Duration: Saturday 2.00 - 5.30 pm; Sunday 2.00 -6.45 pm; Monday - 5 minutes in the afternoon
Tide: HW at 5.00 - 5.30 pm
Weather: cloudy, SW breeze on Saturday, sunny light SW breeze on Sunday
Bait: Lugworm, razor, peeler crab
Rigs: 3/0 pennel pulley, 2/0 two hook flapper, Size 1 three hook flapper
Results: 1 spider crab
Report: I was in West Cork for the Bank Holiday weekend with the girlfriend - so not really a serious fishing weekend but I did have the opportunity to do some afternoon fishing - the first time I had the chance to get out since the previous Sunday.
We checked into the Hotel on Friday evening and there was a bit of a Southwesterly picking up so I thought that looked good for a bit of surf fishing the next day. Unfortunately everybody with a surf board must have thought the same thing and they all headed to West Cork
I woke up Saturday morning and could see a good surf rolling in - then spotted all the dark specks - swarms of surfers like flies on s**t.
That beach was out - drove on further west, the beach at the mouth of Courtmacsherry bay bad a good surf but it also had a bunch of kite surfers
. We drove on a bit further and set up across the bay from Courtmacsherry village. But almost immediately weed proved a problem - it was being carried in by the flooding tide and was choking up the rigs within minutes. I stuck it out for about an hour but then decided to move on elsewhere. I had a look at Dunworley Bay - no surfers and a good surf . I havn't heard much about this been a good mark but decided to give it a go anyway - but not a bite - and weed was a problem again - gave up at 5.30 pm and went back to the hotel to watch Doctor Who.Sunday the weather was good - bright warm sunny day. I had thought about fishing a rock mark for pollock that I found last Summer but there were still some sizeable swells and that particular mark could be dangerous in rough seas. So I though we would try elsewhere. The beaches were even more infested with surfers - did Lidl have a surfing special lately??
Had a look a Muckross Point but there was a fair bit of weed about. Drove on to Dunnycove and set up. Got snagged, lost tackle and shock leader. Then thought I had a bite, reeled it in to find a large spider crab munching on my bait
I decided to move on, we drove past Red Strand again full of surfers, and went on to Long Strand. There were a few surfers about but mostly on the middle section of the beach so I set up at the eastern end and fished for a couple of hours without a bite. Afterwards I read on the Shore Marks section of this website that Long Strand fishes best at low tide for some bizarre reason.
Monday morning I had a look at the beach near the hotel - full of weed and a few surfers. So headed back to East Cork. Since the fishless fever had set in I decided to give an East Cork beach a try. As I was getting the rods out of the car, Shane and his buddy arrived. We headed down to the beach - the surf was dense with weed, we moved further along and it seemed to be clearer. I cast out the rods but within minutes the lines were choked with weed. As I was struggling to retieve one of the lines with a 5 or 6 lb ball of weed my back was to the rod stand and I heard a shout from Shane - rod and stand had disappeared in to the surf
Fortunately Shane was quick enough to grab them out of the water before they vanished for good - thanks very much Shane 
We gave up after that - fishing was impossible with the amount of weed.
Thank you Scotsman, Petekd and Kieran for your advise.
So between surfers and weed it was not the best weekend of fishing I have ever had. Where is a shark when you need one?
I must get one of those little remote control toy boats, fit a fake shark dorsal fin on to it and cruise it up and down about 50-70 m out on next beach I want to fish that has surfers on it
