A few sessions around Wexford/Waterford, June/July 2019

I haven't been insanely active fishing wise over the past few months but I'm after getting a few small sessions in. Although nothing fancy and none of them with ideal tides, they were impromptu sessions to keep me sane!
June 13th 2019
My first session was a spur of the moment decision to take the ferry across at Ballyhack in Wexford to fish Passage East, the best I could do was an ebbing tide. Stuck with sandeel and mackerel I didn't have a selection of bait but it was enough for 2 teabag sized dabs over 2 hours! Not the return I was looking for but as always it beats the blank.
June 30th 2019
Yet again another impromptu session down to try out a new mark, a sandy bay on the Hook Peninsula. Yet again I could only fish the slack high and the ebb, and I was completely weeded out for the majority of it. I noticed on satellite imagery there seems to be some sort of kelp bed at high water, so I guess that's what caused the problems. As the tide ebbed, so did the seaweed but still, nothing doing. Funny how those brown signs preach about bass and conger being expected catches, there was nothing here for me I figured the early flood onto the sandy/rocky bottom further out might yield something other than a good 4 kg of seaweed on my flapper rig. A blank either way, ah well!
July 2nd 2019
Only yesterday I was able to get out again, and fished a nearby pier in Waterford Harbour. Armed with frozen squid, sandeel and mackerel (Three Horsemen of the Apocalypse!), out went two rods, a flapper rig and a pulley in search of something bigger. After the first casts, a few locals started to come down all at once, and I thought it couldn't be to see me! I found out suddenly when a large enough cruise ship appeared from behind one of the low cliffs, absolutely dwarfing the small car ferry that runs across the channel. It really was a sight to behold, I've seen them before at berth by Dunmore East, but never this far up the estuary. As it went by I noticed a strong enough tap on my pulley rigged rod to discover a pup smoothhound (edit: had a chat with the local bait digger today, he's said spurdogs are being caught around here, so that must've been it) of about 10 inches on the end. He gave no fight at all, just a dead weight. As I unhooked him I noticed he didn't have the standard crushing plate teeth of a smoothhound? More so like a standard set of teeth kind of like a dogfish's? It made me think it could be a tope pup due to the teeth, and it was quite a darker colour of grey, unless juvenile smoothounds teeth change as they grow? At that point I had never heard of tope caught in the estuary. Back he went nonetheless and just down from me another angler took in a much larger smoothie, of about 6lbs, deciding to hold it under his boot as he unhooked it Maybe I'm just soft, it went back okay. I went to ask him what bait he caught it on and he told me he had caught a tope from here before, although I'm not sure if I believed him as he referred to his smoothhound as a dogfish! Anyway, he left shortly and I fished on as the tide started to ebb. Nothing doing, the smoothie(/tope?) pup was the best I was gonna get!
Either way, good to get out although I wasn't exactly rewarded for my troubles, although it's always enjoyable nonetheless.

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Last edited by Teegerstk on Wed Jul 03, 2019 9:44 pm, edited 2 times in total.

great report good go get out fishing

Saw the video. Spurdog alright.!!