Took the lug for a drive.
Sun Aug 16, 2020 1:07 am
2020 has been a good year for me in terms of sea angling and even better on the freshwater and
Saturday 15th of August was a day marked on my calendar since January so I was pumped. Had a self drive booked a in Courtmac, trolling for bass was the main aim but we also hoped to fish the bottom for 2 hours and maybe the estuary from the shore in the evening.
I took the Friday off to sort bait, had a half day charter booked to sort some fresh mack and hopefully a cod for dinner.Unfortunatly the skipper had to cancel on the Thursday night so on Friday I headed to fenit. Picked up some live lug in the tackle shop and headed to the peir a little after 9am. Spent 5 hrs on the sibikis got got 2 mackerel and 2 launce,alao had some bait out to but only managed a dog fish. The water was like glass, I could see the goobies and wrasse swimming under the peir. Headed home just at high tide as I didnt need much more fish bait.
Conditions were forcast to be mixed, it was looking like the sea was to be to calm and a red tide was scheduled, but we had some cloud cover and very light wind.
Unfortunately friday night I was contacted to say self drive had engine problems so we swapped out our boat rods for beach casters.
Up at first light and arrived at the estuary just at 9am to a small rising tide. Had to keep the bait away from the crabs to be in with a chance so lobbed out 3 lug on a 4/0 floating bead attached to a french boom about 3 foot up from the lead. Then waded out a bit and flicked the lure about, soon after the self drives boats passed over my baits, must have been a quick fix. There was some swirls on the surface but most likely mullet. Weed was an issue for both the lures and the lug. I swapped out my 25gr lure to a light toby and a bucktail and this worked a treat. Soon after a person stood 10 paces up and started feathering for I dont know what but his 4oz lead ensured there was not going to be much bass around me. The water clarity dropped and all bass anglers packed up including ourselfs.
Unsure what to do now we steam off to garretstown to catch the top of the tide, while its was day time I was hoping the low cloud/fog might give them confidence to feed inshore, again conditions didnt look good, water was totally still but we had fresh Lug and high spirts. First cast out and we get told we cant fish the beach and have to leave and did so without question. While morale was low with all the problems we musturd up our spirts to relocate but to where? We hadn't a clue so out came Google maps and we drove to Howe strand, had a quick walk, went back to the car and drove to a the nearest place and it was called Coolmian. Well I have never seen water so clear in Ireland, we lobbed out lug and frozen peeler for a hour or so but we both knew there was no fish to be had here today, we sat down and enjoyed the stillness between casts, on came a talkative dog walker who informed us that her husband gets the bass from the rocks up the road ( bet she's in the dog house after that). So we tried it as the dog was swimming infront of our rods anyway. It was a lovely rock mack, lots of Pollock but none big enough to take a bass lure, I feared we had missed the tide. We gave it an hour and called it a day after we started to loose gear due to the fall in the tide, i return home with most of the bait and a pizza
.
On the plus side I have dodgey bait for tomorrow and a PB bass to catch. Will see where the wind blows and go in the opposite direction in search of some surf.
Saturday 15th of August was a day marked on my calendar since January so I was pumped. Had a self drive booked a in Courtmac, trolling for bass was the main aim but we also hoped to fish the bottom for 2 hours and maybe the estuary from the shore in the evening.
I took the Friday off to sort bait, had a half day charter booked to sort some fresh mack and hopefully a cod for dinner.Unfortunatly the skipper had to cancel on the Thursday night so on Friday I headed to fenit. Picked up some live lug in the tackle shop and headed to the peir a little after 9am. Spent 5 hrs on the sibikis got got 2 mackerel and 2 launce,alao had some bait out to but only managed a dog fish. The water was like glass, I could see the goobies and wrasse swimming under the peir. Headed home just at high tide as I didnt need much more fish bait.
Conditions were forcast to be mixed, it was looking like the sea was to be to calm and a red tide was scheduled, but we had some cloud cover and very light wind.
Unfortunately friday night I was contacted to say self drive had engine problems so we swapped out our boat rods for beach casters.
Up at first light and arrived at the estuary just at 9am to a small rising tide. Had to keep the bait away from the crabs to be in with a chance so lobbed out 3 lug on a 4/0 floating bead attached to a french boom about 3 foot up from the lead. Then waded out a bit and flicked the lure about, soon after the self drives boats passed over my baits, must have been a quick fix. There was some swirls on the surface but most likely mullet. Weed was an issue for both the lures and the lug. I swapped out my 25gr lure to a light toby and a bucktail and this worked a treat. Soon after a person stood 10 paces up and started feathering for I dont know what but his 4oz lead ensured there was not going to be much bass around me. The water clarity dropped and all bass anglers packed up including ourselfs.
Unsure what to do now we steam off to garretstown to catch the top of the tide, while its was day time I was hoping the low cloud/fog might give them confidence to feed inshore, again conditions didnt look good, water was totally still but we had fresh Lug and high spirts. First cast out and we get told we cant fish the beach and have to leave and did so without question. While morale was low with all the problems we musturd up our spirts to relocate but to where? We hadn't a clue so out came Google maps and we drove to Howe strand, had a quick walk, went back to the car and drove to a the nearest place and it was called Coolmian. Well I have never seen water so clear in Ireland, we lobbed out lug and frozen peeler for a hour or so but we both knew there was no fish to be had here today, we sat down and enjoyed the stillness between casts, on came a talkative dog walker who informed us that her husband gets the bass from the rocks up the road ( bet she's in the dog house after that). So we tried it as the dog was swimming infront of our rods anyway. It was a lovely rock mack, lots of Pollock but none big enough to take a bass lure, I feared we had missed the tide. We gave it an hour and called it a day after we started to loose gear due to the fall in the tide, i return home with most of the bait and a pizza
.On the plus side I have dodgey bait for tomorrow and a PB bass to catch. Will see where the wind blows and go in the opposite direction in search of some surf.
Re: Took the lug for a drive.
Mon Aug 17, 2020 3:33 pm
Fair play to you battling it out - sometimes the gods dont let you fish, dont mind pick up a decent fish
I had a cloud of midgets to deal with that won the battle yesterday - its called fishing not catching - the best laid plans and all that jazz
I had a cloud of midgets to deal with that won the battle yesterday - its called fishing not catching - the best laid plans and all that jazz
Re: Took the lug for a drive.
Wed Aug 19, 2020 3:17 pm
Who was it that told you you could not fish on the beach?
Re: Took the lug for a drive.
Wed Aug 19, 2020 9:19 pm
mawk wrote:Who was it that told you you could not fish on the beach?
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