West Cork 5th – 18th July 2015

Day 1. Arrived down in west Cork to be greeted by a few days of pretty unpleasant wet and windy weather but eventually got out for a few hours. I dug a few maddies and lug and tried a bit of lrf as there was no sign of any mullet. Predictably the first fish to show was a small blenny to be followed by quite a few more, all tiny even for the species in question. Then casting out over sand produced a few follows by launce but they just weren’t interested enough to bite. A new species for me turned up in the form of a sand smelt, a handsome little fish. A succession of small ballan wrasse, which were a beautiful shade of green (matching the copious amounts of green algae perfectly), interspersed with small corkwings including possibly the smallest wrasse I’ve ever caught soon munched their way through the supply of worms. I moved to another spot and cracked open a fresh white loaf to target the mullet which I could see. They were feeding freely on the bread I offered and I had numerous bites but couldn’t hook up, pulling the hook out of their mouths. The fish didn’t seem disturbed greatly even though I jagged a couple. Eventually I did get a couple weighing in at 3lb and 4lb 8oz before they dropped out of range with the ebbing tide. Even though they were feeding confidently it was interesting to watch one fish come up to the bait, (floating freelined bread flake), mouth it, reject it and then another fish swims up and gulps it down in one. What put the first fish off? They don’t like the crust either.
Day 2; Decided to have another go at the mullet and in an effort to improve the bite to hook-up ratio, I took the pliers to the hooks and put a little offset in the shank (kirbed I think is the hook technology term?). The mullet weren’t feeding so hard this time but from two bites I hooked two fish, perhaps the hook adjustment worked. When I hooked the first fish, a lot of line spilled off the reel and it took a few moments to get it back on the spool, meantime the hooked fish continued to take more bits of bread! These two weighed in at 4lb and 4lb 8oz.I can’t seem to beat 4lb 8oz, I’ve been stuck on this weight since about 1976.
Day 3; The swell had finally died down to allow me to try a rock mark facing the open sea. According to charts and aerial photography research, it looked to have a reasonable depth of water over clean sand beyond the rocks. I tried in close with float fished lug hoping for a few wrasse or pollack but despite trying several different spots including one or two fishy looking gullies and holes, not a bite. Got the beachcaster set up and loaded with fresh mackerel and cast out as far as I could. Even as I was settling the rod into the rest I felt the first bite, dogfish. This was the first of 16 after which I changed to lug to see if there was anything else out there. There was, the lug produced 2 small pouting and a small pollack. I don’t mean to denigrate the humble dogfish but when you have travelled the length of the country it would be nice to get something a bit more exciting.
Day 4; I decided to try a different mark today hoping for a bigger mullet but instead got only one smaller one at 2lb 4oz. There weren’t too many others about so I returned to my usual spot in time to get 1 mullet at 4lb 4oz before they dropped back with the tide. Although not the biggest of the trip it certainly fought the hardest taking several minutes to succumb to the net.
Nothing spectacular but a new species and twice equalling my mullet p.b. things could have been worse.

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Some serious mixed weather lately, at least ya got few for your troubles & new pb, lovely Mullet & colour on the wee Wrasse!!

Well done JW. What sort of blenny is that do you know? Markings don't loom like common or tompot.

Well done JW. What sort of blenny is that do you know? Markings don't loom like common or tompot.

Hi guernica 84, I think it is just a common blenny, I hadn't any doubts until you posted so I checked a few sites to identify it. It's the only type of blenny I've ever caught, still looking for a tompot.

Lovely pics JW. Some stunning wee fish. You made the most of the circumstances I guess. All good
Have jet to catch my first mullet so would be happy with any

over the years fishing for mullet and having lost more than I have caught until I started wearing surgical gloves not for the protection but for the loss of skin I was getting from handling mackerel some type of dermatitis and the worked for that problem and one day I had being fishing for macks and switched to mullet and left the surgical gloves on and caught every mullet that swallowed my bread baits could only put down to the handling of the bread was giving off some human scent that the fish did not like I now use surgical gloves when fishing for mullet and for whatever reason it works.
mickser

Great fishing! Some nice pics too.

over the years fishing for mullet and having lost more than I have caught until I started wearing surgical gloves not for the protection but for the loss of skin I was getting from handling mackerel some type of dermatitis and the worked for that problem and one day I had being fishing for macks and switched to mullet and left the surgical gloves on and caught every mullet that swallowed my bread baits could only put down to the handling of the bread was giving off some human scent that the fish did not like I now use surgical gloves when fishing for mullet and for whatever reason it works.
mickser

Interesting post mickser, I think that my problem stemmed from being upstream of the mullet. On some days plenty of mullet were taking the bread but when I struck, the hook pulled straight out of the mouth, the fish weren't even aware! If the fish had been upstream from me or even across, the hook would have tightened backwards into the mouth resulting in more hook-ups. Twisting the hook point relative to the shank makes the whole hook more 3-dimensional ans seemed to produce more hook-ups. I bumped into Dan Lynch of Halfway Tackle one day and he gave me a good tip, use a size 14 treble. Probably be next year before I try that.

over the years fishing for mullet and having lost more than I have caught until I started wearing surgical gloves not for the protection but for the loss of skin I was getting from handling mackerel some type of dermatitis and the worked for that problem and one day I had being fishing for macks and switched to mullet and left the surgical gloves on and caught every mullet that swallowed my bread baits could only put down to the handling of the bread was giving off some human scent that the fish did not like I now use surgical gloves when fishing for mullet and for whatever reason it works.
mickser

Interesting post mickser, I think that my problem stemmed from being upstream of the mullet. On some days plenty of mullet were taking the bread but when I struck, the hook pulled straight out of the mouth, the fish weren't even aware! If the fish had been upstream from me or even across, the hook would have tightened backwards into the mouth resulting in more hook-ups. Twisting the hook point relative to the shank makes the whole hook more 3-dimensional ans seemed to produce more hook-ups. I bumped into Dan Lynch of Halfway Tackle one day and he gave me a good tip, use a size 14 treble. Probably be next year before I try that.

Using a size 14 or even 15 treble is very effective. People think you are murdering the fish by using a treble but they are very small hooks and the mullet are often hooked very cleanly


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Love the colour of that wrasse.