Howth, Friday 21/05/10

People:Damien & Willie

Duration:Aprox 5 hrs

Tide: Incoming

Weather: Heavy fog patches at times, SE 3-4, dropping off to a 2-3 later in the day.

Bait:Bought Mackeral

Rigs:

Results:2 Thornback Ray, Red Gurnard, Tub Gurnard & Doggies

Report:

Had planned to start fishing from about 9 - 9.30 in the morning but when I looked out of the bedroom window early that morning there was nothing but heavy fog to be seen. We put off launching until around 11am and headed out to one of my marks on the Bennet bank.

The plan had been to fish a few hours either side of low water but because of the fog this meant we were fishing all on the incoming tide. At our first anchor point the Doggies were quick to make an appearance but after about an hour I noticed that my anchor buoy had decided to make a dash for freedom (it had somehow worked free from the ring and was floating off into the horizon). This meant we had to haul the anchor by hand, (not something I like doing) and go chase the buoy.
After picking it up we headed to a second mark and settled down for the rest of the day. At first things were slow with just a few Doggies coming in but then we had a nice run where we got a nice Red Gurnard, a Tub Gurnard and 2 Female Thornback Ray's (with fat bellies), the largest being 10lbs. We quickly photographed the Ray and returned them safetly to the sea (have to look after next years Thornback population).
Overall not a bad days outing and it was great to come back into an empty Howth harbour (Sundays can be a bit of a nightmare on the slip).

The only downside was on the way home, one of the trailer wheels came off about a mile from home. My fault for not checking to see it the nuts were tight before setting off.
Thankfully no damage was done to any member of the public, following traffic or the boat, the only damage was to the wheel rim and 2 lost nuts.

Damien

well done on the rays lads and what looks like a good day out

well done on the Rays, is there much ray to be caught off Dublin?

Good Stuff Damien!
Good to see you haven't lost the touch!

Well Done Damien,,, Nice to see a few Ray about the place.