Valentia Island 21/08/06 & 24/08/06

People:Myself & the wife

Duration:

Tide:

Weather: Sunny to dull & wet

Bait: Spinners & Hookai

Rigs:

Results: Pollock to 5lb, coalies and loads of mackerel


Report:

Stayed in the Carhisiveen area this week and managed couple trips onto Valentia in between traveling around Kerry.

Arrived in the area Monday afternoon and dropped off the luggage and managed to convince the wife we'll head over the Island and have a look at Culoo rock. :D

So off we went directions in hand from guy at B&B and duly arrived, thought that we must have taken wrong turn as it was like a circus (and that was just the people i saw walking around on top) So i said stuff it and we walked left of culoo across the fields till i saw somewhere that looked safe enough to fish. Looking back across to culoo i could see at least 7 guys fishing.

Anyway got the spinning gear set up and first cast felt a slight pluck on the drop, thought bloody mackerel, tightened up and the rod bent double following a good tussle landed a nice pollock just under 5lbs. Spent an hour at this spot and had a good session with lot of pollock in the 2-3lb bracket with few mackerel before heading back to the B&B.

On Thursday (24th) we spent most of day on Valentia island, fished rocks left of the lighthouse with pollock & mackerel resulting.
Had lunch and thought I can't go home without fishing Culoo rock, so headed back over this time only one car was parked walked over to see a guy & his son fishing who were catching a few pollock & mackerel.

But i must say on first impressions of the mark what a Sh*t Hole!! :shock: with rubbish lying everywhere :x , a bin liner would probably strugle to hold it all.!

Anyway i gave it 30mins, landed plenty of mackerel seemed almost impossible to get through them, so decided on heading back to the spot we fished on the Monday.

Had another good session at this mark with pollock, hooked up on one that looked like being a double figure fish but didn't land it! :cry: brought it to the surface and while trying to get it lifted onto the rock the swell dropped of the rock taking the fish and the hook pulled! :evil: was dissapointed but wasn't gonna chance getting to close the the edge.

Fished from a cliff further round while the wife was taking some photos, must have been at least 50ft up, caught pollock & coalies bit of struggle getting some of the bigger ones up! They looked at lot smaller down on the water :lol: Then i hooked a lunker of a pollock, thought hell i ain't getting this one to the top and i was proved right! Played it for couple mins till i could see him calm on the surface, tried to handline him up but the line (17lb) just snapped as i tried to take him clear of the water. Though i probably nicked it on a rock, it looked like the biggest fish i hooked on the trip. :cry:

All in all i had an enjoyable couple of sessions.

nice one good fishing. was up there last weekend on hols had no rods though :cry: great looking spots will have to get up there sometime for a bit of fishing.

Yep I had a couple good sessions, hopefully get down again sometime soon.

With a bit of luck & being better prepared should be able to land a few double figure pollack from the area on spinning gear.

We're just back from 10 days on Valentia, go there a couple of times a year. Agree with what you say about Culloo Head, that big rock platform is a pigsty, last time I went up there, I brought away 2 carrier bags full of sandwich wrappers, tangled line etc.
Along the coast a few hundred yards there are a number of rock marks you can fish in - relative - safety, we've just had some huge Ballan Wrasse there on peeler / softback crab. My lads found the crabs - "Dad, these crabs are all rubbish, they're all soft and their shells come off
The mission this holiday was to land a couple of bass and whilst bodyboarding at a well known Kerry spot, we could see them quartering the beach but could we catch them! Tried plugs, lures, peelers, frozen eels etc and had one bass about 1 1/2lb which promptly went back into the surf. Had the kids with me though, so couldn't fish late or when the surf was up.
On the last day I discovered a mark I'm going to fish next time, went snorkelling and saw some BIG wrasse and pollack. Only a spit from Cahersiveen. Maybe get back middle of next month for a few days. Steve