Kilmore Quay Good Friday

[dtsacs]

The club had it's first outing aboard the Celtic Lady II & Enterprise out of Kilmore Quay. We were a bit unsure of the weather on the Thursday but a call to Dick, one of the skippers put our minds at rest.
We left the harbour at 10am and headed towards the Saltee Islands, a slight swell but nothing much to talk about.
On the first drift fishing was a bit slow with a plenty of undersized Pollack and Coalfish (these two species as a club rule must be 380cm in length or more to count) but soon picked up on the following drift. The Pollack started to get bigger with some Cod now starting to take the baits. The weather while cool stayed dry and the seas calm. The Ballen Wrasse started to show later in the day along with the following species:
Pollack
Coalfish
Cod
Ballen Wrasse
Ling
Plaice
Dogfish
Ragworn, Squid and Mackeral seemed to be the bait to use, with, as always good Dublin Ragworm the top bait for gilling and catching those fighting Wrasse.
Overall a good days fishing was had by all and things are looking up for the coming year.
On another note I seen the photo on John Deveraux's boat of the 87lb Tope caught at the end of Sept 2004 just off the Wexford coast by 2 lads. The fish was boated and they used the length & girth method to calculate the weight of the fish. John made a call to see if they would accept these measurments and photo's as proof of what would have smashed the Irish record by over 20lbs but was told the fish would have to be brought ashore. The 2 lads would not do this and returned the fish alive and well to fight another day.
Damien

[gerry]

The club had it's first outing aboard the Celtic Lady II & Enterprise out of Kilmore Quay. We were a bit unsure of the weather on the Thursday but a call to Dick, one of the skippers put our minds at rest.
We left the harbour at 10am and headed towards the Saltee Islands, a slight swell but nothing much to talk about.
On the first drift fishing was a bit slow with a plenty of undersized Pollack and Coalfish (these two species as a club rule must be 380cm in length or more to count) but soon picked up on the following drift. The Pollack started to get bigger with some Cod now starting to take the baits. The weather while cool stayed dry and the seas calm. The Ballen Wrasse started to show later in the day along with the following species:
Pollack
Coalfish
Cod
Ballen Wrasse
Ling
Plaice
Dogfish
Ragworn, Squid and Mackeral seemed to be the bait to use, with, as always good Dublin Ragworm the top bait for gilling and catching those fighting Wrasse.
Overall a good days fishing was had by all and things are looking up for the coming year.
On another note I seen the photo on John Deveraux's boat of the 87lb Tope caught at the end of Sept 2004 just off the Wexford coast by 2 lads. The fish was boated and they used the length & girth method to calculate the weight of the fish. John made a call to see if they would accept these measurments and photo's as proof of what would have smashed the Irish record by over 20lbs but was told the fish would have to be brought ashore. The 2 lads would not do this and returned the fish alive and well to fight another day.
Damien

Hi Damien
well looking forward 2 my first trip of the season 2 kilmore qy;
I normaly use celtic lady 2 {Good Old John Devro}
this time we book hayes boats cant wait, we have 9 trips in total for the season, kilmore & fertard, you seem 2 have done well there this early,

[dtsacs]

Gerry

Yeh, we thought that things might be a bit slow being so early in the season and at times they were with some long drifts showing just a few fish and then you would hit a patch and everyone would catch a few. The Wrasse were a bit shy until later on in the afternoon, but the Cod were showing a lot more than last year. The Plaice was a bit of a fluke as I was letting line out hoping for a Doggie or two when I got the bite, nice size it was too. The Pollack were taking the King Rag on the Gill and also Black 'Jellys' with Pink tails. Green Hokkai's tipped with either Mackerel or Rag seemed to be working better than the other colour Hokkai's also.
The highlight of the day though was the sighting of a large Whale not far off our bows and just a few miles off land. I'm not too hot on Whale species so I don't know which type it was (just in case someone out there wants to know).
Good luck on Saturday and if you get a chance have a look at the photo of the 87lb'er Tope on John's boat.
Damien