Not the World Championships in Donegal Bay

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Not the World Championships in Donegal Bay

Postby johnwest » Fri Sep 18, 2015 5:04 pm

Not having been selected for the World Boat Angling Championships in Donegal Bay this week, there was nothing for it but to go out on my own again. The forecast had given several days of reasonably light winds and little swell; of course you don’t always get what you want...
Day 1. I headed off to my erstwhile favourite mackerel mark where at least pollack were normally a dependable standby. Feathering for at least half an hour produced nothing so I decided to try elsewhere and en route to somewhere else, the sounder showed up a small shoal of something hugging the bottom. Down went the feathers and up came a pin whiting, barely bigger than the lure. Those things would eat their own twin. Moving along to another rocky spot, a small coalfish turned up followed by a 2lb pollack and in dribs and drabs, a further 5-6 smaller pollack. Not prime bait but better than nothing. I steamed off to the ray mark and was straight in with a small thornback. I set up a second rod with a smaller hook (2) and thin strip of bait to see if there was a flattie or two about but this produced a few more thornies including the best of the day at 6lb 8oz. One dogfish was the only other species to show up along with a total of 26 thornbacks including what is probably the most handsomely marked thornie I’ve ever caught. Now it was a productive day, my best bag of thornies ever, but I was a bit disappointed not to see a few painted rays and flatties; this time last year I was getting good numbers of painted rays of specimen size, this year I’ve got only one. Time to head in and on the way I was escorted by a pod of dolphins playing around the boat, swimming alongside, bow riding and coming up for air in groups of 5-6 right alongside the boat, talk about synchronised swimming!
Day 2. Passing Lough Melvin, I could see the lake was like a mirror so I was anticipating the lightest of breezes. When I got to the slip, which is not a million miles away, there was quite a stiff south westerly blowing which made leaving the channel on a fast ebbing tide a bit more exciting than I would have preferred. Wind against tide made for a very choppy 100 yds with short steep waves from seemingly all directions. However once out a bit it wasn’t as bad. I still headed for a bit of shelter and ended up within a good cast from the shore. A few small shoals were showing on the sounder, these turned out to be small scad. One lucky drop produced 5 mackerel so that was some decent bait sorted. I tried a different ray mark from yesterday to see if I might get a bit more variety. First drop produced a small spotty ray so I thought the tactics had worked. However that was the only ray, 1 dab (28cm) and 4 doggies completing the catch. I called at yesterdays mark on the way back to the slip and added a further 4 thornies to the tally including the best of the 2 days at 8lb 4oz. Spending the day in a small boat bouncing about in wind and waves is surprisingly tiring so I gladly called it a day.
Attachments
P9165254.JPG
Small thornie for starters
P9165257.JPG
6lb 8oz and 5lb 4oz
P9165258.JPG
Beautifully marked thornback
P9175272.JPG
Small spotty
P9175274.JPG
8lb 4oz, best of the trip
2013 species; 31

2014 species; 27

2015 species; 28

2016 species; 32

2017 species;28

2018 species; 33

2019 species; ballan wrasse,blonde ray, coalfish, cod, cuckoo wrasse, dab, dogfish, flounder, goldsinny wrasse, ling, mackerel, plaice, pollack, poorcod, pouting, scad, sea scorpion, spotty ray, spurdog, thornback, tub gurnard, turbot, whiting.

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Moody Marlin (Mon Sep 21, 2015 5:16 pm)
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Re: Not the World Championships in Donegal Bay

Postby chuckaroo » Fri Sep 18, 2015 5:12 pm

happy days JW, that's a lot of fish 8)
stunning wee thorny
Charlie

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porbeagle, stingers, seatrout, shore skate, shore tope

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johnwest (Sun Sep 20, 2015 8:35 pm)
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Re: Not the World Championships in Donegal Bay

Postby donal domeney » Fri Sep 18, 2015 6:29 pm

And there was I waiting to see a blue fin tuna been dragged aboard :lol: :lol: :lol:

did you weigh the spotted ?
Boat species '15 (31) Shore species (21) Total species 40 Specimen: (B) Bluemouth .92kg,(B) Spotted ray 6lb,(S) Painted ray 12.4lb
Boat species '16 (30) Shore species (17) Total species 36
Boat species '17 (35) Shore species (22) Total species 37 Specimen: (B) Bluemouth, (S) Flounder

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Re: Not the World Championships in Donegal Bay

Postby paul skelly » Sat Sep 19, 2015 11:59 am

Nice fishing John fair play 8)
Give a man a fire he will be warm for a night,
Set him on fire and he will be warm for the rest of his life.

Species from the shore 2011:21
Species from the shore 2012:34,
Species from the shore 2013:40
Species from the shore 2014:36
Species from the shore 2015:35
Species from the shore 2016:30
: whiting,pouting,dab,shore rockling,5xb beard rockling,flounder,dogfish,grunt,white sea bream,banded sea bream,black damselfish,blue damselfish, ornate wrasse,lizard fish,sea trout,red gurnard,bass,tornback ray smoothhound,Corkwing wrasse,poor cod,ballon wrasse,cod,pollock,conger,spotted ray,bullhuss,mackerel ,tub gurnard,place,lesser weever,

Wish list: ray

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Re: Not the World Championships in Donegal Bay

Postby rushnaldo » Sat Sep 19, 2015 5:35 pm

Fantastic fishing there jw. The markings on that thornie are stunning. Great to see plenty of rays about. They are taking a hammering from the tangle netters with some small craft taking over 20 boxes a day :(

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Re: Not the World Championships in Donegal Bay

Postby johnwest » Sun Sep 20, 2015 8:34 pm

donal domeney wrote:And there was I waiting to see a blue fin tuna been dragged aboard :lol: :lol: :lol:

did you weigh the spotted ?

Hi Donal,
I didn't weigh the spotty but would have guessed it to be about 3.5 lbs at most, I think I was holding it out a bit towards the camera so it looks a bit bigger than it really was. No bluefin tuna for me but I did hear that an angler got one earlier in the week around 300lbs and which is now residing in his freezer.

[quoted="rushnaldo"]Fantastic fishing there jw. The markings on that thornie are stunning. Great to see plenty of rays about. They are taking a hammering from the tangle netters with some small craft taking over 20 boxes a day :([/quote]

Thanks rushnaldo, I wonder is the absence of painted rays down to the netters? Are they being netted in the bay or outside?
2013 species; 31

2014 species; 27

2015 species; 28

2016 species; 32

2017 species;28

2018 species; 33

2019 species; ballan wrasse,blonde ray, coalfish, cod, cuckoo wrasse, dab, dogfish, flounder, goldsinny wrasse, ling, mackerel, plaice, pollack, poorcod, pouting, scad, sea scorpion, spotty ray, spurdog, thornback, tub gurnard, turbot, whiting.
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Re: Not the World Championships in Donegal Bay

Postby rushnaldo » Sun Sep 20, 2015 10:27 pm

Most likely yeah

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johnwest (Sun Sep 27, 2015 6:10 pm)
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Re: Not the World Championships in Donegal Bay

Postby gavind19 » Thu Sep 24, 2015 5:29 pm

Nice one John. Lovely looking thornie. I was across the bay at the worlds would rather have been fishing

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