clifden bay co galway 28 october 2008

[gfkelly1969]

People:only me

Date :28/10/08

Venue:clifden bay rock mark and beach

Duration:19.30 - 22.45

Tide: high 16:34 4.9m low 22:31 0.8m

Weather:starry night with 2 showers and high winds from north west

Bait:mackerel

Rigs: 2 hook flapper

Results: Blank

tried my usual rock mark lots of crab then saw a flare go off out at sea went to talk to lifeboat station they told me they were out training,thought I was the only mad one out tonight,don't forget to support the RNLI you never know when you might need them,hopefully you or I wont but you never know

http://www.rnli.org.uk/how_to_support_us

tried the beach near the life boat station but no bites there too only more crabs at least I got some bait for next time

[corbyeire]

do you find the hardbacks effective for other species apart from wrasse?

hard luck on the blank but we all get them

indeed i echo the support the rnli call - fair play to them

[gfkelly1969]

hi corbyeire I get a few types of crabs here one a green colour I think this is the hard back correct me if I am wrong and small brown crabs with claws like disks,the brown works well on ray and dog fish,have not caught any ray on green but caught dogs on it,I have seen a lot of ray turn out their stomachs but never seen them spit out green crab,

never caught a wrasse but tried float fishing with green and brown and the bait came back half eaten maybe I am using the wrong type of hook,the next day time session I do I will try for wrasse,have seen a spot I think might be good also may be good for bass

[corbyeire]

the ones with claws like disks are swimmers - hard back refers to the state their shell is in

if its brittle it could be about to pop (peeler), twist the back leg to see is another one forming underneath - fish can sense the state the crab is in and like a soft meal! so this is seen as the best form of crab

but they can be hard to find

if its soft it could be just after peeling - softies - also seen as a good bait but not as good as peelers

then hardbacks just as you find them most of the time

usually from my experience - the wrasse seem to only go for the hardbacks - so its very interesting to hear that the swimmers attract both ray and dogs and that you got dogs on those plague like green crabs!

generallly the wrasse can be hard enough to hook up - you need to time your strike - they are extremely wiley at getting your bait off

you should try downsizing your hook size - as unless there is a monster or two down there its more than likely a bunch of smaller females picking away at it

good luck

[gfkelly1969]

thank you corbyeire for all the advice nice to learn some thing new

got dogs on the green crabs but maybe that was because the dogs were plague like that night

have not seen any wrasse any time I have been fishing clifden but going to try a different spot sat if I get out,I will take your advice and down size the hooks,I would love to catch one

[corbyeire]

another crucial factor for the wrasse is depth - try your hook at various depths until you start getting bites

its amazing some days you could have 2metres of line out no bites then extend it to 3 and your busy for an hour

good luck at it

[blackiemc]

GFK,
If you're looking for wrasse I don't think it's any secret to say a visit to The White Lady would be a good start.
I've fished it since I can remember, taught by the older generation, my neighbours who fished gunner as a popular source of fish for the table.
The traditional method in Errislannan was a heavy hand line, weights were a 6oz-ish flat beach stone with wire or heavy string tied into two notches to hold in place. The line was unwound from the small frame (called a 'glind'), the stone 'sinker' was attached to the end of the line, one big hook dangling above it with the juiciest bait you could imagine (peeler edible crabs collected from known shore locations on a good low tide).

With the great info on this site, and a bit of experimentation, I have come around to fishing for gunner using a light spinning rod, with a lead head hook, baited with a very easily found bait, hard back green crabs (the bigger the better). Do a search in this forum for how to use them.
I got a specimen gunner by dangling this setup off the bottom (in about 12 to 18 feet of water).

This exact method won't work on every mark, but for The White Lady (or Carraig an Iasc as it was once known - enough said!) it should work on the north facing rocks (bring a long rod as well, it's all about 'reach' and I haven't tried this method here yet). Arrive ready to fish with the tide flowing, at around half tide. You can have a shot at a number of different fish here (do more searches on this site).

BTW I don't think you'll have to wait as long for your first wrasse from Clifden Bay as your first bass, but I'd love for you to prove me wrong

Blackie

[gfkelly1969]

thank you corbyeire will try the different depths and see what happend,hope i will be busy for more then a hour

[gfkelly1969]

hi blackiemc

its nice to hear how the older generation fished some times the simple ways work best,once I brought my niece with me fishing to the river and to keep her happy i gave her a stick and a bit of line and she caught one and I got none,went home very was going to trow away my fishing rod and get a saw

I have fished The White Lady but not for wrasse it looks like a very good spot for wrasse
I hope I might get there on Monday if I can

I hope I will prove you wrong with my first bass I have a good feeling about one spot I fished awhile ago,I got hooked twice but did not land,what ever I hooked gave a very good fight noting like I ever caught before,I had it in close and I know it looked sliver,might be a bass might not be
I met one of the older generation a few weeks later while I was fishing on his land,a very nice man who gave me a lot of information about how the bay fished when he was younger and one of the spots he talked about where he got sea bass years ago was where I got the two bites so next time maybe maybe maybe I will prove you wrong

[corbyeire]

gf it couldve been a sea trout also if there was a bit of fresh water nearby - fair chance of that in connemara