north coast and east antrim rocks 22,23 march

People: myself, Jordan and brian on sunday

Duration: 22nd 4pm to 11pm. 23rd 3pm to 8pm

Tide: all states

Weather: 22nd calm but wet. 23rd calm and dry

Bait: sand eel, mackerel and ragworm

Rigs: 3 hook flappers and 1 up 1 down

Results: turbot, flounder, coalfish, sea trout, Pollock, pouting, codling, 3 bearded rockling, doggie




Report:

SATURDAY 22ND CAUSEWAY COAST BEACH MARK
we decided to give this beach a go as we didn't want to travel too far from home with the stinking forecast that was due. so we were off on a bass hunt again
things were almost over before they began as I tried to tighten a knot to a hook by pulling the tag end with my teeth while holding the hook. the hook slipped out of my hand and the hook buried into my face below my bottom lip and my chin I knew straight away that it had buried deep, so I called Jordan over to inspect the damage. the hook had gone in and came back out again all the way past the barb. so I reckoned that it would be handy enough to just cut the hook below the barb and feed it back out the way it came in. but with my luck being the way it is the good wire cutters were in our box at home and in none of the rucksacks that we had out with us
so it was just a good old fashion grit your teeth and yank the bugger out. who would have thought that a tiny barb on a 1/0 hook could cause so much resistance. any hoo. after 1 or 2 tugs it was set free and apart from a bit of blood the damage wasn't too bad. I gave my face a quick rinse in the surf and we were good to go and get into the fishing
Jordan's first cast resulted in a turbo double and I was straight into a nice sea trout just under 40cm
we thought we were gonna be quids in with this session, but as the light went so did the fish . the bites dried up and other than a few small coalies and a flounder for Jordan the rest of the night was a bust
but it did leave us with a lot of bait which was all the excuse that we needed for getting out again tomorrow

SUNDAY 23RD CO ANTRIM ROCK MARK
we decided to head out at lunchtime and head to a handy mark just up the coast. with spare room in the car we gave ynkmd off the site a call and he was up for a session. things went well and we had him picked up and at our mark for 3pm. this is where things went a bit wrong again for me
as we unloaded the car it became apparent that I had left our tackle box with everything in it at home in Belfast!
the only gear Jordan had packed separately was his LRF gear. so after driving an hour to the mark I had to leave Jordan and brian and drive all the way home again to get our gear. so the 1 hour drive up to the mark turned into a 3 hour drive for me
I returned to find out that Jordan and brian only had 3 fish between them. so I hadn't missed too much. we quickly got set up with the beach casters at range and I was straight into a codling soon everyone was into fish with different species showing up for us all. the 1lb coalies and Pollack were giving Jordan and brian great sport on the LRF gear while I seemed to be into dose of tiny codling. other than the odd doggie and pouting it was a coalie and Pollack session. at the end Jordan did manage a 3 bearded rockling and that was the last fish of the session.
not too much of a disaster in the end considering my luck of late

sorry for the poor quality of the pics, but I forgot the camera on the first day so Jordan's phone had to do the needful, and I had already wasted a lot of fishing time on sunday doing all the extra driving. so it was just a single pic at the end of the session.

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Pure determination between the hook and the tackle box!

Nice spread of species lads , disaster on the hook and the tackle but what a way to make up for it

Savage fishing again lads, well done.
i like your DIY approach in first aid.
Hard as nails

Where are the face pictures

Reminds me of an old Arnie quote from Predator......"If it swims.....we can catch it"......

Also "I'll be back (with the tackle box)"

Fair play, don't know that I'd have been that committed! Great report.

Pure determination between the hook and the tackle box!

sure it wouldn't be a proper trip out with us unless there was a minor disaster of some sort man

Nice spread of species lads , disaster on the hook and the tackle but what a way to make up for it

cheers dave. after the hook incident I think the sea trout more than softened the blow

Savage fishing again lads, well done.
i like your DIY approach in first aid.
Hard as nails

cheers man. I think daft as a brush would be more appropriate lol

Where are the face pictures

Jordan was a bit slow on fumbling about with his phone jim. and to be honest, if I hadn't have yanked it out in the first few seconds while the adrenaline was pumping, I reckon I would have chickened out of the DIY fix

Reminds me of an old Arnie quote from Predator......"If it swims.....we can catch it"......

and if it doesn't swim i'll stick a hook in it's face any how

Also "I'll be back (with the tackle box)"
Fair play, don't know that I'd have been that committed! Great report.

very good man
we've often been told that folk are not sure if we are committed, or should be committed