Kilmore Quay 3/11/07

People: Me, my Dad and uncle

Duration: 9:00 till 4:00

Tide: Slackish tide but didnt get the times.

Weather: lovely

Bait: Rag, muscle, and fresh mack

Rigs: All sorts of feathers, jigs, muppets etc,

Results: half a bucket of macks, 35+ cod to 6lb, 10 pollock to 5lb, 6 Ballan and cookoo wrasse,loads large pouting, 1 dog 1 sand eel.

Report:Left home early to be in the water by 9:00. We went down the coast to the right to get a few mack. Once we had the bucket half full we went out to the red bank area and drifted the same area all day. Why move when we were hitting fish all day. Lost loads of gear in the rough ground but its worth it.

good report was fishing the same place sunday with the same results .

Hi bigstyle

Great report. I'm new to this forum and was feeling very green with envy when I read it. Never caught a cod from my boat but hope to soon.
I'm hoping to fish the area around the Saltees soon. Do you guys keep fishing this area throughout the winter if the weather is settled? What's the fishing there like during December. It sounds great at the moment.
Is the redbank area near the islands ? Any info you can give me would really be appreciated.
Cheers
Pencwman

I have never fished this place that late in the year but i was out around Feburary and we only had 2 fish. The tide was screeming that day so i'm sure that didnt help.

If you head out between the saltees and head south west. You find the area on the charts. Also if your not used to fishing the area there are a few rock that only show at certain times of the tides so take care.

I also forgot to put in my report we had 2 ling in the boat as well. No great size maybe 4-5lb.

Thanks for that bigstyle.
What method was working best for the codling. Did you fish for them on the bottom with bait or jigging with feathers etc.

Cheers
Pencwman

Jigging with baited feathers works best for me. Make sure its not a spring tide as you'll lose even more gear. Bring loads of weights and loads of traces. We were getting them on every type of jig and feathers we tried. We were even getting them on silver mackeral feathers baited with mackeral. Just stay in touch with the bottom and you should get them.

Myself and a few friends have provisionaly booked a charter boat for the middle of next week. Hopefully, if the weather is kind we'll get out.
We are travelling across from Wales for a day trip on the Stena ferry. Dock in Rosslare about six, bacon and eggs then off out to the Saltees to catch my first ever codling. A day fishing then back on the evening ferry. That's the theory anyway. I'm sure the skipper put us on the local hotspots. Cheers Pencwman

which boat / skipper did you get, some are a lot better than others

A mate of mine booked it. I think the shipper is Billy Bates and the boat is Inisfree.
What do you think ??

Kilmore can be a very dodgy spot if the weather is at all rough. Not the sort of place you want to be in in a small boat in those conditions. big swells over reefy ground with wind against tide don't mix well. Some good charters down there are 'Autumn Dream' and 'Celtic Lady'. If its Codling in particular you are after try using Hokais or jumbo hokais baited up well with Ragworm and strips of squid. You will get thenm over the sandy banks and some of the rough grouund. Try dragging your riag along the bottom with only the odd jig now and agin to induce movement and a puff of sand. When you feel a bite just give the rod a slight jerk. Don't put huge force into it. this will usually get you into Cod.The bigger fish are to be found over the more rougher ground in deeper water. Depending on the day the charters will bring you to these or not. Kilmore is full of reefy ground and tackle losses can be high. Expect plenty of wrasse even at this time of year. The method for Cod above works but depending on the ground tackle losses may be high. Personally i have my own spots that produce Codling down there but the charters will know a lot more than me.

Thanks for that. Hopefully the weather will be ok. The long range forecast is not looking too good, but hopefully will change by then.
Hopefully the charter guy we have is a good one.
I intend to bring my own boat , a Shetland Alaska there at some time, probably next year as it's getting a bit unsettled for a boat of that size now.

The weather forecast is showing northwesterly 10mph winds for wednesday so at the moment it's all systems go !!
Stocked up with hokai's, feather muppets etc. Hoping to catch
myself my first codling !!