Sheep's Head Fishing Blog

 

 

 

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2024

Thu

31

Oct

2024

October Report

October 1st was forecast calm with just a breath of north breeze as the sea settled down from ex-Tropical Storm Isaac ... in fact looking ahead, it was the only really calm day for the forseeable. I decided it was last chance saloon for a triggerfish, and headed to one of my spots to fish the late morning low water. Unfortunately the breeze picked up soon after I arrived, and became quite fresh. I don't think there were any triggers about though I missed three or four bites. I put them down to the small pollack I could see hanging round the rock edge, though it would have been nice to hook one to be sure.

 

While the trigger itch remained unscratched, I did at least sort out the conger itch.

After a quick stop back home for lunch, I headed to a different rock mark on Bantry Bay where I'd lost a very decent eel in August. I lobbed out a mackerel head bait, waited what seemed ages for it to sink to the bottom, then tightened down very gingerly so as not to pull into a snag.

 

Half an hour later, a very slow burn take. The rod tip pulled down slowly, only half an inch or so. Nodded a while. A click of the ratchet. And finally line streaming off.

 

I lifted into the fish and met a solid resistance, with typical conger bangs as the eel thrashed side to side. I soon had it on the surface - a good chunk - and worked it along to a lower ledge to my left. One of the French guys spinning over there came to help brandishing a roach size landing net! Merci mais non - I slid the eel up onto the ledge by the leader. I gave it 18 - 20lbs, very similar size to the one I lost but who knows if the same eel? A quick photo and she was back swimming.

The edge was slightly taken off the day by the appearence of these guys, the usual suspects towing between Bere Island and Shot Head. 1st  October and they're already emptying the Bay of sprat and anything else that gets in the way. Maybe this will be their last winter - let's hope the government gets it right this time following the public consultation earlier this year and bans them from the 6 mile zone.

 

Probably coincidentally - no bird activity today and no mackerel to show for an hour with the sabikis. The French guys didn't get mackerel either, just a few smallish pollack up to about 2lbs.

 

On Friday 4th I headed down to Rosscarbery to fish with my old friend Pete Bluett who was over from Cornwall for a short break with his partner Jenny. Most of the larger fish on the recent Mullet Club week had come from the wall, so naturally I started there. There was a light SE breeze and it was drizzling heavily ahead of a major rain event forecast to arrive overnight.

 

I'd had the two leger rods out for maybe thirty minutes without a bite when Pete arrived. He was soon set up and into a three pounder on his very first cast. A few minutes later he was in again, a better fish, and I'd just netted it for him when one of my rods pulled over. I played the fish while Pete held his one in the net ... a few minutes later we weighed them both at 5lbs exactly.

Before long I was in again, a chunky 4:02, but bites tailed off after that. The swans were getting to be a nuisance as the water shallowed up so we decided on a move. Pete went onto the grass close to the bridge, I went a little further along the causeway then down onto the foreshore.

 

We both had a reasonable afternoon. Pete had three mullet around 3lbs, I had two of similar stamp and we both lost a fish too.

Bites seemed to fizzle out as the new tide arrived in the pool and the water started to creep up. I moved for a last hour on the wall as the drizzle got heavier, but there was no further action for either of us.

I was back on Sunday. It was always going to be a difficult day after the deluge on Saturday that brought flooding to West Cork. The water was brown-tinged when I arrived just after high water and coloured up worse as the day progressed and the lagoon emptied out.

 

We started well down the west side where I've done okay before in coloured water but there was no sign of mullet moving and we were soon getting hassled by the swans.

 

We made a move, Pete to the bridge swim and I fished from the grass to his right.

 

Pete had just come over for a chat when one of his rods pulled over ... a quick dash back and he was into a good fish which ran a long way out then kited left. Pete did well to keep it out of the worst of the torrent of water pouring out of the lagoon. It was a cracking thicklip of 5:13, equalling his Irish PB...

I'd just netted Pete's fish and I noticed one of my rods yanked over too. I enjoyed a spirited scrap from a mullet exactly three pounds lighter than Pete's!

It was a slow afternoon. Much later, I hooked a fish about 3lbs that gave a drop back bite, but I lost it at the edge when my hooklength snapped. That's fortunately a rare occurrence - the line seemed to have been crimped where it broke so probably it was crab damaged. I should have spotted it really unless it was newly inflicted.

 

Pete was struggling more than me with weed, leaves and other debris in the faster water close to the bridge. He decided to make another move to fish the lagoon. He'd not been gone five minutes when (a) my right hand rod pulled over, and (b) it started raining, soon pouring.

 

By the time I landed the fish - a very chunky thicklip of 4lbs exactly - I was decidedly damp from the waist down. By the time I'd packed up and got back to the car, I was soaked.

