House on the Sheep's Head
September was a month of reduced opportunity with a fortnight away mid-month to visit family and friends in UK.
On the 2nd I headed over the hill to fish a deep rock mark on Bantry Bay. The main aim of the exercise was to try for mackerel, but the mackerel fishing had been so poor in August I brought along a big rod and a couple of year-old frozen mackerel heads to fish for conger, by way of a plan B.
The mackerel fishing was slow to get going, but I was soon getting nods on the conger rod. The eel was quite insistent, and when it started clicking a little line off the ratchet, I wound down into it. Everything felt solid but the rotten bottom did its work, the lead broke free and a decent eel started its journey to the surface. I edged down to a lower ledge and slid the conger out. I guestimated it at 10lbs but looking at the photo it may have been a pound or two more.
I chucked out the second frozen head and got back to the mackerel fishing. An hour later, the ratchet was clicking again and I was into another eel. This one was a job to get moving out of the kelp but after a steady heave it shifted. It felt a bigger fish than the first and so it proved. I weighed it as best I could, 15 - 16lbs.
The mackerel fishing remained slow up to high water, just isolated individual fish on the sabikis and a couple of sardines. Then for an hour or so early in the ebb tide, suddenly I was getting strings of three or four mackerel every few casts. At the end of the day I had 22 proper size mackerel, eighteen for the freezer and four for dinner, and a handful of biggish joeys worth keeping for bait. A shout out for the Inova sabikis I was using for the first time, seemed a solid piece of kit.
I like to head into the winter with about 40 mackerel frozen down for bait, so I was pushing half way there. On the 3rd I had an hour with the sabikis at the airstrip while Sylvi was shopping in Bantry. There was a stiff wind blowing up the bay and the water was more coloured than I'd like, but I added another six mackerel to my stock.
Then on the 4th I was back on the rock mark. The NW wind had freshened further since yesterday, and it was rather rough!
I stayed up the top and watched the swells running along the front for a while before deciding I'd be okay on the highest ledge. I didn't bother with the conger gear today as I thought the swells would move the lead around till it found a snag; and I didn't fancy going down any closer to the water to land a big eel.
I've had some good bags of mackerel at this spot before when it's been borderline fishable, it seems counter-intuitive but it was the same again today. I packed up after three hours with arms aching and a bucketful of mackerel of various sizes including a couple of monsters we had for dinner and a few more joeys. Actually there were a lot of joeys about today. I shook as many as I could back into the sea as any sort of handling is fatal to mackerel and only kept those that were badly hooked.
I head and tail the mackerel, tight-wrap the bodies in cling film and freeze them individually before bagging them up. I bag up the heads in fives and sixes to freeze them in session-sized packs. As of today I had now got 37 mackerel frozen, close enough to my target of 40 given that I also had 20 joeys, frozen whole. I was hopeful the mackerel would hang around for a few weeks - I wanted to get a few more to freeze for my friend Stephen and for eating - but that would have to wait till I was back from UK.
The wind fell light overnight ahead of what looked like being a wet and windy weekend, so on the 5th I decided to make the most of the calm interlude and visit my low water mullet mark on Bantry Bay.
There was plenty of mullet activity on and near the surface but the big pollack that had gone missing from this mark in mid-June were back. It's not really a good thing - they beat the mullet to the bait nearly every time and given there's only four or five feet of water over the kelp on this shallow venue the odds are stacked against landing them on mullet gear.
First three casts, fishing only 15" deep, the float disappeared almost as soon as it settled as a powerful fish grabbed my bait, a tiny piece of raw prawn on a size 10 hook, and proceeded to bury itself in the kelp. Each time I luckily managed to get most of the tackle back, just minus the hook and a few inches of fluoro. I began wishing I'd brought some bread along for bait which might be less appealing to the pollack (maybe.)
It was not at all the start I wanted ... and was then compounded by losing the first mullet I hooked ... it splashed on the surface before running deep and coming off. It must have dragged the tackle through the kelp too as the locking shot for the float had been slid up the line about six feet, gouging lumps out. I had to retackle from scratch.
It was a proper relief to hook another mullet and land it after a good scrap. Not a monster at 3:02 but a September mullet for 54 consecutive months after a nightmare hour to start the session.
There were still smallish fish showing on the surface but it went quieter for a while. Then an unmissable bite, and another big pollack diving for the bottom. Somehow I kept this one moving and landed it, a fish a touch over 4lbs.
I really didn't want to chance it with another pollack, so I put a pop-up bead on my trace and slid it down about 2" from the hook so the bait would fish just sub-surface. I wasn't entirely convinced the pollack wouldn't come right up for the bait, but it seemed to work. I could see all sorts of movement under the pop-up but I waited till it disappeared and then the waggler disappeared too before striking. First two fish I connected with I think were mackerel from the thrumming action passing up the line, but they both came off as I tried to bully them out of the swim. Then I landed a little mullet ... it was less than 2lbs but got me to the milestone of my 100th mullet for the year.
On the 7th I headed down to Rosscarbery to see the party of NMC members there for the week from England, Wales and Dublin. It was the only chance I'd get to fish with them before Sylvi and I headed over to England.
The 6th had been a vile day of weather and those travelling from UK were perhaps fortunate their ferries weren't affected. I parked up down the west side of the estuary where I'd be sheltered from the stiff west wind and walked up for a chat with Al Stinton who was already fishing from the wall further up. I was surprised how clear the water was after all the rain yesterday, though the pool was definitely carrying a few inches of extra depth from the rainwater.
