Duration: 7.00 pm to 2.00 am
Tide: HW at 11.30 pm
Weather: Calm, mild, clear, light easterly wind later
Bait: Lug, razor, mackerel, squid
Rigs: 3/0 and 4/0 pennel pulleys, three hook flapper, 2/0 pennel with feeder
Results: 1 dogfish, 1 sea scorpion, 1 flounder, 2 five bearded rocklings
Report: I am a bit late posting this report. Having had three consecutive blanks over the weekend of 14th/15th and on St. Patrick'd Day I was determined not to let these fish get the better of me. I dug a bunch of big juicy black lugs in the afternoon and headed out to a West Waterford beach mark. When digging the lug there had been a stiff south southeasterly breeze but by the time I got to the mark the wind had completely died down and there was just a very weak surf. So it did not look too promising. Nevertheless I set up two rods, initially one with a 4/0 pennel, the other with the 3/0 pennel, one baited with just lug, the other with lug/razor.
It was quite until just after dark - then I had a bite on the rod with the 3/0 pennel but missed it. I cast out to about the same location and after a few minutes I spotted a slight quiver on the rod tip. I picked up the rod until I felt a stronger bite and struck. It was a dogfish - taken on lug/razor - I guess that is what I missed the first time.
After photographing and releasing it I noticed that the line had gone slack on the second rod. I reeled in about 25 m of slack line but then only felt the resistant of the weight. But when I retrieved the trace I found a small sea scorpion with his mouth firmly clamped on a 4/0 hook
As I had used a 6 oz plane weight I dont think the sea scorpion could have dragged in the weight for 25 m - I must have missed a bigger fish that managed to shake off the hook while I was dealing with the dogfish 
A bass 
But still I wasn't too disappointed - I was two fish better off than I had been all the previous weekend. Shortly afterwards I had a subtle knock on the 4/0 pennel baited with just lug. This time it was a small flounder, about 25 cm. It was hooked on the smaller upper hook of the pennel.
Unfortunately it got quite after that. I had no more noticable bites although something was stealing the bait - crabs or small fish ??
I switched one rod to a small hook three hook flapper baited with lug, mackerel, squid and razor but I didn't get any more bites.
After an hour and a half I moved about 100 m further along the beach. Again it was quite, the bait was coming back untouched and the tide was beginning to drop at this stage. I decided to switch to a feeder rig and chopped up some of the used bait and put it into the feeder. Again nothing was biting. I was starting to pack up. I dismantled the first rod and then spotted a small twitch on the second rod (the rod with the feeder rig). I had a 2/0 pennel below the feeder and when I retrieved I found 2 five bearded rocklings, one on each of the hooks.
So while not a great session at least it broke the string of blanks and the two rocklings at the end were a welcome bonus.