 

I knew the garage shop along the road has a section of workwear clothing but I baulked at paying €85 for a pair of tough builders' trousers with loads of pockets. Instead I sat in my damp jeans and quietly steamed during a lovely meal in the Abbey Bar with Pete and Jenny.

On the 8th I dropped Sylvi off at the Airport for a UK trip about 10.30am and carried on east. The tides worked for a low water session on one of the beaches where my friend Stephen had been catching painted/small-eyed rays.

 

I thought there'd be enough colour in the water after the weekend to make a go of a daylight session. It did seem quite coloured but I drew a blank.

 

It was worth the trip for a look at the venue and to see the wonderful 9.5lb bass caught by an angler just along the beach to my left. I saw him struggling to land it and went over to help. He'd got it beached on the sand by the time I arrived but I was able to take a photo for him and run back to get my scales as he didn't have any.

 

I was just starting to pack up when Stephen arrived for a session into darkness over high water. I was sure he'd bag up but in the event he just had one tiny ray and a few scraps. Other anglers there  did no better, so maybe the rays just weren't about on that tide.

On the 11th I headed up to Kerry to fish a rock mark on a stunning weather day. There was a line of pots that started right in front just about in casting range, but I was okay fishing big baits inside them to the left and smaller baits at distance to the right.

 

On the making tide the dogfish were a nuisance, I caught several on the smaller baits and they were worrying the soft parts off the mackerel head baits I was fishing close in. Then as high water approached they turned off.

 

First decent fish was a huss about 8lbs on a mackerel head, followed rapidly by a thornback about 6lbs on half a sardine...

Thus far I'd been using frozen baits but I'd brought some mackerel gear and between the doggie bites I'd been having a few chucks with sabikis without any luck. Right on the top of the tide I finally had a couple of joeys hang on for a welcome supplement to the bait supply.

 

A screaming run on the first joey head ... a good bit of weight to the fish and I realised it was zipping around side to side in a very not-a-huss like way. To my delight a spurdog broke surface, not a monster one but a nice female maybe 6lbs.

 

Next chuck with the other joey head, and a repeat performance with another spur just a shade smaller.

Meanwhile on the other rod I was using sections of the fillets off the flanks of the joeys, either on their own or cocktailled with squid. These accounted for another thornback about 6lbs, another spur of similar sort of size to the others, and a smaller thornback to finish up a very enjoyable session.

In complete contrast on the 13th, a session in Bantry Bay on a very dull morning.

 

I had a staccato sort of take on a mackerel head first cast, and wound a conger in to the edge. It was only 4 or 5lbs so it was probably the best possible outcome when it shook out the hook, so much better than wrestling with it on the rocks.

 

After that, a few knocks and sharp pulls but nothing hung on and I packed up blank after four hours.

 

That day Dave and Jane Matthews were travelling over from England to Rosscarbery. I had to collect Sylvi from a late flight into the airport, and I'd be joining them the next morning for another six day mullethon with Dave.

 

Day 1: Monday 14th October

 

It was lunchtime by the time I arrived at Ross after getting home in the early hours. Dave had already texted to say there were plenty of fish showing and when I got there mullet were topping all over the pool. Dave was fishing over by the bridge so I joined him just to his right.

 

Inexplicably for the almost perfect conditions, the mullet didn't seem to want to feed. I had a good take on my very first cast and landed a 2:10 thicklip. After that ... nothing. Dave didn't have a proper bite all day. Earlier on he'd played in a mullet about 3lbs when his line tangled in some jagging tackle the fish was carrying ...

Dave was able to remove the treble that had caused a nasty wound, and return the mullet. Later in the week we had a visit from an IFI fisheries officer. The method of deliberately foul-hooking fish that I've always called jagging is properly known as stroke-hauling and it's illegal in Ireland. I've not seen it myself but apparently there's been a fair bit going on at Ross - Pete saw a couple of East Europeans at it when he was over. The officer took the tackle away, took some photos of the piles of mullet scales someone had left in grass by the bridge, thanked us for bringing it to their notice, said they'd try to keep a watch and gave me their mobile number in case I saw anything I wanted to report. Not a bad response IFI.

 

Day 2: Tuesday 15th October

Today was forecast wet and breezy, and the forecast was uncannily accurate.

 

We found some good numbers of mullet moving in the shelter of the trees well down the west bank, but same as yesterday they didn't seem to want to feed. With the rain getting heavier and the swans arriving to make life difficult, we soon relocated to the lagoon. We fished the spot where I'd had a few mullet when the Mullet Club guys were over last month, and where we could get our brollies up.

 

We had bites on and off all day and finished with three fish each. Dave had the biggest at 3:14, the others were all lovely clean fish just either side of 3lbs that put up a great scrap. They came in fits and starts as small shoals moved through our swim - often we'd get bites close together and once were playing fish at the same time.

