March & April Report

It's not been the easiest couple of months with exam work ongoing, cataract surgery mid-March, the distraction of a major family crisis going off back in UK and protracted periods of easterly winds both months which never bode well for fishing.

At least March was off to a good start. I fished the little estuary on the Mizen with Mike Buckley. It was just about a perfect tide and although there was a touch of east in the wind already, it wasn't yet set in or too strong.

I had a great day, landing twelve mullet including this wonderful 6:00 which is my PB from this venue, or any Irish venue actually apart from Rosscarbery. The fish came during a run of larger mullet that included the 4:11 below and two others over 4lbs.

Meanwhile Mike was also racking up the numbers, finishing with a bag of thirteen. He was mostly stuck on the smaller 2s and 3s but latched into a lovely 5:00 just as the flood tide was starting to pour through heralding the end of the session.

Over the next week or so Mike continued to fish the venue successfully, though the fishing became progressively harder as the wind turned proper easterly and freshened. I cracked on with marking, trying to get the bulk done before my eye surgery.

I was back on the Mizen on the 11th for a last session with Mike before my op and before he headed home to England. The east wind had been set in for days now and was whistling down the valley. Mike opted for one of the usual swims fishing into the wind; I managed to wade across onto a sandbank so I could fish with the wind on my back opposite Mike.

I think I had the most bites but I was having one of those days ... three came off, one landed but foul-hooked, just three landed legitimately and no great size to them. Mike meanwhile was having fewer bites but making a better job of it and finished with four. Again the size was modest but they took the total for his visit to 102 mullet in ten sessions, including four of 5lbs+ and several big 4s. Not everyone is as persistent or as skilled as Mike but still, it shows the quality of the mullet fishing available in the early months of the year.

I was keen to cash in again on the action before the winter shoals moved on to disperse around their summer haunts. I was back on the 16th for a short session, just three days after my surgery, complete with eye drops in a cool-bag and probably not as mindful as I should have been of the advice I'd received to avoid lifting, bending and other activities that might stress the eye muscles!

I wasted too much time in the first swim I came to where there was lots of surface activity but all from pound-size fish as it turned out. After catching three of them I moved over to the other side of the pool and was immediately into a better stamp of fish. Over the next couple of hours I landed six more including a 4:04 and this one of 4:08 kindly photographed by a passer-by on the causeway who stopped to watch the fight.

On the 23rd I visited Rosscarbery for a change, in hindsight maybe not the best choice on a neap tide in bright sunshine and flat calm.. There were big shoals of mullet present but mostly well out in the pool, occasionally venturing closer in but fast-swimming and not feeding.

After four hours fishing by the bridge with nothing to show I'd had enough and headed back to the car ... only to find good numbers of mullet topping close in to the wall right in front of where I'd parked. I broke the leger rods out again for another hour, but despite all the fish showing there was no interest in my baits. Then just as I was breaking down one rod to pack it away, the other lurched over and I was connected to a last-gasp 4:12 to save the day.

The Ross form being poor, on the 25th I turned right at Durrus and headed back onto the Mizen. I straightaway knew the winter mullet bonanza there was over for another year. Nothing was showing on the surface, the only question was whether a few stragglers had been left behind and were lurking deeper.

The signs didn't look great after a quiet hour but eventually a fish or two moved onto my mashed bread loose feed and I had a few bites. I had out just a couple of 2lbers and lost one similar. Last knockings as the flood tide picked up, I landed one that might have scraped 4lbs, neatly foul-hooked in one of its pectoral fins.

On the 30th, I decided I was fit for some more strenuous fishing and headed up to Kerry to see if there might be some spurdogs running. It was nice to have the big rods out again.

The low water slack was quiet, the second and third hours of the flood tide turned into a doggie-fest. Then they turned off like a tap, and often that allows a better fish or two to find the baits. Today though ... nothing. I fished right through the high water and an hour down the ebb with not another bite.

It was disappointing and even more so when I logged onto Facebook and found out that Jason had spent the day not far away and caught six spurs! No real size to them or I'd have been very despondent.

