Kilcoole 22/8/15

Fished a match on Saturday 4:30pm - 9pm, HW c5pm.
Wet start but very warm and calm as the night got on.
Substantial pull in the tide even over slack water.

A new venue for me and a nice deep shingle beach with a short tidal range. I love this kind of venue and wish we had them up here. Depth at your feet, a very defined gutter and no yomping tripods and gear up and down with the tide. We literally just set up in front of the access at the train station. The armchair spots are rarely the best in my experience!

Despite the lovely setting and weather, fishing was underwhelming. Numbers and species count in the match were good but average size truly abysmal with the longest fish won by a 29cm flounder! Species that I saw caught included scourges (only a handful thankfully), flounder, dabs, plaice, tub and grey gurnard, lesser weever, endless pin whiting, coalie. White trout were jumping very close in but no takers. Stopped fishing pretty much at darkness which I guess wasn't great but we all had to get back up the road.

From what I gather, this beach has had it's glory days and we weren't in the best spot (under a big tree apparently) but there was enough about it on a poor tide in majority daylight to keep it on the list for another visit in more favourable conditions.
Tight lines,

G

Nice easy beach to fish alright. The weed can be a nightmare though. Did ye try for mackerel. You can them up there too and the odd bass I hear.I always see the trout really close in there but yet to hook any!

Aye Davey, quite a few mack caught off the bottom. They don't count in the matches of course but damn handy for bait to those who get them!

Kilcoole should be stuffed with dogs at the moment! What club was running the match?

Kilcoole should be stuffed with dogs at the moment! What club was running the match?

I try my best to avoid them Keith lol, hence my lack of match fishing acumen. Just can't have them at all. Castaways SAC, a small club based in Antrim.

I lived in Kilcoole for 16 years between 1985 and 2001. The first few years were fantastic however it died a death in the 1990's. Here are some memories, wow, I even had hair then.

The plaice is a 4.lb specimen from north of the "Big Tree", the bass is from Ballygannon just north of the point at Kilcoole and the codling photo is courtesy of angling writer Liam Kane.

The codling image was taken at Killoughter in the mid 1980's. I have included this image because it clearly shows what we had and what we have lost. Every autumn/winter Kilcoole when conditions were right would produce a haul like this.

I remember holding a flat fish competition in 1988 during the day from the gate up towards the breaches. The size limit was 12 inches and it took 14 plaice to win it, second place weighed in 12 flats.

My best codling haul was 10 fish for 44.lb weight.

I could go on, however it is too painful, on the plus side we can get this level of biodiversity back, you just have to believe that we can and work towards it.

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I grew up there myself in the 80 s and early 90 s and the killer thing is that I never fished when I was a kid. Looking at those photos is a sickner!

Wow. I always read this type of "article" with mixed emotion. Sadness to think I'll never see fishing for table-fish like it. Gladness on the other hand to never have known it and missed it.
Thanks for the post, great to see a little bit of history.