Rosguill, Downings - 26th June '06 (Poss Irish Record Torsk)

People: Myself and 5 Dutch Anglers.

Duration: 9am - 8:30pm
Tide: ??? - 40 miles out in open water.

Weather: Sunny, clear skies little or no wind

Bait:Live mackeral, flappers, whole dead mackeral

Rigs: 4-6ft 130lb Flowing traces & 8/0 bronzed hooks, baited pirks, large wrecking leadheads.

Results: Pollack to 10lbs+, 1 Small Ling (5-6lbs), 2 specimen Torsk

Report:
Got the chance to join a crew of Dutch anglers fishing for a week with Michael McVeigh. Once i heard the plan for the day, i was more than happy to join them. We were headed to fish a group of 3 wrecks lying about 40 miles NW of Downings (quite a steam to get there).

These 3 wrecks lie in water from 90m to about 115m, and are fairly small wrecks and little else is known about them - eg. Type or name of vessel. The skipper discovered them on an exploration trip in Nov '05 looking for new marks to fish.

On arrival everyone was keen to get started after 2hrs of a journey, and immediately the baits were in the water.

Action was fairly instant, with Pollack hammering the all the various baits on offer - though i personally found the live mackeral most effective. The fish were of a decent size, and i managed a PB fish of about 10.5lbs. Unfortunately, whilst the fishing was hectic, there were none that came close to reaching specimen weight.

The skipper was disappointed in the lack of ling at any of the 3 wrecks fished, apart from a solitary fish there were no others caught.

However, the main objective the group had was to fish for the elusive Torsk that only seems to show in these wrecks to the NW of Donegal in deep water - apart from the odd exception here and there.

As we were about to leave the first wreck, one of the Dutch anglers caught the first Torsk of the day. His lucky day, as when later weighed, the fish just made the 6lb specimen weight!

[img]http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b287/aontroim/c-6lb-torsk.jpg[/img]
First Torsk to be boated - 6lb+specimen

On the second wreck, the pollack were again on the feed, but no Torsk to report, so it was off to the final wreck lying in 93m of water and about 75m long.

Here, another of the Dutch lads boated another Torsk, considerably bigger that the previous one, so there was no need to check the weight, as it was definitely a specimen fish. However back on shore once this fish was weighed on certified scales, it soon became clear that this was possibly a new Irish Record!

[img]http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b287/aontroim/c-record-torsk.jpg[/img]
Jan de Bakker from Achtmaal - Holland, with his possible new Irish Record Torsk of 10.71lbs

[img]http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b287/aontroim/c-record-torsk-head.jpg[/img]
Smiling for the camera!

The current record stands at 10lb 11oz - equates to 10.6875lbs. The fish we weighed tipped the scales at 10.71lbs, so on paper it is a heavier fish, but there is a degree of uncertainty whether this will become the new record given the close margin involved.

The matter will now be looked at by the Irish Specimen Fish Committee and hopefully they will confirm a new record, but it will be a tough call!

It was a long day out but well worth it for the sport on possibly unfished wrecks, and getting to see Torsk being caught isn't something that happens often.

Wrecking two days in a row, John? You must've been,,,, well, wrecked! :D

Sounds like a cracking day out.

Took Tuesday off and had another bash yesterday - anchoring on the Laurentic for Conger - report to follow! Really wrecked now - but i'm not working myself too hard today!

Nice Torsk there, did you hook any yourself John?

Unfortunately not Pete - would have been well chuffed with a specimen Torsk - even a specimen anything for that matter! Happy enough with a PB pollack though.

What did the torsk go for?

Both Torsk were caught on either whole mackeral or a flapper.

We used to call them Tusk when I worked on the boats out of Killybegs...

They look very much like a ling