Day 3: Wednesday 16th October

The weather was much more pleasant today, the water carrying colour from all the rain yesterday but not too bad. We set up with Dave in the bridge swim while I fished a few yards to his right.

 

Dave usually gets the better numbers of fish in the slightly deeper, flowing water but he fished hard all day for no credible bites.

 

I had a 2:12 early on then a long wait for any further action. Late afternoon, just as the new tide started to push through the pool I had a take from a 3:00. Recently the fishing had been dying as the sea water floods in, so I thought that would probably be it for the day. Instead, on the very next cast my left hand rod folded over.

 

A powerful fish ran ... stopped ... and ran some more. It went a long way out and I was worried it might be among the snags across the pool. Happily the mullet stayed on the move and eventually weakened. It kited left but stayed away from the water now pouring through the bridge arch into the lagoon and came in relatively easily for Dave to net. It was my biggest mullet of the year so far, a lovely thicklip of 6lb 3oz.

Day 4: Thursday 17th October

 

A beautiful sunny day. We arrived to find good numbers of mullet showing off the wall, so started there. Dave was soon getting bites off to my right and landed a couple of 3lb size mullet. I missed a take then finally was in to a solid-feeling fish. A few minutes later Dave was sliding the net under a 4:12 for me.

By now the swans were onto us, led by one particularly pushy individual that kept detaching itself from the group close in to hunt our groundbait further out.  It made for difficult fishing, especially when the others followed it out. We made an early move over to the bridge to get away from them; I'd been intending fishing off the grass later anyway for a bit of space when Sylvi came down with the dog for the afternoon.

 

The afternoon passed slowly for me with just one take and a mullet dead on 4lbs. Meanwhile Dave was getting more action today in the flowing water, landing two mullet around 3lbs, losing another ...

... and finally latching into a wonderful fish of 5lb 10oz, very close to his Irish PB. And very well deserved.

Day 5: Friday 18th October

 

The forecast was for some really vile weather to arrive late morning - strong southerly wind and heavy rain - so we headed down to the wall again to try to get a couple of hours in there before that arrived. Unfortunately the swans were straight onto us today and definitely cost us fish as we couldn't keep groundbait out any length of time before they were heads down scoffing it.

As it was, Dave managed to snatch a modest size mullet out from between them.

 

I gave up after a few minutes and moved further down where I found a few mullet grubbing in the margins but couldn't manage a bite in the blissful half hour before the white menace found me.

 

It was already blowing up so we decided on an early move to the lagoon, same swim as Tuesday. We managed to get the brollies up against the wind, not without difficulty and not a moment to soon as the rain was lashing within minutes.

 

It was silly rough really and I wasn't sure at all there'd be any mullet in the shallows there, but we actually had a decent afternoon. Dave landed four mullet of the same stamp as earlier in the week. I had a couple of those but in the worst of the weather I hooked into a massive slack-line bite from a bigger fish. Unfortunately it ran parallel to the shore to my left, upwind of the brolly, so I had to get out and face into the wind and rain to play it. The fight seemed to go on for ever! We weighed the fish in the shelter of the brolly so its 5lb 1oz wasn't wind-assisted.

                                                                                                                         Photo by David Norman 

Day 6: Saturday 19th October

 

It was a pleasant start to the day with the wind forecast to increase gradually ahead of Storm Ashley. The swans were already queued up along the wall so we gave that a miss and headed straight over to the bridge. Unfortunately they followed us over and although the water is a few inches deeper they could evidently see our groundbait on the bottom and reach it by upending themselves. They were absolutely incessant and I soon gave up heart. Dave stuck with it though ... he missed a possible take then struck into a fish that powered off on a long run into the middle of the pool and hung out there a good while before coming back slowly and steadily to the waiting net. It was a fine  fish of 5lb 2oz that had definitely fought above its weight. Having seen how far out it had run - at least as far as my big fish earlier in the week - I was surprised and a little disappointed for Dave that it wasn't bigger.

We moved over to the lagoon to fish the afternoon rather than face a continuing battle with the swans and the ever-freshening wind. I chose the Activity Centre area as being usually a safe banker for a few bites and more sheltered than the other swim we'd been fishing, but it was maybe the wrong call as it turned out. Dave lost one smallish mullet early on, and we couldn't buy another bite between us. The wind picked up strength as forecast and was surprisingly cold for a south-westerly ... we weren't catching the worst of it but we still got chilled through and packed up early.

Day 7: Sunday 20th October

 

A bonus day for Dave as the ferries across the Irish Sea were cancelled!

 

We'd had heavy rain overnight and by daybreak the wind was already howling as Storm Ashley approached. Dave fished down the west bank, in the reasonable comfort of the shelter of the trees behind.

 

I decided to stick with my original plan and head home today. I had a leisurely breakfast, packed my stuff, said goodbye to Jane then drove down to say goodbye to Dave.

