Some advice for Cork SWFF trip?

[deno]

My brother and I have been invited to Inchydoney Co. Cork next weekend for a SWFF sortie. As mentioned previously I have only recently taken to fly fishing but after a summer of Pollack in Killiney I have been severely affected by it. It will be my first SWFF first trip to the south west coast and I know very little about the area and species available. I'm fairly sure that the staple of pollack and mackerel will be on the menu over the rougher areas but what else should we try and target? I have sub-surface hopes of trying for bass but I shant say its name to loudly for fear of jinxing the trip.

So I have a couple of question?

If bass are to be had in this area can anyone spread some light on what types of fly and colouration is working at the moment?

Is fluorocarbon tippets and leaders worth the extra shillings in terms or catch rates?

Unfortunately I don't think the tides are very favourable to match the main dawn and dust feeding times. The tide are as follows.

Friday 5th: 06.19 LW, 12.33 HW, 19.17LW
Saturday 6th: 01.15 HW, 08.00 LW, 14.01 HW, 20.42 LW
Sunday 7th: 02.29 HW, 09.11 LW, 15.02 HW, 21.39 LW

What fishing times do people think might be most favourable?

Any information and tips regarding the area would be very much appreciated.

Regards

Denis

[kieran]

Deno

Bass definitely available in the area but not sure as to fly patterns as I am not a SWFF person. Anything that imitates a sandeel would probably work as there are lots of sand eel holding estuaries and bays in the area...

There are also some good rock marks around the Galley Head area and to the east of this into Dirk Bay. Some of the Peters on the forums here might be able to help you, as they fish in the area regularly.

Try also the tackle shop at Half Way on the main road to Cork. Chaotic but the owner is very generous with advice and current information.

Hope this helps

[JimH]

D

we wont mention the B word but its definetly something you should keep at the forefront of your mind. I fish a lot in cork but not that far west -

Lumpy is your man for the area.

Try fishing big flies and i mean flies off about 9 or 10 inches - dark blue over white or maybe a bit of grey and white (more grey). At the moment a black and pink bucktail pattern is working for me - but thats just fishing! Deceiver type patterns cast and then simply paused followed by a long strip with a stop.

i'll put some patterns on the web tomorrow for you to see.

Also try the usual surface patterns at low water staying well back from the edge before making your first casts then fan out as you move slowly into the sea.

best jim

[deno]

Thank you both for your speedy replies.

Kieran, I've spun off Galley head before and picked up a couple of pollack but nothing of any major size but it would definitely be worth another go. As far as I can recall the area is suitable for SWFF in terms of room to cast so its definitely an option if nothing makes an appearance at Inchydoney strand. I will also keep an eye peeled for the tackle shop and if time permits we can go in for a bit of questions and answers and buy some stuff that I don't necessarily need.

Jim, cheers for the info regarding which flys to use. I'm apprehensive now about trying to chuck a 9-10 inch fly. I've used fairly large flies for pike but not on that sort of scale and have only had trouble trying to get any distance (I'm sure its all about practice). Never the less, I shall get my brother to start work on creating something similar posthaste. Regarding the materials used to make such large flies, I thought that bucktail maxed out at 5 inches, so what material are used to create a 10 inch long fly?


While reading about Inchydoney I found this photo on the web.

[img]http://inchydoney.net/images/aerial.png[/img]

Its quite a good snap and you can make out the areas that fish might congregate in. The western end of the beach looks promising e.g. rocks, surf, river mouth. It also looks like one might pick up a wild-card seatrout if they happened to be feeding.

[JimH]

D

Maybe a short holiday is not the place to start practising with big flies - better to enjoy yourself with the usual sizes. I do know a bass fisherman from the US who has demonstrated to me the technique of casting big flies. He can cast a 14inch fly 100 feet or more on a #7 - its not easy but it can be done.

I send you a pm of some of the flies/details we built here, these are just rip-offs of some of the american patterns and adapted to Irish waters.

[deno]

Thanks Jim for the information, however I didn't receive your pm regarding the fly patterns.

As for the ability of some people to cast. I've always been amazed at how some people can cast from the front of a moving boat into a head on breeze (youtube video). This in my opinion in a particularly good one of guys fishing for bluefin of the north east coast of the states. My favourite part is at 3.15 when one of the guys hook up and the fish leaves a wake like a jet-ski going past. [url=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sm_YJhSA6TA]Bluefin Fly Fishing[/url]


Another quick question. I was looking at the snaps on your web site and very few people seem to have a line basket. I have one but in your own personal opinion how do you rate them as a piece of kit?

