Garretstown Strand, Cork, 14/11/06

People:Myself, phanover, Donal (non forum member)

Duration:8.30pm to 10.30pm

Tide:LW @ 18.50

Weather:Horizontal rain.....lots of it.... :(

Bait:Razor, Rag, Mack.

Rigs:Big Pulleys, 3 hook flaps

Results:Me-1 bass and a coalie, Paul 1 bass, Donal 1 coalie.

Catch and Release:: Well, the main thing is the bass both went back with no problems but the poor old coalies didnt make it. Swallowing a 3/0 into your stomach can do that.....

Report: Not a lot to report on a nasty enough evening in South Cork. Started out fine but it wasnt long before the heavens opened. I had to ditch the specs and reach for the contact lenses as I couldnt see a damn thing. Conditions were nice with a decent enough bit of surf combined with a rising tide.

Paul struck first, unsurprising as myself and Donal had been fannying around, eating takeaway and chewing the fat. He pulled in a schoolie of perhaps a pound and a half or so. Not long after that, myself and Donal had coalies at the same time both around the 32-33 cm mark.

An hour passed before a clonking bite to a full razor fished at range saw me wind into another schoolie, again, around the 1.5lb mark. Gave it a small while longer after that but with conditions getting no better we got the hell off the beach and headed home.

All fish came on Razor, I fished a large razor bait at range mounted on a 3/0 long pulley rig. I also had a 3 hook flapper to size 2s fishing in the suds baited with a variety of rag, slivers of mackerel etc. Surprisingly, not a flattie to be had.... :shock: Unusual for here.

We were a little late arriving, I prefer to fish these beaches one hour down 2-3 up and usually find the bigger fish come earlier in the session, followed by small stuff after. I must fish a tide through some day and see what happens.

thats interesting pete wat your saying about the flats because we've noticed a drop in the number of them being cought this year. have only had 3 flounder this year where as the same beaches we cought these we would have been pretty confident of getting half a dozen last year.a few fellas down here have agreed with this down turn. also dabs have become non existant. one particular mark could guarentee dabs up ta near speciman size now seems devoid of them.

Very few flounder off the beaches myself, odd ones here and there but thats been it. I've been specifically targetting them in the suds on frequent occasions too with only small success. I dont know whats going on. What you say about dabs is very true, the only dabs I have had this year I got in January. Anyone else notice this at all? My first beach fish ever was actually a flounder at Garretstown and I had quite a few of them last year. Odd, and worrying it has to be said. Its not like this mark gets a pile of abuse either in fairness.

i must say that one of the rock marks does get fished heavy but it always did. the beach i'm talking of never gets fished.have seen one angler fish it in the last 3 years at the same time we did