north Mayo coast, new mark, early August 2013

People: Ken and Michael

Duration: 3 hours

Tide: incoming

Weather: "sh1te", blustery, SW, heavy chop on the water

Bait: mack flappers

Rigs: see below, NZ balloon rigs

Report:

I don’t normally “relay” reports but this one is well worth it….

Both anglers are experienced boat anglers. One owns a lovely boat based in North Mayo during the summer. They're not very experienced shore anglers...

They brought 3 metre uptiders with them, big penn multipliers (one uses an ancient senator) loaded with around 300 m of 20 lb braid, leading to 60 lb shockleader. Business end was 130 lb wire holding 8/0s onto which they had whipped mack flappers the night before. These were individually frozen down to make the easy to cast. The rigs were based on a design from a mate of mine out in New Zealand. We’d often talked about it but never got around to trying it.

The rig is unusual. I will try to get a picture. It uses a big zip slider to hold your standard balloon fixing (matchstick), popped on above the last swivel / wire. Depth is normally managed using the shockleader to braid knot and a bead. It’s neat to cast cos in NZ they use long 5 m shore rods – however the boys, using uptiders, decided to cheat and so only used a metre of wire trace below the shockleader and kept that short too, running to no more than a few turns around the reel, reckoning they could control the depth with powergum and your standard beads!!!

The mark was found from a boat. They normally target ling and cod in very rough ground that doesn’t get netted. They’re very good at it. Ages ago I told them about a channel I had found that runs between cliffs and a set of island, and off they went. They had a small ling and several very big pollack from the end of the channel. The last pollack whipped the rod over and when it was landed after some big plunges, the bottom half was missing… clearly a shark attack.

This got them excited. They know all about Jack Shine…

The mark is accessible by a 4xd over a bohereen and about a 20 minute trek over bog. It leads down to cliffs that are heavily striated. These ledges fall down to the sea and are easily to climb. (I will be trying myself some day). The mark is too far north of the island for the original idea which was to "trot" the baits down the channel but it puts you down to within 2-3 metres of the high tide mark, safely, and it is still deep water.

After coffee (hic!) they set up and lobbed two rigs out. Ken’s sailed out 30 metres and dropped into the perfect spot. Michael’s first attempt saw the balloon sail off over his head. His second found the balloon sink (!) so with quick retrieve and attempt three got it fishing properly.

So nothing happened for an hour. Weather was blustery, squalls, but from SW so ok under the cliffs.

Ken’s ratchet kicks and he picks it up. The balloon is moving towards them. He reels in, keeps in contact and does nothing. Balloon finally pops only a matter of five metres out and then he hits it and the rod hoops over. Michael’s account is far more fun but to cut to the chase, Ken lost the fish after about five minutes, never having seen it. The culprit was a poor knot between the braid and the shockleader. By Michael’s judgement it seemed to just pull through it.

Half an hour later, Michael gets a nod. He hits it fairly quickly and sees a big flash of bronze and is certain he’s got a big pollack. A few minutes later, he’s about to land it, the rod unbends and the line billows back in waves. Frayed braid. The area is extremely rough. I am told - by Ken - that there was much cursing… so they agree to use far longer shockleaders.

Anyhow undeterred the boys lob out baits again, fishing them deeper at around 6-7 metres now as the tide is near full. They reckon there is easily 10 metres of water out there at high tide. A bit of spinning had produced not even a single mackerel.

The last action was on Kens’ rod.

Bait is taken at pace out to sea. Balloon disappears and Ken sets the hook. Michael swears that the first run took a 100 metres - he's prone to exaggerating (aren't we all!). The fish is stopped and Ken begins to pump it. After a few minutes, it takes off again, this time heading east along the cliffs for the island. Ten minutes in, the fish is stopped on a set of runs with according to Michael with less than 20 metres left on the reel. Then the line goes slack. Lots of foul language. It had turned back. Ken reels in like “the foul mouthed Mancunian b*****d he is” and eventually gets back into contact. The fish swims right past them under their feet. Ken keeps the pressure on, letting the rod and reel work. Fifteen minutes in and no sign of the fish. It starts another run, headed out to sea. Stopped. 20 minutes in. It seems to dive deeper. Stopped. Ken’s winning. Michael starts to look for a tailer as Ken is pumping the fish in, slowly putting line back when it takes off again, this time east.

Suddenly Ken falls back, smacks his head, and realizes the line has gone. At the reel.

Cue some colourful language.

Our guess is that it kinked or nested slightly when he was reeling in to try to maintain contact under slack line conditions and that this kink was enough to snap it under such pressure. They don’t know. I don’t know. All ideas welcome.

Boys are delighted and disgusted with the session.
They reckon they will never do it again from land but are planning a full blown sharking trip.

Couple of points Michael made that people might reflect on…

1) How will you land or unhook it?
2) Lifejackets are not enough, use a survival suit
3) Check mobile phone coverage as you work your way down a cliff
4) Have a plan to cope with serious injury. Ken got 3 stitches… from the local vet!

So I guess it proves it can be done…
Think I might stick to the pollack...

Class report , if people keep trying its only a mater of time before something really big is landed

Have an itch for getting out fishing after reading that report. Brilliant stuff even though they didn't land anything

Maybe FLOAT out the line,, then cut it and join it to a Penn 10 O reel loaded with a mile of Dacron.

Pure class great report and great read...

Maybe FLOAT out the line,, then cut it and join it to a Penn 10 O reel loaded with a mile of Dacron.

Yes, this is an option.
I don't think any of the reels we have are up to the job to be honest.
Dropping to 20 lb braid was an expensive mistake.

I was also looking at the kite flying the do in NZ as an option - bit mad tho!
Boys will not be doing shore angling again!

;0)