I had a half-decent session by recent Ross standards, with three definite takes on the leger baits in the middle part of the day converting to three fish landed. Once again though there was no great size to any of them, best 3:12.
The guys as a whole didn't do too badly, between the seven of us fishing swims in the estuary and lagoon, sixteen mullet were caught. Nobody blanked which was nice!
My swim died a death on the late afternoon high water, I packed up a bit early and went for a chat with Jim Murray who was now set up on the wall where Al had been. Al was now over by the bridge with his brother Mark and Clifford Wilkins enjoying a flurry of mullety activity on float from the flow pouring into the lagoon. They had a few nice fish to boost the day's total, the pic is Mark with one of their better ones of 4lb+.
As the fishing petered out we all headed up to the hill to the house being shared by Nigel Connor and Mike Buckley for a very enjoyable meal that Nigel had kindly prepared for us all. The lads were obviously well up for their week ahead, though I had my misgivings about whether the fishing would live up to their previous trips given the recent sketchy form and especially the lack of bigger mullet this summer.
I wished them well and tried to keep up with their catches over the next few days on the WhatsApp group. It did seem to be a bit of a struggle - unsettled weather and massive tides probably not helping. They had a smattering of mostly 3lb class mullet and a few bigger fish, best I think 5:00 for Mike in the lagoon and 5:01 for Mark in the estuary. A bit disappointing for them maybe but on the plus side Guinness sales in Nolan's were through the roof.
I was back from UK on the 22nd. Mike Buckley arrived to stay at ours for a few days, having remained local in his motorhome since the NMC week ended. He'd fished my LW mark in Bantry Bay a few times for mullet and done quite well with fish to 4:12. He was back there on the 23rd but I missed the tide to get the dog out of kennels. Mike had another three mullet but nothing over 2lbs. I thought the bigger fish may have been spooked by the recent activity so we decided to rest the mark and head for Rosscarbery on the 24th.
I dropped Mike off to fish the pontoon at the Activity Centre and went for a drive. I couldn't see anything moving below the N71 causeway and there was quite a fresh SE breeze blowing up the estuary so I settled for the comfort of the east side of the lagoon, opposite Mike. I'd got the dog out and nearly all my kit when I found Mike's net handle still in the car. Everything back in and I drove it round to him then back to my spot on the east shore.
This swim blows hot and cold but I seemed to have caught it on a fairly good day. First cast, a massive take on the left hand rod fishing at distance from a 3:12 thicklip. An hour or so later, an even more spectacular take that almost launched the same rod from the rest and a fantastic fight from a fish I was surprised only went 4:04. A couple of hours with just a couple of knocks that didn't develop, then another rod-wrenching take on the right-hand rod fishing closer in. This one was another 3:12 ...
I could have had a couple more fish but I missed a decent pull and a big slack-line bite before the mullet seemed to move on. Meanwhile Mike was floatfishing from the pontoon across the lagoon from me and being bothered by small fish ... he had eight tiny mullet and a couple of baby gilts ... and didn't contact anything sizeable.
We just missed Jim Murray's arrival from Dublin for another short break in West Cork but Jim joined us next day for a session on my LW mark in Bantry Bay. There's only room for two to fish at most so I was mostly resigned to performing ghillie duties for the lads. I wish I'd stuck with that decision but I opted to have a few casts myself before Jim arrived. Second or third cast the float dipped and I struck far too hard as I am prone to do. I was only fishing a foot deep so the end tackle came flying back towards me, an SSG shot whacked the tip section of my rod square on, and the top two feet of my rod dropped off! Fortunately it was my Korum float rod not the Preston so not too expensive as rod breakages go ... anyway, back to being ghillie.
The lads had five mullet up to Mike's best of 3:02 before a large shoal of mackerel arrived and effectively ended the mullet prospects. They caught me seven mackerel to start the freezer stock for Stephen, and I had another nine from the same area on sabikis next day, just a short drop-in session on the way home from getting my flu jab in Bantry. So sixteen to deliver to him when he was fishing a match on the airstrip on the 28th.
On the 26th, Mike moved back to Ross to spend the weekend with Jim. I headed down to join them for the afternoon on the 27th. Mike was just setting up on "my" spot on the east side of the lagoon having had a decent fish there the previous evening. He said there were some mullet in the shallows to our right but he thought they would move this way as the tide dropped. It seemed a reasonable enough idea so I set up next to him.
I've got to say it was a wrong decision though, compounded by a stubborn refusal to move once we'd got our groundbait out. We fished all afternoon, expecting action at any minute which never came.
Jim had been struggling below the causeway, and turned up late in the afternoon. He went up to fish the now-even-more shallows to our right and had out a couple of respectable mullet in fairly short order as well as having other knocks.
Both lads fished the 28th and Jim stayed on to fish the 29th. Both had fish but it was generally slow, as it has been so often at Ross this year.
Jim is nothing if not persistent though, and despite a long drive ahead back to Dublin he fished right into the dusk. He was rewarded about a minute before he was going to pack up ... with a fantastic 7:02 thicklip.
Next up for me, a week back at Rosscarbery fishing with my good friend Dave Matthews. Dave and Jane should get across the Irish Sea on 2nd October just ahead of the arrival of ex-hurricane Humberto. Our first couple of days fishing may be challenging!
Write a comment