Fishing Inside Dun Laoghaire Piers

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Fishing Inside Dun Laoghaire Piers

Postby wes77 » Sun Mar 27, 2016 6:06 pm

Hi All,

I am just getting back into fishing and am planning on bringing 2 rods, one for bottom fishing and one for float fishing. I want to fish inside the harbour in Dun Laoghaire. I am not looking for mini species such as rockling, scorpions etc. I have a few questions:

1. Which Pier do you think would be best and whereabouts along?
2. Should I cast far into the harbour for ground fishing?
3. How deep should my float rig go?
4. What do you think I could catch?
5. How do I avoid catching mini species?
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Re: Fishing Inside Dun Laoghaire Piers

Postby Teegerstk » Sun Mar 27, 2016 9:42 pm

wes77 wrote:Hi All,

I am just getting back into ....


Don't know about Dun Laoghaire but I suggest using bigger hooks maybe 2/0-3/0 plus and bigger baits, rockling and the sort stick to 1/0 and size 2 hooks from my experience. The codling are more or less gone but there's probably a few species that are always swimming around.

Here's an extract from a Dublin guide by SAI on Dun Laoghaire:
"The only pier worth fishing is the West Pier, the less used walking route for thousands of residents and their children who usually select the longer East Pier Species & Techniques: The West Pier offers Conger, Dabs, Bass and Plaice, with Codling and Whiting in the autumn from the point itself, usually on mixed and sandy patches. Spinning and feathers to the seaward side off the East Pier gives up Pollack and Mackerel in season, but over very foul ground. Wrasse on the float are a possibility."

I'd use rag on float if you're looking for wrasse. The Bass and Plaice notes are probably outdated, the page is over a decade old but it's some sort of guide that can help you out so you know what you're dealing with.

Best of luck,
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Re: Fishing Inside Dun Laoghaire Piers

Postby wes77 » Sun Mar 27, 2016 11:25 pm

Thanks for the reply :wink:
I read a few reports and as you say yourself they are years old. I was just wondering if there was any up to date knowledge.
I like the idea of bigger hooks to avoid the mini species
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Re: Fishing Inside Dun Laoghaire Piers

Postby Teegerstk » Mon Mar 28, 2016 1:13 am

The hooks work most of the time. Sometimes I'll get a tiny pin whiting on a 3/0 hook! Straight through the head :?
2019 species: codling, whiting, flounder, dab, dogfish, spurdog, sole, smooth hound, bass
2020 species: codling, dab, whiting, flounder, dogfish, turbot, smooth hound, bass
2021 species: flounder, black goby, dogfish, smooth hound
2022 species: dogfish, smooth hound
2023 species: flounder
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Re: Fishing Inside Dun Laoghaire Piers

Postby samo » Tue Mar 29, 2016 4:32 pm

The west pier is better from the end set up close to the wall and just cast into the mouth of the harbour. the biggest fish your probably going to get is a dog fish at this time of the year. Id leave the float fishing for the moment until the mackeral come in. rag and sandeel are good baits.
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Re: Fishing Inside Dun Laoghaire Piers

Postby wes77 » Wed Mar 30, 2016 12:17 am

Thanks for the replies :wink:
Whats the biggest species I could catch there in summer or autumn?
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Re: Fishing Inside Dun Laoghaire Piers

Postby samo » Wed Mar 30, 2016 4:53 pm

Dog fish and Mackeral and usually a good few dab turn up. you can try the back of the west for conger eels but they are hard to get out because they live in the wall so you have to be fast. The back of the east can be good for Pollock.

you can float fish during the summer at the steps with rag and you might get a big ballon wrasse.

I have seen a few strange fish turn up during the summer like gar fish, scad and bream, there used to be the odd big plaice landed as well.
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Re: Fishing Inside Dun Laoghaire Piers

Postby wes77 » Wed Mar 30, 2016 8:17 pm

It must be 20 years since I fished in Dun Laoghaire and I caught my first fish there at the end of the West Pier, a small coalie and the little canal rod I had was nearly doubled over :D
I do remember excitement one evening when everyone of us was following a monkfish inside the harbour. It was huge and we were all trying to catch it. I always remember two older men who were fishing at the time saying by jaysis remember this young fellas you'll never see it again :D

I was just wondering if any of these ever showed up again :wink:

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Re: Fishing Inside Dun Laoghaire Piers

Postby Alan Kilroy » Sun Jun 27, 2021 12:22 pm

Old post but had to reply........and, as above it's going back a long time.

