North Donegal, 20th Feb, 1st ray of 2019.

With the birds starting to sing in the mornings, wood pigeons nest-building in the garden and the occasional bumblebee venturing out, anyone could be forgiven for thinking it was Spring. So I decided to spring into action myself; hambo sambos made, frozen sprat, squid and fresh Lidl mackerel fillets packed and the rods etc loaded, time for the road. I made good time for the first half of the run but was slowed a bit by heavy lorries and tractors but there was no great rush and it allowed a bit of bird-spotting. Seven buzzards later, I was stepping out of the car at the first mark for a stretch. A 4-5 min walk along the stony foreshore and I was ready to launch a few baits out. I fished 3 rods today, 1 clipped rig, 1 pulley and a 2 hook flapper carrying mack strip, sprat or a larger chunk of mackerel. There was a bit more wind than expected and it was straight into my face so casting distance was reduced, however this venue doesn’t require massive distance.(I base this statement on the fact that Chuckaroo caught here last time out!). Three hours later and I was still waiting for a bite, there didn’t even seem to be a crab about. Back to the car for a coffee and sandwich and then back to the rods for another wait. Eventually, while I had my back to the rods, I had a “Jaws” moment; a couple of clicks on a ratchet. The rod continued to nod and I tightened into a blank-saving dogfish. After another half hour, I packed up as the rising tide was threatening to cut me off. A quick run brought me to another mark where I fished just two rods with 2 and 3 hook flappers. Another doggie arrived quickly followed by a tiny pin whiting and as high water approached the hooks were repeatedly picked clean by, presumably, more pin whiting. The wind, which had earlier died away completely, had picked up again and was bouncing the rod tips around making bite detection difficult. However a couple of more determined tugs resulted in a double of small whiting and a tiny thornback ray, 11oz and probably the smallest I’ve ever caught. It is certainly the earliest in the year that I’ve got one. That was it for the night, two doggies, 3 pin whiting and a thorny. Could I smell din-dins wafting from home on the south wind or was I just very hungry? Either way it was time to go.

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Great reading, nice catches too

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Not bad for this time of year. Might try and get out next week

Thats two of us that ventured out today, and two of us that fished 3 rods lol
You fared better than me (again) JW..
My results for 3 hours on the north coast:

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Nothing like a ray no matter what size

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