 

Interestingly though the swans were hanging around, they weren't causing Dave grief. The water was carrying a little colour from the rain; presumably they couldn't see his groundbait on the bottom.

 

Dave caught this 3lber and a smaller one before packing up mid-afternoon. The wind was wild by then back in Kilcrohane; he did well to last that long.

 

The final tally for the week was Matthews 16, Rigden 12. Dave's best was 5:10 and mine 6:03, we both had one other 5lb+. I'd say that's about par for the course this year at Ross ... odd big mullet, a higher proportion of smaller ones than has been the case in recent years and plenty of challenges, especially the up and down weather. Swan trouble is always on the cards at Ross but the little group there at the moment seems particularly bothersome ... I hope they don't mess up the winter fishing but time will tell.

On the 29th I was due for a break after a week of exam work and as ESB had notified they were turning our power off for the day for maintenance on the line, today seemed as good a good choice as any! Fortunately, after an unsettled spell, high pressure was building in and the weather obliged. Sylvi and I spent a magnificent day up in Kerry.

 

The dogfish were rampant, apart from maybe an hour over the high water slack. I gave up counting at seven and probably caught about a dozen. No rays, surprisingly, and no huss either though I did drop off a couple of heavy fish half way in which I'd suspect were huss.

 

What I did get were four more spurs, although this time male fish a size smaller even than the smallish females I had earlier in the month. They are nice to catch as they still have novelty value for me, but I do hope some bigger ones turn up as this winter season progresses. Two came on sardine fished at range, and two on mackerel heads fished closer in. The frozen sardines that Lidl were selling briefly in the summer are rapidly becoming a favourite bait, but I'm onto the last bag now.

There won't be much fishing in November with work on. If I can catch a November mullet somewhere and snatch another trip on the spurs, I'll be a happy dangler...

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Mon

30

Sep

2024

September Report

On the 2nd I headed up to Kerry again - I'd enjoyed my session in August and fancied some more of the same. I was sheltered from the northerly wind by the hill behind, and spent all day in the sun in tee-shirt conditions.

 

The dogfish were fairly active again, and today they were all I could muster on the smaller mackerel baits I was fishing at range. 

 

Meanwhile I was also dropping mackerel heads closer in, hoping to pick up huss or conger. Early afternoon I had a good take, and after a short scrap had a good huss on the surface. I slid it out onto the rocks by the trace ... at 13.5lbs it was my second biggest ever, though not the most co-operative animal about holding still for the photo.

 

Later on in the afternoon, another take and another huss about 8 - 9lbs, a very pale individual. I've no idea why the colour would be so variable on the same mark.

I had some discussion on my Facebook about the specimen weight for huss, at 16lbs it seems one of the least accessible targets. I must have had around 200 huss since we moved to Ireland, my PB just scraped 14lbs. The length-based specimen of 115cm may be more achievable, if only just. Only two huss made the list last year, both length-based, both 116cm! I haven't got into recording fish by length yet; perhaps I should.

 

On the 4th, a short session just local for wrasse on plastics, in fact even shorter than I'd planned. The fresh "north" wind from which I was expecting to be sheltered on the south coast of the peninsula turned out to be north-west, and swung round to a proper westerly as the tide made. It kicked up an ugly swell and I gave it best before high water. In the meantime I'd had a few wrasse, on Zman Minnowz and Crawz.

On the 5th Sylvi and I spent the afternoon at Rosscarbery. The north wind was back, and quite strong, swirling around and sometimes coming at us from NE and sometimes NW, which made it difficult positioning the brolly.

There were mullet moving close in but they seemed to be small fish so I fished both rods at range, legering crust baits as usual. The first couple of hours were quiet but then I started getting knocks and little drop-backs on the tips, probably mullet moving around as they fed on my groundbait and touching my lines.

 

At last ... my left hand rod pulled round. After a lively scrap Sylvi slid the net under a chunky 3:11. 

 

While we'd been landing that fish a gust of wind had caught inside the brolly and blown it over. While we were sorting that out, my other rod heeled over and line started stripping from the reel against the drag. The mullet kept running as I grabbed the rod and for a few seconds after ... then as it stopped and turned it came off! It was a good fish and I've lost a few this year that have seemed well on then come adrift,  very frustrating.

 

It turned into quite a busy session and I had three more mullet: another 3:11, 3:03 and a 4:00 that took just as I was chatting with David Norman who'd dropped by to say hello. David sent the action shot...

They were nice fish to catch but losing the bigger one continued to grate! 

 

Saturday 7th was a perfect flat calm day. Unfortunately I was otherwise engaged! On our way home Sylvi and I dropped by to see Mike Buckley, newly arrived on his annual visit to Ireland, fishing my low water mullet spot in Bantry Bay. He'd had a lovely 4:08 first cast but unfortunately the protracted fight had more-or-less killed the swim. Then I heard from different sources some triggers had been caught further out along the Bay at a spot where I'd caught them before.

