Co. Clare. Black Head & Carrigaholt 16th & 17th August

People: Myself & friend at Black head, Myself and the wife at Carrigaholt

Duration: 4hrs & 2hrs

Tide: just after high tide

Weather: very very windy!

Bait: mackerel & sandeel

Rigs: Float fishing

Results: Tiny Pollack and 1 lonesome Mackerel




Report:Went to Black head Saturday with high hopes of showing my friend who is even more inexperienced than myself how to catch a Pollack on float. The wind was right in our face and the sea was very rough. We fished from a high up mark for safety. I've caught a few pollack in this area before with the same method so I was confident but it just seemed too rough and our floats were getting swamped with waves. We were getting no bites at all, not that we could tell anyway because it was so rough. I was thinking that it might have been too rough for the fish to be so close in and they might have retreated to deeper water out farther. Any thoughts on this would be appreciated.
Right before we left, we did manage to foul hook a tiny pollack right in the side, poor fella was probably being bashed around much like our floats were! We will return on a less windy day for part two.

On Sunday I decided to do a bit of exploring to try and find a spot that would be a bit more sheltered from the Nw winds so headed for Carrigaholt. I had watched a video on Youtube of Alan Yates in Ireland where he fished off a lovely flat rock mark a few miles west of Carrigaholt. I brought the missus which is a mistake never again to be repeated! After missing high tide at 11 by a few hours, because of her delaying me and trying to find the right spot, I eventually settled on a spot by Kilclogher North ( or so Google Maps tells me). It wasn't the same spot as in the video but herself was not too keen on hiking up and down the coastline. I only fished for about 2 hours and managed to pick up a lone Mackerel on a floated sandeel. I will return again and with some ragworm next time as i've never caught a wrasse and would love to. If anyone knows this area and specifically that mark from the Alan Yates video id love to know if i actually far from the right spot

The fishing reports from blackhead this year have been terrible
when it was rough you would have been better ledgering rather than floating or just retreat to a beach for safety

those rock marks west of carrigaholt are leathal - only in fine weather

Thanks for the heads up. I always like to be high up to be safe, I know I'll probably lose any big fish on the wind up but that's the price you pay I suppose. I wear a lifejacket too just in case but it's yet to be put to use thank god.

Things have been very quiet around that area this year, haven't fished as much as usual this year, but reports haven't been great from the clare Coast line so far

I don't know, I caught lots from blackhead last few weeks including 20 odd mackerel in twenty minutes last Wednesday week. They were jumping out of the water.