Culdaff Beach. Sunday

People: myself and Sweetwrasse

Duration: noon - 9pm

Tide: HW 4.40pm

Weather: overcast. a little breezy. mild. settled sea with 4ft breakers

Bait: frozen mack, fresh rag

Rigs: mainly flappers

Report:
The bank holiday weekend saw myself and Robin plan a session on Culdaff beach - Robin's 'home territory' and a beach that I had never fished before..
The plan was just to scratch for the day and simply see what was about. We were expecting (hoping for): flounder, turbot, and a chance of a sea trout. Well that's pretty much what we got
I got to the beach a bit earlier in the day and had the chance to look around, I also had the chance to chat to another guy who had already been fishing there for an hour or so. He was fit to relay his ideas on how the beach fished and he suggested tactics, all good. He was targeting sea trout using sandeel and was proud to show me the results of the previous evenings fishing: a picture of 4 dead sea tout on the sand - all of similar sizes, pretty small, maybe each about 1-1.5lb. So, was he right to kill so many fish? Same guy was also fit to describe how, on the previous evening, a dog had come up and snatched a sandeel from his bait box; problem however was that there was a hook in the sandeel
So I started to fish before Robin would arrive in the afternoon. I was gladly joined by a Buncrana man who was new to fishing and had made the trip on his own to wet a line We fished together for an hour or 2 which saw a few flounder and small turbot get landed, I was happy enough with this result really am a big fan of turbot, no matter what the size! We were also joined by two little dogs who hung around and readily took little slivers of freshly frozen mack when offered Also, during this time, a lady came up and asked: Any luck?.. But, she then also proceeded to tell us how her dog.. the previous evening.. had snatched a fisherman's bait.. how she had gone home and seen line hanging from its mouth... Well, an x-ray at the vets had confirmed a hook it is stomach.. the dog was due surgery on Monday and i'm sure she was due a hefty vets bill too. so, moral of the story?: Don't leave baited hooks (or un-baited hooks for that matter) exposed to any animals, or children, when fishing!..
Anyhows, when Robin arrived we decided to change location and head down to fish closer to the river mouth. Best action was around high tide when Robin produced arguably the best results of the day with of a couple of sea trout and one particularly good flounder. Plenty of other fish caught too though so it was an enjoyable session. When the pin coley took force into dark, it was time to hit the road for home..
Always nice to try a new mark. Now looking forward to the trip to south Wexford in a few weeks time..
A few pics:

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Well done. A few species is hard to beat, and a good beach to fish.

Great report. I'd agree with you about the trout would hate to see someone take that many off my local beach. And the poor dog. Can be hard to watch them if you leave your tripod area nightmare on some beaches, seen a dog eat someone entire 3 hook flapper and away to vets. Seems a good beach there in culdaff. They have their open beach comp next Sunday I think

Re the small sea trout.
I understand that there is no limit to the number of sea trout below 40cn which may be killed and cannot find a MLS for sea trout.
A daily limit of three fish applies to any fish over 40 cm which must be tagged.
At certain times during the season only one or two fish over 40cm may be tagged and retained.
The Culdaff open season is 1st April to 20TH October.
A Game Licence is required when sea fishing for sea trout.
I am not fully conversant with the game regulations pertaining to Donegal and would appreciate any information SAI members may have who fish there.

A pleasure to meet up again Charlie and the fishing wasn't bad either!

Re the small sea trout.
I understand that there is no limit to the number of sea trout below 40cn which may be killed and cannot find a MLS for sea trout.
A daily limit of three fish applies to any fish over 40 cm which must be tagged.
At certain times during the season only one or two fish over 40cm may be tagged and retained.
The Culdaff open season is 1st April to 20TH October.
A Game Licence is required when sea fishing for sea trout.
I am not fully conversant with the game regulations pertaining to Donegal and would appreciate any information SAI members may have who fish there.

There are some rules and regulations for sizes and bag limits here: http://www.fishinginireland.info/salmon/salmonregs.htm

"Daily Bag Limit: One salmon (any size) or sea trout (over 40cm) per day from 1st September to the close of the season,
There is an angling bag limit of three sea trout (under 40cm) per angler per day (bye-law no. 887, 2011)"

but these seen to define river fishing only, with different rivers having different regulations. It is unclear whether it carries over to sea trout fishing in the sea, I assume that it does?

A pleasure to meet up again Charlie and the fishing wasn't bad either!

