Wexford beaches

[m.b3]

fished Ballynamona/ Ballyvaldon over the weekend. very calm seas- used a carp rod and half ounce weights to catch flounders, dabs, odd doggie, a codling and small bass. plenty of fish. although not huge none were under 8" and there was an odd decent one. all fish taken between 10 and 30 yards. beautiful place to fish. i think i'm in love.

[Cooke]

Did you fish the competition ?. I fished on the saturday to the left of the entrance. I've rarely seen so many flounders being landed, though a large amount were undersize. I must have had thirty fish over the five hours and many anglers had numbers of doubles and trebles. One angler close to me landed a black bream of 19cms. the first I've seen on the east coast.

[George]

Smoothound off the rocks in Howth, black bream off the Wexford beaches, what next Great White Sharks off Kilcoole!!!! :D
I'm getting used to this global warming thing :P

[m.b3]

Cooke i didn't fish the comp. myself and my mate headed down early on sat. what a morning it was. we moved up from ballynamona on hearing there was a competition on (and to get away from the mad fella playing the bongo's with the osama bin laden mask on his tent! ). we only fished with small king rag, ocassionally tipped with mackeral. the odd fish cughed up lug and one off the flounder coughed up a pretty smelly cockle. great on the light gear- got a lot of response from the fish whilst slowly dragging the lead. small bubble floats filled with water so they sink and slowly move along the bottom worked well for flounders....... seems like you did well in the comp. it looked like a good turnout. what baits worked best for you? it is likely i will get a chance to fish here again in may and was wondering if you had any tips on catching the larger species from these beaches- ray and the like. haven't fished for ray yet. i had a bream off ballyvaldron last nov. very small though at 8". it was not a black bream, more silvery....can't remember the name though. cheers. *George when is the possy heading on the smoothie hunt off Howth? Wes and Steve seemed interested......

[Cooke]

Best baits on saturday were small worms,lug or rag tipped with maddies or whites and finally a small piece of mackerel. Peeler fished poorly. Best tactic was to fish light leads and long snoods in the breaking waves. Sometimes the leader knot was visible and fish still took. The angler with the best bag put in a sackful of groundbait at the start of the comp and proceeded to haul in flounder after flounder for the remainder of the comp.
For the better stamp of fish, I would stick to large hooks and large baits. Big peeler, king rag for the bass and smoothies. Fresh mackerel is best for the ray. They will take frozen sandeel readily but unfortunattely the dogs will beat them to it most times. Study the position of the sand-bars. Fish at a natural end or a gap as fish will travel through these points. On some occasions, bigger fish will not cross the banks so make sure you choose a spot where you can cast over it by 20-30 yards.
Finally, I'm no expert on black bream but this did look lilke one and they are silvery grey when immature. I am open to correction on this !

[Guest]

thanks for the info. Cooke. much appreciated. i wasn't implying that you got it wrong about the bream in the comp!

[kieran]

Hi Brian et al

This is fantastic news about juvenile Black Bream being available off the shore so early in the season. It is possible a small population has taken up residency in the SE given we have adult fish off Kilmore Quay beach and the Safe in Rosslare last year. I would be particularly interested in any further reports, and if anyone is trying for them, a strip of squid on a small hook, 1s even 2s is the ideal bait according to friends in Guernsey.

Thanks

[jd]

Interesting isn't it..
My brother part owns a smallish speedboat which is in Arklow. If I can persuade him to bring it down, I reckon a good place to try for bream may be along the splaugh shoals, around the corner fron the safe. Most of the locals troll for bass using rapalas. /me dreams on

[George]

In england they use scallop skirts to catch bream off the boats does any one reckon this would work off the shore?

[m.b3]

i have to be honest George, i still don't know what they are!?

[George]

The skirt of a scallop is the fleshy white skin around the edge. The brown thing in the middle is its stomach.