Rut vs Groove, Donegal Bay, 24th Sept, 6th Oct 2019
Mon Oct 07, 2019 2:02 pm
24th September. The difficulty in getting two half decent days in a row to make it worth towing the boat to Donegal had left me frustrated and in a frame of mind which made shore fishing seem like a poor second; the result was that I had got myself into a rut of not going fishing. Rooting through the freezer uncovered a bag of frozen wrasse-sized hardback crab so I forced myself to load up the car and head out. I arrived at my chosen spot and set up the float rig and in the next 4 hours failed to get a single bite; this spot can normally be relied on for some sport, esp. at this time of year. Greatly disappointed, slightly worried and thinking I should have stayed in the comfort of my rut, I packed up the wrasse gear and headed for a nearby beach to try some mackerel for bait. Before I left I chucked a set of feathers out for a while and was rewarded with a decent mackerel so at least I would have nice fresh bait.
Setting up two rods for near and far, it wasn’t long before the first rattle announced the presence of a hungry flounder. For a short period, the bites came regularly as seven flounder up to 28cm sampled the fresh mackerel. They were all close in and came in single file; no doubles or trebles. The only unusual fish was a one-eyed flounder, if I catch him again I’ll surely recognise him, I must keep an eye out for him. The bites suddenly stopped and after another hour, I called it a day.
6th October. I gave The Bro’ a call and he was keen enough to join me for a day out; the forecast was good so we assembled a variety of bait, mackerel, sandeel, shell-on prawn, squid and fresh sprat ( the bay is full of them and boats trawling for them at the moment) and headed off to try for wrasse first and then hit the beach later. Conditions seemed fine as we set up the float rods at the same spot as my last (biteless) attempt at wrasse. First cast and the float slid away fairly quickly, I hit it and there was a moment’s resistance and then nothing. I rebaited and next cast produced another bite which I gave a little more time before tightening into a fish. A few shakes and dashes and the fish shed the hook. Next cast produced a repeat performance and I decided to beef up the hook, the first hook was bending too much and springing out under the pressure needed to drag the fish up out of the kelp. Next cast with a fresh prawn resulted in a nice ballan at about 2lb. Unhooked, photographed and back into the water ready for the next one, I was relieved that the wrasse were around and feeding well. I soon had a second smaller ballan, about 1.5lb. After landing two, losing two and missing one other in a short burst of activity, everything suddenly ground to a halt, no more bites in the next 2 hours; time for the beach. Meanwhile, the Bro’ hadn’t had a bite; same rig, same bait, depth matched to my rig, fishing the same spot; it happens.
At the beach, we had some grub while observing conditions. The water was a bit brownish in colour and there was some weed being left on the beach as the tide receded but there was a nice surf coming in and there was little or no wind, it was pleasantly mild too. We set up two rods each and cast out with some optimism, totally unjustified. My first cast produced a teabag turbot, cleverly disguised as a mass of weed, which I suppose saved a duck. The next 5 hours gave only a couple of delicate nibbles, I was using size 6 hooks with small slivers of mackerel but even this seemed too much for the phantom nibblers. Even the flood tide into darkness made no difference except we needed to switch to grip leads as the lateral tow became too strong.
No rod did Nod,
Nor reel did squeal,
Nor fish did look at baited hook,
A tiny turbo saved the duck,
Time to quit and head home to hell.
(That doesn’t quite rhyme…..)
There was one more hiccup, with the car loaded up I turned the key to hear only click, click, click as the battery failed to kick the engine over. Deserted beach, filling tide, my jump leads and portable starter pack in my daughter’s car instead of mine, as the saying goes,”One good turn deserves a kick in the teeth”. At the third house I called to, a lady came to my rescue with jump leads and car so eventually we got going.
On the way home I was saying to The Bro’ that I was getting out of the Rut of not going fishing and back into the Rut of going fishing, he corrected me; going fishing is getting into the Groove!
