Donegal 10-8-16

[MC]

I had Thursday off work so took a notion to go fishing, so after a wee text I got word on which mark was fishing well. The weather forecast was for heavy rain and strong winds later at night. After I got some basic gear in the car I took off as fast as legally allowed. I started off will some light lure work as I needed to christen my ugly stick rod and what fun it was, the fish might have been small but on light gear it was highly entertaining. The best was a 1.5lb pollock that gave me great fight but unfortunately the wind started to increase in strength making it difficult to cast wee spinners, so the big rods came out to play. First cast a plump doggie, second another doggie at this point I starting to think it was going to a barking night, but it went quiet after that. With the rain pouring down and the wind gusting made it hard to see the crabs eating my offering but after several casts the tip shuddered, then again before being pulled down. I lifted into a solid weight which put a healthy bend in the rod, it seemed like a ray bite but it wasn't fighting like a ray, zigzagging in the current, as it came towards the pier it dived toward the structure and hung there for a while. I know large congers hide there as I have lost a big one and landed several smaller one. With this in mind and knowing I wasn't geared up for conger and I think conger don't feed when the tide is running I put on the pressure. After what felt and age( probably only 10seconds) a nice Ray popped up, it had been using the strong current at the end of the pier to kite in the tide, it weighed in at 6lb and was returned to fight another day. With high hopes I fished on but only landed another dog, so with 5 pollock,3 coalies, 2 mackerel,2 scad,3 doggies and a single thornback ray and the sun coming up I called it quits and headed for bed. All in all not bad for neaps tides and bad weather.