Shannon estuary

Rigs were 4/0 pulley pennels
First 2 hours of the flood
Mackeral
Wind was WSW

Arrived to the mark at low water and every cast was thornback bites. Slack lines. Missed 5 or 6 takes but I hooked into 4 (3 of these were not slack lines). One was big and a serious scrap, the bite bent the rod right over id imagine between 6 to 7 lbs but I dunno really.

When the thornback is swimming in towards you do you wait till he stops swimming to strike or just try and tighten the line and strike?

Thanks for the help.

Photos

You do not have the required permissions to view the files attached to this post.

Nice fishing Woulfec, those are pretty Thornbacks. The temptation to pick up the rod and strike can be overwhelming, but patience is key. I'd say that for every one I've caught, I've probably missed two or three. Sometimes they can do the work for you and hook themselves. If the line slackens, take the slack in until you feel the weight of the fish before striking, that said , they seem to get spooked or put off easily, sometimes dropping the bait, but that's fishing. If you are using a grip lead, make sure you have a long flowing trace like a dropper rig or an up and over, sometimes the grip lead can put them off if bait is close to it. You seem to be having good success with them, you can't be doing too much wrong! Congratulations on the catch.

Nice fishing for this time of year.

A running up and over is the default rig down that way for me, the fish has generally been hooked before anything registers on the rod tip and an over eager strike costs you.I would say over 95% hook up rate on them. I miss a lot of bites on Pulley rigs but if fishing on rough ground you have to use them.

Will be out myself for them the weekend.

Patience does ware thin lol. Yes I noticed they were abit spoked as they wouldn't come back to the bait after.
Thanks for the tips will try the up and over. Cheers.

Hi geroid. Now that you sat that the ground isn't actually rough. I had never lost a trace here so I will try a different rig next. Cheers

I used to use a long running ledger, back in the good old days.
It worked better than the pulley rig's.

Caught everything in the estuary this way.
Wishbone rigs are good on a flowing trace..