June Report

Hectic work month, limited fishing month, as expected. And I seem to have lost as many fish as I landed.

On the 10th I made a first visit of the year for a mullet session over low water from the rocks in Bantry Bay.

There were already mullet topping when I arrived but for the first half hour the bites seemed to be all pollack, decent sized ones at that.

I landed a couple pushing 3lbs and lost a couple more that I took to be bigger fish, they were just unmanageable on my mullet float rod and headed down into the kelp.

Closer to low water, the pollack seemed to go off and I hooked a mullet, only to lose that too as it fouled up on one of several clumps of Japanese seaweed that were by now trailing across the surface. This weed has only been in evidence for the last two or three years, but it seems to be established and its phenomenal growth makes it a proper nuisance.

As the tide dropped lower I was able to fish beyond the weed. I hooked three mullet and was able to steer them through the weed to land them. They weren't big fish, best 2:11, but I was pleased to have some June mullet under my belt.

I was hopeful of more as the tide flooded back, but a better mullet that I lost in the weed seemed to quieten things down and when I did get another bite I was monstered by another big pollack... time to go.

On the 18th I fished the small beach in Bantry Bay where I'd enjoyed some respectable huss sport recently.

Dead on high water I had a decent bite on a squid/mackerel cocktail on a pulley pennell rig and played in a nice huss about 7lbs.

The early ebb tide had been quite productive on previous trips but today the minutes ticked away ...

It was well down the tide when Sylvi arrived from riding with some lunch. I was part way through a very tasty chicken baguette when I had a massive pull on the same rod as before. I struck into what felt a very solid fish, only for it to come adrift after five or six seconds. The bottom hook of the pennell was hung over the top one so I guess the fish must have gone for the middle of the bait. No more action.

On the 25th I was back on the low water mullet mark in Bantry Bay.

The session followed a similar pattern to last time, with some chunky pollack around 3lbs landed and a couple of very strong fish lost in the weed.

Then suddenly the pollack were gone and the mullet could get a look in. They were being very finnicky today though. I missed loads of bites and when I did hook up the fish splashed on the surface and shook the hook almost immediately.

More finnicky bites then another hook up, only to lose the fish in the Japanese weed. It was low water by now on a big tide and I set about pulling out as much of the weed as I could reach from close in. I got quite a lot but it left big patches either side and a band of odd clumps out in front.

Back to the fishing ... there were still mullet showing but I could only get the occasional fiddly bite fishing a foot down. They didn't seem to be feeding on the surface either so I decided to try a trick that's brought me a few good fish in the past. I slid a chunk of fake plastic bread onto my trace as a secondary float to fish the real bait just a couple on inches below ... a bit Heath Robinson but it worked. First trot through there was a massive whelm, the fake bread disappeared, the float disappeared and the rod started to pull round in my hands. After a fantastic fight I was able to steer the fish past the clumps of weed and into the net, a very hard-earned 4:12 thicklip.

I've since invested €7.99 in this wicked looking implement I found on the internet, a weed cutter that screws into the end of my landing net handle. It won't reach all the weed of course but I hope to clear an area that will allow me to play and land (most of) the mullet I hook more sensibly.

My fishing month finished on the 29th, on a grey and drizzly day at Rosscarbery. It was a very slow session legering for mullet with few fish showing and just two bites in the middle part of the day, both on the rod I was fishing at long distance.

The first had the rod butt off the ground but somehow didn't connect. I hooked up on the second, a much gentler take from what felt a fairly modest mullet, only to lose it under the most bizarre circumstances when a heron of all things flew into my line and flopped into the water, tangled up. I dragged it in feet first as gently as I could and tried to untangle it while it tried to stab me to death with its beak. I gave that up as a lost cause and bit the line so I could slide it off the heron's leg. The heron strutted off along the bank while I hastily blood-knotted the line back together and found, unsurprisingly, that the mullet was gone. The heron looked a bit bedraggled but not injured at all, it stayed about thirty yards along on the rocks for a couple of hours till it dried out enough to fly off. Designed for stalking the shallows not going for a swim I suppose!