BigKevs Predator 160, Kilrush 24/06/07

People:Myself and BigKev

Duration:9.30ish to 6.00

Tide:filling, high, ebb

Weather:Fine mostly, stiff northerly breeze, some bright sunshine and the occasional unmerciful shower!

Bait:Mack

Rigs:Tope rigs

Results:Ahem. Sunburn...does that count? 2 LSDs and 2 small pollack for me, Kev cough....

Report:

Following on from here http://www.sea-angling-ireland.org/bull ... hp?t=11899 I made the long trip from our digs in the Kingdom up to Kilrush via Limerick to meet up with Big Kev who very kindly had offered to try and put me on my first tope. I arrived in Kilrush just before 9 and after the pleasantries, loaded the gear aboard Kevs boat, a Predator 160 and a nice little boat she was. We headed off and joined various charter boats in the Lock before zipping past everyone out onto the Shannon with high hopes of getting stuck in to my first tope.

First thing to be done was to gather a few fresh mackerel for bait. I had brought some from the previous days exploits in Kerry but had inexplicably left them to ferment in the back of the jeep for the day instead of bringing them aboard....Doh! Dont you just absolutely hate it when the usually (never) reliable bait source decides to boycott your feathers for several hours.... We tried various spots, including several where numerous gannets were diving with very little success. After almost 2 hours we had about 4 or 5 mackerel, none of which I had caught, I managed 2 small pollack for my contribution to things, much use that was! With freshening conditions, it was with a certain amount of trepidation that we decided we had to hit Loop head and gather some there.

30 minutes later and with not a filling left in my head and flattened nads from a rather bumpy trip we arrived into that swirling cauldron just off Loop head we call the Washing Machine. 10 minutes later after hitting plenty of macks we got the hell out of there and the journey back to the Beal Bar with the tide was a little more comfortable this time. Things however took a drastic turn for the worse however when with an unmerciful crack the Aux bracket on the back broke in two and consigned poor old Kevs 8hp Suzi aux to the depths..... Not good.... To his credit however, he took the loss on the chin and with nothing other than a few (small few) expletives we arrived at the mark.

Kev produced a couple of very tidy Tope Traces and baited with varying styles of Lumps of fresh Mackerel over the side they went and it was time for lunch. Mr McG had a good laugh when he saw me heaving 2 carrier bags of grub into the digs on Saturday night, let me tell you, there wasnt a whole pile left by the time we had done.... :D

Time passed and with one Doggie to my name, things were looking less than fruitful. The tide had at this stage started to ebb (westerly direction) and we were getting blasted with a chilly northwesterly breeze which made for a rocky time at anchor. With no sign of any tope and things getting a little uncomfortable in the choppy sea we hauled anchor and headed to a mark just off Sc(l?)attery island to finish off the day. Another solitary LSD made an appearance before time was called and we headed back in to port after a disappointing day and with me newly christened as "Jonah" seeing as Kev had his 100% record after the tope this year duly destroyed.....

It wasnt the days fishing I expected but after the bass and sea trout blast of the day before I didnt care. It was good to get a run out. Many thanks to Kev for firstly his generosity in taking me out, for his company and for the effort he put in to try and get us a fish. It was galling to lose the engine but as I said, to his credit, there were no complaints or bad temper. Cant say I would have reacted quite so well! The poor fishing was a shame as we didnt get even 1 run on the day. The only thing I could think of to attribute the lack of success to was that there had been an awful amount of rainfall last week and maybe this entering the Shannon system had a negative effect. A shame but it wont put me off venturing again.

Thanks again Kev, we will have another blast at those lads in the near future.

Great report Pete. Pity about the fishing, but after the great Bass session the luck had to end somewhere.

Really sorry to hear about the Aux. Kev, I have a OLD 6hp Evinrude in the Garage. It needs a new pull cord and a service to get it up and running. I've had it running in a barrel. It might not be worth the effort, but if you, or someone you know is handy on the engines, it's yours for free. Let me know if you want to bother..... and we'll sort something out.

Didn't think that the raid would have such a bad effect on such a vast estury, but there has been a lot of it so you never know.

Kev

Personally, I always blame the skipper!!

I think Pete is being a little generous in his freshwater theory
I almost bought it until I asked the skipper of the morning star how they got on, and sure enough, they had a few tope!!

My first tope blank of the year, and given how great its been fishing, I was more than a little puzzled.

So, next week I'll be sending Pete pictures from my phone and swearing "there really are fish in the shannon "!!!!

Dont mention the engine!

Kev

we were out off the loop friday and saturday and we were going to go up the eastury after the tope bet the skipper said this week wasn't right for them

i take it you proved his point right

regards mick

Unlucky lads.You were paying the price for some great fishing the day before Pete.Unlucky with the engine Kev although nice offer from Mac.
You thinking about going on the blue shark hunt from cobh in August Kev?

Very generous offer on the auxilliary kev and I will take you up on that.
Even as a temperory loan for the summer
Just got to replace the bracket now

I'm keen on the cobh trip, but lack experience in chumming techniques and locations

Are you attending Col? I'll have to get a trip in one of the charter boats and see how its done!

Things however took a drastic turn for the worse however when with an unmerciful crack the Aux bracket on the back broke in two and consigned poor old Kevs 8hp Suzi aux to the depths..... Not good.... To his credit however, he took the loss on the chin and with nothing other than a few (small few) expletives we arrived at the mark.

Is bigkev related to conorh by any chance? :D

The sea bed around our coastline must be littered with aux engines!
Unlucky.

Myself and SeanP are towing down on the saturday morning.Should be a good weekend Kev.

nice report pete. My experience is that the mackerel are unpredicable in the estuary, but pretty well always there on the north side.

It might be worth adding a warning here in case anyone new to boat fishing reads this and plans to fish the area. Do not go out in windy conditions especially near loop head in a small boat unless you know exactly what you are doing. Remember the sea only has to get lucky once.

I was out in the Clare Dragoon on thursday and the wind went to gale force south westerly. This was uncomfortable to fish, but perfectly safe in a boat this size and weight. One wave came onto the deck while drifting and we were briefly up to our kness in water.