Cheers Robin

Seems like a productive mark, well done lads

Thank you chuckaroo for the link and info re the under 40cm bag limit.
I believe these regulations also apply to sea trout caught in the sea..

ask anyone in IFI and they will say if you target sea trout, you require a licence - where does the estuary exactly end etc. etc.

re the dogs - most councils have a dog on a lease policy between 8am to 8pm think this changes in wintertime - but to be honest its the owners fault for not controlling their dogs

on a beach in wexford at the weekend lady walking the dog, no lead - oblivoius to all the traces - said to her theres baited hooks, mind the dog
she then proceeded to question us the anglers, if we were allowed to have sharp hooks with bait on a beach
then i told her there was a competition on - again she questioned if we were allowed to be there doing that!!!

i then told her we were allowed to be there - but her dog not on leash, isint - and i would be in good mind to get in touch with the council etc. - she soon got off her high horse

some people eh!

by the by - good to get out and get some fish lads

ask anyone in IFI and they will say if you target sea trout, you require a licence - where does the estuary exactly end etc. etc.

re the dogs - most councils have a dog on a lease policy between 8am to 8pm think this changes in wintertime - but to be honest its the owners fault for not controlling their dogs

on a beach in wexford at the weekend lady walking the dog, no lead - oblivoius to all the traces - said to her theres baited hooks, mind the dog
she then proceeded to question us the anglers, if we were allowed to have sharp hooks with bait on a beach
then i told her there was a competition on - again she questioned if we were allowed to be there doing that!!!

i then told her we were allowed to be there - but her dog not on leash, isint - and i would be in good mind to get in touch with the council etc. - she soon got off her high horse

some people eh!

by the by - good to get out and get some fish lads

re license - he had one
re lady - LOL
cheers

I must give it a go next time I am up that way

ask anyone in IFI and they will say if you target sea trout, you require a licence - where does the estuary exactly end etc. etc.

re the dogs - most councils have a dog on a lease policy between 8am to 8pm think this changes in wintertime - but to be honest its the owners fault for not controlling their dogs

on a beach in wexford at the weekend lady walking the dog, no lead - oblivoius to all the traces - said to her theres baited hooks, mind the dog
she then proceeded to question us the anglers, if we were allowed to have sharp hooks with bait on a beach
then i told her there was a competition on - again she questioned if we were allowed to be there doing that!!!

i then told her we were allowed to be there - but her dog not on leash, isint - and i would be in good mind to get in touch with the council etc. - she soon got off her high horse

some people eh!

by the by - good to get out and get some fish lads

people and their sense of entitlement- suffer this rubbish all the time with dogwalkers. some of them want you to smile and say thanks when their dogs does their thing on your fishing gear. i have a dog i dont let it annoy people. fair play to ya.

Nice busy session, fished there once 7-8 years ago and only managed a handful of small flounder. Regarding dogs on beaches, like you suggest, I try to keep any baited hooks out of reach just to avoid possible hassle but Corbyeire and m.b.3. are spot on. The dog is the owner's responsibility, for some people a hefty vet's bill is the only way to learn! Can't believe there isn't a minimum size for seatrout, the sooner mls's are introduced for a range of species, the better.

sweetwrasse will tell yea - ive 3 dogs meself - and ive experienced the vet bill - one grabbed my own trace - youd need eyes in the back of your head

another bug bear is when the mutt eats your bait - say run off with a mac and the owner sees it and says nothing - not even a token sorry

john i agree on the minimum sizes for everything

Once had a larger Labrador plod over to where I was fishing and scoff THREE frozen mackerel in one gulp! When the owner appeared I informed him of what happened and he just seemed more amused than anything! Hate to see his living room carpet later that day

Culdaff beach, in fact the entire East coast of Inishowen up as far as Malin Head, falls under the Lough's Agency remit, not IFI's. The points made still stand though - if you're fishing for sea trout, you need a licence. Legislation is silent on location.

Once had a larger Labrador plod over to where I was fishing and scoff THREE frozen mackerel in one gulp! When the owner appeared I informed him of what happened and he just seemed more amused than anything! Hate to see his living room carpet later that day

One of the wee dogs in the first pic stole and ate a fillet of Mackerel off sweetwrasse that day. I had to laugh (sorry Robin)
mind you, the bait could well have been over a year old, so he wasn't too upset.
that wee dogs guts will have been hammered later that day..

Once had a larger Labrador plod over to where I was fishing and scoff THREE frozen mackerel in one gulp! When the owner appeared I informed him of what happened and he just seemed more amused than anything! Hate to see his living room carpet later that day

One of the wee dogs in the first pic stole and ate a fillet of Mackerel off sweetwrasse that day. I had to laugh (sorry Robin)
mind you, the bait could well have been over a year old, so he wasn't too upset.
that wee dogs guts will have been hammered later that day..

It was the way he distracted me by trying to knock over the tripod first and then went for the fillet that impressed me-clever dog, although that frozen mack was at least 18 months old (bottom of the freezer) so maybe not so clever!?