Donegal Bay LRF species hunt. 29/08/2013

People: Me

Duration:2 hours

Tide:Low tide

Weather:Fine

Bait:Mostly lug

Rigs:Jigheads

Results:8 species and about 18 fish in total




Report:
This wasn’t intended to be a species hunt; I had intended targeting a few ballan wrasse on my LRF gear. I tried a few small soft plastics but to no avail so I switched to baiting the jigheads with a couple of white rag I had dug the previous day. These produced instant results with a small coalfish on the first cast. Successive casts produced a few small Pollack and then a half decent one measuring 43cm, about 1lb 6oz in weight. Once the white rag were gone I used slivers of one of the small Pollack and got a long spined sea scorpion. Not much else apart from a few tentative nibbles so I started using lug. This seemed to do the trick for the original target species as a succession of small wrasse came on the feed. A couple of palm sized ballans at first, then a better one at 1lb 4oz and a decent one at 2lb 6oz. This one really put a bend in the lrf rod. A couple of corkwings then put in an appearance followed by a goldsinny and a small mouth wrasse. I got one of these last year but it was much more vividly coloured. At one point I noticed a much larger fish showing a bit of interest in the lug baited jighead as it was sinking into about 15ft of water, I chucked in a couple of lugworms to try and hold the fish’s attention while I rebaited. The fish took the bait properly this time, it was a mullet and it put a proper bend in the rod. After a scrap lasting a few minutes I managed to guide it onto a shallow ledge to land it. Strangely there was another mullet, bigger of course, which followed the hooked fish closely the whole way through the struggle, only turning away as I reached down to lift the fish out. They were like pennel rigged mullet. The mullet weighed 3lb 4oz, a surprise end to the session. The fish were caught around low tide, I would have loved to stay to fish the flood as this spot has produced some good wrasse as the water depth increases with the flood but I had to be elsewhere. Some other time perhaps.

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Jus a couple more pics.

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Great report and photos,,,well done,, you got some nice fish there,,,looking forward to the HW report

Great report JW and a very nice bag of fish for a short session Interesting to see a mullet on a jig-head too, do you know the species?

that was some result to hook that mullet on the jig head - nice one

nice coalfish too

Interesting to see a mullet on a jig-head too, do you know the species?

it a gray thick lipped mullet

well done jw another great lrf session if it was that good on the drop i would like to see how is fairs out on the rise

Nice fishing! I did a bit of lrf fishing last weekend myself and wasn't having a huge pile of success with the soft plastics. I changed it up and started using small slivers of mackerel on jig heads and managed some very decent pollack, some wrasse and a good few mackerel. I'll have to give it a go with some lug now!

Fair play on a fine report and some great photos to go with it.

Welldone

John Ainsworth.

Very nice fishing & mixture of species, I could do with a session like that!!

That's some savage fishing John , great crack an the lrf gear I'd say, fair play

Good man John nice few fish

Great report, lovely pics...

Good man JW nice LRF session had by you..... again....

that's some fishing jw and great pics

Great report and photos,,,well done,, you got some nice fish there,,,looking forward to the HW report

Interesting to see a mullet on a jig-head too, do you know the species?

it a gray thick lipped mullet

well done jw another great lrf session if it was that good on the drop i would like to see how is fairs out on the rise

Looks like I'll have to go again on the flood.

Very nice fishing & mixture of species, I could do with a session like that!!

I've noticed a lack of reports from you recently Fisherking! Are you getting out at all?

Good man JW nice LRF session had by you..... again....

Thanks sparkey+1, all the fish came from the same spot, I hardly took a step.

That's some savage fishing John , great crack an the lrf gear I'd say, fair play

Great crack indeed, I think the LRF gives a better hook-up rate with the wrasse than other methods, you are "touch legering" which is very sensitive and you can react more quickly.

Nice fishing! I did a bit of lrf fishing last weekend myself and wasn't having a huge pile of success with the soft plastics. I changed it up and started using small slivers of mackerel on jig heads and managed some very decent pollack, some wrasse and a good few mackerel. I'll have to give it a go with some lug now!

Definitely Gerty86, I couldn't get over the difference it made.

Thanks to everyone else for the positive comments

Well done ,, St.Johns Point always good for many species