Scotchport Rocks, Belmullet. Mayo 3rd July 2016
Mon Jul 04, 2016 9:43 am
Hi all
Headed out after an hour digging some lug and few white rag short of mulranny with Sean K and Danny.
Drive up saw grey cloud, light to moderate SW winds. Couldn't remember the road so toured a bit of Annagh Head before finding the Eagle Island supply depot.
HW was due around 5:30 pm with a big tide around 4.5 metres.
We had reckoned on fishing 3 hours up and 3 hours down.
Humped our gear out to the mark to find relatively calm conditions, but wind blowing directly into our teeth and casting direction.
Plan had been to try metals, soft plastics and then bait.
No one had brought metals (or at least heavy enough ones capable of negating the headwinds) so we all shifted to plastics. Danny was trying a heavy SG sandeel and I was using a lesser sized Powerbait version. Sean was first into a fish, a nice Pollack around the 3 lb mark in old money, on a pink and black plastic, fished a few feet behind a lot of lead. Depth here always surprises me. Danny followed up with a smaller fish on the SG sandeel - you see they do catch fish!
Yours truly was bait fishing a 7/0 loaded with half a mack fillet when the rod nodded apologetically and I brought in yet another three bearded rockling - average size. In fairness the bait was a bit testy at this stage - in fact it all went into the water at the end of the session - we had a collection of gulls to put a trawler to shame but more of that later...
After that it all went quiet, especially as we neared high water. Very disappointing as there was tons of white water and seemed to be sprat in the water keeping the gulls interested. Been back a few times over the years and its never matched the first session there...
We persisted losing the odd lure and trying out luck with the lug and rag for gunner/wrasse but there was nothing happening. Lots of small twitchy bites, almost landed an edible crab, but nothing doing. With HW well past, we switched back to the lures and I brought in a small Pollack (great fight on a light spinning rod) and missed another. PowerBait Sandeel came back less its head - which is a new one on me. We shifted around and tried further out into the channel but with no luck. Gulls became a small swarm and Danny spotted one of Sean's Pollack heading off for its holidays, courtesy of GullAir. Feckers are awful cheeky.
Closed up shop about 8 pm, and headed back for chips to find France winning 5:2...
My aching bones - I have paid for it this morning! Old age is creeping up on me - them damn rocks are fearsome on the joints!
Did I mention I trashed a light spinning rod too - well, had it many many years so it owed me nothing.
Still a three bearded glutton and a Pollack are a poor showing for what was once a prime mark.... Sean reckons it could be being netted for pot bait?
Headed out after an hour digging some lug and few white rag short of mulranny with Sean K and Danny.
Drive up saw grey cloud, light to moderate SW winds. Couldn't remember the road so toured a bit of Annagh Head before finding the Eagle Island supply depot.
HW was due around 5:30 pm with a big tide around 4.5 metres.
We had reckoned on fishing 3 hours up and 3 hours down.
Humped our gear out to the mark to find relatively calm conditions, but wind blowing directly into our teeth and casting direction.
Plan had been to try metals, soft plastics and then bait.
No one had brought metals (or at least heavy enough ones capable of negating the headwinds) so we all shifted to plastics. Danny was trying a heavy SG sandeel and I was using a lesser sized Powerbait version. Sean was first into a fish, a nice Pollack around the 3 lb mark in old money, on a pink and black plastic, fished a few feet behind a lot of lead. Depth here always surprises me. Danny followed up with a smaller fish on the SG sandeel - you see they do catch fish!
Yours truly was bait fishing a 7/0 loaded with half a mack fillet when the rod nodded apologetically and I brought in yet another three bearded rockling - average size. In fairness the bait was a bit testy at this stage - in fact it all went into the water at the end of the session - we had a collection of gulls to put a trawler to shame but more of that later...
After that it all went quiet, especially as we neared high water. Very disappointing as there was tons of white water and seemed to be sprat in the water keeping the gulls interested. Been back a few times over the years and its never matched the first session there...
We persisted losing the odd lure and trying out luck with the lug and rag for gunner/wrasse but there was nothing happening. Lots of small twitchy bites, almost landed an edible crab, but nothing doing. With HW well past, we switched back to the lures and I brought in a small Pollack (great fight on a light spinning rod) and missed another. PowerBait Sandeel came back less its head - which is a new one on me. We shifted around and tried further out into the channel but with no luck. Gulls became a small swarm and Danny spotted one of Sean's Pollack heading off for its holidays, courtesy of GullAir. Feckers are awful cheeky.
Closed up shop about 8 pm, and headed back for chips to find France winning 5:2...
My aching bones - I have paid for it this morning! Old age is creeping up on me - them damn rocks are fearsome on the joints!
Did I mention I trashed a light spinning rod too - well, had it many many years so it owed me nothing.
Still a three bearded glutton and a Pollack are a poor showing for what was once a prime mark.... Sean reckons it could be being netted for pot bait?
Re: Scotchport Rocks, Belmullet. Mayo 3rd July 2016
Mon Jul 04, 2016 10:42 am
god it seems to be the story on all the rocks around the west, the fishing gone to crap
seems to be better to store up the fishing hours and just give in and head south - or north to donegal bay!
who would have thought it would come to this in galway/mayo
seems to be better to store up the fishing hours and just give in and head south - or north to donegal bay!
who would have thought it would come to this in galway/mayo
Re: Scotchport Rocks, Belmullet. Mayo 3rd July 2016
Mon Jul 04, 2016 10:23 pm
Its a sad state of affairs alright corbyeire.. Im going to give it a lash again in bellmullet at the weekend going try a few others spots to..