TROUT AND TURBOTASTIC MAYO & GALWAY 16th, 17th, 18th FEB

People: myself, Jordan, doggie3131, Jason and pat

Duration: see below

Tide: see below

Weather: everything from gales and torrential rain to bright blue skies

Bait: lug, mack, squid and rag

Rigs: 2 up 1 down size 1 hooks

Results: coalies, whiting, doggies, turbot, sea trout and an early season thornback ray




Report: well this trip was weeks in the making as we made our way back out west to meet up with friends, old and new. we drove from Belfast just before 6am on Saturday morning and were in doggie's house in mayo for 10am with a fry set out on the dining table waiting for us nom nom. top man doggie
we had a look at the sky and decided to give the fishing a miss today as it was blustery and wet looking and opted to scoot over to the angling exhibition in Dublin at swords to buy new toys and meet up with a few mates.
the show was so so with a few stands catering to the sea angler and money was spent and we met up with a few mates.
after a few hours we headed back west to doggies for a few refreshments and an early night so as to get up fresh in the morning for a proper fishing session

sunday 16th feb
mayo turbot beach mark. fished low to high over 6 hours

we arrived at the mark and got set up while waiting for Jason and pat to arrive. soon enough all 5 of us had 2 rods each in the water and Jason was first in with a lovely sea trout around 2lb. it was in fine condition and swam off strongly after a few piccys were taken. we were here searching for turbot, but the trout was a welcome surprise
then the turbot started to show with a few getting caught by us, but none of any great size. but still turbot none the less
every one seemed to be getting into the fish apart for poor Jordan who wasn't getting so much as a sniff from a fish . old jammy trunks seemed to be out of luck on this trip as we ended up with a nice tally of turbot and an amazing tally of 7 sea trout between us . but Jordan ended the session on a blank something that he'll not live down any time soon (mainly because we won't let him )

Monday 17th feb
galway beach and rock mark. fished a dropping tide then all the way in and out again

we said our goodbyes to doggie around 11am and hit the road out west again. great to see you again man and cheers for looking after us . we arrived at the beach we had chosen to fish and everything was looking good as the skies were blue and the rain had disappeared for a change. but after 5 fishless hours we called it a day and packed up to head back the the b&b for a rethink. we opted just to head to rock mark a mate had put us onto and boy were we glad we did. as soon as the light began to go it was like a switch had been flipped and the fish came on the feed in droves.
at first it was the little coalies and pin whiting attacking every bait in sight. but then some better whiting made an appearance before the place turned into battersey dogs home it was pretty frantic and at one point we went down to 1 rod each as we couldn't get both rods in at the same time with the hungry dogs latched onto our baits before we even set the slack and drag. the bait was running a bit low so Jordan resorted to using the abundant pin whiting for bait on his pulley rig. and within seconds the dogs were munching them too. as we got to the end of the session we decided to quit this mark as we wanted to hit the mayo turbot beach again tomorrow to try for the better turbot we had been told were getting taken there. so with only 4 small mackerel fillets left we called it quits and began packing away. I had just turned my back on my rod when the bell went mental and the rod almost jumped off the tripod
I didn't wait for another bite and struck into something that felt a lot heavier than anything I had hooked over the weekend so far. I was almost convinced it was a conger that I was reeling in until a nice 6lb thornie broke the surface coming in backwards he had got tangled up in the snood length and came in backwards. so he felt easily twice as heavy than what he really was. but I was still made up to get my first thornie of the year and Jordan was just glad not to blank again

Tuesday 18th feb
mayo turbot beach again. fished the last 2 hours of the drop and the first hour of the flooding tide.

well our trip was almost over so we decided to stop off here to see if Jordan could beat his bogey beach and catch a fish on it I had increased my hook size and baits to see if I could winkle out a better turbot and wasn't disappointed as my first cast resulted in a turbot double I was made up and Jordan seemed a bit envious as all he was catching was weed but the next 3 hours went by fishless and my last cast resulted in another turbo and Jordan blanked again. (he dose'nt like this beach any more)
so defeated, he began packing away vowing to return and get this monkey off his back in the future.

all in all a great weekend away and it was great to meet all the lads from the west again and all our other angling buddies at the show in Dublin. roll on next weekend

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some more pics

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last pic

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That's it!!..i now rechristen Jordan "drew junior"...nice to have ye lads,now roll on April and a weekend in Galway....

