Donegal and Sligo, 25/26th November 2015

Wednesday 25th. The forecast suggested a mark on the north side of the bay would give some chance of shelter from the expected wind, rain and swell so after a stop to dig a few lug I set up the usual two rods. Out went the 2 up 1 down and 3 up flappers with combinations of lug, prawn and frozen mackerel and while I waited for a bite, I decided to have a coffee and sandwich. I could have emptied the flask while waiting as it was about 2 hours later that the first fish showed up, a pin whiting, in fact a drawing-pin whiting as it was so small. Up until then the only excitement was when a low flying seagull flew into the braid and toppled the rod over, unfortunately the braid frayed and broke on a rough surface losing a fair whack of line along with the rig and lead. It was about an hour to high tide with the light starting to fade when the feeding started as the first doggie of the night appeared. A small dab paired with a small pollack were next and then another few doggies, one with a small pouting for a sidekick. A slightly better dab at 25cm took a prawn and then in response to a series of determined rattles on the rod tip I tightened into a bit of weight, just over 5oz in fact. I had snagged the braid from earlier and was able to handline in about 90yds plus rig and lead, no fish attached sadly, but at least I hadn’t left yards of line floating in the sea. By this stage a full moon had pushed through the cloud and was lighting the place up, the whole point of nightfishing is that it’s dark so happily the clouds soon resumed dominance of the sky allowing a couple more doggies to bring the tally up to eight.
Thursday 26th. When I arrived at the beach I was greeted with the sight of a raft (is this the collective noun for ducks?) of eider ducks just a few yards out. No gun with me so on with the fishing. I set up 2 lighter rods with 3 and 4oz leads giving some movement in the surf which I wouldn’t have wanted to be any livelier as I had already rejected 2 other possible marks due to big surf. First cast produced a very distinct bite and as the fish went whizzing through the surf tables I was surprised to find that it was a very plump 29cm flounder. They can scrap a bit when towing 3oz instead of 5! Another small flounder waited about an hour and a half before taking a bit of mackerel so it wasn’t exactly frenetic. At last, the 4oz rod heeled over and started kicking so I grabbed it and started to retrieve. I quickly realised that I was tangled with a couple of eiders that had straggled behind the main party. I could understand 1 duck “Fowling” my line but two? Had they actually taken two baits? It turned out that they were already caught in a mess of green braid and my line had snagged a loop of this braid. By the time I got them within handling range, one of them was completely exhausted and in fact I thought it was dead. It just sat apparently lifeless as I untangled the other which was snared by a couple of loops around one leg. It flew off and settled about 25yds out, waiting for the other? The second duck was well and truly caught up with braid twice around the neck, round both wings and legs, a bit like a soft crab cocooned in bait elastic. With a pair of scissors I managed to free it completely and after sitting on the ground for a few minutes it recovered enough to fly off. When I gathered in the trailing braid there was no leader or rig attached so presumably it wasn’t a crack-off which leads me to the conclusion that somebody got a tangle and just cut and threw it away. Shame on you if you did. (I can speak from my high horse as I retrieved my lost braid yesterday). This took about half an hour to free the two Lucky Ducks and my rig from the braid and with the surf building as the tide advanced, I had time for one more flounder before I called it a day.
I drove down to Mullaghmore harbour for a final sandwich and coffee and struck up a casual chat with a couple of fishermen who were unloading pots for winter stowage.
“What kind of a year did you have?”
“It wasn’t great”
“Did the weather go against you?”
“******* quotas! If I could get my hands on that ****** Coveney I’d ******* kill him. He doesn’t care about fishermen. Imagine telling a farmer how many animals he can keep”
I thought that there probably wasn’t much to be gained by suggesting that farmers actually breed, feed and replace stock at considerable expense while vet. bills aren’t exactly cheap.
On the way home I took a spin around Mullaghmore headland and was treated to a display by the Coastguard helicopter on a training exercise. The pilot was hovering, lowering a crew member down to ground on the winchline, he would then abseil down the vertical cliff face and the helicopter flew down below the edge of the cliff before winching him up while heading out over the sea. Pretty impressive in a stiff onshore breeze striking a cliff face.
So that was the two days, not particularly memorable for the fishing but how many of you can boast of a double duck and having their own personal airshow?
P.s., I’ve just remembered the correct collective noun for a group of eider ducks, a Quilt!

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Just a few more pics of Thursday.

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Cracking pictures John making up for the fishing. Still, a few fish and with the mild weather I'm presuming no stiff fingers.

Great report as usual jw fair play to you for getting out. It's not easy with this weather. Interesting and comical report again thanks for sharing

Great report and pics.
Well done with your C&R of two Eiders,saved them from a lingering death.

damn I hate to see birds caught up in fishing line good job on getting them away again Paddy
As suggested before, it's best to get any unwanted line and wrap it around and around the hand to form a loop. Then to cut the loop a few times so that all the line is cut into lots of small pieces, leaving it relatively harmless. Best to dispose of it properly after that
A few fish JW, nice to get out. Hope to try and get an opportunity this weekend..
Fine wee flounder there

Your the kind of angler everyone should aspire to be, well done on freeing those two ducks and clearing up the mess made by a careless angler. Great report and cracking photo of the helicopter