Keem Purteen & Cloughmore, Achill, 5th July 2015
Mon Jul 06, 2015 9:25 am
Arrived on Achill to find a stiff southerly at force 5/6 making life difficult, so headed up to Dugort and looked at all the marks including in front of Mastersons only to find it extremely unpleasant out of the car. Wind seems to strengthen coming off the shoulder of Slievemore so we let the people set up for the Achill marathon and drove on down to Keel. Big swell, massive wind into your teeth. Nothing doing...
Drove down to Keem to find it relatively sheltered and quite popular in the fitful sunshine.
In the car park came across a couple of big lads in wetsuits with spear guns, one with a brace of quite small ballan wrasse (who the hell eats wrasse?) and they complained about the water being very dirty with lots of floating weed. Some young lads had a few trailers set up there and were hiring wetsuits and kayaks for anyone who is interested - all the kayaks have rod holders and cost €25 for two hours. Between the two I had a bad feeling... we were heading over to the rocks when two locals came back shaking their heads, and that with a clatter of kids in the lee shore near the rock mark in kayaks. Tons of floating weed collected in there they said, don't bother.
Decided to head across to the "nudist" beach between the rocks on the far left - no nudists - and set up two beachcasters. Birds were diving all around at this stage, but no gannets, just terns and gulls. Sent out paternosters holding sandeel and mackerel, varied the distances from in the waves to well past them to no avail. Not a tap. Big breakers (for Keem) coming in, so foreshore was very dirty although streams were running clear. Eoin managed to hook the smallest sandeel you could ever imagine impaing itself on a hook, clearly this is what the gulls were after... gave it an hour or two from low water up, with one nasty squall, before we decided to quit. Another guy went spinning from the rocks into the white water but only succeeded in getting soaked. Trudged back up to the car and headed for Purteen.
Put a mack head down on a tope trace on the boat rod and within 30 minutes, despite it being half way into a big tide (4.6 metres), was rewarded with a strap conger of about 7-8 lbs. Boys were delighted with this - "at least it is a fish!". Cathal (12 yo) told me he could see a conger going for his float fished mackerel bait (we laughed) and this his rod hooped over and eventually he landed another strap - about 2 lbs but he was delighted with himself. Tide began to fill rapidly with the wind behind it and after a few hours, started to cover over the quay wall, a first for me. It then started to cover the actual quayside as the tide pushed up even further. Tons of bait fish in the water, small Pollack, small wrasse, blennies, tons of sandeels, glittering balls of sprat, never seen anything like it and yet not a single predator coming in after them...
Eventually picked up a single mackerel (super size) from the point on the harbour wall, casting at 2 pm out into the depths. Nothing followed it. Very disappointing.
Packed up and headed to Cloughmore Harbour hoping for something different there. Again just an amazing amount of sandeels in the water, flashing all the time, but nothing from the lures or feathers. Headed off for a consolation burger and chips on the way home with a single set of mackerel fillets.
Quite shocked at the amount of bait fish and no predators like Pollack or Mackerel chasing it in... and clearly between the "regular" spear fishermen reported by the lads hiring the wetsuits (there all summer) and their own activities, Keem is now a waste of time until after the holidays. Very disappointing. Reckon we will still to Keel, the wrasse marks on the Atlantic Drive and maybe Dugort or Annagh Strand depending on the wind direction next week when we are taking a caravan there...
* mutters silent prayer about the weather!
Hope this helps, even if it doesn't instil confidence,
Drove down to Keem to find it relatively sheltered and quite popular in the fitful sunshine.
In the car park came across a couple of big lads in wetsuits with spear guns, one with a brace of quite small ballan wrasse (who the hell eats wrasse?) and they complained about the water being very dirty with lots of floating weed. Some young lads had a few trailers set up there and were hiring wetsuits and kayaks for anyone who is interested - all the kayaks have rod holders and cost €25 for two hours. Between the two I had a bad feeling... we were heading over to the rocks when two locals came back shaking their heads, and that with a clatter of kids in the lee shore near the rock mark in kayaks. Tons of floating weed collected in there they said, don't bother.
Decided to head across to the "nudist" beach between the rocks on the far left - no nudists - and set up two beachcasters. Birds were diving all around at this stage, but no gannets, just terns and gulls. Sent out paternosters holding sandeel and mackerel, varied the distances from in the waves to well past them to no avail. Not a tap. Big breakers (for Keem) coming in, so foreshore was very dirty although streams were running clear. Eoin managed to hook the smallest sandeel you could ever imagine impaing itself on a hook, clearly this is what the gulls were after... gave it an hour or two from low water up, with one nasty squall, before we decided to quit. Another guy went spinning from the rocks into the white water but only succeeded in getting soaked. Trudged back up to the car and headed for Purteen.
Put a mack head down on a tope trace on the boat rod and within 30 minutes, despite it being half way into a big tide (4.6 metres), was rewarded with a strap conger of about 7-8 lbs. Boys were delighted with this - "at least it is a fish!". Cathal (12 yo) told me he could see a conger going for his float fished mackerel bait (we laughed) and this his rod hooped over and eventually he landed another strap - about 2 lbs but he was delighted with himself. Tide began to fill rapidly with the wind behind it and after a few hours, started to cover over the quay wall, a first for me. It then started to cover the actual quayside as the tide pushed up even further. Tons of bait fish in the water, small Pollack, small wrasse, blennies, tons of sandeels, glittering balls of sprat, never seen anything like it and yet not a single predator coming in after them...
Eventually picked up a single mackerel (super size) from the point on the harbour wall, casting at 2 pm out into the depths. Nothing followed it. Very disappointing.
Packed up and headed to Cloughmore Harbour hoping for something different there. Again just an amazing amount of sandeels in the water, flashing all the time, but nothing from the lures or feathers. Headed off for a consolation burger and chips on the way home with a single set of mackerel fillets.
Quite shocked at the amount of bait fish and no predators like Pollack or Mackerel chasing it in... and clearly between the "regular" spear fishermen reported by the lads hiring the wetsuits (there all summer) and their own activities, Keem is now a waste of time until after the holidays. Very disappointing. Reckon we will still to Keel, the wrasse marks on the Atlantic Drive and maybe Dugort or Annagh Strand depending on the wind direction next week when we are taking a caravan there...
* mutters silent prayer about the weather!
Hope this helps, even if it doesn't instil confidence,
Re: Keem Purteen & Cloughmore, Achill, 5th July 2015
Tue Jul 07, 2015 3:12 pm
great report pity about the fishing . agree about the baitfish youghal harbour has been full of it for weeks
Re: Keem Purteen & Cloughmore, Achill, 5th July 2015
Tue Jul 07, 2015 9:37 pm
Hard luck with the wind. Heading over that way next month.hope it fishes a little better 
Re: Keem Purteen & Cloughmore, Achill, 5th July 2015
Thu Jul 09, 2015 12:17 am
Nice report! Can't belive they speard wrasse :/ one of the only nest fish in Irish waters. Great care are needed for these fish , catch and release must be practiced -joe
Re: Keem Purteen & Cloughmore, Achill, 5th July 2015
Fri Jul 10, 2015 3:27 pm
The French eat wrasse !
Hmmm , beginning to have second thoughts about our choice for a holiday next week !
Hmmm , beginning to have second thoughts about our choice for a holiday next week !