Newbie Here

[kieran]

Hi everyone and thanks for stopping by to my first post here on the forum.

Settled in NW Donegal having moved from the west of Ireland. The plan is to fish on the marks between the two locations (covid permitting).

In the past my father brought me rock and pier fishing but as far as beach fishing or any technical fishing and tide terms I'm very green.

I've invested in a beach caster and a spinning rod. They're deffinately what you would call budget level rods. With further investment into bigger and better rods in the future.

As far as rigs/ shock leader /snoods etc I dont have a clue where to start. Same with baits and rigging the baits.

Also with some of terms used with the marks which mentions flood tide, surf fishing.

Is fishing all year round? Is there any particular rig for the seasons.

Any handy information for a newcomer like myself would be greatly appreciated and I'm sure I'll have more questions.

Cheers

[Its Ofishal]

Fishlocker and Totally awesome fishing on youtube will give you a lot of detail about rigs and baits and Im sure a few of the locals will give you a few ideas of where to fish generally (not marks) in that area.

[MightBite]

Great. I'll definitely check them out on YT. Thanks

[Teegerstk]

Hey, welcome to the site.
As stated above the Fish Locker and TAFishing are great youtube channels for starter info on shore fishing.
Normally, I would use a 60-80lb shockleader tied to 15-20lb mono line. As for rigs, simple two hook flappers/paternosters should sort you for most fish (dogfish, flatfish, whiting etc.) and pulley rigs for bigger fish like ray/bull huss. Size 1/0 hooks are what I normally use but I often go down to size 4s or up to 4/0s depending on what fish I'm targeting.
Fishing is all year round, with different species available to be caught in different seasons. There's no particular rig I would give for a certain season, all depends on what you want to fish for and also the type of seabed you're fishing over (sand, rocky (rough) ground, mud, etc.).

As for the marks you plan to fish, corkconian from this site put up a great video on locating/researching potential marks using maps etc:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=YFuQMwPP1bo

For sandy marks, you can expect flatfish, dogfishand ray, and rocky "rough ground marks" can produce wrasse, dogfish, conger eel, pollack etc.
A good way to research marks is to arrive an hour before low tide, to see the make up of the ground you hope to fish and also to see how the area floods, for safety reasons!

This site also offers guides on bait collecting/presentation: https://www.sea-angling-ireland.org/bai ... %20lug.htm
Generally ragworm, lugworm, mackerel, sandeel, squid and peeler crab are great baits in different scenarios. The fishing tips videos will give you more of an idea of what baits to use when targeting certain fish.

I hope this helps, feel free to ask more questions, I had a ton when I started out and still do

[MartinC]

Hello and welcome, I'm in north west donegal too,, Dunfanaghy,, its a fairly lean few months now for the beaches around here,, but still fish around if you put in the hours,,

[MightBite]

Hey, welcome to the site.
As stated above the Fish Locker and TAFishing are great youtube channels for starter info on shore fishing.
Normally, I would use a 60-80lb shockleader tied to 15-20lb mono line. As for rigs, simple two hook flappers/paternosters should sort you for most fish (dogfish, flatfish, whiting etc.) and pulley rigs for bigger fish like ray/bull huss. Size 1/0 hooks are what I normally use but I often go down to size 4s or up to 4/0s depending on what fish I'm targeting.
Fishing is all year round, with different species available to be caught in different seasons. There's no particular rig I would give for a certain season, all depends on what you want to fish for and also the type of seabed you're fishing over (sand, rocky (rough) ground, mud, etc.).

As for the marks you plan to fish, corkconian from this site put up a great video on locating/researching potential marks using maps etc:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=YFuQMwPP1bo

For sandy marks, you can expect flatfish, dogfishand ray, and rocky "rough ground marks" can produce wrasse, dogfish, conger eel, pollack etc.
A good way to research marks is to arrive an hour before low tide, to see the make up of the ground you hope to fish and also to see how the area floods, for safety reasons!

This site also offers guides on bait collecting/presentation: https://www.sea-angling-ireland.org/bai ... %20lug.htm
Generally ragworm, lugworm, mackerel, sandeel, squid and peeler crab are great baits in different scenarios. The fishing tips videos will give you more of an idea of what baits to use when targeting certain fish.

I hope this helps, feel free to ask more questions, I had a ton when I started out and still do

Deadly post. Thanks so much. Will check that video out now

[MightBite]

Hello and welcome, I'm in north west donegal too,, Dunfanaghy,, its a fairly lean few months now for the beaches around here,, but still fish around if you put in the hours,,

I'm not too far away from you. Will be checking out doros point and ballynass beach in the next month. And some pier fishing in maheroarty in the summer. I'm excited to get stuck it

[MightBite]

Do you guys use any particular app for tide times?

[MartinC]

I use nautide, there's a buoy at downings and it takes the reading from that,, a lot of the apps for surfers like magic seaweed and surf forecast are very accurate too,,

[MightBite]

I use nautide, there's a buoy at downings and it takes the reading from that,, a lot of the apps for surfers like magic seaweed and surf forecast are very accurate too,,

That nautide looks good app. Cheers.

[MightBite]

Hello and welcome, I'm in north west donegal too,, Dunfanaghy,, its a fairly lean few months now for the beaches around here,, but still fish around if you put in the hours,,

Have you ever tried Dooros Point out? I see there are Marks for there but cant seem to see how to get out to it. I'm going to check out ballyness beach later. Happy days that and maheroarty are pretty much in the 5k limit

[MartinC]

Fished it a few times in the summer for pollock,, snaggy and shallow in places but theres a few good deep places, id actually think it would be a good spot for wrasse,, there's sand beyond the kelp but have never tried it,,

[MightBite]

Fished it a few times in the summer for pollock,, snaggy and shallow in places but theres a few good deep places, id actually think it would be a good spot for wrasse,, there's sand beyond the kelp but have never tried it,,

Any idea from which side to get access to it?
I checked out falcarragh beach there along the estuary but its relatively flat all the way out. Not much depth to it and no sign of rag or nothing in the sand. Cant imagine it would be a great spot. But I really dont know as I'm completely new.

I'd say my next stop along the coast would be your direction towards dunfanaghy once the 5k is lifted. Just checked some of your recent posts and you've caught some really nice fish that way.