Sunny Sligo Slog; 2nd/3rd June 2016
Posted: Mon Jun 06, 2016 1:47 pm
Thursday 2nd June. The good weather had brought out the fair weather folk and the exact rock on which I wanted to stand was already occupied so I set up elsewhere, which as I feared, was even snaggier than my intended spot. I had brought a few lead lifts with this spot in mind but unfortunately they wouldn’t fit on the longtail lead; the longtail wasn’t long enough. I make my own leads so there’s another item for the “To do” list. With the rods set up and cast out, I tried to find a rock which wasn’t too hot to sit on; if I had eggs I could have had fried eggs and bacon if I had bacon. The next half hour gave no bites but gave plenty of time to tidy up most of the mess (I draw a line at smashed beer bottles) left by the previous visitor(s). On retrieve, the flapper came in ok, the advantage of a very long rod, but the single hook snagged, came free and then snagged permanently. On with a new leader and rig and out to the depths again and while waiting for a bite, a spearfisher trailing a mini raft decides to work his way through the swims of the angler on the other mark and then mine. I guess the Atlantic just isn’t big enough at times. My wish for a backfire with the speargun wasn’t granted, nor was my wish for a bite and after losing another leader and rig to snags, I decided to head to a beach mark for the last of the ebb. There was a slight onshore breeze which generated a bit of gentle wave action in an otherwise flat sea and after about an hour, a little tap-tap heralded the interest of a 23cm flounder, the blank saver. Moments later a good rattle on the other rod at distance marked a more lively fish which unfortunately shed the hook right at the water’s edge, I think it was a small seatrout. That was it for the night.
Friday 3rd June. Faced with another scorcher and flat sea, I was wondering where to try. I stopped off to buy some frozen mackerel and was advised to try a spot which I had never fished before. Like so many tips, it was under my nose on many occasions but it had never occurred to me to try it. I set up on this rock mark fishing onto sand and shallow water and to be honest I wasn’t overly optimistic with the bright sunshine and flat calm sea. But after about an hour, in came a nice 31cm dab and I’m sure I saw a few flashes of silver, probably mackerel, snapping at the other 2 baits as I reeled it in. This dab seems to have had a close encounter of the net kind judging by the fin damage and nick in its back. Two hours later a second dab (27cm) showed up followed by a small pollack a while later. That was the last of the action but given the conditions I was happy enough with the returns, the flatfish weren’t the flat fish I was hoping for but I’ll definitely give that spot a go again.
Friday 3rd June. Faced with another scorcher and flat sea, I was wondering where to try. I stopped off to buy some frozen mackerel and was advised to try a spot which I had never fished before. Like so many tips, it was under my nose on many occasions but it had never occurred to me to try it. I set up on this rock mark fishing onto sand and shallow water and to be honest I wasn’t overly optimistic with the bright sunshine and flat calm sea. But after about an hour, in came a nice 31cm dab and I’m sure I saw a few flashes of silver, probably mackerel, snapping at the other 2 baits as I reeled it in. This dab seems to have had a close encounter of the net kind judging by the fin damage and nick in its back. Two hours later a second dab (27cm) showed up followed by a small pollack a while later. That was the last of the action but given the conditions I was happy enough with the returns, the flatfish weren’t the flat fish I was hoping for but I’ll definitely give that spot a go again.
