August Report

Not great to be honest! I spent much of August struggling with a virus that we'd brought back from UK and which drained my energy levels close to zero, so mainly I went with short sessions or easy sessions close to the car. On top of this, the fishing was just poor in a number of respects.

First up, mulleting at Rosscarbery where August often marks the start of the best fishing of the year and some years ridiculously good fishing with as many mullet over 5lbs as under. This year though it has been an ongoing struggle.

On the 1st I fished a long session from the grass across from the hotel and suffered a complete blank. The most exciting event turned out to be a massive line bite ... the rod heeled over, the line scything round to the left, but as soon as I grabbed the rod I could feel the line sliding over the fish's body for a few seconds till it pinged off. A couple of brief rattles on one of the tips came to nothing, and that was it.

I was back on the 6th for another try, thinking it couldn't be that bad again ... but it nearly was. There wasn't much showing so I fished into the deeper water in front of the bridge and I had just one meaningful bite for the day, a 2:15 thicklip. It was an August mullet at least, now 53 months consecutive. I was feeling the first effects of the virus today and got home with a sore throat and raging temperature so no fishing for me for a few days.

I was next out on the 11th, just a short session on the north side of Sheep's Head to try for mackerel. There'd been a bit of a showing higher up Bantry Bay over the weekend but I packed up after 90 minutes with the sabikis for just one mackerel and one sardine. The mackerel fishing remained poor throughout the month, just the odd one from various marks, I won't bore you by recounting the individual sessions. I hope there's a good run during the autumn as I really need a couple of good hits to get some frozen down for bait.

The general gloom continued on the 12th. In what seemed perfect conditions for a triggerfish, I floatfished one of the spots they show regularly in Bantry Bay for 2.5 hours over the low water ... and not a bite. The worst thing about blank trigger sessions is they nearly always show quickly if they're there at all so after fifteen minutes the despondency sets in.

I was really in need of some rod bending by now so on the 13th I headed to my low water mullet mark in Bantry Bay, where the sport had been pretty consistent this summer. It's quite a tough spot to fish, standing the whole time as there's nowhere to sit without getting splashed unless it's completely flat calm, but anyway in the 90 minutes I lasted down to low water I had three mullet out, 2:02, 3:11 and a chunky 4:04 which added an ounce to my NMC Top Ten for the year.

I was back at Rosscarbery for more punishment on the 17th. To be fair there were more mullet showing today, and a bit more action on the tips.

Fishing two leger baits from the grass, I had a 3:07 and a 3:13 either side of lunch.

Late in the day I had a good take and briefly contacted a bigger fish that was running out line steadily for a few seconds till it came adrift ... I've no sure idea on the size really but it seemed a big loss after so many poor sessions.

I was just started packing up when a Facebook friend, Michael Coleman, came jogging round from where he'd been fishing from the wall lower down the west side. He'd caught a big mullet but didn't have scales with him so after

giving it a good rest in his landing net he came round with it in a Lidl bag.

I weighed it for him at 7:02, one of the deepest and widest mullet I've ever seen. After giving it another good rest I took some photos for him and the mullet swam straight off after.

It was a timely reminder that even when the fishing is hard, Ross is capable of turning up an exceptional mullet. It very much reminds me of Christchurch Harbour in that respect, where I used to fish a lot, and you're only ever one bite away from a fish of a lifetime.

A change of scenery on the 21st. I was still feeling below par but I decided I could stand a modest hike out to a local rock mark to fish for wrasse and pollack.

The pollack fishing went well with a half dozen fish around 3lbs, oddly no smaller ones, at range mostly on Redgill and a couple on a 60g metal lure. By contrast the wrasse disappointed today, just odd taps on the Z-man Minnowz and a few small ones landed mostly on a small size of Crawz...

Probably it was too calm for the best of the wrasse fishing. Last knockings I did lose a couple of better fish close in on the Crawz, I'm not sure if bigger wrasse or more pollack.

Dunmanus Bay was badly affected by a "red tide" algal bloom this summer. It was really grim along the shore between Durrus and Ahakista when pushed in by a southerly breeze. Even where I was today, well out towards the open Atlantic, there were patches of it drifting about.

I don't know if it could affect the fishing in deep water but, well, yuk.

More yuk on the 24th on the Bantry Bay side of the peninsula, this time from rafts of small jellyfish.

I was trying - and failing again - for a triggerfish, at two favoured spots on the north side. Not a sniff of them again but ironically the wrasse were going well today, snaffling the small chunks of frozen raw prawn I was floatfishing.

