The Past Few Weeks

Another brain dump. I know that we should report the good, the bad and the ugly but it takes me to get summit decent to be motivated to post. When I do I do it all so you get it, just not as up to date as it could be!

Since Kerry then:

Belfast Lough 27/9

A nice calm forecast, had my designs on some textbook wrassing on a trusted spot. I got there in good time in the morning and had the place to myself all day. Calm as it was to start, out of nowhere came wind and ridiculous swell not that long into the session. Suffice to say no wrasse and a cursed dogfish all of 15 yards out to add insult to injury. It's not the first time that has happened to me lately on this mark. It seems very unpredictable wind-wise and is facing relegation from the list on that basis.

East Coast 29/9

Had been watching the met for a night time easterly, saw it and pounced on a bass session. Had dug rag up here as you can't get them readily in the area in question. The plan was to dig the ever-available lug at the mark. However, to our disgust there was no lug there! That played out as expected in a disastrous session with 3 pin flounder to show between 6 of us. That area is lug, lug, lug and I'd ordinarily not even bother bringing rag.

West Donegal 3/4th Oct

As you can see September wasn't good and October didn't start much better. Beginning to debate the wisdom of the purported "best months" at this point with pretty poor early Autumns over the past 2 years. A very staple big pollack mark is just not yielding this year. Hooked one good fish on day 1 which spat the lure right on the surface, c3lbs. My fault as I was under-aggressive with it following so many line snaps of late. I gave him an inch and he took it! Had a couple of wrasse bait fishing but wasn't sufficiently bought into it or tactically astute as it was the luring that had me there. Even there dogs 15 yards out - please, I ask you! I'm seeing them in more and more places this year that I haven't previously and they're getting harder to avoid. I point blank refuse to fish through them so I will just have to keep busting and moving to stay off their trail.

Antrim Coast 10 Oct

Finally some sessions. Had a comp. on Waterfoot on Sat night so decided to try a new spot on the way up from Belfast. I had very little hope given the SE forecasted but it actually fished excellently with steady ballans, corkwings and coalies throughout. The BiL even luckboxed his 1st rock-cook at the very end. To say we needed that session was an understatement.
I won't go into the details of the match as there are none. The usual gamut of pinfish was being beached all around me whilst my 1/0 hooks remained largely untouched. The only "bonus" was the landing of a lesser weever during my brief early attempts at scratching and species #36 of the year.

Antrim Coast 11 Oct

With Her Indoors away for the weekend, I dragged myself away from the comfort of my couch and the ongoing televisual rugby-fest to make the most of my "free" time. I decided to try another new mark. My thinking is that I find myself complaining about the quality of fishing on the NI Coast vis a vis "better" marks to the immediate West and South. I then had a look at my activities and calculated that of maybe 3 dozen referenced marks, I have tried 12 and caught good fish at 6. I figured it was time to get away from the usual haunts which at this stage I've flogged the life out of and try some new structure.
Again I was not disappointed. Steady wrasse of a good stamp to about 2.75lb and coalies to 2lb were the order of the daylight. I had planned to be done before dark, off and back to base in order not to jeopardise my credit line with the mrs. However, a little kelp cod came in on the planned last cast, dusk was approaching and that little devil on my shoulder couldn't resist another cast.
I gathered the remaining dregs of pin luggies and whipped up a half presentable bait. Hit a fairly sweet lob of about 70 yards, restricted by the long lost shock leader and straight through 30lb braid I was now left with casting. Yes, yes, eejit forgot his SLs. As I was packing up the other rod I saw some very subtle movement but barely what you'd even usually attribute to tide. I waited as long as I cared to with big rats scurrying around by now and poor lighting equipment to aid my exit in darkness. Lifted the rod and rig off the bottom to a clearly good weight and quickly realised that I needed to brace myself for the battle stance. Now the Shakespeare Agility 15 ft is IMO a fantastic rod for the money and I favour it over dearer rods that I own for really any clean ground fishing nowadays. However, very rough as this mark isn't, it does have snags as I learnt and this rod is far too soft to deal with them. I scrapped as I haven't before for 10 mins, at no point being able to get the fish up in the water or the near double bend out of the rod. Twice it went to ground and stuck fast. On the second time I really thought I was done but I knew what it was and I was not giving up. Thanks at this point to Nicholas and his recent report detailing his battle with the big conger. Now I knew before about the theory re. giving line etc but sometimes it takes me to "see to believe" in such theory. Those who know me well would probably say that patience is not one of my virtues and I'd struggle to refute that. Nonetheless, I held that thought, gave slack and eventually felt the rod pull down again after 2-3 mins. 2 months ago and a break would've been pulled for. This time I did manage to haul it up and had my suspicions confirmed as a fair lump of bronze broke the surface, shaking its head more like a pollack than a cod. In the next tense seconds, I steered it to the foot of the structure and, fishing solo, hand lined it up, another practice that I am usually reticent to adopt but could see no other option on this occasion.
The prize measured 60cm, not as big as the Weymouth yoke but stuffed him on the scales at 5.5lbs in auld money. To add to that the fight was incomparable vs. bringing a fish in on a clean shingle beach on a much heavier rod.
I spent the next min. or 2 just sitting down and gazing into the sky, probably puffing a bit and hoping not to get bitten by a rat. Eventually I mustered the composure to pack up and make for home, practically drunk with the excitement of what had just unfolded. Not a GIANT cod I know but a PB for me and after yomping up and down the country in search of viable fishing, it brings me so much pleasure to catch a fish of this stamp in "my own manor". I shall not allow myself to get carried away nor kiss goodbye to auld East Cork just yet but let's hope this is a sign of some at least justifiable fishing to come this autumn / winter on our coastline. It'll certainly keep me smiling for a while if nothing else : )

