Clogherhead Pier

The brother and myself decided to hit the pier at Clogherhead for a few hours. We fished about 2 hours from low water and about an hour and a half of the flood. 1 baby eel and 1 sprat to show for our efforts (both spinning with feathers). Tried a few different rigs with different size hooks using fresh rag and frozen lug (forgot the crab we had in the freezer). Despite a few greedy crabs didn’t get a tap on any of the baits. Tried a bit of lure fishing too and again didn’t feel a bump. I’ve fished this area a few times now over the past year and finding the results very poor. Maybe I’m trying all the wrong places and of course I don’t expect anyone to give away any secrets but I’d really like to find the places around this area as I have family living nearby. We bought a boat in September with the hope of catching fish around the bay, but if it’s anything like the shore fishing from the rocks, beach or pier, I’ll be mooring the boat somewhere south of Dublin. Also met another chap on the pier this evening. From Dundalk and out on his first ever session. Gave him a few pointers and told him to join here. If he sees this please pm if you are heading to Clogher again. Always good to have some company, especially when learning the ropes....

The last time I fished that pier i got a tiny whiting on lug. The place was filled with seals. Still its nice just to get out. Keep at it.

I spent a lot of time in the past "trying" to fish from that pier. Not much luck outside of mackerle and very small pollock.
The beach in front of the lifeboat station can produce nice flounder.

D

The reality is that the pier is only good for mackerel. You can occasionally catch a small (3 inches) dab on rag, and there are also some tiny pollock, cod, whiting and grey gurnard. if you go around the rocks, you can occasionally pick up a slightly larger pollock before the seals get it, but it's hardly worth the effort. I've been fishing there for many years (for mackerel) and it hasn't improved at all. If you have a boat, head for Dunany point and fish up to the Imogene buoy for tope.

Last year there were 12 seals in residence and I presume it's a similar number this year. They can be a pain, stealing mackerel off the hook and breaking lines, etc. They will even sit in the water watching a float and when it goes under, they'll attack it before you can even strike.