Skerries, Dublin 4/08/04

[dtsacs]

Launched from Skerries @ 1730hrs last night. The tide was falling but I was hoping to get some Mackeral for the Rush open this week-end. 3 of us aboard headed out to the islands armed with only feathers, a freezer box and big hopes. Tried a few spots on the northern side of the 2 islands but only 2 Mackeral came aboard so we headed back in closer to shore between the red bouy and the harbour. Our luck changed and we bagged around twenty Mackeral before things quitened down. It was a nice evening so we decided to head back out to a point I have not fished before off one of the islands. We had no sooner dropped our lines in the water when all three rods bent over with fish on but this time they were not Mackeral but Pollack, 2 and 3 at a go. They were a bit on the small side (average between 250 & 300mm, but Robbie got a nice one over 400mm) but there was lots of them. It was impossible to get the lines to the bottom without hooking a couple of fish on each line. My first drop I had 2 Pollack, next drop 2 Pollack & 1 Mackeral, next 3 Pollack, it was the same with the other 2 lads. After a few min's we had to move off because the object of the evenings fishing was to get Mackeral and we could not get past the Pollack that seemed to be everywhere under our boat. If we had come out to fish for Pollack we might never had found this spot. We shifted back to the red bouy, caught a few more Mackeral before heading into the harbour. It was around 2000hrs at this stage and the water was well out on the sand, a bit of a struggle to get the boat on the trailer in the low water but everything worked out well. Overall a good nights fishing and a new mark is now on my GPS for future reference.
Damien

[Guest]

Good report there.
A couple of questions,I would like to go out boat fishing for Mackerel,is there anywhere I could contact for a day trip? and how much would it cost?,I'm in Dublin btw.

[dtsacs]

I'm not aware of any boats that can be hired from the Dublin area bar those in Bullock Harbour (just past Dun Laoghaire). You would need some experience as you are required to skipper them yourself, but in saying that they are not hard to master and plenty of people hire them on a good week-end. You are limited to the Dalkey/Bullock area and I know Luke Skully went into these boats in some detail on one of the other reports. To be honest the Mackeral are playing a good game of Hide and Seek at the moment in Dublin Bay and it can be quite hard to get a nice bag of them. Most small boat owners who fish a lot only target Mackeral to have as bait for bigger fish and this is done mostly close to or on the way out to a day's fishing.
Damien

[Guest]

Cheers for reply Damien.
If anyone reading this knows anything going a bit further out in the bay please put details up.