Fanad,Donegal, 21/22 May 2014

People:Me

Duration:7hrs and 5.5hrs

Tide:Flood and ebb

Weather:Cool, breezy.

Bait:Frozen sandeels, blueys and mackerel

Rigs:Single hook, clipped, 2 hook flapper

Results:Zero on day 1, 2 thornback and 7 small whiting on day 2.




Report:
Myself and Mrs West were on a short mid-week break near Letterkenny and I was allowed to bring the fishing gear. So armed with some frozen sandeels and blueys, I headed off to an alleged hotspot to see if I could tempt my first ray of 2014. Seven hours later I hadn’t even had a bite though the hooks were coming back stripped clean as a whistle each time. The terminal tackle was also smothered in weed each cast, fine moss-like stuff. After 7 hrs I had got the message, conceded defeat and returned to the hotel for a good feed.
Next day I replenished the bait supplies with sandeel and mackerel and headed off to another spot. I thought I had detected a hint of a bite while setting up a second rod but after watching the rod tip carefully, nothing more happened. So when I reeled in to check the bait I assumed the considerable extra dead weight was just a mass of weed but in fact my first cast had produced a thornback of 4lb 4oz coming in backwards. Things went quiet for a while with clean hooks coming in each cast and a change to smaller hooks on one rod produced 7 small whiting including a couple of doubles. By now the wind had got quite strong and blustery so it was hard to spot even enthusiastic whiting bites. Switching back to large single hook rigs for the last hour proved wise when a second thornback turned up, a slack liner but unfortunately this fish came in backwards as well. This one was a bit heavier at 5lb 4oz and between the 2 rays and a few small whiting, today helped compensate for the disappointment of yesterday. Both rays took sandeel.

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Good fishing they are nice Ray fairplay

I've had the same issue on The Swilly this year with bait stripping, worse than I ever remember it. Why is it that the pin whiting stay around so long there? Here on the North East coast they're gone come spring.

Nice ray john nice markings on them fair play

I was in that exact spot yesterday, all I managed was whiting too, my friend got a good sized ray tho.

2 lovely rays JW, very nice

nice rays,well done john w

Nice thornies John

Very nice j.w I should have being ray fishing as I type but was let down big time

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Oh by the way....not being picky or anything...but that's not fanad!..

nice ray john, well done!!

Oh by the way....not being picky or anything...but that's not fanad!..

yeah, isn't that buncrana pier?..

Nice thornies John

Thanks Fisherking, hopefully we'll get a few reports of some monster Pollack and wrasse from yourself sometime soon?

Very nice j.w I should have being ray fishing as I type but was let down big time

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Hopefully not by a faulty reel handle!

nice ray john, well done!!

Thanks Fagan and I didn't even go to Mayo first!

I was in that exact spot yesterday, all I managed was whiting too, my friend got a good sized ray tho.

Oh by the way....not being picky or anything...but that's not fanad!..

Fair enough Mackfish, I was too far south perhaps; I assumed the Fanad peninsula was the area between the Swilly and Mulroy.

Oh by the way....not being picky or anything...but that's not fanad!..

yeah, isn't that buncrana pier?..

No, quite the opposite!