Rare Species

Hi

Had an interesting chat with an unnamed angler :D and he related a story about a jack (a prized tropical game fish, any number of possibilities as several species are found as far north as New Jersey in the US and Madiera and northern Portugal) being netted off the west coast last summer, easily in sight of land by a scientific expedition.

BTW, if you're reading this, it was not a trevally as these are limited as far as I can see to the pacific ocean only.

Now whilst we do have mackerel swimming around Mayo all year round to judge from recent reports, I am just wondering what else apart from giltheads we might expect to see this year?

I remember when I studied Aquaculture many moons ago in Galway a lecturer of mine told me of a small-medium great white being caught in gill nets off Barna about 50 years ago.
I think golden grey mullet, Black bream, gilthead sea bream and trigger fish can all be targetted with a good chance of catching if your lucky enough to live in the right area.

More Albacore Tuna, and possibly some more six gilled sharks making a comeback due to water temps. Hey we may even see those fish we use to catch years ago, what were they called again, Cod, that's the one.

Personally I would like a Trigger and or Red Mullet.

on the topic of rare species has anybody had any success with catching gilthead bream. there was meant to have been a number of them caught in my area last year. not sure how to specifically target them. has anybody succeeded with them. any adivice on tactics, bait, time etc. any would be mucjh appreciated.

Hi lumpy

check out this year's book from the cfb / trophy fish committee as there is an excellent piece in there about how to target them down in Cork.

cheers kieran. seen that alrite very good article. may have a look at it again.

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jd

even on the north coast there are possibilities of red bream, triggers etc.
i think some bream were caught in recent years on the boat out of culdaff and a bream of some breed taken from carnlough beach just over a year ago. the triggers seem to appear at some stage every year around portrush area also.
lets hope that a wider variety of fish appear all over the coast this year!!
in the last few months of 2005 triggers and reports of bream being washed up on north coast beaches, may have a lot to do with water temperature.


on another note, does anywhere in ireland produce any sole to the rod and line angler anyway regularly?

Have seen loads of juveniule sole in the liffey/tolka estuary! Heard Arklow south beach is supposed to be fairly reliable for them but have never tried it.

Been doing a bit of research on the blighters - you must not use twitching tactics as this scares them away, you need to fish for them at dusk and into darkness, small tides, incoming, very shallow water. very small hooks, no bigger than 4s, and smaller advised again. Heavily scented baits work all though they detect vibration from the seabed so rag might be worthwhile even after dark. Grip lead to stop it moving about...

I reckon there is a lot more of them about, we just overcast them or scare the bejaysus out of them with sequins, attractors and whatnot...

FWIW

really ever only heard of the very odd one being taken on the north coast.
perhaps any river estuary with a good tidal flow might be worth a go
was speaking to a guy who used to tow for sandeels with a small net for personal use and he said that he always gets good numbers of small sole in the net when doing it but when you try to target them on the same grounds scaling the gear way down.....guess what......nought!!!

Saw some nice Sole washed up last summer down here when the red tide took it's toll, we are definetley going have a go for them this summer, that's providing that we don't get another dose of red tide!
Sean,

Believe it or not I saaw a continental guy catching a few in Ferrycarrig maybe 20 years ago.Very small hooks all right. I think he caught 3, one september eving. Never saw any there since.

Sole have been recorded from North Beach Greystones, North Beach wicklow and both beaches at Arklow. These fish were however taken over twenty years ago. I pursued them intentionally for a couple of years using small hooks and worm baits from these venues and never had even a small one. Given the amount of competitions over the east coast and the trend towards smaller hooks, I would think that if there was a resident population some samples would have been taken. The only other places I know about are the pier in Ballycotton where the record was landed and the beaches in Ardmore, Waterford. I fished these also and needless to say blanked again.
On a positive note, I was in Kerry over the last week and saw shoals of golden greys in Kenmare and Rossbeigh, not big fish but there nonetheless.

When I was in secondary school (10 -15 years ago) a classmate from ballyhueige Co. Kerry was catching Black and red bream regularly around kerry head during the summer

There is a good article in April's issue of sea angler on sole and also a good rig to use for them.(page 16)

Apart from being a novel catch in Irish waters gilthead bream are a fantastic eating fish - however i've only managed to find this out in countries where they are a common catch.

great to see the golden greys here so early, looks good for thr summer months, god knows what species may turn up this year!!!