A lot of people also fished off the Coal Pier, where the ice house / fish shop was.....for mackerel. It would be lined with anglers and you'd catch with a spool of line and "launch" a strip of Mackerel on a hook out as far as you could. You'd catch as well, about 10 yds out.

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Re: Fishing Inside Dun Laoghaire Piers

Postby frankie wet feet » Tue Jul 27, 2021 1:56 am

My advice to have any hope of catching anything worthwhile getting back into fishing locally would be to fish either side of the marked bathing areas on killiney beach. Easy platform with not a lot of snags you can fish bait static and at least have a chance of catching something decent like a bass, pollack, coalfish dogfish or smoothound (although ideally the further south you go along the east coast the better the fishing). I stopped fishing the inside of Dun Laoghaire with bait as there only seems to be small whiting even if there are other fish there the whiting will either hook themselves or strip your bait off within minutes. However if you want to solely fish with a float the outside outsides of either pier in DL can be great for float fishing with pretty much any kind of bait for pollack and any mackerel that might be about. Had 12 pollack float fishing with limpets I peeled of the rocks there one day about 5/6 years ago
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Re: Fishing Inside Dun Laoghaire Piers

Postby mickmick » Tue Aug 10, 2021 11:23 am

Alan Kilroy wrote:Old post but had to reply........and, as above it's going back a long time.

A lot of people also fished off the Coal Pier, where the ice house / fish shop was.....for mackerel. It would be lined with anglers and you'd catch with a spool of line and "launch" a strip of Mackerel on a hook out as far as you could. You'd catch as well, about 10 yds out.


We used to catch loads of mackerel from the coal pier casting a float with a short line to a mackerel strip under it out towards the west pier. It was a great spot on a rising tide into darkness, I often wondered did the lights attract the fish. Haven't fished there in years. The combination of rats and lads more into drinking than fishing drove me off after I started bringing my kids along on fishing trips.
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Re: Fishing Inside Dun Laoghaire Piers

Postby Floridaman » Fri Aug 13, 2021 1:19 pm

[quote="mickmick"

We used to catch loads of mackerel from the coal pier casting a float with a short line to a mackerel strip under it out towards the west pier. It was a great spot on a rising tide into darkness, I often wondered did the lights attract the fish. Haven't fished there in years. The combination of rats and lads more into drinking than fishing drove me off after I started bringing my kids along on fishing trips.[/quote]

Was the same for me in the late 80s. The lads drinking is the main reason I haven't tried it in years. I am trying to find a good spot to bring my 8 year old to catch his first fish, but as you know kids get bored easily unless they're catching fish so it would ideally be somewhere easy to reach during a crazy mackerel run.
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Re: Fishing Inside Dun Laoghaire Piers

Postby LCG » Mon Aug 30, 2021 2:37 am

I've got flatties inside the harbour and also fishing out. I've also seen people catch Mackies by the bucket in it. Depends on the day really. Nice chilled out spot for float anyways
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Re: Fishing Inside Dun Laoghaire Piers

Postby kbambo80 » Thu Sep 02, 2021 7:26 pm

Get out early before the crowds get in! Last time I was there it was mobbed and not a great experience! :roll:
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Re: Fishing Inside Dun Laoghaire Piers

Postby Gonzo » Thu Sep 02, 2021 8:42 pm

kbambo80 wrote:Get out early before the crowds get in! Last time I was there it was mobbed and not a great experience! :roll:


There is so much space to fish at this pier, I never would have thought that crowds would be an issue? :lol:
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Re: Fishing Inside Dun Laoghaire Piers

Postby Cooke » Sun Sep 12, 2021 10:32 am

Great spot for LRF and dropshot tactics and ideal for anglers of all ages. I had twelve species in two hours fishing down the walls last friday fishing small pieces of rag.The majority of the fish are small but i have had wrasse and pollock to 30 cms and been burst a couple of times. There are still some mullet in the harbour in the quieter areas and smoothies taken from the back of both piers this year. The mackerel are very late and scarce this year though.
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