Atlantic Ocean (south west of aran islands) 25/07/08
Fri Jul 25, 2008 8:22 pm
People: myself, nige, mga, saltydog and 6 others
Duration: 7 hours
Tide:???
Weather:clear with south westerly f1-f2
Bait:mack, artificials, shads etc etc
Rigs:various booms and monster rigs and balloons
Results:mackerel, pollock, whiting, haddock, cuckoo wrasse, red gurnard, ling, poor cod, pouting, blue shark
Report: boarded the Maigdan Mara just after 8:30am and waited for rest to show up(including the skipper who had a late night at the blondie gig)..
set off on time and a quick stop to get a few fresh mack to compliment a few day old and year old mackerel... after that we set off again and while in motion it was time to test peoples stomachs.. you guessed it.. dubby time.. :mrgreen: .. .
arrived at the mark in the open atlantic ( well it was south west of inis oirr, next stop, states)
back to fishing again with a sonic boom and size 4 hooks (species hunt for me) a few pollock and mackerel the skipper set up for the big boys... 3 rods went out one after the other and balloons bobbed up and down.. then the dubby went over the side...
not long after the blue balloon started making funny moves... skipper yelled all in (i was only half out this stage so quick retrieval for me) 'right.. who wants to bring this in'... heads looked backwards and forwards.. and before i could say 'i'll take it' i was already halfway down the deck before anyone else was halfway in with there lines :wink:
skipper said i'ts only a small one... i didnt care cos it would be my first one :lol: it seemed to come in easily at first.. then all of a sudden... dive dive dive... i could hardly keep my hads on the rod, but held it with all the energy i had (not much) slow retrieval again and still no sighting of it... slowly came up again and we could see the balloon making an appearance from the depths .. a flash of cobalt blue confirmed what it was.. not that there was any mistaking it.. and an.. 'ooOOoo.. it could be a big one'.. from the skipper.. then it dived like there was no tomorrow.. oh f*** there she goes again tearing off another couple of yards of 30lbs mono (10 second run)... christ them things cant half move.. slowly again with the retrieval and this time it came to the surface :shock: ok big isnt a word i'd use sparingly with this fish.. massive.. huge... beats fishin for smoothies any day :lol: :lol: this time it was time to land.. but the fish had different ideas.. again another nice run. (5 seconds, still felt like eternity at the time) but slowly again brought it back to the surface.. finally tailed onto the deck and a circular hook removed from the scissors tagged and now photo opportunity :D :D :D
approx 75-80lbs :shock:
that was it for me.. knackered wouldnt describe it completely b***x*ed would come close.. no sleep the night before didnt help either, but a few mins later it was back to catching more pollock haddock wrasse ling whiting pouting and mackerel for me...
i'm sure the others will describe their account of the events...
bragging rights below....
click on pic to see bigger
i'm still aching and sore.. buit i dont care... well worth the day out... some nice big pollock and whiting.. and even a nice big red gurnard came aboard :wink:
Duration: 7 hours
Tide:???
Weather:clear with south westerly f1-f2
Bait:mack, artificials, shads etc etc
Rigs:various booms and monster rigs and balloons
Results:mackerel, pollock, whiting, haddock, cuckoo wrasse, red gurnard, ling, poor cod, pouting, blue shark
Report: boarded the Maigdan Mara just after 8:30am and waited for rest to show up(including the skipper who had a late night at the blondie gig)..
set off on time and a quick stop to get a few fresh mack to compliment a few day old and year old mackerel... after that we set off again and while in motion it was time to test peoples stomachs.. you guessed it.. dubby time.. :mrgreen: .. .
arrived at the mark in the open atlantic ( well it was south west of inis oirr, next stop, states)
back to fishing again with a sonic boom and size 4 hooks (species hunt for me) a few pollock and mackerel the skipper set up for the big boys... 3 rods went out one after the other and balloons bobbed up and down.. then the dubby went over the side...
not long after the blue balloon started making funny moves... skipper yelled all in (i was only half out this stage so quick retrieval for me) 'right.. who wants to bring this in'... heads looked backwards and forwards.. and before i could say 'i'll take it' i was already halfway down the deck before anyone else was halfway in with there lines :wink:
skipper said i'ts only a small one... i didnt care cos it would be my first one :lol: it seemed to come in easily at first.. then all of a sudden... dive dive dive... i could hardly keep my hads on the rod, but held it with all the energy i had (not much) slow retrieval again and still no sighting of it... slowly came up again and we could see the balloon making an appearance from the depths .. a flash of cobalt blue confirmed what it was.. not that there was any mistaking it.. and an.. 'ooOOoo.. it could be a big one'.. from the skipper.. then it dived like there was no tomorrow.. oh f*** there she goes again tearing off another couple of yards of 30lbs mono (10 second run)... christ them things cant half move.. slowly again with the retrieval and this time it came to the surface :shock: ok big isnt a word i'd use sparingly with this fish.. massive.. huge... beats fishin for smoothies any day :lol: :lol: this time it was time to land.. but the fish had different ideas.. again another nice run. (5 seconds, still felt like eternity at the time) but slowly again brought it back to the surface.. finally tailed onto the deck and a circular hook removed from the scissors tagged and now photo opportunity :D :D :D
approx 75-80lbs :shock:
that was it for me.. knackered wouldnt describe it completely b***x*ed would come close.. no sleep the night before didnt help either, but a few mins later it was back to catching more pollock haddock wrasse ling whiting pouting and mackerel for me...
