West Donegal, 13/01/24

[johnwest]

Chuckaroo had been threatening to head to Donegal for a weekend and had roped in Corbyeire to give some lessons on beach fishing so I joined them for a day to get my 2024 campaign underway. Saturday’s mark was a new one for me, Chuckaroo also, but Corbyeire had some previous experience. The drive from home was pretty depressing, dull, grey, drizzle and fog, but about 20 mins or so from the shore the skies cleared. I arrived at the rendezvous seconds after Chuckaroo to blue skies, winter sunshine and a calm sea, untroubled by any breeze. Corbyeire showed up soon after and laden with gear we tramped off across the sand to the “hotspot”. Hot, of course, is relative….On the way we encountered the remains of a well-rotted skate, well above the current high tide mark. A few yards on were the remains of an even better-rotted seal, the two flippers being the best clue to what it once was. Later on Chuckaroo found a dead trigger fish at the foot of the dunes. What else had the recent rough weather dumped on the shore?
We got set up with about 90 mins of the ebb remaining, I fished two rods while the other two fished three. As mentioned earlier, the sea was very calm with only the smallest of waves breaking within spitting distance. It was quite a while before anything happened; Corbyeire opened the scoring with a small flounder. It was a start but after a while it looked like it might also be the finish. Low water came and went and as the flood began a cooling breeze helped push it in. This did have the effect of building up a little more surf which could only help. I had not even had a chewed bait whether close in or far out. With the tide quickly covering the almost flat beach, I dropped in a freshly baited rig very close in and as I moved back before the advancing tide, I paid out line . If there were any feeding fish about, at some point I would be at the correct distance. Sure enough, just when I was beginning to think I would start the year with a blank, some extra resistance was felt as I retrieved my close in rod. An extremely welcome 25cm turbot had taken the bottom bait of three, blank saved. Corbyeire hauled in a small turbot to relieve the monotony, if this was the hotspot, the rest of the beach must have been well below zero! Finally Chuckaroo connected with a small turbot which auto-released just at the water’s edge but he was quick enough to grab it and get a few pics. That was the end of the action, with darkness descending and a table for three waiting in the hotel, we called it a day. While it was an enjoyable day out and we all avoided a blank, it has to be said that the CPUE so beloved of fisheries researchers was very disappointing; 48 rod hours for 4 small fish. Next time…

[MC]

good start to the year, no blank, hopefully the next time will be better

[corbyeire]

Very fair report, it was strangely warm at the start - should have been a warning of something amiss!