Wicklow 21/6

People:Tightlines, JimmyK, Sparkey+1 and myself

Duration:19:30 until some god forsaken time of the morning...

Tide:Last of the rise, all of the drop then a bit of the rise

Weather:It rained, alot, and it was a tad windy,

Bait:Peeler, softies, rag, fresh lug and frozen black lug

Rigs:Pullys, pennel pullys, 2 and 3 hook flappers

Results:Smuts and a dog and a whiting




Report:As always, a plan was hatched during the week for a session somewhere for the weekend, a trip down the country was discussed but with the weather forcasted that plan was soon forgotten so a trip to Wicklow it would be....

I arrived first at the beach to see about 5 other anglers already fishing away, there was also a gang of people camping on the beach so it meant we would have to set up further down the beach, the rest of the guys arrived and we loaded some of the gear into my car so that i could just drive down the beach with it rather than us having to make a second trip back to the cars - suddenly having a 4 wheel drive is very useful....

We were set up and fishing for about 7:30, we decided to do our usual and go a fiver each for heaviest fish, for the first hour or so it was quiet with pretty much nothing happening, it was also difficult to differentiate between the bites and the wind knocking the rod tips, i decided to change baits after having them in the water for 15mins or so and as i was reeling in i could feel a bit of weight on the line, initially i put it down to weed or the grippers on the lead digging into the sand, as it turned out though, i had a small smoothy pup, since we were in for heaviest fish a quick weigh of him showed him to be 5oz, i was in the lead... , as i was putting him back in the water i could see JimmyK pulling in a pup for himself, his showed 7oz on the scales, suddenly i was no longer in the lead , next was Alan with a fish, a bigger pup again at 11oz. There were a few more pups caught in the hours that followed, nothing to beat Alams 11oz tho but some looked close to it. During this time we were getting harrased by the kids who were camped on the beach, they kept asking us for weights so that they could use them on their lidl rod , then they were asking for the fish we were catching so that they could burn them on their fire... Yes, they were told to feck off... It was now dark, Alan had just caught himself a whiting, this thing was massive, a whole 5cm long!!!!!!

Our hopes were starting to fade, it was raining and all we had caught were pups and Alans pathetic whiting, I noticed a rattle on my rod but didnt pay much attention to it as it wasnt very regular, was more like a rattle, then quiet for a while then a rattle again, i left it as it was and went back to my can of bulmers, 10mins later i decided to go see what the rattle was, a quick reel in and i had in my hands a nice smoothy of 4lb 11oz, a new personal best for me, suddenly i was back in the lead


Next with a decent fish was JimmyK, another smoothy, this time 2lb 11oz, my leadership was still safe, went quiet again for a while but Alan was doing his best to catch something of size. Once again i noticed a rattle on my rod, this time it was a good rattle, the ratchet on the reel was also jumping about so i tightened up and started to reel in, there was a fish on the other end and it wasnt a happy camper, ended up taking me a walk up the beach, Alan ran up the beach to grab the fish for me, a quick weigh showed 5lb 8oz, once again a new personal best for me , things really quietened down after this, a few more pups were caught and i had a doggie. It could have been an hour later when Alan finally caught a good fish, 5lb exactly smoothy, not enough to take the lead from me tho , after this there were a couple more pups caught, we called it quits at about 5am i think and headed back to the car park to get some kip

Very nice session well done lads

Nice report mate you could say it rained a LOT and would agree on a tad windy if a force 6/7 is a tad windy Some nice fish caught all the same..

Well done lads! a good few fish to keep yas busy

It was a little wet ok. Had one smoothie about 5lb and went about 11. 5.0 clock are youes mad .

It was a little wet ok. Had one smoothie about 5lb and went about 11. 5.0 clock are youes mad .

Alan was desperate to try beat my 5lb 8oz smoothie...... Plus there was a fiver at stake

Good sesh , well done