19th Feb Wicklow

People: Myself and 2 friends

Duration: 8 hours : 9am - 5pm

Weather: sunny and dead calm

Bait: squid, prawn, lug, mackerel

Rigs: Various

Results:4 dab/flounder, 2 dog, 1 scorpion

Report: So we had a boat booked for the 12th of Feb but due to a storm 2 days previously we couldn't take it out. We decided to drive to Cullenstown instead but after a day there we'd got nothing. We were still hearing reports of good cod being caught around a mile off shore in Wicklow so we booked the boat again for the following week.

Sat 19th arrived and at 8.30 we head off towards Wicklow harbour with 6 rods, bags of bait and 12litres of coffee By 9.15 we were leaving the harbour with the sun starting to come through the clouds and not a ripple on the water.

Before setting up our own rods we decided to have a few casts with the boat rods supplied. They were already set up with some feathers so we tipped them with lug and gave it a try. Within 2-3 minutes one of the rods nearly snapped with the tug on it. There was something big on the end of the line and it looked like it was going to be a great catch but unfortunately the line snapped. Upon inspection, the line was rotting so we packed away the boat rods and continued with our own.

We were getting small nibbles and then again one of the rods nearly took off, the fish went straight under the boat and again the line snapped, this time by getting dragged across the propeller. So after the big ones got away, we managed to finally reel in some small ones...

Petty about losing the big ones. At least ye got to made good use of the fine weather and dust off the boat rods with a few fish.

Well done lads a few nice flats there, your always better off using your own gear ive used rods provided before and to be fair it would have been more productive using a tennis racket .The big ones can always be caught another day

I know, next time we won't ask for any rods to be supplied. They just take up space. What we found strange was that the baits we caught on were pretty inconsistent. There was nothing in particular that was drawing them in.

were did you hire the boat ?

i didnt think ya could hire this time of the year.

unlucky on the big ones by the way

Got the boat from http://www.wicklowboathire.ie/ - nice lads, very easy to deal with. Even got a bit of a discount because we couldn't go out when originally booked, even though they couldn't help it.

sound ill give them a buzz

How much were you charged as a matter of interest.

i think thats bulloch harbour is it not.when i lived in dublin i used to hire them alot.20 euro per hour and four to a boat.some lovely little fibreglass punts with 8-10 horsepower outboards.when you leave the harbour go to your left and down there for a bit you will see killiney strand i think.on the edge there you always get a few fish.codling,dogs,whiting,small pollock,flats

It was Wicklow harbour. We paid 180 where it should have been 200. We got the discount because the original booking was cancelled due to bad conditions.

I know infact from business, never ever use suplied real, unless you know the guy well.The reason is usually ilght line on the real and god knows how many times they were on the salt water,better use own gear all the time.
however nice pictures with fish on the rig so, what else make angler more happy.
nice one and good luck for the future