whitepark bay county antrim

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#1 Post by **Ronald** » Thu Dec 27, 2007 8:39 pm

People:Me and Helen

Duration:4hrs

Tide:2hrs either side of low water

Weather:overcast s-w wind

Bait:mackerel and sandeel

Rigs:3 hook flapper

Results:turbot,seatrout flounder

Report:We took a chance and headed up to whitepark bay for a couple of hours today ,normally only fish a beach when i have lug or ragworm but at a loose end .
first cast produced my seatrout to whole sandeel,species 50 for the year

of about a pound and half happy days .
Next it was helens turn with a smalll flounder shortly followed by turbot ,I was wandering about in the surf with my new fly outfit trying my luck but noothing happening .
an hour later i had a double shot of turbot on the sandeel ,again helen followed up with a cracking turbot of about a pound .again it all went quiet for an hour ,just as i was packing up the beachcaster helen pulled in another double shot of turbot ,a bit smaller this time at 1/4lb each .
I was surprised at the amount of fish we had considering we had no worm but I'll be heading back up again soon maybe sticking to fish baits for the better turbot .

#2 Post by MC » Thu Dec 27, 2007 9:24 pm

nice turbot, congratulations on getting the 50 speices

#3 Post by **brianbru** » Thu Dec 27, 2007 10:49 pm

nice!!! oh and the turbot nice too

#4 Post by **JOHN1** » Thu Dec 27, 2007 11:15 pm

nice one Ronald fair play on the big 50.

good photos aswell you say you had no worm baits

i might be mistaken but in the last pic with Helen and a turbot if you look at the next top hook it has a lug on it if its not a lug you cam PM me and tell me what they are because i want some

.

ady · #5 Post by **ady** » Thu Dec 27, 2007 11:18 pm

sound like a half decent day. i don't live far from white park bay, i never knew it was much of a fishing area. what part did you fish?...

i bet it was a trek down and up..i think that is what puts me off

#6 Post by **Ronald** » Thu Dec 27, 2007 11:25 pm

Cheers for the congrats ,john ,as for the photo if you look carefully at the top hook with helens turbot the sandeel has slide round the bend of the hook

,you can see the bait elastic .
It is a fair walk down but its worth it for the peace and quite ,the worst bit is walking back up .
I found a dead trigger fish about 20 metres up the track today as well ,looks like it had been dead a while and carried there before being dropped ,prob a fox .

#7 Post by **JOHN1** » Thu Dec 27, 2007 11:52 pm

as i said in the reply i might be mistaken

it still looks like a nice black lug to me

bloody contrast computers don't know why i ever got one no going back now i will have to learn how to zoom in on photos now

well done again Ronald.

#8 Post by **stevecrow74** » Fri Dec 28, 2007 2:09 am

Ronald wrote:if you look carefully at the top hook the sandeel has slide round the bend of the hook ,you can see the bait elastic

indeed you can.. especially in close up

#9 Post by **JOHN1** » Fri Dec 28, 2007 11:53 am

stevecrow and your close up

i have to admit i can just about turn this machine on never mind get a close up

#10 Post by **corbyeire** » Fri Dec 28, 2007 11:58 am

fair play on getting out - good to hear of a scatter of turbot caught

weather is getting the better of me here - great intentions and all that!!!!

#11 Post by **alannelson** » Fri Dec 28, 2007 7:07 pm

nice fishing try to get my girl out fishing no chance not catching many fish on worms at the moment mostly on fish baits

#12 Post by **Drew** » Fri Dec 28, 2007 7:33 pm

Great Session there Ronald, Well done on the Big 50...!!!!

#13 Post by **Jonny** » Sat Dec 29, 2007 8:23 am

Drew wrote:Great Session there Ronald, Well done on the Big 50...!!!!

I agree

#14 Post by **Tom H** » Sat Dec 29, 2007 9:10 am

Nice fishing. Thank any angler would be over the moon with 50 species. Very well done on geting them...

pablorooney · #15 Post by **pablorooney** » Sat Dec 29, 2007 12:02 pm

wheres whitepark bay then ? on the north coast or the antrim coast?

#16 Post by **Ronald** » Sat Dec 29, 2007 1:50 pm

its the north antrim coast pablo ,past ballintoy heading towards bushmills ,park at the youth hostel and walk down the track to the beach .

#17 Post by **rab 525** » Sat Dec 29, 2007 3:15 pm

well done ronald,
its a right track up and down if i remember rightly, would it be any easier walking along coast from ballintoy??
rab

#18 Post by **Ryan** » Sat Dec 29, 2007 4:02 pm

rab 525 wrote:well done ronald,
its a right track up and down if i remember rightly, would it be any easier walking along coast from ballintoy??
rab

It's a flatter walk, but still a long distance. The end Ronald was fishing going by the photo was at the Portbradden end. You used to be able to walk round from Portbradden along the white rocks, don't know if you still can. From the Ballintoy side you have to watch out for high tides as you could get stuck, then a bit of awkward climbing is called for or getting wet

I've done the walk a large number of times and always glad to see the car on the way back!!

Before the "National Trust" claimed to own that area and stuck up the gate at the top of the lane, you could have drove down and parked near the old toilets, just had to watch your route!

Saying i'm in the other side of the world now, that little beach is a pretty good spot for a certain fish named after a beer, or was the beer named after the fish

and you can normally fish it regularly and have the whole beach to yourself

Normally produces decent sea trout in the next couple of months, got most on rag tipped with long thin strips of mackerel.
Also produced very good plaice early in the year as well, along with the Turbot Ronald got and have had a few sole from it.

#19 Post by **Ronald** » Sat Dec 29, 2007 5:10 pm

you cant walk from the ballintoy end now ,the path is closed as there is a few areas badly eroded and mini landslides happening ,its still a fair walk from there anyway ,you could't drive the track from the youth hostel now unless you had a landrover or quad and theres another gate half way down as well.
Interesting on the sole ryan ,I take it you had them on calm nights ,also heard from a local guy that you could get them at l'bane .

#20 Post by **Ryan** » Sat Dec 29, 2007 5:37 pm

Hi Ronald, got the sole just on sunrise or there abouts on rising tide with dead flat sea. Found the beach to always be more productive last couple hours up to high tide.

Re the track down from the youth hostel, its always been bad but i've seen anything from an AX's to Vauxhall Omega's and little Daihatsu(spelling?) van going down that track. I've taken a Citroen AX down it last year

when the gate wasn't locked

On the ballintoy side, the path from the harbour to the beach that i walked only ever took me past one cliff edge of sorts and that was on the beach, rest was flat path across the field. Only walked from Ballintoy if fishing that end of the beach, we've had cod, pollock, coalies, bass, doggies, various flatties, seatrout etc from there.. and couple times had something which managed to bite through 30lb snoods with mackerel fillet for bait

one big pull on the rod and that was it.

If time is spent on it it's one of the better beaches along the north coast IMO with the variation of species available. Only thing is access and i guess thats why for good number of years we could fish it anytime and not see anyone else there, apart from couple times a year when some local clubs had a comp on it.

From your posts you seem like a guy that doesn't mind a climb, if you look at the ballintoy end of the beach the point that sticks out produces good pollock. I'll let ya think on how to get onto that one without getting rather wet! Sandeels slowly spun close to the bottom, as i guess you guys might not have an easy area to get some freshwater eels?