February Report

Late morning on the 1st found me out west on the Mizen again. The water looked peaty after all the recent rain but I could see occasional surface mullet activity so I was hopeful of some action.

Two hours later ... it just hadn't happened. By now I was seeing what looked some decent mullet swirling regularly in front of me, but I hadn't had a credible bite, just a few maybe trembles on the float that came to nothing.

There seemed to be better numbers of fish off to my left so I relocated, and I was immediately getting positive bites and hooking fish. None were much over 2lbs but they were February mullet so I was happy enough, 59 months consecutive now. The bites kept coming and I finished with a bag of eight before the new tide started pushing through the pool and moved them on.

On the 3rd I was up in Kerry again, maybe against better judgement with a cold east wind blowing and outbreaks of rain forecast on and off. I'd arranged to meet another angler, Alan, who was keen to catch his first spurdog.

No spurs unfortunately today. The dogfish predictably weren't bothered by the easterly and fed throughout. I had one small thornback and we had a few huss that were barely bigger than the doggies. By late afternoon I'd taken to dropping a mackerel head close in on one rod to try and rescue the day and that worked to an extent with this very lean huss that went just over 12lbs.

On the 8th I headed back down on to the Mizen, main aim to meet my old friend Mike Buckley who was recently arrived in Ireland in his motorhome for an extended stay.

Mike was already set up in my favourite swim when I arrived, and had already had three mullet on the bank. He was into his fourth while I was fetching my gear from the car. I set up in a swim to his left where I've done well before, but I had a bit of a 'mare today, missing bites and dropping off fish. I eventually landed four, nothing over 3lbs. Mike meanwhile finished with ten for the day and an altogether better stamp including a lovely 5:02 thicklip.

The day also marked the successful first deployment of my new telescopic aid to help older anglers up and down walls for those trickier to access mullet swims!

Sylvi and I had another week away in UK. We were back on the 16th and on the 18th I was down on the Mizen again with Mike who'd had a few more decent sessions in my absence, picking his days between the worst of the weather. One day he'd had a seal for company that chomped a couple of mullet then climbed out onto the bank allowing Mike to land six!

We swapped swims from last time and had a fairly busy session landing six mullet each. Today I had the better size of fish including a pristine 4:15 and a smashing 5:11 that had some historic battle-damage.

The next day I travelled up to Kerry to fish with Alan again. A westerly breeze promised a better session than last time, and the gloomy drizzly morning gave way to a brighter afternoon with showers.

We started just before low water and most of the early action was from dogfish, with just one small ray each.

As the flood tide got going properly the doggies eased off a little. I landed a dark huss about 8lbs and lost a slightly bigger, paler one at the edge. A few minutes later I went to wind in after a tiny bite seemed to have fizzled away and found myself attached to a heavy fish. It stayed deep right to the edge, I thought ray and so it proved, a nice thornback about 8.5lbs.

The fishing slackened right off in the run-up to high water, but as the tide topped out Alan was in to a chunky male thornback.

I was awakened from a moment of distraction by a crash ... my tripod was flattened and my right-hand rod was gone. Fortunately it surfaced maybe thirty yards out and in a remarkable feat of quick-thinking and quick-acting, Alan had wound in one of his lines and cast beyond the floating rod while I was still getting over the shock and faffing around picking up my other rod and making sure it was safe. He snagged the rod first chuck and we soon had it back ashore. Whatever had dragged it in was gone. The rod was my favourite Zziplex 3500, I'd have been bereft without it but thanks to Alan I got away with a hour of stripping down the reel next morning. The 6500 I was using has a ratchet but it's not very strong so I usually slack the drag off rather than free-spool it and rely only on the clicker. I'd obviously forgotten this time, lesson learned.

We were well into the dusk by now but decided on one more cast. I dropped a mackerel head in close on one rod, and within a couple of minutes the ratchet was clicking away. I had an idea what had been responsible for the massive bite that dragged the other rod in, and I wasn't that surprised when I lifted in to a fish that ploughed out towards the centre of the bay in a slow but awesome run. Two years on from the last time I'd hooked another skate!

At least it was on my heavier rod, set up with a Slosh 30 reel, 30lb mono and a strong circle hook on the end ... I thought I stood a chance but it was going to be a long haul.

The run stopped. I really didn't want the skate to bed into the bottom so I piled the pressure on and to my surprise it started to come up in the water a little and move towards us, kiting right slightly. Then it turned and went back out, went down again and this time took root.

There didn't seem to be any shifting the beast, so I put the rod down in the rest. Alan broke out the headlamps and we awaited developments.

Maybe twenty minutes later the rod came to life and line was clicking off the reel. I picked it up and piled on the pressure again. I was able to make slow progress, pumping to bring the skate closer in and up in the water.

My leader knot broke surface close in. The next pump brought it maybe six feet out ... I dared to think one more pump we'd see the skate and one more after that it would be on the surface. Silly really, because the skate had other ideas and powered down back to the bottom.

This time it was amongst the graunch at the foot of the rock face and I was much less confident about getting it mobile again. But after another spell with the rod in the rest it was on the move, and I was heaving away again. Pump, pump ... we saw the leader knot again, but this time only for a second or two before the skate went back down. It was bedded in among the rocks again and when it finally moved it was just a short shuffle along the bottom, I couldn't lift it at all this time and I think the line was through a snag. It broke quite easily ...

I don't really have any yearning for skate fishing, but if I hook a fish I want to get it in and this was all a bit heart-breaking. Although my heaviest, I'd say my Shimano beachcaster was just a bit too soft for the job, 30lb mono has too much stretch and if I'm honest my nearly 67 year old arm muscles don't have the strength they once did.

I didn't get out for the next week. The weather was awful, my car was off the road for some pre-NCT repairs and I was feeling a bit jaded after losing the skate.

On the 27th, Sylvi dropped me off at a local beach on her way to riding for a session over high water till she picked me up later. There's mixed ground in front and from experience the catch is mostly huss. Today I had one before the top of the tide, a dark fish about 7lbs on a prawn/bluey cocktail...

Sylvi arrived bearing coffee and sandwiches, and the first hour of the dropping tide was almost a bite-a-throw. I missed a couple but had out three more huss, all much of a muchness size-wise. I lost track of the successful baits but I was using prawn, mackerel and bluey alone and in combinations.

Last up this month, some interesting pattern variations on the juvenile thornbacks we caught up in Kerry. Usually they are a mixture of small black spots and larger white spots on their muddy grey background. My one on the left had me looking twice to see if it wasn't a spotted ray ... it wasn't but it caused a lively discussion on my Facebook. Then Alan's on the right doing a cuckoo ray impression with the two matching black "eye" marks...