TL,

G

Monday at 5:32 PM EditDeleteReport+ QuoteReply

You do not have the required permissions to view the files attached to this post.

Cracking post and fish Guernica , dug some lug this morning was planning to head up the coast later but had a change of plans (she needs the car lol) so will head out tomorrow afternoon instead

Cracking report and a belter of a cod. Nice going lad

RESULT! Cracking fish Guernica, well deserved.

Great reading thanks for sharing

That's a fine cod, makes up for a few disappointments. I have only had a few attempts at wrasse this year, poor enough!

Back up the Antrim coast for another marathon on Saturday, fished about 11am - 8pm with just a short trip up the road for a supper (I lost on rock, paper, scissors).
Weather as anyone out and about will know was splendid, mild, calm and even sunny a fair bit of the time. Fairly similar to the same time last week but slightly calmer seas far out.
Fishing was fairly steady up to and over HW, albeit not frantic as it had been 7 days ago. The pollack seemed to be out to play this time, more so than the coalies although they were hitting baits too. The first decent fish was a savage pull down resulting in a 2lb pollack at fair distance to myself. I rarely fish for them on bait but I see they hit a static bait as hard as they hit a lure.
Within that hour, as HW approached, I began to tap into my supply of cod bait, intended for dusk but I couldn't resist. A good lob out soon resulted in that tell-tale lazy nod. Lifting into a fairly initially dead weight gave further confidence as did the ensuing "cling to the bottom" fight. A lovely bronze kelp cod came up, measuring 43cm, just shy of 2lb. Fine form for mid-Oct efforts.
The BiL, not to be outdone, wanted in on the action. Encroaching on my peg to the extent of casting over my line, he lobbed out his own cod magnet. As he was allowing the lead to rest, he remarked words to the effect of something being on his line. "Me" I replied. Glancing over I could see it wasn't as evidenced by the bend in his rod. No quarter was given or asked for by the young lad and soon a fine pollack emerged. It went 60cm laid flat and bang on 4lbs, a PB for him. The fish hit the bait on the way down as has happened me a few times this year with the lures.
Good fish each in the bag, we didn't rest our efforts but things never really followed suit on the ebb, despite that being prolific the previous week. We had coalies and the odd wrasse but nothing to shout about.
We did a bit of mini bashing to pass the quiet periods with the notable catch of LSSS each. Notable in the fact that it's a Ten Most Wanted Species for the BiL, bringing the score to 4-4-4 and #37 of the year for me. We also had a triple crown of wrasse between us with ballan, rock cook and corkwing. Pity the analogy to rugby success wasn't a sign of things to come the following day, ahem. Conger rod was also soaked throughout the time but no interest.
Darkness also totally failed to yield. At this point I'm reminded to state that I had also been out in the week, hoping to improve on last week's performance with the "added benefit" of darkness. That was not the case and I had a stone blank on that occasion. A mark that fishes best in daylight??? Food for thought.

Nice few busy sessions lads, that cod is a nice lump of a fish.

another few bonus fish, some very decent ones yet again great stuff
and thats a very impressive species tally for the year.. so far!