People: mark, tanglerat, jgf
Duration:7am-2pm Sun 11th Sept
Tide:mid flood to low ebb
Weather:light sw breeze, mostly sunny and warm
Bait:2 x 12" squid spreader bars
Rigs:1 x Penn Int 30W rigged with 50lb dacron, 1 x okuma 50W and shimano beastmaster roller rigged with 80lb dacron
Results: no sightings of tuna
Report: Left Portnablagh with Gerry, and John had made the long trip from Portglenone so we could leave port at 7am. Took around 45 mins to reach the Limeburner off Melmore and passed it to head NE as Michael McVeigh said pods of tuna had been spotted here the previous day. Started trolling around 4 miles off the Limeburner at 8:15 right off the mouth of Mulroy bay looping round to follow diving gannets.Trolling speed seemed best at around 4.2 kts though the Penn rod is a little short and the front end of the spreader bar is a bit low in the water. No mad bird activity just quite a few single diving birds. From about 9:30 we trolled down towards Fanad and zig-zaged in and out. Pleanty of bait was showing on the sounder and when the day warmed we started to see sprats? jumping all round us-but no tuna. Water temp was between 57.8 and 58.1 degrees.
Trolled back up to the burner and drifted for about 1/2 hour for a few gurnard.
Got a bit excited on the way back in when Gerry spotted something jumping but it turned out to be porpoises.
Thanks to the crew, espically John for making the long journey-pity we didn't even see a tuna.
Weather was very poor from Tue 13th on and we took the boat out of the water on Sat am 17th. Will keep it there until end of Oct in case we get a good day and can have one last blast for the tuna.