co. down beach marks

[ginguscann]

im very much a self taught fisherman and have had no mentors or big uncles to show me what to do. ive read all the books and have all the right gear and i know what im doing, eventually, but im sick of going to the same marks listed. could someone please offer me advice on somewhere as close to belfast as possible that i could fish from a beach or rocks (not a pier), please help a brother out ???

many thanks

[JULIO RAGWORM]

I hope a few of the guys from co.down have responded to you, in my experience that side of the lough is pretty slow all year and ive seen or heard nothing of note being caught in over 20 years, if you come around to the antrim side of the lough the best spot on the entire lough is the rocks below blackhead lighthouse, I would recommend float fishing with rag or lug but any bait is ok down there, pollock,coalie and wrasse in the summer months are the main species but it does get busy with mackerel bashers, ive had pollock to 7lb and some of the biggest ballan wrasse ive seen. You can bottom fish but its a tackle graveyard and expect heavy losses, if you do fish the bottom you will get doggies,bull huss,conger,codling. The next marks on this side would be portmuck, ballylumford pier or brownsbay beach both of which hold fish but not any size and the first 2 mentioned get full pretty quickly. There are nearly zero marks around belfast so you would need to be travelling if you are looking some decent fishing. I know there are guys on here who fish crawfordsburn, helens bay, donaghadee etc but there has not been one decent report from any of them in years if ever lol. Try and set your sights on going a bit further a field and as i said the better fishing is on the antrim side of the lough.

[Drew]

Julio's right, there's nothing of note down this way.