There's time yet for the triggers through September and into October but with the weather turning unsettled, another UK trip looming and then a week at Ross with Dave Matthews I can already feel the chance slipping away for another year.

23rd to 25th August was the August Bank Holiday weekend in UK and traditionally NMC's Rover fish-in competition. Naturally I wanted to defend my title. Typically the weather had broken now with stiff westerlies and outbreaks of rain forecast throughout.

On the 24th, with Michael's fish very much in mind, I headed back to Rosscarbery and fished down the sheltered west side from the back of the car. It was another slow day, the tedium broken by two fish on consecutive casts early in the afternoon. They were decent enough size at 3:15 and 4:00 but not likely to trouble the engraver for the trophy...

There was torrential rain forecast for the afternoon of the 25th, but the tide was right to sneak a short session in down in Bantry Bay before it arrived. I arrived a bit earlier on the ebb tide than I normally would, donned my studded chesties and picked my way out through the rocky shallows to the fishing spot. Despite a fair swell there were loads of mullet present, including a group close in with heads down and big tails flapping out of the water.

I didn't want to spook those fish so I dropped my float a bit further out, hooked a mullet only 2:04 and it ran straight through them anyway, scattering them! When I'd landed the fish, weighed and returned it, I was surprised they had returned to whatever they were feeding on. I dropped the float just past the group again and had a repeat performance with a mullet of 3:05.

This time the group of mullet was gone, either spooked or just because of the shallowing water. There were still plenty moving further out though, and after a few missed bites I was in again to what felt a very solid fish. It wouldn't run far but bored down deep for ages which was worrying with the kelp covering the bottom. Eventually the mullet came to the surface. I readied the net which was promptly caught by a swell and one half of the tubular aluminium folding frame snapped! I managed to scoop the mullet using basically half a net after some dodgy stuff with the rocks and swell close in.

The rain started throwing down as I walked back to my kit to weigh the fish. It weighed 5lb 5oz. I wish I'd taken care to get a better pic, or at least taken off the weed and displaced scales but I was in a bit of a tizz with the broken net and the rain. It was my biggest mullet from Bantry Bay for a decade, and took my NMC Top Ten to exactly 50:00 which I'm well pleased with considering I'm still counting three 4lbers from Ross which would normally be 5s and 6s by this time of year (and may yet be.) It only came 4th in the Rover competition though, beaten by 5:12 and 5:14 thicklips in UK and the winner, an extraordinary thinlip of 5:13.

I like the concept of a folding net head that will fit in my rod holdall for mullet fishing or strap to a bundle of rods to carry easily out onto the rocks. I'd say the Korum ones are really too fragile for the environments I'm using them in, but on the other hand I can't find anything better so I'll probably persist. I'm hoping this one will repair.

We had wild amounts of rain in the early hours of the 27th. I was woken up by it about 1.30a.m. and couldn't get properly back to sleep. At 4.30a.m. I gave up and by 6.00a.m. I was fishing on a mark in Bantry town from the back of the car with the tailgate up to provide shelter from the torrential squalls running up Bantry Bay to punctuate the morning.

It was quiet the first couple of hours up to high water, just one dogfish, but in the first two hours of the ebb I had three more doggies and three thornbacks. A baby ray less than a pound took a prawn bait and these two each 5 - 6lbs both came to mackerel. A nice result for an impromptu session...

On the 30th I was back at Rosscarbery because, well, why not?

It was another desperately slow day. I started down the west side of the estuary pool but after three hours without a bite and only seeing tiddlers moving on the surface, I moved over next to the bridge. I put one leger bait in the flow out from the lagoon to the left and the other at maximum range straight out. There seemed to be reasonable numbers of mullet out of range along the fringe of the mudbank opposite and I saw the odd big whelm closer in, so I thought I was in with a shout.

Another three hours yielded only one decent take, on the distance rod, from this golden grey maybe 1.5lbs.

There are good numbers of goldies to be caught at Ross if I could be bothered with digging maddies, but bread captures are quite rare. They are pretty little fish and I'm always pleased to see one, but not to the extent I'd want to sacrifice time fishing for thicklips for them.

While I was returning the goldie, there was a persistent rattle on the other rod tip and I wound in this perfect miniature gilthead. Remarkably it was the first I've had on bread at Ross though they are in plague numbers in summer on maddies. After the two unusual bread captures, nothing further materialised.

The regular NMC party is over in Ross from 6th September. I'm going to miss most of their visit for a UK trip but I do hope the fishing improves for them.