carrigaholt, co. clare. 6/1/2006

People: me!

Duration: noon til 5 pm (forgot the head torch and i got scared whern it got dark so was forced to pack up)

Tide: top of the tide 7pm

Weather: dry, overcast, and extremely windy

Bait: sandeel and the worst quality squid i have ever seen

Rigs: loop rig, and 2 up

Results: 6 thornies ranging from 3 to 8lbs

Catch and Release:: yes



Report: Typical. it was a very last minute affair, hence the lack of decent bait, and me forgeting my head torch. i hadn't expected to catch anything,and from talking to Micheal Bourke in the tackle shop in kilkee, there seemed to be very little happening in the area.
all the ray came to single sandeel on a 2/0. range wasn't an issue. i had three thornies quite close in, within 50 yards, and the other 3 at range, as far as i could belt a biat, with a gale to my back.
great start to the year for me, i do have pictures on my phone , but i can't get em off!

Patrick

Fair play to ya patrick. Thats some fishing for this time of year!

Was it the beach you were fishing off. Ray are caught from the pier out there through the winter months.

I don't know what network your on but for vodaphone I send them as a picture text to my vodaphone account where a number is provided. Some people email them as an attachement. For better quality photos don't allow them to be resized before sending.

Donagh

It was actually the beach beyond the pier, right beside the Irish College. do you know the mark?

I don't fish the area outside the few comps I fish. I know the colledge beach but I've never fished it as they don't hold comps here that often. I've met anglers in passing who fished the rocks here around from the pier and had good fishing for good sized whiting, huss, conger and one codling at this time of year and they highly recommend it. Thanks for the report and keep them coming.

Donagh

class fishing mate nice to hear the return of the thornies, very mild today, always agood sign for em!

thats interesting that their still around at this time of the year.always thought they dissapeared off but apparently one of the marks we fish has thrown up a few recently, and for some reason of a bigger average size than those we get in the spring/summer

Hi Lumpy,

As said I don't fish the area much as its out of the way for me but from others the marks around carrigaholt are likely to throw up ray through out the winter and are the first to throw up ray in numbers in the estuary in the spring. I've a December ray from carrigaholt beach in the album to show its not a one off.

Donagh

thats interesting that their still around at this time of the year.always thought they dissapeared off but apparently one of the marks we fish has thrown up a few recently, and for some reason of a bigger average size than those we get in the spring/summer

the ones he caught were early season ray thus the larger average size. the ray at the start and end of the season are usually the biggest(usually female aswel).

It was actually the beach beyond the pier, right beside the Irish College. do you know the mark?

thats called college strand..

some good size thornies you caught ... :D