30/31st January 2017 Donegal Bay.

Old Shore Reports are moved here for Public Viewing

Moderators: donal domeney, saltydog

30/31st January 2017 Donegal Bay.

Postby johnwest » Wed Feb 01, 2017 1:14 pm

Monday. As January drew to a close I thought I might squeeze a couple more trips out of it so armed with sandeels and some Lidl mackerel fillets and with 3 new rings fitted to my rods, I headed for the beach; still hopeful of contacting a few flounder. No sooner had I parked and lowered the window for a good look than a robin flew up and landed on the wing mirror, obviously expecting some treat. I opened a sandwich packet, took a few crumbs and offered them to the robin which flew onto my hand, picked up the biggest crumb and flew off. Hoping for a picture, I got my camera ready but Robin remained on the ground and declined to fly up for more. “Never work with children or animals” to quote W.C. Fields. At least something was feeding; turned out the robin was all that was feeding. The surf was quite gentle despite a strong gusty wind, though it was blowing off the land and not whipping up any waves until well out to sea. There was a great contrast between the light green sea and the very dark, foreboding sky on the opposite side of the bay. I fished the last hour and a half of the ebb and first hour and a half of the flood without a single bite to either rod, time to try somewhere else with a bit more depth. It was about 4p.m. and nothing happened until the light started to fade. First up was an almost inevitable small coalie but it was soon joined by a few whiting, a couple more coalies and a small pouting added to the variety. The best whiting was just over 34cm, probably the longest I’ve got from the shore but if it had a name it must have been Cassius as he had that “lean and hungry look”. It had a gill parasite on each set of gills. A whiting that length should weigh in around 12oz, this would have been lucky to make half of that. A lot of the whiting had 1 or 2 of these parasites resulting in a series of underweight fish; it was the piscatorial equivalent of the Charge of the Light Brigade. By now the wind was building up and the rain was getting worse so rather than risk a tripod collapse and a couple more broken rings I called it a night. Last retrieve produced an anorexic dab, sorry looking specimen but at least it was a flattie.
Tuesday. Where to today? The beach I fished yesterday has been disappointing recently so I tried a different beach. In stark contrast to yesterday, it was a beautiful sunny day with no wind and a building surf coming in. A small group of Brent geese were on the beach so I wouldn’t be stuck for company. The surf was a bit messy with a strong lateral pull and after 4 hours with two rods and trying a variety of weights and shapes of leads, I had 1 small turbot to show for my efforts. The surf was now getting quite vigorous so I headed back to yesterday’s deeper mark. The sky was still clear and as darkness descended, the crescent moon, Venus and Mars made for an interesting sky behind me. First cast produced a dogfish and coalfish double, a good start. Another 4-5 coalies followed along with about 10 whiting up to 30-31cm. I was fishing a 3oz rated rod with braid on the reel which allowed the whiting to give some semblance of a struggle. The swells were getting a bit on the big size by now so it was time to vacate the premises. Six trips in January with only one flounder to show, probably my worst January in a long time.
Attachments
P1306428.JPG
Light sea, dark sky
P1300969.JPG
Small pouting
P1300973.JPG
34cm skinny whiting
P1300975.JPG
Anorexic dab
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
basilrabbit (Wed Feb 01, 2017 10:58 pm), chuckaroo (Thu Feb 02, 2017 12:09 am), eyesreilly (Mon Feb 06, 2017 8:21 am), joe the junior (Wed Feb 01, 2017 11:20 pm), Rob Millard (Wed Feb 01, 2017 1:55 pm)
User avatar
johnwest
SAI Megalodon!
 
Posts: 1041
Joined: Fri Jul 08, 2011 2:33 pm
Has thanked: 1111 times
Have thanks: 1299 times

Re: 30/31st January 2017 Donegal Bay.

Postby johnwest » Wed Feb 01, 2017 1:18 pm

Tuesday Pictures;
Attachments
P1310977.JPG
A Gaggle of Geese
P1316432.JPG
Small turbot
P1316433.JPG
Moon, Venus and Mars
P1316435.JPG
Dogfish/coalie double
P1316437.JPG
Whiting/coalie double
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.
User avatar
johnwest
SAI Megalodon!
 
Posts: 1041
Joined: Fri Jul 08, 2011 2:33 pm
Has thanked: 1111 times
Have thanks: 1299 times

Re: 30/31st January 2017 Donegal Bay.

Postby corbyeire » Wed Feb 01, 2017 5:40 pm

great report and pics as usual

bad as it may seem, youre doing relatively well - there are blanks all over galway bay right now - a complete disaster

adds fuel to the mega trawlers cleaning out the bay a few weeks back when "sheltering" from the storms!

