Do you use hooks?

After putting in the hours and the blanks on inner galway bay post lockdown ( 7 blanks!) i travelled to a well know conamara venue at the end of June and clocked up 5 species - highlight a tub gurnard at 33 cm, with the itch finally scratched it was on the road again with high hopes for July - to conamara first
- day time minis on my mind - bit late to start and sure enough nothing was biting the rag on the pier as the tide moved out, so
onto a beach nearby probably had about 2m of water - again nothing for 3 hours

not too phased it was down to kerry on a stay cation effort - spent two days on and off trying to get hundreds of mullet to feed on the bread - some 7lbers in the mix - no joy - never started feeding
time to change tack and with fine fresh lug supplied by MB3 it was after bass in really wet rain
alas no joy - a small flounder on a 3/0 hook was all to be shown for it - into darkness for 3 hours - maybe dropped a schoolie on 2nd last cast but couldnt see properly through the horizontal rain - at least the weed had calmed down from earlier

on to an estuary the following day - with the lure out for bass - trout were jumping but no hook ups for 2 hours

A change of scene was required while incorporating a staycation with the missus - good old wexford, started off on an east facing beach - first attempt at the particular location - hoping for a smoothie between flounder and dogs - but all the darkness brought after 4 hours was hungry crabs - my rag/lug/mac gone in 2mins

following day onto the rocks with the lure, no bass, but had a decent ballan follow on numerous occasions but could not get the hook up

back to an east facing beach for the night and was immediately into weed, i was sunk and hand hauling the first cast back in and low and behold a schoolie was on the end of it
i persevered hoping for a smut - but none were to be had and had to move due to the weed - a further 3 hours produced 3 more schoolies but no smoothie

its a serious affliction i have as i decide to head for the inner bay again over the weekend

as a well known international angler once said to me - do you use hooks

sometimes i wonder is it the slobbering about the place that im after, rather than the fish

I seriously commend your perseverance, at least a few schoolies showed for your efforts. 7 blanks I wouldn't be able to process- I've had 2 in the past 24 hours and I'm straight up not having a good time!
If it's any consolation I've found parts of wexford to be very slow recently- a few smoothies in it and sometimes plenty but I've had nothing else for ages- haven't had a flattie in 4 months!
Hopefully you can tap into some more fish over the weekend and prove to yourself that you are indeed using hooks!
- tight lines

Not a lot of fish but very a good report! Fair play for the perseverance.

I think you must forget about the lockdown fishing..... Now the other trips? You'll have to review your choice of venues maybe?

Sounded like fun Brian, sort of.. lol. Very tough going but nice report
Fwiw also, i put 1500km onto the car (Antrim to Kerry, all around the place then back again) over a long weekend just past for 2 fish (1 x schoolie bass and a small conger). 3 if you count a wee black goby, but I'm not
Had a lot of fun in a stunning part of the country all the same. There were fish to be caught, I just didn’t catch them..
yeah, review your choice of venues for sure

I think you must forget about the lockdown fishing..... Now the other trips? You'll have to review your choice of venues maybe?

lol thats what i spent most my time on the beach while i was blanking - where should i be instead

i had been told of spots to try but it can be hard enough to engineer the fishing session, dont mind convince the lady to move 30 km north

A son of mine only uses borrowed hooks that I never see again ?
mickser