 

There was just a touch of north breeze forecast for Sunday but it already seemed fresher than that when I walked the dog first thing and when I crested the hill later and saw the white horses streaming across the Bay from the Beara, hopes of a trigger rapidly evaporated. I gave it a good go anyway but as expected, not a sniff. Then I headed a few hundred yards along the rocks to a different spot to try for wrasse on plastics. They weren't really playing ball either but I did have a 4lb pollack that picked a small Zman Crawz off the bottom as it settled. I took the hint, changed to a candystripe Savage Gear sandeel and had several more pollack 2 - 3lbs size, making the most of a poor day.

On the 12th Sylvi and I were off to Cork Airport for a trip to visit family and friends in England. We were back late on the 18th and on the 19th I was down to Rosscarbery for six days of intensive mullet fishing with a party of National Mullet Club members who were over from England, Wales and other parts of Ireland, staying in three cottages rented from celticcottages.ie. I was sharing with NMC Secretary, Nigel Connor and my old friend Mike Buckley.

 

Day 1: Thursday 19th October

 

I arrived late lunchtime and found the others fishing. They'd had some reasonable numbers of mullet that morning mostly around the Activity Centre in the Lagoon but were struggling for bites at the moment in the bright sunshing and fresh east wind. After a brief chat I dumped my stuff at the cottage and was out fishing myself.

 

I'd never seriously tried fishing the east side of the Lagoon but today seemed as good a day as any to start, it was almost tropical over there in the sun and out of the wind.

 

I popped out my two leger baits, missed a fiddly bite early on and had a nice chat with Plymouth angler Tony Hooper who was just visiting from his bass fishing holiday in Courtmacsherry.

 

Tony was barely gone when I had a much better take and struck into a solid fish. Five minutes later a nice 4:01 thicklip was nestling in the net.

 

An hour later I started getting knocks again and eventually a good take from a smaller mullet, 2:12. I was well pleased with my result from a new swim but the day belonged to Dublin-based member Jim Murray. Late on, after a long day stuck out in the wind by the bridge with just one 4lber to show for it, Jim landed a wonderful 7:03 thicklip...

That evening we all shared a Jamaican Curry that Nigel had made and brought over in a frozen block from England ... very nice indeed.

 

Day 2: Friday 20th September

I fished from the grass across from the Celtic Ross Hotel. Al Stinton was in the bridge swim to my left, other anglers spread between the wall and the Lagoon Activity Centre. 

 

The sunshine was unbroken again, the east wind if anything even fresher than yesterday. At one point I had to swap my normal 1oz grippa leads for 1.5oz to stop my baits drifting round.

 

Al lost a fish early on and had a 3:06 lunchtime but apart from that it was very slow until a flurry of fish late into the afternoon.

 

I had a couple topped by a 4:10, Al did rather better numbers-wise, also to a best of 4:10.

 

There were some decent fish caught around the Activity Centre but the anglers on the wall had the best of the fishing today, especially Clifford Wilkins who followed up a splended 6:15 in the morning with a 6:04 in the afternoon. Pick of the several others was Anne Marie Lenihan's 5:10...

Anne Marie also cooked for us that evening, a rather splendid concoction involving chicken, pork and prawns.

 

Day 3: Saturday 21st September

I had a late-ish start and was surprised to find the bridge swim vacant so after a quick chat with the guys on the wall I headed over there. The wind was still firmly in the east, but not quite so strong today.

 

For much of the day I was joined by a kayak angler who moored himself perhaps a bit close for comfort across the other side of the bridge pool, but he gave me a cheery wave so why not? He hung a bread sack over the side and seemed to have four rods on the go which struck me as quite a feat!

 

I seemed to have the better of the fishing though with three mullet 2 - 3lbs taken from my side of the flow, and a lovely 5:04 taken at long range to the front. That was actually the biggest fish on Saturday. It was quieter day generally but a fair sprinkling of mullet were caught, including a 5:00 on the wall for Al and a brace of four pounders for Nigel, his first mullet from Ross after missing chances the first two days.

Roast chicken for dinner at the Stinton residence!

 

Day 4: Sunday 22nd September

 

The east wind finally relented overnight but the chilly northerly under leaden skies that replaced it was scarcely an improvement.

 

Sylvi was coming down for the afternoon with the dog so I set up on the grass where we'd have a bit of space. It turned out to be a desperately slow day for me with no definite bites at all. Probably I should have changed swims but I hate moving once the groundbait's out, always thinking something will move onto it eventually...

 

There was a smattering of mullet caught by the others, from the Activity Centre, bridge swim and the wall. The wall produced the biggest fish, something of a recent trend, including a splendid 6:00 for Clifford to complete his hat trick of sixes and Mark Stinton's best of this trip, 5:07. It should be said Mark is a mullet catching machine who racked up serious numbers of mullet from a variety of swims during the week and took his season total over 100, some fine achievement without easy access to a winter fishery such as we enjoy here in West Cork.

