04 july Carrickfergus harbour

People:My son and i

Duration:2 hours

Tide:1 up 1 down

Weather:bloomin lovely

Bait:spinners
Rigs:feathers

Results:10 mack


Report:Well im back to work tomorrow so i grabbed the chance of a few hours macky bashing. I normally restrict my fishing to rock hopping and bait fishing but theres a first time for everything. Boy were my eyes opened... the harbour was packed with more arriving as time went on. Space was at a premium but the way some people are prepared to stand shoulder to shoulder is amazing.The amount of snagged lines had to be seen to be believed.
I was suprised at the amount of sandeels that could be seen swimming in the harbour,maybe a sign of good times ahead ?
There were as many fish taken inside as out of the harbour and all in all it was a good wee session.

HI MATEY
WENT DOWN AT ABOUT NINE LAST NIGHT FOR HALF AN HOUR AND CAUGHT 16 AND WAS ALSO CATCHING THEM INSIDE THE HARBOUR
SEEN WHAT YOU MEAN ABOUT THE SANDEELS HOWEVER THIS MIGHT ACTUALLY BE A BAD SIGN BELIEVE IT OR NOT COULD IT MEAN THAT THERE ARE SIMPLY NOT ENOUGH SPECIES LEFT IN THE SEA IN THE FOOD CHAIN TO CONTROL THE SANDEEL POPULATION HOPEFULLY NOT CORRECT BUT COULD THE SCIENTESTS BE CORRECT HAVE THE MASS TRAWLERS FINALLY DONE UNTOLD DAMAGE TO THE FOOD CHAIN
COD, WHITING HADDOCK ALL DEPENDED ON THE SANDEEL POPULATION I PRAY THAT IM NOT RIGHT MATEY :cry:

yea was good went down earlier to about 8.30 and had about 20!!! :D :D

YES Stuarty, i agree with you on this one.

If there is loads of sandeel or fry in the waters then obviously there isnt enought decent fish to control these smaller species.

Was out on boat trip from Ardglass last week. Very Very poor result, but anyway the pollock that were brought aboard were full to the necks with small black fry/sandeel.


THERE IS TOO MUCH SANDEEL/FRY IN THE WATER FOR MY LIKING. :shock:

a lot of people on the north coast are crying out at the lack of sandeel in the water at present , putting the lack of fish down to the fact that there is no feeding to attract them inshore....

It's a bit odd alright. Some places seem to have tons of sandeel at the moment, other places they're very scarce.

Whether this is due to a lack of predatory species is hard to say exactly. It's not uncommon to have good and bad years for certain species, and there can be significant differences in places a few miles apart. Sometimes wind, current etc can delay spawning or growth until a bit later in the year by affecting localised water tempreatures. We've been seeing more of our share of easterlies over the last two years instead of our usual prevailing south-westerlies, so maybe this has something to do with it - maybe shallow sheltered areas have favoured the spawning time and recruitment of sandeel in some places that don't usually enjoy those conditions. A couple of points of a degree can have quite an impact, especially on pelagic species where the water temperature is more prone to variation that down deeper.

One thing is for sure, if there is a bumper harvest of prey items, any predators about will soon find them, so if you have a lot of sandeel on your patch, decent sport should follow in due course.

Right now, at this stage in the year, I'd expect that we'll see more sandeel and a better, more even distribution over the next six weeks. Time will tell.

It's impossible to have too many fish, IMHO. Then again, I'm no marine biologist. I know we have a few contributors on here who are, so it'd be interesting to hear what their take on the situation is....

hi sandman and big phil!!! can't believe the sandeel aren't in your area in mass numbers!!! they r all over the coastline i fish and i'm not doom and gloom about it. i always reckon shoals of bait-fish will bring more predators to the coast and i'm expecting a really good summers sport. local to where i fish it has been the biggest haul for anglers from the shore in 20 years from what i've been told from cerrtain people. i for one definately believe that the fishing this summer is gonna be electric in certain areas! and well done big phil and the team on second place in the home nations. there should be more praise on this forum for your efforts!!!