Donegal Bay 15/06/2015

[johnwest]

A window of opportunity presented itself on Monday so having spent Sunday replacing a set of trailer wheel bearings and greasing everything in sight, the rods and reels were dusted down for the first boat trip of 2015. The slip was deserted, just the way I like it, so into the water and away. First stop was to try for mackerel at my usual spot, around a reef surrounded by sand, but 20 – 30 mins of feathering produced nothing, I moved onto the reef and immediately hit strings of small pollack and coalfish with the biggest perhaps nudging 2lb. This was when I realised that despite emptying and refilling the tackle box to check everything was at hand, I had forgotten the scales. Pollack wouldn’t be my preferred bait but I know from previous trips that it does catch fish. The first mark for “proper” fishing was a large expanse of sand with the hope of a ray or two. By now the breeze had died completely and the drift was painfully slow, not good for covering ground to find whereabouts the ray might be. They may just not be there yet as after 2 hours the only sign of activity was a few flattie type rattles. A switch to smaller hooks and matching baits produced 8-9 decent dabs including a couple of double shots. I had a “big” birthday last December and treated myself to a Water Wolf underwater camera, today was the first time I used it. I need a bit of practice at setting it up right but it was amazing to get a glimpse of what goes on. There were plenty of sandeels and crabs about and the dabs spent a lot of time ignoring the baits but chasing the camera itself, swimming right up to get a good look. Sometimes they would follow the baits for quite a while before taking them.
A move to a deeper, rougher ground mark produced bites straight away with about a dozen hard fighting pouting coming to the boat punctuated with a double of female cuckoo wrasse and a single male in all his sartorial elegance. The photo doesn’t do him justice; I have seen plenty of these fish over the years but never so handsome as this one. He reminds me of myself in my twenties!
By now the tide was ebbing fast and it was time to head for the slip and home.

[hugo]

Excellent first trip, especially the dabs. Still nothing much around off N. Mayo, think I'll have to move up your end of the bay....

[chuckaroo]

Nice pics JW, good to get the boat,.. Lines.. Bait.. etc.. Wet. Some lovely fish there
Will look forward to a few of these water wolf vids then!

[gavind19]

Nice one great report. Plenty of mackerel showing now. Few about the cages and it's solid with them around the bullig. Lots of thornies going but no great size. Headout today on the huntress blue to try a deep water mark for conger, ling, cod and the hope of a big skate.