[JimH]

Hi again D

Casting is without doubt the biggest demand faced by any SWFF - but better to try and present effectively at 45 feet than dumping line at 80 feet

Regarding a stripping basket - i have a few trains of thought. If you are deep wading (chest) with little or no right to left flow of water even with some wave activity you can manage to cast sufficient distance to catch fish and not become distracted by line management.

If there is a right or left flow of water then line management becomes an issue as your running line will follow the flow naturally. I have a home made simple device thats kind of a clip that i hook onto my jacket and I simply loop the running line over it as i retrieve. One loop of line doubled over is in fact about 12-15 feet so about two loops plus the head is 70 feet say - good enough for me.

When waves are breaking over rocks dropping the line onto them can be a nightmare. Mussells. barnacles, rough edges, seaweed all seem to develop a magnetism for your running line. If there is a lot of wave activity this is particularly difficult. You can be the kind of guy who will consider this another challenge and have the patience to fish through it or you can use a basket.

At the moment i dont use a basket at all - for my sins! I personally hate them but they are a necessary evil sometimes like above. The debate rages about which type - and how they should be built and worn and with or without spikes or bulbs.

attached are low res fotos of some ideas

SW1 - no need to use a line tray just watch where you put your feet
SW2 - no need to use a line tray minimal wave and wind activity
SW3 - use a line tray, rocks mussels, waves etc - unless you have patience
SW4 - the line tray i prefer

have a look at the pattern below
http://www.flytyingworld.com/PagesG/gs- ... lammer.htm

[JimH]

and the line tray i prefer

[JimH]

Remember D - these guys have a lot of practice and its commonplace for them to experience such quality fishing. The captain or guide is really doing his job here with the positioning and boat management for fish and conditions. It is truly magnificent fishing - imagine catching a 10lb mackerel and we might be close.........

Some things - the slightly elevated position of the caster above the water is and advantage when casting (keeping your balance is not easy). They are fishing big reels with big lines (teenys i suspect) and have developed their DH nicely. In Ireland standing on rocks can give you the same distance advantage - but remember to fish around them before climbing onto them, and watch your backcast over rocky ground too.

If you would like to develop your SW casting a little take a look at George Roberts - SW fly casting 10 steps to distance and power available from http://www.sportfish.co.uk its worth the investment.

Good luck at Cork

[deno]

Jim, Many thanks for the reply. As always your posts are full of fine tips. I don't think I am one of those people who would see trying to keep fly line from getting caught in rocks, seaweed etc.. as a challenge, there is enough going wrong already!. A couple of weeks ago I had a limpet put a big permanent kink in my #5 line. Water was breaking over the rock I was finishing on, the limpet lifted and started to move, the line went under its edge at which the shellfish decided it didn't like it and clamped down hard with the line underneath. There was no lifting it and I didn't have a knife so it took a finley place rock blow to get it back.

[img]http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1159/1332310875_8b3c57e415.jpg[/img]

I will have a look at the "sportfishing" link later today. As for a 10lb mackerel! It would be rather impressive! Thanks again!

Denis

[JimH]

D

do you have a nice story about the weekend?

[deno]

Hi Jim, thanks for the inquiry regarding the fishing trip.

The weekend in itself was very pleasurable and the area around “mid”-west cork is very impressive in terms of landscape, fishing marks and general niceness. However, disappointingly the fish did not seem to have the hunger on them, this coupled with a weed plague of epic proportions meant that fishing was less than productive. After the six hour trip (gotta love Friday traffic) we landed into Inchydoney, a quick cut of tea, steak, potatoes chased with a beer saw us out the door with forks, buckets and the newly repaired Coleman lamp. We try to collect sandeel from the large tidal sand riffles at the mount of the estuary but they also appeared to be out of residence for the weekend. With “one” sandeel in the bucket, we collect a few lug and went about bait fishing the estuary channel. As foreseen by our host for the weekend the weed (sea lettuce) was still in the location and made the area unfishable. We turned our attention to the main beach and the result for an hours fishing was a single flatty about 10 meters from the shore. With the tide starting to cut us off we packed up and headed home.

