Fished 3pm -8pm, LW 3.30pm, dark c7.30pm
Wind - Light easterlies <10mph
Dry, water fairly settled
Got there with 30 mins of slack water left. Set up the light spinning rod with tiny sz 22 hook in the hope of catching some small wrasse or minis but no interest. Put a conger rod out too but again, nothing.
That didn't last long as I saw a boat within casting distance pull up a string of mack so I set up the heavier spinning rod with some feathers and bombed it out. No joy there either and lost the feathers fairly quickly in the still shallow water.
Tide had turned by now (about 4.30pm) so time to spin for pollack. Set up weedless Carolina style until some depth built up in the water. Chucked out SPs I've done well with recently and covered a lot of ground but nothing.
Decided to switch over to the lighter spinning rod and work in close with c10g lures. I was getting hits every cast but no hook-ups and mostly felt small. Now for some reason I had a swivel joining my brain mainline to my fluoro leader. I never do this but found a trace in my bag and just tied it on. I eventually worked out that the pin pollack were hitting the swivel after seeing several jump up out of the water after it as I was lifting off. Feeling deeply insulted that the fish preferred a swivel to my fancy SP, I took the swivel off and just knotted braid to leader as usual. This worked almost instantly and in a short flurry that seemed no more than 15 mins from say 6pm, I had 2 pollack and.....a wrasse, all about 2 lbs and all right at my feet.
Now I've read the magazine articles until I'm blue in the face about catching wrasse on SPs. I've bought the lures, watched YT videos on the techniques, tried it a couple of times last season and never got a take. At the time I still thought I was doing something not quite right but my mind has shifted today. A 2 lb wrasse was always much appreciated but used to be a fairly common catch at good wrasse marks for me. However I'd say that's the 1st one I've had from the shore in 4 years. Wrasse have small gubs and I just don't think the size of wrasse required to take a decent sized lure are there anymore.
In any case, albeit by fluke rather than design, it was a great experience and I really enjoyed it. There's potential there to add another dimension to lure fishing if I can find the wrasse or use smaller lures.
The last couple of lure sessions have been tough in very good conditions and I've stopped getting mack. I'm wondering if we've hit the change and it's time to move to the bait rods. Anyone else had similar experience lately? I haven't seen any bait fish over the last week or more although one of the pollack today did cough up a load of sandeel. Any fish I've opened recently has had an empty stomach.
That was the last of the luring action. I put the conger rod out again while I was packing up the 2 spinning rods and all my gear. Lo and behold I got a run after 5 mins. Tightened, nothing. Set back down again, ran properly. Struck into it and took a conger of about 4 lbs. It was 8pm by now, dark and I hadn't enough battery left for a flash so no photos. I was just dropping down with boat rod and multiplier. I'll come back with fixed spools and do a dedicated conger sesh soon.
All-in-all a slow day but got decent reward and thoroughly enjoyed it. Off to Bundoran at the weekend with the Mrs but I'm sure I'll manage to sneak in a rod or 3.
Ta,
G
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