Into April and the east wind was back with a vengeance.

On the 2nd I had to drop Sylvi off at Cork Airport and drove back via Ross. The wind was howling across the estuary with breaking waves running across the pool and water splashing over the wall down the west side. I didn't fancy it at all so settled for a session on the sheltered east side of the lagoon. I barely saw a mullet all day, just one that popped up on some bread scraps floating close in and which was long gone by the time I'd got my float rod set up. Not a touch on the tips legering further out.

I was back at Ross on the 6th to fish the estuary pool. The wind had abated a little but was still fresh and an awkward cross-wind fishing from the grass across the road from the hotel. I clipped on some heavier leads and felt I was fishing quite effectively, but I didn't get a take at all. The only mullet I saw today disappeared down the neck of a cormorant after a protracted struggle barely ten yards past where my baits were fishing. Otherwise I'd have said there wasn't a mullet there.

Two blanks and already I was getting twitchy about catching an April mullet. On the 8th I headed back down to the Mizen, not expecting miracles after last time but at least hopeful of catching. The east breeze was supposed to have dropped light overnight but turned out to be still fresh, and again not a sign of a mullet on the surface.

It took an hour of patient feeding the swim before a first bite, after which they came regularly. I missed an embarrassing number of them, often a sign the fish are small, and sure enough when I finally connected with one it was a scarcely a pound. After that, a few more missed bites as the wind freshened further then the bites stopped as the flood tide started to push through. I'm not too proud to call that one little fish my April mullet for 49 months consecutive, but I hoped to catch a bigger one as the month progressed.

It didn't happen at Rosscarbery on the 12th though. It was a decent big tide, the wind was now westerly ... but another dour session with neither a take nor a mullet seen. There were other anglers fishing too and I didn't see any action there either. I'm not sure if I've ever experienced such a poor run of form at Ross.

On the 14th the tide was right for a session over low water at Bantry Airstrip, though the west wind blowing through the channel between the mainland and Whiddy Island was stronger than ideal and decidedly chilly. The last couple of hours of the ebb tide were slow, just one doggie, but I had three good pulls during the first hour of the making tide. The first I missed, the second was a male thornback of 5lbs on bluey and the third a female of 7lbs on mackerel. The doggies set in as the tide picked up strength, but I had another little ray about 3lbs just as I was packing up. No pics ... disappointingly I'd chosen this day to leave both my camera in my mullet kit and my phone on charge at home.

I find with the Airstrip it pays to make the most of times when it's fishing well, because it's never likely to last very long! So I was back on the 16th for another go. It was a sunnier day and less windy and a slightly smaller tide. I had plenty of doggie rattles but they weren't hanging on so well today, and the rays when they came gave only gentle drop-back bites. I had two today, both on mackerel, the bigger about 5lbs.

And as if to prove the point, I returned to the Airstrip on the 20th to fish the late afternoon low water ... and endured a complete blank. It was a very neap tide to be fair, the water was raked by a cold north-west wind and there was a big bull seal around on-and-off. I just wasn't feeling it today, and the couple of tiny knocks I had unsurprisingly came to nothing.

On the 23rd I fished a spot not a million miles from the Airstrip. I must have driven past the place scores of times in the nearly ten years we've lived in Kilcrohane but somehow I'd not got round to fishing there till today. In hindsight it seems rather remiss of me.

It was far from a hectic session but I did land three decent huss. After a quiet first hour, about 45 minutes before high water a fairly lean individual around 7bs took a squid/mackerel cocktail. A plumper one maybe a pound heavier took a fancy to a squid/bluey cocktail ninety minutes after high, and I missed a huge drop-back bite on the other rod while I was busy unhooking it. Another ninety minutes on, half way down the tide now, I was just winding in the one rod to pack up when I had a good pull on the squid/mackerel bait on the other, and another huss around 7lbs to finish. They all were very dark in colour which I found surprising given I was fishing onto cleanish ground and there was no great depth of water.

I was going to try the same spot again on the 25th but the stream that empties across the beach was pouring peaty water into the bay after the torrential rain most of yesterday and overnight. I didn't really fancy it so headed to a rock mark further out into Bantry Bay.

