lady karen portrush co antrim sunday 6th june

People: me, jordan and 5 members of the mariner's BAC

Duration: 10am to 5pm

Tide: up and down

Weather: bright sunshine, no winds and calm seas

Bait: rag and mack

Rigs: feathers and flowing traces for flatties and huss

Results: scad, ballan wrasse, cuckoo wrasse, coalies, pollock, mackeral, whiting, ling, dab, mackeral, lesser weevers, doggie, codling, red gurnard,, tub gurnard and a pouting

Report: with an invite out on a boat trip with dan's BAC we hit the road and were glad to see calm seas as we entered portrush. all the lads greeted us and introductions were passed and the banter began we were laughing our heads off before we even got onto the boat we quickly steamed out of the harbour to our first drift and the action was non stop from the get go. dan and a few of the other lads hit into some scad which scrapped well and jordan and i were hopefull that we might get a few more new species to add to our ever growing lists. but as quick as the scad appeared they were gone . i started to get into some whiting pulling them up 3 at a time on baited feathers and from there on out things were a bit hetic with everyone getting in on the action. i had only taken a few pics as i did'nt want to waste any time on the drifts mucking about with the camera as the was action going on all around me , i mean afterall, i'm an angler first and photographer second . i did take a few pics of dan's cuckoo wrasse and and a few new species for me and jordan including the biggest fish of the day that fell to jordan, his first ever ling . we had a great day out and all the lads from the club were 100% and told us that there was 2 spare seats going on their next trip that was in a fortnight time out of burtonport. so we'll be back out to do it all over again
2 things of interest came out of the trip.
1. the distinct lack of mackeral that's not on the north coast at the moment with only 2 being landed on the trip
2. i'm not sure about the different species of gurnard as we have'nt caught too many in our boat angling career just yet . but i've checked 4 different sources on line and i think my one might be a piper instead of a red . in my reference books it gives the description of the piper as having connected spines that form forward projections from the upper jaw and a white under belly. 2 features that the red gurnard lacks and apparently they are often mis-identified because the piper is also red i found this pic on fishbase.org http://www.fishbase.org/Photos/PicturesSummary.php?ID=5038&what=species.
anyone any thoughts??

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last pic

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u will need to take a week off with all the fishing ye done last weekend.well done

That's what I call fishing, well done!

thats what its all about. big fish,big craic. and huge big smiles now dont be too shocked when you see an 18 ft fishing boat with trailer and fishfinder on jordans christmas list

sounded like a great day ,good weather, good craic and great fishing well
done to ye all

Great fishing well done those cuckoo wrasse are beautiful!

u will need to take a week off with all the fishing ye done last weekend.well done

tell me about it brian, i have'nt had 2 spare minutes since the weekend and i'm just getting ready to get out again today no rest for the wicked

That's what I call fishing, well done!

thanks paula. i was just made up for jordan as he was over the moon to get the ling and weever to add to his species list. he thought he was the dogs' danglies as he got the first fish of the trip and the biggest fish of the trip too

thats what its all about. big fish,big craic. and huge big smiles now dont be too shocked when you see an 18 ft fishing boat with trailer and fishfinder on jordans christmas list

too late man, he's already throwing hints at me about how cheap the ribs on gumtree are . the conversation went a bit like this.
" look at that wee rib, it's got a galvanised trailer with new bushes and a recently serviced outboard and it's only £2000, sure we must have spent that on boat trips in the last 2 years alone dad ". very suttle i don't think jordan

sounded like a great day ,good weather, good craic and great fishing well
done to ye all

thanks mitch. i was just gutted i never got more pics, but that would have ment less fishing time, and that just would'nt do

Great fishing well done those cuckoo wrasse are beautiful!

cheers wilky. a male cuckoo wrasse is one we deffo have on the wishlist for this year ourselves. class looking wee fish

hi, great day out, !!
Looking at the picture i am pretty sure thats a grey gurnard, yes i know its pinky in clour, but they do have a habit of looking like that.
Appreciate the piper gurnards range does include ireland, but i have attached a couple of small id pics to show differnces, the main one is the dorsal fin, on grey only one spine to highest, the piper 3, but ,ost important is the black dot, its only on the grey !
regards
screeming

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Sweet trip lads. Interesting about the gurnard. Jordan well done on the ling she' a cracker

It was a great wee day was made up with the cookoo wrasse if onlu had scales out with us defintly close to speiciman size jordan doing a merry dance when he landed that ling was funny boys in club you and jordan are welcome anytime cheers again for pickin me up

nice one al and jordan... nice to see the young lad with that big smile.... keep it up lads.......

thumper of a trip there al' and well done to the wee man jordan on his ling he must have been over the moon with that one.....did he do his dance great session and pic's al' well done

well done nice fishing great amount of species , i think someone will be going down to the credit union to get a loan for a new boat

hi, great day out, !!
Looking at the picture i am pretty sure thats a grey gurnard, yes i know its pinky in clour, but they do have a habit of looking like that.
Appreciate the piper gurnards range does include ireland, but i have attached a couple of small id pics to show differnces, the main one is the dorsal fin, on grey only one spine to highest, the piper 3, but ,ost important is the black dot, its only on the grey !
regards
screeming

yee haa!! grey gurnard it is then they're more difficult to ID than those bloody rockling . i keep telling jordan to never be too proud to ask as no one can ever know everything about this old fishing lark . so thanks very much man . the tip about the spot on the dorsal is well handy to know.

Sweet trip lads. Interesting about the gurnard. Jordan well done on the ling she' a cracker

thanks dawsey. it tasted even better in beer batter than it looked , nicer than cod i'd say . jordan had me print out the pictures at 6am on monday morning so he could take them into school to show his teacher and classmates

It was a great wee day was made up with the cookoo wrasse if onlu had scales out with us defintly close to speiciman size jordan doing a merry dance when he landed that ling was funny boys in club you and jordan are welcome anytime cheers again for pickin me up

no probs dan. we had a great day out and the lads in the club are all 100%. that skull guy loves winding the other lads up, he had us in wrinkles winding the other lads up pure quality

nice one al and jordan... nice to see the young lad with that big smile.... keep it up lads.......

will do alan . i could'nt get over how many species were caught for just 1 trip . if we get the chance we'll be back out on another boat trip ASAP

8) thumper of a trip there al' and well done to the wee man jordan on his ling he must have been over the moon with that one.....did he do his dance great session and pic's al' well done

not so much a dance don. more like a 5 year old who just glugged down his first ever can of red bull,, he was jumping up and down on the spot punching up into the air recanting such phrases as " come on ya boy ye " and " awwhh, she's a beaut " . i was just made up to see the wee man enjoy himself so much

well done nice fishing great amount of species , i think someone will be going down to the credit union to get a loan for a new boat

tell me about it john . he's already been looking through gumtree at ribs and throwing some not so suttle hints at me saying " look at that one. only £2000 and it comes on a galvanized trailer that's just had new bushes fitted to it. sure we've spent more than that in the last 2 years on boat trips alone. it would probably be cheaper just to buy a boat ".

well done lads, congradilations to jordan with new spesies in his account god job jordan

cheers grady. it was one of our best boat trips so far