Duration:2 days of rock hoping !!
Tide:
Weather:bright and suny then cloudy
Bait:mackerel and ragworm
Rigs:various
Results:ballan,cuckoo,corkwing wrasse . turbot ,dab,doggies ,pouting .
Report:I had a couple of days of work and nothing to do so I loaded up the Ian Golds rucksack packed in my tent and sleeping bag and headed for whitepark bay hoping for a relaxing couple of days on the beach .
On arrival the beach was deserted and there was hardly any movement in the sea ,I plodded on down anyway and got the rods cast out into one of the deep gullies running from the beach ,with the sun beating down I was glad to have the shorts on and was able to walk about in the water trying my luck with the spinning rod ,after 2 hrs of reeling the bait rods in to find the baits untouched a move was on the cards ,so upped sticks and headed another 300m up the beach an hour later I managed my first first fish , a wee turbot about 1/4lb ,by now the wind blowing the dry sand up the beach was starting to annoy a bit so I thought sod this ,I'll head around the coast a bit , so a20min walk later I was on the rocks behind portbradden ,normally theres a swell running onto this area but not today so I spent the next 3hrs working my way around all the islands and gullies ,no sign of any wrasse in there yet but come july-sept there should be some good fishing to be had here weather permitting , one spot was close to 40 feet deep of the edge of the rocks .
I eventually decided to set up camp just past dunseverick and get the cooker on as by now I was starving ,after a good feed and getting the tent pitched ,with 2 hours light left I made my way down to the rocks to try and get a few fish on the bait rods , no sooner had the baits touched the bottom when the first bites registered ,for the next hour it was constant doggies mixed in with a few dabs, as the light went it was time to get the head down so it was back to base for a cup of coffee ,well that was the idea ,I'd forgot to bring it with me
The next morning saw me being woken about 5.30 by the fulmars on the cliff below ,but managed to get the head down again and got up at 7.30 , still no coffee , headed to meet nifisher in portrush were he was getting stocked up on rag whilst i got stocked up on a cup of coffee and a few sausage rolls
We headed onto ramore head with the first hour being quite with no bites we made a move to another spot were Imanaged a few bites before connecting with the first wrasse of the session ,about 5 fish later jonny was contimplating taking his worms back as they weren't working
but a few pointers later the jammy bugger landed the best fish of the day with a 2lb wrasse , it stayed pretty constant with a steady stream of wrasse in the 1lb area with alot of smaller fish as well ,then i pulled a female cuckoo wrasse ,which i forgot to photograph for the species hunt must have been tiredness .It was a good couple of days and I look forward to trying out a few new marks come late summer , also good to see Jonny getting a new personal best wrasse .
