Causeway Lass, Portrush, 7th June

Mon Jun 14, 2010 11:32 am

People:My self and 7 others

Duration:11 Hours

Tide:Flow and Ebb

Weather: Very Calm, Some fog early on

Bait: Jelly worms and mackerel

Rigs:flying collar and 2 hook boom rigs

Results:Loads of Pollock up to 7~8 Lbs, Coalies, small ling, 4.5 Lb cod, and a Cuckoo

Report:

An early start on Monday having to get up at 5:30am so I could get up for 8am. With checking the weather every 30mins to make sure this trip was going to be viable as we where going out 15 miles not far from the coast of the Scottish islands, I was pleasantly met with almost flat calm conditions. It took over 2 hours to get to the mark (the middle bank) with some great wild life on the way with a basking shark cursing just beside the Skerries and some porpoises when we got further out.

We didn’t stop for any mackerel as from the skipper he was telling us that the catches of Mackerel from north coast have been almost non existent which was a pity but seeing the water temp has not reached the magic 13c yet there wasn’t much point stopping.

Finally we reached the mark on a nice drift across the bank keeping tight to the bottom and it wasn’t long till I got my new rod broke in with a nice 4Lb Pollock trying its best to snag me on the bottom. The fish kept coming with some decent sized fish. The Pollock kept coming with repeated drifts on different locations on the back, with the odd coaly coming to jellies too. One of the guys on the boat managed to get a decent cod also where the skipper saying that he hadn’t seen a cod of that size for a long time which was sad to hear.

When slack water hit there wasn’t much action with a couple of small ling being caught one about a pound and the other about 3Lb but seeing there was a poor show of ling I put it down to the lack of mackerel around. We had to wait for a bout 90mins for the tide to move quickly enough we stayed until about 5pm getting back about half seven.

A very pleasant day had with a bit of sunburn, and some nice Pollock fillets for the freezer.


No pics :(

Re: Causeway Lass, Portrush, 7th June

Mon Jun 14, 2010 1:20 pm

Well done Johnny, you got a nice mix of species there, excellent 8) I know you've been looking forward to that trip for a while, I'm glad it went so well for ya.

Re: Causeway Lass, Portrush, 7th June

Mon Jun 14, 2010 2:50 pm

Yeah was a great day indeed the new rod was a pleasure to use, pity i didnt have more time to shop around for it but thats life.

Re: Causeway Lass, Portrush, 7th June

Wed Jun 16, 2010 7:31 pm

nice one jonny. at least you got the new rod broke in :P

Re: Causeway Lass, Portrush, 7th June

Sun Jun 20, 2010 6:38 pm

Well done. Sounds like you had a good day out.

I've booked a trip with Richard to the Middle Banks in a few weeks' time. I haven't fished from a boat for a few years so I'm hoping my Penn Senator 4/0 can still do the business ..... once I've removed the cobwebs :)

Out of interest, what sort of rigs did you use? I've already stocked up with a few 6/0 Hokkai rigs and a couple of 16oz pirks. Fingers crossed the weather will be OK on the day.

Re: Causeway Lass, Portrush, 7th June

Mon Jun 21, 2010 9:22 am

You wont need pirks, as the bottom is very rough, and all the fish are tight to the bottom.