The next morning saw us up early and taking a quick trip westwards to the mouth of Rosscarbery estuary. It was idyllic conditions for flying fishing. The tide was just binging to turn, little or no wind and a fairly large wave running but with decent intervals so one wasn’t getting bashed continually. An added bonus was that a local SWFF enthusiast was already fishing the mouth and he seemed more than happy to part with information the structure of the sand bar at the mouth of the estuary and in what direction to throw the odd lucky cast into. On leaving he stated, “good luck with the rest of the fishing, unlike you lucky bast£$rds, I have to go home and spend time with the wife and kids”. The next hour and a half was spent waste deep in glassy clean surf but alas no bass. Although, mullet where literally everywhere. On most casts where the fly and line landed a swirl of water would appear. You could see the fish in the wall of the wave just before it broke, very impressive but very frustrating. After the tide rose and my armpits began to get wet from wave action we decided to move.

The next stop was Galleyhead for some rough ground fish. The brother set about float fishing with lug and mackerel for wrasse but as the day continued and the tide rose so did the swell. The large volumes of water moving about made it completely unsafe to stand anywhere remotely near the water edge thus causing a problem to get any distance with the fly rod. I also suspect that the large breakers pushed the majority of fish further offshore as there was no signs of interest. After loosing a number flys to the rocks behind me I gave up and had a bash of the brother spinning rod. At full distance with a bass bullet I managed to pick up a Pollack on the drop and that was that for Galleyhead.

A beach near Ardfield was the next venue (forget the name it could be longstrand). The brother and his friend turned to surface poppers and fished from the rocks on the left which allowed them to fish into the back of the breaking surf. I figured that I would persevere with the fly rod and I waded out into the breaking waves. Unfortunately, these waves were just breaking a little too large causing me all sorts of heartache in terms of testicle pounding, uncontrollable fly line bedlam and much dismayed head shaking. The brother managed a single mackerel on a toby and that was that.
After dinner and a bit more lug digging (get your lug from your local source before heading down to Inchydoney as the local supply in very limited). We set out after the France V’s New Zealand match for some more bait fishing. This time we went to the rocks north of the Inchydoney estuary mouth, we had to move a number of times for weed and large waves related problems but our efforts for the evening resulted in a measly two dog fish for three lines in the water for three hours and we headed for home.

Sunday morning was very similar to the previous day with a small swell, fresh breeze and slightly over cast conditions. Myself and the brother donned waders, sunscreen, stripping baskets and headed for the mouth of Inchydoney estuary. Only in the day light could one truly appreciate the amount of weed in the water. It was literally everywhere, from the mouth of the Ring estuary all along the beach to the Inchydoney side. There was so much greenery in the estuary when the tide was out that I will quote my brother “it looks like a filed”. This abundance of sea lettuce can not be naturally occurring and must be a result of enrichment (polite for human excrement) that all the new housing developments must be pumping untreated into the Ring and Inchydoney estuaries. There was not a sign of weed in Rosscarbery and if this weed had been naturally occurring it would have been there too. Can anyone point out where the sewage treatment facility for the new Inchydoney hotel is, oh wait there is none!!! But they do have a pumping station on the edge of the estuary. My eyebrows are raised!

On with the fishing report, as the Inchydoney estuary was unfishable we walked eastwards to the mouth of the Ring estuary, weed was still in abundance and I would say that only one cast in three was fishing the way it was supposed to. My brother reduced the size of the fly and it seemed to help. However, for all our efforts no fish (excluding mullet) where observed or seemed interested. This area seemed perfect for bass with a large sand shelf that the tide and wave action pushed over dropping food down into the main channel. My brother saw a small shoal of very juvenile bass but that was it for the day and we packed up and headed for Dublin.

All in all it was a very pleasant weekend but west Cork is a very long drive for a day and a half’s fishing so it might not be repeated again soon. As for the abysmal catch rate, That’s Fishing for you and it just means that I will have to keep trying.

[JimH]

Hi guy

Thats a detailed report no doubt - when i was in cork during the summer i took two days out to visit in detail all these estuaries. I planned the run so that the driving was done when the tide was out and boy was there a mass of 'sea lettuce'. I never witnessed anything like it before. I took some fotos of the 'Green weed' - incredible stuff.

Conditions were not easy for you by all accounts as waves are difficult to deal with. Tides a little slack too - as they say

'You should have been there THIS week'.

Thanks for the notes - one thing - if you can see the fish they can see you too.......Lumpy is the only person i know who SWFF this area regularly he may be of some help reagrding a future vist and the weed status!