For this message the author corbyeire has received thanks: 2
chuckaroo (Wed Feb 01, 2017 11:56 pm), johnwest (Mon Feb 06, 2017 10:59 am)
User avatar
corbyeire
SAI Megalodon!
 
Posts: 6362
Images: 0
Joined: Wed Aug 24, 2005 5:47 pm
Location: G g g galway
Has thanked: 2045 times
Have thanks: 680 times

Re: 30/31st January 2017 Donegal Bay.

Postby FisherKing » Wed Feb 01, 2017 7:09 pm

Another great report, pictures and a few fish, what's the secret in getting the birds to eat out of your hand :wink:
Cheers Brian
Species 2017: Flounder, Turbot, Coalfish,

For this message the author FisherKing has received thanks:
johnwest (Mon Feb 06, 2017 10:59 am)
User avatar
FisherKing
SAI Megalodon!
 
Posts: 1127
Images: 8
Joined: Mon Jul 20, 2009 10:01 pm
Location: Co. Sligo
Has thanked: 435 times
Have thanks: 143 times

Re: 30/31st January 2017 Donegal Bay.

Postby chuckaroo » Thu Feb 02, 2017 12:08 am

A lot of skinny stuff going on there JW :) Yeah, you fared rightly too I reckon, fair play for getting out and at it. Have been out twice recently myself on local east Antrim marks (once trying for flounder, the other time doing a bit of lrf fishing) and not a sausage/fish to show for it. Fair enough, they were only two 2hour sessions but v poor fishing indeed - the sea was like a "piscatorial" desert! :lol:
yeah, those parasites seem common at times on the whiting. Ugly wee gets but all part of the natural cycle i guess..
some great pics, like that green sea and black sky. nice report, well done again
Charlie

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

For this message the author chuckaroo has received thanks:
johnwest (Mon Feb 06, 2017 11:01 am)
User avatar
chuckaroo
SAI Megalodon!
 
Posts: 1931
Images: 28
Joined: Mon Nov 22, 2010 7:40 am
Location: Co.Antrim
Has thanked: 1206 times
Have thanks: 819 times

Re: 30/31st January 2017 Donegal Bay.

Postby chuckaroo » Sun Feb 05, 2017 8:45 pm

Do you 'need' this camera JW..? :)
Charlie

2024 targets:
porbeagle, stingers, seatrout, shore skate, shore tope
User avatar
chuckaroo
SAI Megalodon!
 
Posts: 1931
Images: 28
Joined: Mon Nov 22, 2010 7:40 am
Location: Co.Antrim
Has thanked: 1206 times
Have thanks: 819 times

Re: 30/31st January 2017 Donegal Bay.

Postby eyesreilly » Mon Feb 06, 2017 8:20 am

Nice report, thanks!
Species '20 (14) 5 Beard Rockling, Shore Rockling, Codling, Whiting, Pollock, Coalfish, Pouting, Corkwing Wrasse ,Ballan Wrasse, Poor Cod, Dab ,Smoothhound,Flounder, Thornback Ray


For the rich, there is therapy. For the rest of us, there is FISHING! --

For this message the author eyesreilly has received thanks:
johnwest (Mon Feb 06, 2017 11:01 am)
User avatar
eyesreilly
SAI Megalodon!
 
Posts: 2884
Images: 10
Joined: Sun Oct 07, 2007 3:58 pm
Location: clondalkin
Has thanked: 992 times
Have thanks: 463 times
Blog: View Blog (7)

Re: 30/31st January 2017 Donegal Bay.

Postby johnwest » Mon Feb 06, 2017 11:02 am

chuckaroo wrote:Do you 'need' this camera JW..? :)

?
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.
User avatar
johnwest
SAI Megalodon!
 
Posts: 1041
Joined: Fri Jul 08, 2011 2:33 pm
Has thanked: 1111 times
Have thanks: 1299 times

Re: 30/31st January 2017 Donegal Bay.

Postby chuckaroo » Mon Feb 06, 2017 3:21 pm

johnwest wrote:
chuckaroo wrote:Do you 'need' this camera JW..? :)

?

oops. forgot to add the link!:


http://youtube.com/watch?v=tRxlTKr0FU4
Charlie

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

For this message the author chuckaroo has received thanks: 2
corbyeire (Tue Feb 07, 2017 3:13 pm), johnwest (Mon Feb 06, 2017 8:27 pm)
User avatar
chuckaroo
SAI Megalodon!
 
Posts: 1931
Images: 28
Joined: Mon Nov 22, 2010 7:40 am
Location: Co.Antrim
Has thanked: 1206 times
Have thanks: 819 times


Return to Archived Shore Angling Reports

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: SemrushBot [Bot] and 6 guests

cron