Donegal Bay Short Session, 18/12/2023

[johnwest]

With 2023 rushing to a conclusion I managed to squeeze in a few hours on the beach while on other business in that general direction; only another 40 miles down the road! Having packed most of what I needed, I hit the road and halfway down it, realised I had omitted to pack my boots. A quick stop at a roadside hardware shop and I was sorted. Next stop was for some grub and possibly “fresh” mackerel for bait. While there I bumped into a couple of local anglers I hadn’t seen in too long, I mentioned where I was heading for and was met with an underwhelming level of enthusiasm. “Big surf there, lot of weed there”. Anyway, on to the beach. Sure enough, a big surf was breaking far out but the remnants were coming in at a more manageable size. The surf pattern was very confused, waves coming from left, then right and then centre, all accompanied by a strong breeze straight into my face. On the plus side it was very mild. Every so often a really big wave would send a surge an extra 50 yards up the beach so base-camp was set up well back from the water. I cast out with about 90 mins of the ebb left; 3 hook flappers carrying mackerel strip, one as far as possible and the other in closer. It was impossible to spot bites in the turbulent surf, I just retrieved regularly to check. It took just over 30 mins to open my account with a double of small flounder and turbot from close in. The far rod was being swept around a bit too quickly so I switched to a grip lead and was promptly rewarded with a nice 34cm flounder, best fish of the day. It was a very plump fish, fattening up nicely for spawning season and registering just over 1lb on the scales. Things slowed over low tide and it was almost an hour into the flood before the next fish appeared, a small turbot from close in. Another slightly smaller turbot from long range came soon after and things then died completely. Darkness wasn’t far off and as I had left my headlight in the car, I decided to leave this beach and try another mark. This spot was sheltered from the wind and the sea was a lot calmer. Two rods were cast out and the reels set on the ratchet, the hunger was on me so I retired to the car for a coffee and sandwich. On returning to the rods I realised that one reel was stripped of line right down to the knot on the spindle. Sadly it was not a big fish, just a mass of weed caught in the tide. What was it somebody said about a lot of weed? I retrieved the line as far as possible but the last few yards seemed snagged solid and I pulled for a break. On checking the close in rod, it too was festooned with weed but was also adorned with a small coalie. The weather had taken a turn for the worse with some heavy showers arriving, was it worth setting up the snagged rod again and trying to deal with a lot of weed while putting up with heavy rain and only a coalfish to show? In a word NO!

[MC]

fair play to you for braving the conditions

[corbyeire]

Nice turbot, the weed seems to appear fairly quick this weather - have had a few abandoned sessions of late and tested reels and line due to rafts...