Fri Aug 15, 2008 4:24 pm
Hi all
This is a report from two trips to dingle, the first a weekender back at the beginning of June and the second over the August bank holiday weekend. My Dad, Eoin and I were present.
First trip:
Boat: The Frying Dutchman, Orkney Strikeliner.
Venue: Dingle bay and Castlemaine harbour.
Weather: Not great, strong easterly wind.
Rigs: Ledgers, pulleys, shads.
Baits: Mackerel, squid, rag.
Tide: All stages of a moderately sized tide.
This trip was supposed to be for tope and after Seans good results earlier in the year we were hopeful but the east wind meant we were limited in where and how long we could fish and we only managed a brief hour or so in our intended area.
On the Saturday the first order was to get out and get some mackerel, which we found easily enough. We also got some good Pollock hanging below the mackerel and also picked up some herring, pout and poor cod.
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[img]http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y116/adamsalbum79/DSCF5202.jpg[/img]
We headed for our tope spot over the low water slack but getting there was rough enough with the wind picking up and with the wind whistling along we knew we wouldn’t be able to hold on our mark long.
[img]http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y116/adamsalbum79/DSCF5206.jpg[/img]
We got the anchor down though and dropped mackerel sides down on running ledgers and pulleys. The hour or two we managed to fish didn’t produce any tope but we picked up some decent thornies to about 15lbs or so, so it was just about worth the effort. When we got back in a fry up of fresh mackerel made the day seem a lot more worthwhile.
[img]http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y116/adamsalbum79/DSCF4391.jpg[/img]
On the Sunday the wind had picked up even more and we knew we wouldn’t get anywhere near our tope mark. So the day was spent close in hugging the shelter and looking for new marks and reefs. We stopped at various spots and picked up Pollock to about 6lbs and wrasse to maybe 4.5lbs. We nipped into minard for lunch at the pier. Picked up a few fresh macks and then hit the road home. Decent trip but nothing spectacular.
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Second trip:
Boat: The Frying Dutchman, Orkney Strikeliner.
Venue: Dingle bay and Castlemaine harbour.
Weather: Mixed
Rigs: Ledgers, pulleys, shads, float, baited feathers, jellies etc.
Baits: Mackerel, squid, rag. Lug, crab.
Tide: All stages, big tides at the start of the week dropping off by the end.
We managed to get out five out of seven days.
Day one
When we arrived the weather wasn’t great so we took the opportunity to spend the day seeing to our bait requirements. We collected crab and dug lug. Messing about in the .rockpools allowed me to add a blenny, a shore rockling and a butterfish to me species count for the year, which stood at 40 by the end of the trip which was my years target reached.
Day two
The weather was better so we got out and mostly spent the time looking for deep water reef marks of the south western side of the peninsula. One of the reefs we found was probably the highlight of the trip. It was a lovely slow riser coming up out of 160 feet to just 50 and then a sharper drop on one side. Over the two days we fished it we had at least two fish off it every single drift. Not once did it fail to produce to a variety of methods. Today was the best fishing off it we had though. In total we had five Pollock over 10lbs off it with a 10 and 11 for me, an 11 for eoin and a 12 and a 14lbs 12oz lump for my dad on squid baited hokkais.
The Pollock came to jigs, shads, and baited and unbaited feathers and flashers. When we added mack, squid and rag baits to the feathers we added scad, ballans, cuckoos, poor cod, pout, ling, a single coalfish and a gurnard. All in all it was a good session with active mixed fishing, topped pff by several pbs and the first specimen of the week for my dad, but not the last!
This is my dads big one
[img]http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y116/adamsalbum79/DSCF5269.jpg[/img]
and some others
[img]http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y116/adamsalbum79/DSCF5253.jpg[/img]
[img]http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y116/adamsalbum79/DSCF5273.jpg[/img]
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Day three
The weather was crap again with rain and wind so we decided to shore fish, we picked up wrasse, a strap conger and some Pollock and macks from a rock mark. We didn’t fish long and when the rain got more persistent we legged it.
[img]http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y116/adamsalbum79/DSCF5291.jpg[/img]
Day four
Day four was the day we met Sean out in Brandon, I didn’t even see him there until he rang me and it was nice to meet him in person, if at distance, after all the info he has passed to us. The weather was pleasant with little wind and no rain but the swell was lumpy enough. We started off drifting and picked up good mixed sport again with eoin getting the best fish, another good Pollock, we fish for all the smaller fish with pike jerkbait rods and left hand wind multipliers and the big Pollock were great fun on this gear, as were the better ballans.
[img]http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y116/adamsalbum79/DSCF5300.jpg[/img]
After we had worked our way along we stopped for macks and then anchored for spursm who duly obliged. First drop down they were on the baits in seconds and we each had double figure fish in our first drop (and then no more for the rest of the day!). As eoin was reeling in his best which we weighed at14lbs a really huge fish followed it up, this one looked well in the high teens maybe ever 20lbs. but by the time I got a bait over to him he had slunk away into the depths. I don’t know how many we got but we had a specimen sized fish each and I would guess maybe 20 others. The swell was only getting worse so we called it a day.
[img]http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y116/adamsalbum79/DSCF5305.jpg[/img]
Day five
We got out of Brandon again and this time the weather was perfect for once! My dad headed off sea trout fishing so Eoin and I had more fish to share. Once more we started off drifting some new areas and picked up the usuals plus a red gurnard and s small spur on baited flashers. When we anchored the spurs took about 10 mins to show up and then it was a steady stream all day, eoin and I got one more big one each at 13 and 14lbs and we had maybe 5 or 6 more that would have maybe just gone 12lbs but it was too hetic so we didn’t weigh any but the biggest two. The packs were again following fish up to the boat and one of my fish was follwed up by 5 or 6 others. While I landed my fish Eoin dropped a whole mack down to the pack, a fish of about 11lbs took it side on shook its head and ran. It was great to see no more then 10 feet down.
Eoins shallow caught fish
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We upped anchor eventually and finished off with some mack fishing for dinner.
Day six
We had hoped to fish some marks in tralee bay but the north wind was hitting force 6 so that was out. Our only option was to launch out of dingle and see fungie and his new mates and then try some wrasse fishing and anchor off the beach at trabeg for some flats. We got a few of each, nothing huge. Wrasse to maybe3.5lbs and some decent dabs, flounder and some dogs. The harbour was too choppy and busy to anchor for ray.
[img]http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y116/adamsalbum79/DSCF5334-1.jpg[/img]
[img]http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y116/adamsalbum79/DSCF5337-1.jpg[/img]
Day seven
Our last day and the weather was rough again so getting out around the blaskets and clogher was out. We stayed in close and did some anchored float fishing for wrasse and picked up more Pollock and some good cuckoos to end a challenging but rewarding week. Our starter motor crapped out on the last day too, but rather that then the first. Its fixed now and that was our only major disaster, had to put new sparks in too though. Other then that the boat and engines handled well. Overall it was a good trip and we picked up many new marks.
[img]http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y116/adamsalbum79/DSCF5282.jpg[/img]
Roll on the next time.
Over the two trips we had: mackerel, herring, pout, poor cod, pollock, coalies, thornbacks, blennies, rockling, butterfish, sea trout, flounder, dab, doggies, ling, conger, red gurnards, spurdog, ballans, cuckoos, goldsinny wrasse and launce
Fri Aug 15, 2008 8:20 pm
Looks like you had some excellent fishing there Adam and a nice mix of species too. I'm heading down that direction at the end of the month and that report has certainly wet my appetite
Fri Aug 15, 2008 8:20 pm
great report and lovely specimens :wink:
brian