Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, 24th/25th August 2019

The weather forecast was suggesting a couple of days out in Donegal Bay and a call to the Bro’ filled a seat for Sunday, I’d be solo on Saturday.
Saturday 24th; The predicted winds were light but directions implied the north side would be more comfortable on Saturday, south side on Sunday. So an early start on Saturday saw me on the road….. minus my “toolbelt” holding knife, pliers, disgorger etc and rig wallet with boom rigs, mackerel feathers etc . Fortunately I had a spare knife and the “good” wallet containing unused gear and spare parts. The only feathers I had though were lightweight small sabikis. Appropriately, first drop, barely in the water, the rig produced a full house of mini-macks; so small I think they had been driven to the surface by a shoal of sprat. A few better mackerel soon fulfilled the bait requirements for the day so it was off to the chosen fishing spot. Plenty of shoals showed up on the fishfinder throughout the day. The sea was a bit lumpier than expected; there seemed to be two sets of swells interacting to give an uncomfortable day with the boat constantly pitching and rolling, not enough to induce sea-sickness but unpleasant enough to put me off my champ, today’s sandwiches would last until tomorrow. I had picked a spot which has thrown up a few blonde rays in the last year or two but sadly none to me despite a couple of attempts at them. Some blondes have been taken from the shore recently so there seems to have been an influx lately. I would suggest the cause is global warming but Mr Trump tells us there is no such thing, despite wanting to buy Greenland in anticipation of it thawing out. Anyway, over the side went a slice of fresh mackerel, there’s always hope. It was slow to start but eventually the rod tip gave a few shakes as a turbot just over the pound mark engulfed the bait. Fifteen mins later came a better bite and the rod arched over nicely, sadly not a big fish but a small (2lb 2oz) spotty ray coming in backwards. Half an hour later came a very gentle nibble which morphed into a very lively struggle, a blonde ray at 5lb 6oz. I had to invest in a new net this year so it was a nice way to christen it. This was the first blonde for me since I got a couple in Cork Harbour almost 20 years ago, it was almost like getting a new species. Conditions started to settle and the fish really came on the feed now; that was the first of 6 blondes ranging from 1lb 10oz to 5lb 7oz, another turbot similar to the first and four spotties up to 4lb 5oz. The smallest blonde performed a couple of press-ups on the floor before being returned . Three medium dabs and a dogfish made up the numbers and things went quiet again. There were thousands of flying ants dropping onto the water, concentrated into wind lanes or slicks beloved of the lake trout fisherman. The blondes all gave quite gentle bites and were lip hooked, just as well as I had no disgorger. They have little in the way of defensive armaments but fight harder than other rays, all I want now is to encounter a few whoppers! A brief dip into deep water nearby produced four small whiting in as many drops, not my idea of fun so I called it quits. Back at the slip, the hunger kicked in; yip, a fish supper was definitely in order. Yes, “Gentlemen prefer Blondes”, and I quite like them too.
Sunday 25th. The Bro’ and I arrived at the same time and got the boat launched easily enough, retrieving was to be a different story though. Parking was also tricky as there was some organised event in progress which had drawn hordes of people, cars and campervans but I was lucky enough to find two adjacent spaces for trailer and car. I had a few mackerel left from yesterday but we topped up with a few fresh ones through the day; most caught by accident. It was to be a day when very little bait would be needed. The first couple of drifts produced only one or two small dabs, a fair number of drifts gave even less. We tried drifting over several different areas of sand for only a couple more small dabs whereas last time I covered this ground with Chuckaroo, we had thornies spotties, good dabs and Chuckaroo had a painted ray. Not a single ray or even dogfish showed. A move to a reef in deepish water gave nothing, I didn’t even see any fish on the fishfinder; last time there were plenty of fish but they weren’t taking. “Best” fish was the Bro’s tub gurnard from another sandy drift. A drink at the last chance saloon, a rough ground mark, gave only two mackerel and a take from a decent pollack which shed the hook after two strong dives for the bottom. A few mackerel, some small dabs and a tub gurnard each was all we had to show for over 7 hours effort, disappointing for me but still a day out for the Bro’.
The launch/retrieve site is very gently shelving sand and the boat had to be winched rather than floated on to the trailer. By the time it was on the trailer, the wheels had sunk a bit into the soft sand and wouldn’t budge. I unhitched the trailer, pulled the car a bit further up onto drier sand and used the anchor rope to connect trailer to towbar, still just wheelspin. A change of tactics from a straight pull to a 45 degree angle finally worked as 1 wheel and then the other came free. Boat retrieval just about put the lid on a poor day out, still, after the drive home I came into the kitchen to find herself had a Chinese take-away waiting. Not such a bad day after all.

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The usual extra pics;

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nice report....towtruck may be on the xmas list for them tricky retrievals.

Can see it now "John West Recovery" now to think of your slogan ....

Great report. Beautiful fish. Especially that Blonde doing press ups

Excellent report as always and some really nice fish.

all I want now is to encounter a few whoppers!

yip, onto bigger and better things JW!?

flying ants, hmm, interesting..
like the new net too