Dinner by the water with Sylvi this evening, burger and chips from one of the best chippers in Ireland just along the road.

 

Day 5: Monday 23rd September

I started with a look at the east side of the lagoon. It was calm and I could see fish moving, they didn't look particularly big but I thought it was worth a go. I soon had a good pull and landed a thicklip of 2:00. Soon after the north breeze picked up again - and after an hour getting chilled with no further sign of mullet I decided it was time for a move.

 

I headed over the road to fish from the foreshore east of the bridge, in the shelter of the causeway. It's a little-fished swim that requires a scramble down the causeway wall (and, later, a climb back up.)

Once the tide has fallen away it helps to have waders and a long cast to reach the edge of the channel carrying the flow of water out of the lagoon. And a very fast retrieve because it's a shallow, snaggy swim and it's easy to wind into something immoveable unless your tackle is skimmed back across the surface.

 

Anyway ... I had plenty of bites today, missed a couple, dropped my biggest fish of maybe 4lbs right at the edge and landed three mullet around the 3lbs mark.

 

From afar I could admire the floatfishing skills of the Stinton brothers Mark and Al who were bagging up with fish, trotting down the flow from the other side of the bridge. They were catching a similar stamp of fish to mine but the bigger mullet again came from the wall. Nigel had a 5:04 early in the day; late afternoon Jim reported losing a big fish, which attracted remarkably little sympathy on the WhatsApp group given his 7:03 earlier in the week. Well into the evening he had a 5:13...

Jim had been fishing all week with a frozen shoulder and couldn't both play the fish and brandish the landing net effectively. In the absence of help, he planted the net down the wall and played the fish into it, then lifted. Unfortunately in the meantime the net had sunk into the silt at the base of the wall so he brought up mullet, silt and all ... the photo is taken after he'd emptied a litre bottle of water over the fish to clean it up a bit!

 

Dinner: pasta with Bolognese sauce prepared by Nigel at ours.

 

Day 6: Tuesday 24th September

I started on the lagoon again but only gave it a hour with the wind, now north-west, blowing down the length of the water.

 

It seemed pretty hopeless so I moved over to the causeway swim again. The tide was still well up so I started fishing close in, but nothing doing. As the water dropped away I started wading and casting further out.

 

I'd only got a couple of hours to fish and time was nearly up when I missed my first bite. Next cast I was in, a nice fish of 3:14, then it was time to go.

 

Mike Buckley had been having a relatively lean time at Ross with just a few mullet up to 4lbs. I'd arranged to meet him back at the cottage then head off to a pontoon mark he enjoys fishing. We were there for the bottom few hours of the tide and straightaway we could see some very chunky mullet moving around the pontoon and under the boats tied up to it. Better still we were soon getting interest in floating and slow-sinking bread we fed in. As ever though, it was the smaller and middleweight fish that wanted our baits most. Mike struck into a fish, I watched a moment then looked back just in time to see my floating crust taken. A double hook-up, which was interesting because we'd only brought one landing net to share! Somehow we managed, both fish went 3:04 and I think in the confusion Mike is holding my fish and I'm holding his...

The disturbance seemed to have scared many of the resident mullet away. We fished on, and after maybe an hour Mike started to see a mullet taking an interest in his bait fished a foot deep or so. I'd been fishing deeper so shallowed up. Mike missed a couple of bites then hooked up ... I looked back and my float was gone ... another double hook up, but smaller fish of 2:11 mine and 2:05 Mike's. This time the commotion really had put paid to sport.

It had been a quieter day at Ross but mullet were caught, especially by Mark and Al trotting the lagoon outflow again. However, Al had the biggest mullet of the day and his best of the week on leger, a chunky 5:05.

 

Dinner, pasta again, this time at Jim's with mushrooms and lots of garlic.

 

               .........................

 

We woke next morning to a cold, wet and windy day. Nobody felt inclined to fish so we packed, tidied the cottages and headed off, some of us with longer journeys than others.

 

Ross had been challenging, clearly not at its best but still capable of producing quality mullet fishing for anglers who know about catching mullet. Good food. Good company. Good week.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Left to right: Clifford Wilkins, Al Stinton, Mark Stinton, me with a brief grasp on the NMC Irish Trophy, Mike Buckley, John Twomey separately on holiday in Ireland who joined us for the day, Jim Murray and Nigel Connor. Photo taken by Anne Marie Lenihan.

I didn't fish the last few days of September, down to a combination of an inexplicably sore elbow for a couple of days and then the arrival of ex-tropical storm Isaac. I'm hoping the elbow wasn't a reaction to six days of casting and winding at Ross, not least because I have another six days lined up with Dave Matthews in October! More of which next time.

