East Cork - Christmas and New Year

People: Me + 1

Duration: 3.5 / 4 hours per session

Tide: rising / Full

Weather: mild with the exception of Stephens morning which was horrendous

Bait: Lug / Peeler / Squid / Mackerel

Rigs: 2 hook

Results: Cod a plenty, Coalies




Report:

December 26th - Youghal (Slob bank)

A more awful morning you couldn't imagine to try and get a hook in the water, pouring rain, blowing a gale as well. We took off in the hope that things may calm down (they didn't, and got noticeably worse). Arrived at 6.30am got the first rod up and a hook in the water and before we could curse the weather conditions I had a cod on! (1.5lbs). Got the second rod up and out, but by now the weather had got worse and my hands were freezing. It had got so bad I'd prefer to leave the hooks out there (bait on them or not) rather than wind in to try and re-bait! After about an hour and the initial stages of hypothermia setting in, common sense prevailed, we headed home and decided to spare the bait for the following morning.

December 27th - Youghal (Slob bank)

Arrived at 7.15am, thankfully the storm of the night before had passed, all we had to battle was a roaring hangover rather than the elements. We spent a full 4 hours and not a sniff, a venue which is usually very good didn't provide a seconds action, bait was untouched for most of the morning. In hindsight I believe this was down to the bait in question. We had peeled the fresh crab on the evening of the 25th to ensure we were setup and ready to go the following morning, given that we had to delay a further day for reasons above I think the bait had lost its charm. A lesson learned for the future...

December 27th - Garryvoe

Hangover gone, and annoyed with the lack of action in the morning I headed to Garryvoe for a bit of beach action. Armed with frozen peeler and lug we setup at 9pm and fished for 3.5 hours. Three coal fish caught between two of us, all to about 1.5lb. Quite a mid evening, most of the action coming about an hour after full tide...

December 30th - Youghal (Riverside mark)

Frozen peeler and squid tips were the order of the day, setup at approximately 9pm and fished for 4 hours, two decent sized cod for our troubles. Rising ride proved a nightmare to hold bottom, the only respite was an hour either side of high. Met a couple of anglers at the mark and again they had a few cod to show for their efforts. Quite a bit of action on the rods but the tide was disastrous and lead to quite a bit of lost tackle.

January 3rd - Youghal (New mark)

Arrived with fresh peeler (thanks to East Cork bait and tackle), after a quiet start due to low-tide the fish starting coming with the rise. 5 cod caught for the night (up to 2lbs). The story of the night was the one that god away, I know this is typical talk but I had the biggest fish I've every hooked and after 5 minutes of battling he got free, gutted is an understatement. Had to be happy with the catch mind, very tasty indeed...

All in all very good fun over the holiday break, lost quite a bit of tackle in trying out new marks but will hopefully be worth it for the little bit of insight gained. Fresh crab was a rarity over the holiday but its advantage over frozen cannot be underestimated. Tackle cleaned and put away for a couple of weeks but chatting to a few guys out and about many of whom had travelled serious distances, we are definitely spoiled for choice here in East Cork...

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nice one!

Great fishing, nice report and nice fish.☺

A nice few fish there for the freezer.
Well done

Cracking fishing lads, well done

great informative report there jim and the fish ain't bad either, perserverse does pay off mostly

Well done on getting out and the fish.

looks a good days fishing.. happy days