Ballycastle/Rathlin
Posted: Mon Jun 14, 2004 8:36 am
First time ever fishing out of Ballycastle. A great days craic but the fishing was slow. We headed for the pinnacles, far side of Rathlin Island, caught a load of mackerel for bait first, apparently this was the mackerel's first real appearance in the area in any numbers this year according to the skipper - Chris McCaughan . We had Gurnard, Ling and Codling (all fairly small fish). Headed a bit closer to the island (north lighthouse side - spectacular lighthouse by the way) after 2 or 3 hours of slow fishing. First drift I changed to old faithful - 1oz leadhead and black jellyworm with fluro pink tail. First cast, small pollock, every cast afterwards we landed pollock and coalies. Pollock to 7lb was the best of the day - taken by Paul Cassin . Added a new species to my list with a small octopus taken on a baited hokkai !
A feeding frenzy of gulls brought us down a bit from the lighthouse. Every fish landed afterwards was stuffed with sandeel. Had to put the hats on though as we were being bombarded with gull crap !
As I said earlier, a good days craic. Slow fishing but we got out and that's the main thing.
A feeding frenzy of gulls brought us down a bit from the lighthouse. Every fish landed afterwards was stuffed with sandeel. Had to put the hats on though as we were being bombarded with gull crap !
As I said earlier, a good days craic. Slow fishing but we got out and that's the main thing.