresh as you can buy it from a local fish shop but a lot better than the tired, jaded things you see in the supermarkets) and set off for the beach and low tide. Recent rough weather had removed 2-3 feet of sand exposing boulders and ledges which I have never seen before. It seemed to have removed the fish as well, not a single bite in over 3 hrs. Ah well, back to the car for a cappuccino and sandwich and on to a deeper water mark. I got set up as darkness descended and fired out a couple of 3 hook flappers with relatively small hooks and matching baits for a bit of "scratching". Nothing for a couple of hours, not even a chewed lug. I changed one rod to a single clipped hook and larger slice of mackerel and only minutes after casting out a dogfish turned up, an extremely welcome dogfish. I put him in a rockpool so hopefully next time out he might save a blank. The same rod then produced a small whiting, the first of this winter, and then a second dogfish before everything went quiet. Another 2 for the species list! Over 20 rodhours for 7 fish, 5 species; I suppose I could have brought them home and made a Salmonburger.
The fishing continues to be poor, for me anyway, I think I'll break out the fly-tying gear this weekend and get ready for the trout...

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well done ! nice fishing

well atleast your getting out,,,well done

Better than a blank any day....................

Well done JW started your list for the year....

At least you got a few for your troubles, Ive only got out once so far this year & that was a waste of time!! the surge of water that was coming up the beach was serious but hopefully I'll get out for cast over next week & make up for lost time!!

Tough going at the moment. 5 more species for the list though

Hey JW beats sitting in indoors fishing seems quiet everywhere at the minute. nice photos

The rockling is one demon looking fish good stuff john

Well done john good to see a bit of variety

Bet you where glad of the doggie a bit of weight on the line for you

Despite my efforts to convey feelings of disappointment at recent poor fishing I got plenty of very positive feedback, "well done"s, "nice fishing" etc. I can only assume that while I think I've been getting it bad, some of you must be getting it worse!
Regards and thanks to all who replied, JW.

well man, you set out to catch fish and catch fish you did
allbeit a bit hard going for the time put in. great pics by the way. what camera are you using?

well man, you set out to catch fish and catch fish you did
allbeit a bit hard going for the time put in. great pics by the way. what camera are you using?

Olympus E-450 DSLR.
Good to see you guys back in action btw.