Setting up two rods for near and far, it wasn’t long before the first rattle announced the presence of a hungry flounder. For a short period, the bites came regularly as seven flounder up to 28cm sampled the fresh mackerel. They were all close in and came in single file; no doubles or trebles. The only unusual fish was a one-eyed flounder, if I catch him again I’ll surely recognise him, I must keep an eye out for him. The bites suddenly stopped and after another hour, I called it a day.
6th October. I gave The Bro’ a call and he was keen enough to join me for a day out; the forecast was good so we assembled a variety of bait, mackerel, sandeel, shell-on prawn, squid and fresh sprat ( the bay is full of them and boats trawling for them at the moment) and headed off to try for wrasse first and then hit the beach later. Conditions seemed fine as we set up the float rods at the same spot as my last (biteless) attempt at wrasse. First cast and the float slid away fairly quickly, I hit it and there was a moment’s resistance and then nothing. I rebaited and next cast produced another bite which I gave a little more time before tightening into a fish. A few shakes and dashes and the fish shed the hook. Next cast produced a repeat performance and I decided to beef up the hook, the first hook was bending too much and springing out under the pressure needed to drag the fish up out of the kelp. Next cast with a fresh prawn resulted in a nice ballan at about 2lb. Unhooked, photographed and back into the water ready for the next one, I was relieved that the wrasse were around and feeding well. I soon had a second smaller ballan, about 1.5lb. After landing two, losing two and missing one other in a short burst of activity, everything suddenly ground to a halt, no more bites in the next 2 hours; time for the beach. Meanwhile, the Bro’ hadn’t had a bite; same rig, same bait, depth matched to my rig, fishing the same spot; it happens.
At the beach, we had some grub while observing conditions. The water was a bit brownish in colour and there was some weed being left on the beach as the tide receded but there was a nice surf coming in and there was little or no wind, it was pleasantly mild too. We set up two rods each and cast out with some optimism, totally unjustified. My first cast produced a teabag turbot, cleverly disguised as a mass of weed, which I suppose saved a duck. The next 5 hours gave only a couple of delicate nibbles, I was using size 6 hooks with small slivers of mackerel but even this seemed too much for the phantom nibblers. Even the flood tide into darkness made no difference except we needed to switch to grip leads as the lateral tow became too strong.
No rod did Nod,
Nor reel did squeal,
Nor fish did look at baited hook,
A tiny turbo saved the duck,
Time to quit and head home to hell.
(That doesn’t quite rhyme…..)
There was one more hiccup, with the car loaded up I turned the key to hear only click, click, click as the battery failed to kick the engine over. Deserted beach, filling tide, my jump leads and portable starter pack in my daughter’s car instead of mine, as the saying goes,”One good turn deserves a kick in the teeth”. At the third house I called to, a lady came to my rescue with jump leads and car so eventually we got going.
On the way home I was saying to The Bro’ that I was getting out of the Rut of not going fishing and back into the Rut of going fishing, he corrected me; going fishing is getting into the Groove!
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Re: Rut vs Groove, Donegal Bay, 24th Sept, 6th Oct 2019
Mon Oct 07, 2019 5:20 pm
loljohnwest wrote: ..and thinking I should have stayed in the comfort of my rut
ffsjohnwest wrote:..a one-eyed flounder, if I catch him again I’ll surely recognise him, I must keep an eye out for him
very goodjohnwest wrote:No rod did Nod,
Nor reel did squeal,
Nor fish did look at baited hook,
A tiny turbo saved the duck,
Time to quit and head home to hell.
(That doesn’t quite rhyme…..)
too truejohnwest wrote:”One good turn deserves a kick in the teeth”
Your brother is a wise manjohnwest wrote:going fishing is getting into the Groove!
Very good JW.
But thank feck I didn't make the trip!
Re: Rut vs Groove, Donegal Bay, 24th Sept, 6th Oct 2019
Tue Oct 08, 2019 12:45 am
Not much fish but a great read lol good man paddy