Sun Jul 30, 2006 11:10 am
Holiday Report 15th July – 29th July
Week 1 (Saturday July 15th – Friday 21st July)
After arriving at our cottage (on the coastal road leading to Goat Island) and unpacking the multitude of fishing gear from the car, we settled in and took in the outstanding views over looking Whiting Bay and beyond to Youghal Bay. Within hours we were down at Goat Island supping wine and soaking up the brilliant weather we had arrived to. Fantastic, a real little peace of paradise.
Sunday 16th 04:00 AM to 07:00 AM
Tide: Low Water & flood
Venue: Goat Island
I wondered down to Goat Island at 04:30 on the first Sunday morning (with a hangover), the tide was low water, sea like a mill pond, no wind and dawn was breaking. I rigged up a bubble float, followed by a bead, a swivel and then a four foot fluorocarbon trace, attaching a link swivel to the end. I then put on a nice blue & white clouser fly and proceeded to cast out and retrieve back very slowly. At 05:00 am, I had a take and after a nice little fight a plump mackerel of about 2 lb was brought in. This was going to be breakfast, with a piece of fresh bread.
During that time I noticed around the Island itself, Sand Smelt and Sandeels being washed up and left stranded up on the beach. It was easy pickings and I thought to myself that this could be my fresh bait for the fortnight and how easily it was to gather them up still alive, and put them in to my bait bucket with pump that I had bought with me (what hadn’t I bought with me besides the kitchen sink!). However this phenomenon was the first and last time I saw them beaching like that and alas I never did pick up any Sandeels for live bait
Anyway, that Mackerel was the only one of the day and to be honest I was disappointed with the show but I had learnt that fresh bait (or so I thought) was readily available within 5 minutes of the cottage, so I headed home with hope of bigger and better things to come.
Monday 17th 10:00 AM to 13:00 PM
Tide: Ebb
Venue: Ardmore
Headed straight down from the cottage, across some fields and down the cliff to some rocks for a spot of spinning, armed with a variety of spoons and plugs. Tide was ebbing, sea calm, sun bright. Didn’t seem good conditions and I didn’t get or see anything. An unsatisfactory blank! Was this brilliant hot weather going to spoil my trip?
Well the parents turned up from Newtownards on the Monday afternoon for what I thought was a couple of days which led on to them staying until the following Saturday. To be fair they had recently sold their house and were ‘travellers’ without a home until late July so I guess they were bidding their time and what better way to do it than get under my feet and more importantly my fishing
The next couple of days saw me ‘buggering’ about, doing a bit of recce, finding where to dig for worms and enjoying the ‘touristy bit’ but as always fishing wasn’t far in the back of my mind.
Wednesday 19th 14:00 – 16:00 PM
Tide: Ebb
Venue: Whiting Bay
I tried down on some rocks at Whiting Bay and this ledge looked promising with deep gullies and nice kelp beds. I had one follow from a Bass of around 3lb but he turned his back just as the small red Delta on the bubble float was 2 or 3 feet from me. That was that and as the rest of my party were getting bored I had to pack up. Tip: I reckon the bubble float setup and or a popper would result in some sport here. I never had a chance to try this venue again
Thursday 20th 04:30 AM to 06:30 AM
Tide: Flood
Venue: Goat Island
Back down to the ole Goat but nothing to spinning. This venue was throughout disappointing including the rocks to the right. It may turn up some flatties to ledgered baits but I wasn’t here for them!
Friday 21st 18:00 to 21:00
Tide: Ebb
Venue: Boat out of Youghal
Went out on a charter boat but immediately I had setup my rigs the skipper informed that the hooks would be to big for where we were going. What the feck? :evil: Turned in to a 3 hour Mackerel bashing session, oh and some tiny Pollack. I was starting to think to myself if that was the quality of the Pollack out on a boat then what about inshore!
I decided it was time to give up on spinning from the rocks for Pollack and turned my attention to getting hold of Arthur to show me the marks. Things for the first week were to say the least disappointing (although the weather and other factors hadn’t helped). I just hoped that my last week would see me getting my first Irish Bass and hitting my target of 2 new species.
To be continued….