Epic...!

Great fishing for this time of year lads, looks like you enjoyed yourselfs.

One of those trout looks very salmon-like!!! Could be wrong lad!!


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Is that a net mark on the back of the first sea trout? At this time of year?

Great report mate, best session you have had in a long time, I mean you beat Jordan twice and he blanked twice, I would say poor lad but I think he had it coming, lol

super stuff lads great fishing and fair play doggie for look after yous

Top angling lads!!

nice1 lads nice report Al. A few fish = all good

goes to show though, the best of us can blank. ah jordan will shrug that off..

Great report as usual , it will be a long time before you let Jordan forget the blank A nice mix of fish at this time of the year , nice trout.

Fantastic angling and commitment

That's it!!..i now rechristen Jordan "drew junior"...nice to have ye lads,now roll on April and a weekend in Galway....

can't wait noel!!
cheers for looking after us again man. we had a great time,,,,,,,, well,,eerrr most of us did. Jordan has discovered he now has a bogey beach lol
well it had to happen at some point

Epic...!

Great fishing for this time of year lads, looks like you enjoyed yourselfs.

Top angling lads!!

Fantastic angling and commitment

cheers lads

One of those trout looks very salmon-like!!! Could be wrong lad!!
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all trout man. i'd love to be able to say I caught a salmon from the beach thow. it would be quite an accomplishment
one of our group has ghillied on the moy for years and spent most of his life around salmon, so was able to properly id it as a trout at a glance. I've personally only ever seen a live salmon from the sea on one occasion in my entire 30 year angling career. it's quite a rare occurrence by all counts. but one day,,,,, one day!

Is that a net mark on the back of the first sea trout? At this time of year?

not sure man? but with the amount of illegal netting around those parts by locals it really wouldn't surprise me

super stuff lads great fishing and fair play doggie for look after yous

noel has been looking after us out west for years now. he's a top bloke and certainly knows his stuff. it's well worth the 4 hour drive over

Great report mate, best session you have had in a long time, I mean you beat Jordan twice and he blanked twice, I would say poor lad but I think he had it coming, lol

nice1 lads nice report Al. A few fish = all good
goes to show though, the best of us can blank. ah jordan will shrug that off..

Great report as usual , it will be a long time before you let Jordan forget the blank A nice mix of fish at this time of the year , nice trout.

cheers lads. it wasn't like him at all. he's usually the one hauling the fish in
but that one particular beach had him well and truly beat. the lads fishing either side of him had no problems catching, but it just wasn't happening for him at that mark but knowing Jordan, he'll end up catching a salmon or something equally unusual from it the next time we fish it

I think Jordan and noel have some more pics on their phones i'll see if I can get them to add them to the report

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Some class fishing lads and some fine fish for your efforts
Fair play lads

Lovely fishing lads Love the turbos.

great couple of days fishing, super report and pics, well done lads, better luck next time on that beach jordan

Great fishing lads and nice to see variety

Lovely fishing lads Love the turbos.

Great fishing lads and nice to see variety

cheers guys

Some class fishing lads and some fine fish for your efforts
Fair play lads

cheers paul

great couple of days fishing, super report and pics, well done lads, better luck next time on that beach jordan

he's threatened to break out his 6 hook flapper rig on that beach the next time man
that rig hasn't see the sea since his original turbot hunt from years ago lol

here's a pic of doggie with a trout turbo combo from Jordan's phone

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