Bray Harbour 17th March

[beebub2]

People: me, Stephen8wood

Duration:8.30 – 11.30pm

Tide: low 9.45

Weather: calm,mild,clear

Bait: rag, mack, Sandeel

Rigs: Wire trace size 6/0, 3 hook flapper, 2 hook size 1/0

Results: Whiting, 3 bearded rockling, Dogfish

On Sunday Stephen was jealous of my catch on the boat the day before and so headed to Bray harbour on Sunday night. I couldn’t join him as I had been gone from early morning on Saturday overnight until lunch time Sunday. I would not have been popular had I suggested a session on Sunday night. So off he went, and just had to outdo me by catching a 70cm doggie.

So we headed back there last night with three rods each. One for whiting (or whatever) with the 3 hook flapper. One for something bigger (maybe a doggie) with the 2 hook rig and a boat rod each with a wire trace and a 6/0 hook in search of Conger. A chap fishing the pier on Sunday said he had caught one recently there. We used mack heads and whole small whiting as bait but caught nothing more than a few crabs with them. It was worth a shot though.

I cast my lighter rod with the 3 hook flapper first and then a slightly heavier beach caster with the 2 hook rig. Straight away I saw a bite on the second rod and pulled in a half decent sized whiting (27 cm). As I was unhooking him, a big bite came on the lighter rod. I left it a few seconds as I finished unhooking the whiting, thinking it was another whiting and also thinking that it could wait. I gave a tug in the line and it tugged back, in a big way. I then started to reel and it felt (as Stephen has already said elsewhere) like reeling in a tyre! The buzz of pulling in something big off the shore really is phenomenal. I’d no idea what I had, but no whiting had ever felt like this. I got it to the base of the pier and I could see it was a doggie and he thrashed and fought all the way up and also on the pier when I pulled him over. Absolutely brilliant. It was my first doggie, my biggest fish to date and it certainly didn’t disappoint. They are seriously strong buggers. I held on to him (just about!) as Stephen removed the hook and line. He really fought with me in my hand and I’d a pair of gloves with good grips.

I didn’t manage to measure him. We just had about enough time to take a quick snap and throw him back. Can anyone guess as to his size from the photo?

To quote Stephen again, there’s little better than the thrill of that (while standing on pier!).

Soon afterwards I got the rockling. I see from others that the various bearded rockling are considered different species. Is that generally the way they are considered? If so, I had two knew species last night and 3 in the space of 4 days. Pretty good going.

Things got quiet then right up until the end. My middle rod with the 2 hook rig was getting constant bites for the last half an hour. Within seconds of casting they started to bite. I pulled in maybe 3 small whiting but reeled in nothing plenty of times too. I had a sizeable chunk of mack as well as rag on the hooks, so maybe they were too small to swallow the hook. It’s difficult to leave when bites are happening as soon as you cast out, but we had to make tracks.

Stephen caught the usual dozen or so whiting, with none registering any great length but had pretty much constant action so no complaints.

A great session and one I’ll never forget. My first dogfish was great fun to reel in. Here’s to many more.

All but two whiting (who didn't survive the hook) returned safely to the water.

[beebub2]

Sorry for the multitude of reports, my computer is acting the maggot. Is someone able to remove the duplicates??

[corbyeire]

its done - no worries

[immunecfg]

Nice report, Try deleting your temperary internet files should help also your cookies too!

[dfella25]

Nice one on the doggie beebub. It's a good auld spot except for the amount of crabs about. I wonder if they were to blame for some of the missed bites? They have caught me out a few times

[eyesreilly]

Well done Beebub, you dont really need the gloves, you'll get used to handling them. Hold them on the back of the neck with one hand,,,bring the tail around with the other and grab the tail against his neck with the thumb of your first hand.Then you have a free hand to unhook.

[doggie3131]

well done beebub,them doggies are great fun all right,and every now and then they really fight back its nice when you get new species and well done to steven as well.

[beebub2]

Thanks lads. Good advice eyes although I'm not sure I'm quite ready for gloveless doggie holding!