The session was off to a fairly inauspicious start with a dogfish on a squid/mackerel cocktail fished at distance. Next cast I had a better pull on the same rod, and was into a heavy fish. After a decent scrap I had a nice huss comfortably into double figures under the rod tip ... then it opened its jaws and out came the bait and with it the hook. It seemed a big loss but it was still early in the session so there was time to make amends.

That was actually the last of the action on the distance rod, but an hour or so later I started getting interest on the other rod fishing mackerel heads closer in.

First up, a little huss about 5lbs, nice to see but a bit anticlimactic after the one I'd lost. Next, a run that streamed off line against the ratchet ... and another huss (I guess) let go this time about half way in. Next cast, right on top of the tide now, another good run but this fish snatched the mackerel head off the circle hook as soon as I tightened down on it. I've not done much good on the ebb tide on this mark so I thought I may have blown my chance ... but 40 minutes later another strong run and this time no mistakes ... I slid a big old huss out onto the rocks with the circle neatly in the scissors. I got the scales out for this one, 11lb 12oz.

On the 27th I was back at the Airstrip to fish over the late morning low water.

As has been the case recently, the last of the ebb tide was quiet with just one dogfish to show for the first couple of hours.

Bites started coming about half an hour into the flood tide, mostly doggies of course and I landed another four or five.

Amidst the LSDs, about 90 minutes up the tide, a stronger pull on a mackerel bait that held the tip over ... it was a classic ray bite from a pretty little thornback around 5lbs. It was the only one though of a slightly disappointing session.

On the 28th I headed across the border to Kerry to a mark that would be sheltered from the SE wind on the day before yet another protracted spell of easterlies set in. To be honest I thought the chance of a spurdog was gone for this year, but the mark I chose produces some big bullhuss so I had that as a backup. I arrived two hours or so before LW for a session of about five hours before I would have to beat a retreat to avoid being cut off by the tide.

A first cast doggie didn't bode well but next cast I latched into a heavy fish on a squid/sandeel cocktail. It was a fair bit livelier than your average huss. A few nervous moments bullying it through the kelp on the ledge close in ... and I landed a chunky spur around 10.5lbs.

The spur was my biggest for some time and I was thrilled to catch it, but hopes of landing any of its shoalmates soon faded in a blizzard of doggies. They were onto my baits literally in seconds most casts and I dropped down to fishing one rod as I couldn't cope with two. The tide bottomed out, the dogfish carried on unabated on the flood till inexplicably I had three successive casts landing huss, unfortunately only smallish ones around 5lbs. Then it was back to the dogs and after three more I'd had enough and packed up a few minutes early.

I'd caught my April mullet earlier in the month but just a small fish and ideally I'd want one at least topping the NMC minimum weight of 2lbs. The 30th arrived, last chance saloon and just about my least favourite of all mullet fishing conditions, east wind and relentless bright sunshine from an unbroken blue sky. The temperature reached 23degC, threatening April records. I had a covid booster booked in at 1030 at a pharmacy in Skibbereen so I had that then headed along to Rosscarbery.

I couldn't see much moving below the N71 so I headed across the road to the lagoon. There was a bit of mullet activity on the surface along the sheltered east side so I set up my float gear and fished about an hour for just one half-hearted bite. I drove up into the village to buy some lunch from the shop, then tried down by the activity centre. The wind was fresher here and the water was choppier - it looked quite promising but after another hour I hadn't had a bite or even seen a fish. I headed back to the east side and broke out the leger gear.

I had a few very timid pulls on the tips then a flurry of marginally better bites on the rod fishing further out. After three or four came to nothing, eventually one hung on and I landed a nice 3:03 thicklip. It went very quiet for a while after that, then an hour on I had a good pull on the distance rod again and after a fine scrap a 3:12 was in the net. Thanks to David Norman for the photo. David had just arrived to fish and was still fishing when I left. I was happy with my results given the conditions but feeling slightly the worse for wear from frazzling in the sun and covid jab after-effects.