2 Comments

Sat

31

Aug

2024

Mostly August

We were back from our trip to England late on 28th July. A day to recover from the journey, then out on the rocks on the Bantry Bay side of the peninsula on the 30th.

 

Main aim was to find out if the mackerel had turned up in force in our absence. They hadn't really - I worked a set of Sabikis till my arms were dropping off and only had four. Most interesting thing by far was the appearence of a couple of sardines.

 

Suspecting the mackerel would be scarce, I'd brought along a set of heavy gear to drop a big bait close in. I've had some nice huss and particularly conger on this mark before. 

 

I missed a good run first cast, it felt a weighty fish for the split second it took to rip the mackerel head from the hook. Second cast I had two good yanks then nothing ... I thought the mackerel head might be gone again but it was still there, completely crushed. Third time lucky maybe ... out went another head and within a minute I had another good run. I tightened down into a powerful fish, and soon had a very nice conger thrashing and spinning on the surface, I'd say not as big as a couple of the eels I've had there but close to 20lbs. I led it along to my left where I hoped to be able to slide it out onto a lower ledge, but there was still a bit of a lift on this neap tide. While I was waiting for a bigger swell to help, the conger finally twisted itself off the hook. I should have just got on with it! Oddly I couldn't get another touch after that, leading me to believe the same eel had been responsible for all the bites.

 

I'd brought some soft plastic toys back from England to play with, some larger size Zman Crawz and some purple Zman Minnowz that my Facebook friend Craig recommended as deadly for wrasse. I couldn't find the "Purple Death" ones so had to settle for a slightly paler shade, "Mood Ring". I suspect it doesn't make a lot of difference ... I had a short but very enjoyable session on 31st July on the rocks in Dunmanus Bay catching several chunky wrasse and a pollack about 3lbs that took the Minnowz on the drop before I'd even started to retrieve...

August turned out to be relentlessly windy with many wet days and an unseasonally large swell running into the Atlantic bays for most of the month. My mullet fishing was restricted mostly to the estuary at Rosscarbery, which was no great hardship really with the venue usually coming into top form for large mullet at this time of year. And at least the rough weather seemed to have broken up the patches of blanketweed that had formed earlier in the summer.

 

Sylvi and I spent a very slow afternoon sheltering under the brolly on 3rd August. The hours ticked by without a bite or even much by way of a sign of mullet moving in the pool. It wasn't until the early evening and the new tide breaking in that I started seeing the odd whelm close in. I dropped both leger baits just past the rocks and fished on with renewed hope. Soon one of the tips pulled round fiercely, but the mullet didn't hook up. I was re-baiting that rig when the other rod pulled over ... and after a nice little scrap Sylvi slid the net under a thicklip about 3lbs. The tide was flooding over the grass now so I left the mullet in the net to recover while we relocated the kit to a higher level. That accomplished, I went to lift the net to get a photo and the mullet leapt clean out! 

 

A few minutes later I was in again, another fish about 3lbs. Instead of running out as normal, this one came inside the rocks and swam around in the narrow channel between the rocks and the grass, all the time accumulating green weed on the line till eventually I was playing about 5lbs of weed and the mullet was gone...

 

The tide had peaked now and bites seemed to have dried up. Firmly into "last cast" territory, I had a couple of knocks. Maybe worth one more cast then ... and a proper take. Thankfully this was a more conventional fight with the mullet running out, hanging out there a while then coming slowly back for Sylvi to net. Got the photo too this time without any drama ... a lovely thicklip of 5:01.

On the 6th I headed back to a rock mark in Bantry Bay to try again for mackerel. The tide was right but the conditions were borderline unfishable. I set up on a high ledge and hurled the Sabikis into the most unmackerelly looking sea ... and was straight in. I'd got nineteen before I snapped the spigot on my original Zziplex bass rod, bringing the session to an abrupt end.

There was history to the bass rod, a veteran of 35 years. I shut the spigot in the tailgate of my car about fifteen years ago, splitting it badly. At the time I effected a repair by gluing a length of carbon inside the split spigot, plenty of glue in the cracks, taping it up while the glue cured then sanding it smooth. Perhaps surprisingly, everything held fine till it finally let go mid-cast on the rocks all these years later.

 

Like most (all?) old Zzippies the spigot formed the bottom end of the tip and pushed down into the butt. Fortunately just enough was protruding from the butt for me to get a grip on it with pliers and pull it out. Fortunately also it was a pretty clean break so a minimum of tidying up the bottom of the tip was required.

 

I couldn't see any way of replicating the original spigot arrangement with the materials I had to hand so instead I now have a new spigot glued into the top of the butt to push up into the tip. The spigot is actually a length cut from an old Penn beachcaster and I glued a second, slimmer, section of the Penn inside to give the spigot a double thickness. The extra wraps of carbon Zziplex added round the top of the butt and still there round the bottom of the tip should stop any splitting. Fingers crossed...