i'm sure the others will describe their account of the events...
bragging rights below....
click on pic to see bigger
i'm still aching and sore.. buit i dont care... well worth the day out... some nice big pollock and whiting.. and even a nice big red gurnard came aboard :wink:
Fri Jul 25, 2008 8:40 pm
Whooa,
Thats some fine shark there Steve.
The smile on you looks like your holding a new born baby :lol:
A day to remember I bet.
Congratulations on what i'm sure is your biggest fish so far :wink:
Thats some fine shark there Steve.
The smile on you looks like your holding a new born baby :lol:
A day to remember I bet.
Congratulations on what i'm sure is your biggest fish so far :wink:
Fri Jul 25, 2008 10:03 pm
Nice one Steve Id say that the fight was class. Well done.
Fri Jul 25, 2008 10:19 pm
Wow. Nice fish. Well done Steve. :lol:
Fri Jul 25, 2008 10:28 pm
nice fish,cheesy grin says it all, hows the back?
Fri Jul 25, 2008 10:40 pm
Great stuff stevecrow74 - congrats!!!
So, exactly how long did you wait since dubby went down?then the dubby went over the side...
not long after the blue balloon started making funny moves... skipper yelled
Fri Jul 25, 2008 11:02 pm
just received these on my phone
You do not have the required permissions to view the files attached to this post.
Sat Jul 26, 2008 12:43 am
Excellent days fishing 8) .
It was great to see such a fine fish boated - serious gnashers on him!!
He had no difficulty showing his muscle each time Steve brought him near the boat - line was ripped off the reel with what seemed like relative ease :shock: .
Looking forward to the day I get to try to bring in one of these boys :) .
Well done Steve - I'll bet you're still on a high after that :) :wink:
It was great to see such a fine fish boated - serious gnashers on him!!
He had no difficulty showing his muscle each time Steve brought him near the boat - line was ripped off the reel with what seemed like relative ease :shock: .
Looking forward to the day I get to try to bring in one of these boys :) .
Well done Steve - I'll bet you're still on a high after that :) :wink:
Sat Jul 26, 2008 12:59 am
mga wrote:Well done Steve - I'll bet you're still on a high after that
Sat Jul 26, 2008 1:14 am
Congrats again on your Blue :) There were plenty of fish coming in at a steady rate and plenty of big pollack one of the lads had 5 big pollack on feathers which put a serious bend in his rod mga had a couple of beauties on his perk spoon and shad rig which i got a good look at having gone under the boat a couple of times with a strong current running and connecting with his gear :roll: Steve also managed to top up his species count by 4 i think it was. All in all an enjoyable day and i had some good sport on the pollack with a few decent doubles taking line at times..... here's another few photos
You do not have the required permissions to view the files attached to this post.
Sat Jul 26, 2008 12:12 pm
Excellent report lads, sounds like a great day out. Great shots too.
I'll bet your jocks nearly caught fire!!! :shock: :lol: :lol: :lol:skipper yelled all in (i was only half out this stage so quick retrieval for me) 'right.. who wants to bring this in'... heads looked backwards and forwards.. and before i could say 'i'll take it' i was already halfway down the deck before anyone else was halfway in with there lines
blue
Sat Jul 26, 2008 12:17 pm
well done steve nice blue esp for your first lets hope they are on the way now few reports of them showing up now
Sat Jul 26, 2008 9:41 pm
excellent days fishing for everyone. Steve is still complaining about his arms being sore from catching the blue. Well nxt one is mine :) Got sunburned as usual - must remember to put on sun protection in future.
Sat Jul 26, 2008 9:51 pm
nige wrote:must remember to put on sun protection in future.
that involves remembering to take it out of the car though :lol: :lol:
yeah you had a bit of a redneck after the days fishin :lol: :lol:
Mon Jul 28, 2008 9:38 am
I'd say that was some fight sir. well done on your first bad boy blue. Id say you will remember that fight for a long time. I'm out chasing there younger cousins soon. well done steve cracking report fella
Mon Jul 28, 2008 10:41 am
Nice one lads, and congrats Steve.
Mon Jul 28, 2008 4:41 pm
cheers lads :wink: now t o get me one over the 100lbs mark :D