Sea Angling Ireland

This week i have time off, and intend to make the most of the good weather. is there any one out there wants to join me fishing out of Youghal ? I will need assistance with hitching in Fermoy, and launch in Youghal, but nothing too strenuous. I do have my skippers cert, and many years experience. but you may be required to file the report for S.A.I.

Well on Friday last I launched my Alaska from Ferry Point near Youghal. I brought with me a customer from our tackle shop, Colin, Colin is a salmon angler and we have fished salmon on the Blackwater together several times. I had asked Colin to bring a spinning rig which i stowed away for later. Colin had specificity asked to target ling, so after picking up a blast of mackerel we headed to a deep channel located between two reefs 7miles south of youghal.
There was no wind and the drift could not have been better, bringing us along the trench at 2 knots, Any other time on this mark i had thrown out the anchor so this was pure pleasure of a drift.
We landed 4 ling around the 6ld mark, the swim bladder had blown in all the ling so we stopped this method as there was no point in killing more of these slow growing species.
I repositioned over a pinnical that juts up from 103ft to 40ft, and told Colin to thread his salmon rod and handed him a lead-head loaded with a fire tailed jelly worm the tactic was to cast into the direction of the drift so that by the time the boat had passed over the 1/2 oz bait it would have neared the bottom and then it will start to rise through the water as we move away, however the worm was hit by a torpedo of a pollack which stripped line from the fixed spool reel. The smile on Colin face only compared to a child at Christmas. seral more drifts produced the same results and we moved of to locate some cod. Baited hokeyes did the job and we came home happy but tired boys.

Sounds like a great mark,did you ever try it for conger..
There's noting better then a good day on the water..

The conger are there al-right, but they would not be my favourite species, they are so messy. In fact i fish a running ledger boom with two large lummi floating beads at the hook, that plus a decent length of rotten bottom to the lead tends to keep the conger away, but the ling seem to have no bother rising to the bait.
By the way, anybody got any tips on this project boat ?

thats a great session and looks a brill day. well done. as for the project boat... i was once told if its holding water it means there is on hole in it. . good luck.

Thanks for the encouragement, this craft appears to hold water roughly twice a day, Mmmmmmmmmmm

Once again i am going to launch in Youghal, depending on weather, either tues, thurs of friday. if anybody would like to join in the fun, let me know. Fionn

Hi,

I would love to go out for some fishing, I would be available on tuesday. Can you tell me what times you go out and come back ?

Ok, heres the agenda. High tide is at 14.22. i want to be on the Western reef for the flooding tide so would need you to be at the Tackle shop in fermoy at 7am and we would not be back much before 7pm, How does that sound ?

bait all wrote:Ok, heres the agenda. High tide is at 14.22. i want to be on the Western reef for the flooding tide so would need you to be at the Tackle shop in fermoy at 7am and we would not be back much before 7pm, How does that sound ?

thanks, I've sent you a pm. As I'm going to have trouble with the times, and will have to opt out.

I am in the fortunate position to have a bit of time for angling out of Youghal, for the next few days. Any experienced angler who finds them self at a loose end can give me a shout and see if we can get out.

After posting my offer to take out an angler through S.A.I. Two lads arrived into the shop and asked to try some boat angling. Mick & Tom, had very little experience and no tackle.
Knowing this was going to be a challenging trip I took my standby, standby rods and reels. So yesterday (thurs) we launched the Alaska at Ferry Point, Youghal.
The first problem occurred after only 10mins heading when the G.P.S. started to flicker and then blanked. Still, we had the sonar and I would have a good knowledge of the area.
Picking up mackerel was no problem, but getting through them to the fish below was.It seemed there was a blanket of them and even dropping through them at pace you would end up foul hooking at least one. But we must not complain. But dropping through them at pace became the undoing of Mick, whose reel overspun resulting in a whopper of a birds nest which also resulted in his line wrapping around the prop'. Meanwhile, tom got stuck in the bottom, letting out 50mt of line before I could get to him and tie it off on the stern cleat so that it parted company with the seabed.
During all this, the sonar started alarming shallow water and would not quit. We were in 90ft so I was not concerned too much until it croaked its last and also went blank.
Now, the good bits, I had taken this opportunity to try some new rigs we stocked. and the one that outfished all others was the ' Glow Head Rig' a 3 hook 3/0 mini Muppet job. with a strip of mackerel dropped to the bottom produced every time. I have included some photo's, but I didnt have much time for good focus.
OH, Mick and tom said they will do it again.

That rig looks good I must call into you and get a few packets

Its good to be able to really test products that are on offer. I am always trying new stuff that companies bring out, unfortunately, there's a lot of shite amongst them. last season there were 3 hook tube /feather rigs that looked the business, and worked a treat. but the spade end hook they were tied on had a sharp edge, and when a big fish took, the line parted. I have rebuilt these rigs and made some adjustments which I shall show in a separate post, and it is a truly winning setup.