Cork Reports 2007....

I'm just going to lump all my Cork reports in on this thread I think for handiness in future.

Starting from today.... Met with Peter McGroary to go round a few spots for the day and finished up in Garryvoe meeting with Donagh.

Kicked off at Fountainstown near HW, bright sun, not much sea running...Peter McG had a small Coalie.

Headed to Currabinny Pier then and fished the ebb for an hour or two. We both had a shed load of small whiting and one (rather dubious... :D ) mini Pollack for Mr McG.... Didnt hook any LSDs here which was unusual.

Left there and after a stop at KFC for some refuelling headed to Garryvoe where we met up with Donagh who had travelled from Limerick. Fishing was poor but Donagh managed a coalie and I had 2 coalies and a codling in the suds.

So ended a busy day on the fishing front, nice to meet up with Pete again, surprised he was still talking to me TBH after the whole "sinking ship" incident at the end of the summer.... :wink: Good also to meet Donagh who stayed on after we left, hope the fishing improved for you mate.

Pity there wasn't bigger fish, but at least ye didnt blank.
Good idea, was thinking of starting the same for my fishing trips this year, but havent been out yet due to stupid exams. As of monday week ill be off for 3 weeks so plenty fishing will be done and hopefully good reports.

I got there around before 5 and got the coaly around 1 1/2lb on my first cast to razor. All my casts were as far as I could cast with 2/0 penel with razor, mussel, mack and squid in the hope of a better codling. I left a bit after 9 with no more bites. I went to talk to the other fella up from us and he had 2 coalies again close in and wacking great bite that was missed. He reconned the fishing wouldn't start getting good until 10pm when there was a better depth of water. I wasn't inclined to stay past 10pm long as I had to work in the mroning so headed home.

It was great to meet the two lads and get a bit of advise. Just as well you pointed me to the caravan gap as half of cork was in front of the hotel. I'll try and get down once more in January if I can.

Donagh

[size=18]Garretstown, Cork, 23/01/07[/size]

People:Myself, Pete, Donal and 2 of Petes Buddies.

Duration:8.00-1030pm

Tide:HW@ 8.30 Very calm

Weather:Dry, calm and cold

Bait:Mackerel, leftover Whites and Maddies, Razor and sandeel

Rigs:Single hook clipped. 3 hook scratching flapper

Results:20ish Coalies, a flounder and a strap conger :shock:

Catch and Release:: Yes



Report:

Headed for Garretstown last night to meet with the all conquering (ahem :D ) Pete and give it a lash. This beach has been unfishable in recent times for the most part due to weed blown in with the strong southerly winds we have had since mid November. A combination of northerlys for a day or two followed by flat calm meant that whilst the sea may be calm, there wouldnt be a weed problem.

We were proved right on that front and we tackled up under clear skies on a dead calm evening with only the smallest semblance of a swell to provide a little movement in the water. I opted to fish a larger Razor/Sandeel bait at range with one rod. With the other, following my disappointing day at the Cloyne Open on Sunday I was going back to honing the scratching skills. The rig I selected was actually the exact one that did the damage in Tramore at the final SAI comp. 2 up 1 down, 3 feet snoods on 10lb fluoro to size 4 Owner pint hooks with a couple of small little beads on each. I baited each of these with a small fine little piece of mackerel and tossed it about 30 -40 yards only.

Pete was already fishing and had a couple of coalies already. His two buddies also managed to catch their first fish ever from the shore with a coalie or two each. For my part, the 3 hook flapper was really doing the business. First cast, 2 coalies, 2nd cast 3 coalies..... and so it went on... :D . Most of them were on the small side, around the 25cm mark but there were odd ones that were a good 10cm over that in the high 30s.

Poor old pete had to disappear after an hour or so as he wasnt feeling the best but not before having racked up a fair few coalies himself. The fishing lulled for maybe 15-20 minutes until I discovered the fish again, around 15-20 yards from waters edge... The steady succession flowed once more.. :D

On the rod fishing at range which I was largely ignoring I spotted a bite. Lifting into it, I felt no resistance and proceeded to wind in at a serious rate....I was more than surprised when I lifted out of the water to find a small (bootlace) of a strap Conger swinging off my sandeel bait :shock: I have fished Garretstown umpteen times over the past couple of years and never had one so to say I was surprised was putting it mildly. Picture in Species hunt thread.

It was heading towards bed time when on the last cast of the evening I swung a double shot of a flounder (22cm) and a coalie onto the beach. A nice end to a fairly busy evening. Surprisingly, the coalie had swallowed the maddies on the bottom hook and the flounder had attacked the mack on the top snood.

An enjoyable evenings scratching to be fair and probably the tactics I should have employed and stuck with at the weekend. To put into context how important selecting the correct rigs and tactics are it wasnt just a case of dangling a line in and having fish jump on the hook, Donal (who is no mean angler himself) who was fishing alongside me blanked. He was using identical bait but a combination of fishing too far and too heavy meant the fish just didnt show for him. The smaller baits and the longer snoods fished in close really did the trick.

Great report Pete :)
Nice to see you catching again Pete :shock: :lol:
i was talking to Derek about heading down that direction on Saturday only last night.But i'm not sure how good it is fishing to low (always fished to H.W before)

Great report Pete. Very interesting to see that the rig is doing the business for you again.

