Donegal Bay, 24th May 2016.

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Donegal Bay, 24th May 2016.

Postby johnwest » Thu May 26, 2016 1:00 pm

Looking at the weather forecast, I couldn’t decide whether to try a bit of sea fishing or mayfly fishing on Lough Erne so I packed the car with both possibilities in mind intending to make a final decision on the day. Next day I was driving along the shore of Lough Erne which was glass-like under a cloud- free blue sky, having had enough sessions on the lough in the past on a “slow roast” setting, I kept driving. The sea was quite calm too but I held out more hope of some fish. I set up the usual 2 rods with a 3 hook flapper and mackerel strip on one and an up and over rig with sandeel on the other. It was the last 1.5 hrs of the ebb and nothing happened for just over an hour; then just like the proverbial buses, i.e. none for ages then two come at once, both rods registered bites almost together. The flapper produced a 25cm dab while the up and over brought a nice little spotty ray weighing in at bang on 4lb. I dared to think that things were on the up but it was another three hours before the next bite registered, a 25cm turbot on mackerel strip. Just a few minutes later another bite, this time a 30cm flounder. By now what little breeze there had been had almost completely died away making it easy to see a number of small shoals of mullet cruise by. I expected to see a few mackerel shoals but none materialised, there were no gannets about either so the mackerel must still be a bit patchy. Another long wait of 2 hours before a 31cm dab, best of the day, succumbed to mackerel strip. The long wait was broken by a dead weight on one rod which turned out to be a large brown/edible crab. 2 more dabs at 26 and 28cm weighed in over the next 2 hours before my own hunger kicked in and I packed up. While the flounder, dabs, turbot and ray were all flat, the fishing wasn’t exactly flat out but it was a beautiful day, it’s always good to get a ray from the shore and I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t have got 7 fish at the trout fishing!
Attachments
P5245802.JPG
4lb spotted ray, best fish of the day
P5245807.JPG
Small Turbot
P5245804.JPG
Mullet passing by
P5245806.JPG
Potential Crab Salad
P5245819.JPG
31cm dab, best of 4
2013 species; 31

2014 species; 27

2015 species; 28

2016 species; 32

2017 species;28

2018 species; 33

2019 species; ballan wrasse,blonde ray, coalfish, cod, cuckoo wrasse, dab, dogfish, flounder, goldsinny wrasse, ling, mackerel, plaice, pollack, poorcod, pouting, scad, sea scorpion, spotty ray, spurdog, thornback, tub gurnard, turbot, whiting.

For this message the author johnwest has received thanks: 5
chuckaroo (Fri May 27, 2016 9:16 pm), corbyeire (Fri May 27, 2016 12:44 pm), Ken Hawk (Thu May 26, 2016 9:10 pm), krisreid (Thu Jun 02, 2016 10:20 pm), Teegerstk (Thu May 26, 2016 5:57 pm)
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Re: Donegal Bay, 24th May 2016.

Postby Ken Hawk » Thu May 26, 2016 9:08 pm

You must be from the same part of the world as me.
I ended up at Rossnowlagh yesterday's and had 4 small flounders for my efforts.
Looks like I could do with some tips ;)
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Re: Donegal Bay, 24th May 2016.

Postby chuckaroo » Fri May 27, 2016 9:17 pm

Nice wee report JW, super pics. Love the mullet photo.
C u on Erne tomorrow hopefully
Charlie

2024 targets:
porbeagle, stingers, seatrout, shore skate, shore tope
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