Kev

Feb 3rd,

Fished a mark up river in Youghal for a couple of flounder over LW and the pleasure of watching a huge dog otter fishing and eating silver eels and on occasion coming within 10 feet of me.... :shock: Wasnt like I was in realtree camoflauge gear either, I had a bright red Titan smock on!

Headed then and met with Pete McGroary in Clon, we fished a beach into darkness and had around 15 coalies, no bass or flats though.

Feb 4th,

Fished a comp with Crosshaven, began at Currabinny pier and was instantly plagued with pin whiting. Well, when I say Pin, they would have made the stick at an SAI comp but not with a 30cm limit as is with Crosshaven. No LSDs there but thats not surprising considering they have been somewhat massacred in recent times :evil: . Moved from there to De Wall after about 40 minutes, we were going to head on to Youghal to the mark from the previous day but I had 3 cod to size there in just over an hour but that left it a bit too late to go to Youghal. With the fish being seriously well out and the fishing buddies struggling for bites we moved to Fountainstown where the comp wheels pretty much came off :(

Scratching around in bright sunshine on a busy beach praying for a doggie or a coalie to get the species points at the very least. Things were looking very bleak with reports of good catches from other anglers in other marks really helping the mood.... There was a nice surf running on the beach but unfortunately, fishing a bait in the first 20-30 yards amongst it was nigh on impossible due to large amounts of weed. Baits fished further out were unaffected, both by weed and the attentions of fish for that matter. A seal popping its head up 20 yards off shore and Kids swimming (yup...toddlers and youngsters in their cossies in swimming in Feb.) also really helped matters. The steady succession of "theres no fish on this beach", "did you catch anything yet?", "what are you fishing for" etc also really helped to the extent I had to avoid all eye contact and keep wading out anytime I saw someone coming to get away from them! Half an hour or so to go though and I managed to scratch out a lone Coalie that just made the stick. With 16 points for the species and 5 for the fish it was worth over another 4 codling to my card (5points each)

Headed back to the prizegiving and managed to scrape a modest 6th place with 4 fish. Comp was won by Pedro (dont know surname mate) and second I think was Damn Dave Desmond. Youghal had fished fairly well for the lads with a number of fish coming but not until the tide started pushing through (where I went wrong on Saturday fishing over LW... :x )

Many thanks to Donal Domeney for the call and for the info, I am kicking myself for not making the trip up there but with time being short as it was we would have needed to head straight there and it didnt happen.

Hi Pete, fished the pier last Thursday and caught a lot of whiting, a few (but not many) around the 20cm mark, caught a decent doggie too so there's at least one left in there. :D

Brief summary of Februarys fishing here, taken from my Blog. Fairly sure, looking at the weather I wont be out again till March so here it is.



Feb 3rd...Youghal Estuary, couple of flounder, fishing in the presence of a huge Dog otter that munched happily on silver eels as I stood 5 metres away:shock:

Feb 3rd...West Cork beach, bout 15 coalies (circle hooks really do work well.

Feb 4th Crosshaven club comp.

Feb 4th...Currabinny pier, bout 10 undersize whiting...No doggies sadly

Feb 4th...De Wall, 3 codling...unwise decision to move.

Feb 4th...Fountainstown, 1 coalie...in the suds and worth 21 points so gratefully received.

6th place in Crosshaven Comp....(Should have done better )

Feb 5th...Courtmacsherry, after reading Blakers report of sublime fishing myself and Pete McG hotfooted it down there. End result for me was a blank saving coalie, I think Pete had 2/3. Ho Hum.

Feb 10th....SAI MA Comp Morriscastle, Wexford.

1 flounder, 1 turbot

4th place finish. 1 other fish would have taken 2nd. Not to worry, more than pleased to open my SAI account with 15 points...

Feb 11th....Monkstown wall.

1 codling. Pete had 1 too along with 2 tiny whiting. Didnt stay long.

Feb 17th....Dunree Bay, Co.Donegal.

Fished with Seaniebo as a recce for the upcoming SAISAC MA compo. I had 3 flounder and some coalies, Sean had 2 flounder and a few more coalies. Wasnt bad for February TBH. Now at least have some semblance of a plan....

Feb 20th....Broad Strand

Fished with Pete and Paul. 2 coalies between us, mine was 37cm which is the biggest coalie I've had in a few weeks.

Feb 22nd...Fountainstown

So much for making it through February, the crappest month of the year without blanking...... Nada, nothing, Zilch, Zero.... Oh well, I can blame the bait I had, a bit of razor and a bit of sandeel. Couple of lads to my left had several codling to.....fresh peeler crab.... Whatever that is??

Feb 25th....West Cork Beach

Back on track, sort of, after that annoying blank the other night. Fishing with Pete McG and had 3 coalies apiece. Anyone else getting sick of the sight of coalies...???

Feb 26th....Garretstown

Fished here with Paul Hanover, 10 coalies to me, biggest 40 cm or so. Paul blanked. Conditions perfect for bass but none showing I'm afraid.

Thats some amount of fishing for feb. nice one