I did more mackerel trips on the 9th, and with the repaired bass rod on the 16th and 27th, all in conditions nearly as rough. I  had good bags each time and the average size was unusually high. No more sardines but there have been a few scad among the mackerel as bycatch.

 

The bass rod has held up well so far.

 

I'll keep doing a few short mackerel sessions during September and October for fish to eat and fresh bait, but I already have enough frozen down for bait for next winter's and spring's fishing, so the pressure is off in that respect.

On the 8th I had to drive Sylvi up to Cork Airport for another UK trip, and by lunchtime I was back at Rosscarbery.

 

It was a totally bleak day with thick drizzle being blown horizontally on a stiff west breeze, and like last time few if any signs of mullet out front.

 

It was a very quiet afternoon sat under the brolly, but into the last hour I had a good pull on my right hand rod. The mullet ran out a little then held its ground for a couple of minutes, often the sign of a good fish. Eventually it started kiting in to my right and after a couple more spells of resistance it was in the net. It was a very chunky thicklip of 5:09.

In this month's instalment of Things Ain't What They Used To Be, here's a pic of the rim of my Korum folding spoon net. The two halves sprang apart landing the 5:09, they were held together by the barely 3mm of self-tapping screw visible on the right side, which also acted as the "hinge" when folding the net.

 

Understandably the plastic into which it screwed was knackered after just over a year of use. What a shockingly poor piece of design. I removed the screw, drilled through the joint and fitted a small stainless nut and bolt. A simple job which rather begs the question, why didn't Korum do it that way in the first place?

 

I put the pic and a minor whinge on my Facebook and behold, lots of negative comments about Korum gear, and especially their net heads failing in a variety of ways. I've had a lot of good Korum kit, and I'm loving their Glide float rod that I've been using a few months, it would be a pity if their quality standards are indeed slipping.

 

The windy weather continued, too swelly to contemplate getting out on the rocks so mulleting was the order of the day. I fancied a change from Ross after a couple of slow sessions, so on the 12th I headed over to Clonakilty to check out the estuary there. I drove down to Ring, stopping to look at several spots but only saw a handful of smallish fish. I relocated to a spot between Glandore and Union Hall that I used to fish regularly, but not so much recently. 

 

There was plenty of mullety activity over the low water slack but I only mustered three bites at unpredictable times and in different parts of the swim. They were very positive bites to be fair, the float plunging under, but I missed all three cleanly on the strike. I was a bit annoyed with myself to be honest, and went back the next day to make amends. There were far fewer mullet about today and I only had one definite bite, but I hit it this time and landed a thicklip a couple of ounces shy of 3lbs...

By the 14th the swell had abated enough to get on the rocks well up Bantry Bay. I fished a mark that's relatively shallow, I wouldn't call it consistent but it has produced some good huss for me in the past.

I fished one rod well out with mackerel/squid and prawn/squid cocktails, and the other closer in with mackerel head baits.

 

The first couple of hours passed with just odd rattles on the rod tips, nothing that hung on. Then about an hour before high water, a good run on the mackerel head.

 

I was using a circle hook so I just tightened down ... everything seemed solid for a moment, then the rotten bottom to the lead broke and I was playing what seemed a very weighty fish. The fight didn't last long at all ... just heave really to keep the fish moving else it would be down in the kelp in an instant. Within a minute it was on the surface, not a huss but a conger, and a big one at that. I played it in to the edge, grabbed the trace and half slid, half lifted the eel out. It was definitely my biggest in Ireland but I couldn't be bothered with wrestling it into a bag to get a weight. I estimated it at 25 - 30lbs and I'm pretty confident about that as I caught several around this size when I used to fish for them in Dorset. The rest of the session was quietish ... a single dogfish then a huss about 5 or 6lbs just as I was starting to pack up.

On the 17th I headed up to Kerry for a change, to one of the marks I fish for spurs in the wintertime.

The weather had taken a turn for the worse again, low clouds scudding up the bay on a wind that freshened all day, and periods of drizzle though at least the heavier rain threatening mostly held off.

 

The first hour of the tide was quiet, then a veritable doggie-fest set in for the next three hours or so. They were all over both the smaller baits I was fishing at range and the mackerel heads I was fishing close in ... but somewhere in the middle of it all a very nice huss about 11lbs managed to get to one of the heads first.

 

About ninety minutes before high water the doggies turned off like a light, and I was suddenly much more confident of finding some better fish. My distance rod nodded then the line fell slack ... a thornback about 7lbs. Next cast, the rod pulled over hard ... another huss, a pound lighter and much darker than the first.

On the 18th I had a lie-in to recover from the Kerry trip, walked the dog, had lunch then headed out onto the Dunmanus Bay rocks a short way east of the village.

 

The swell was marginal and likely to get worse with the flooding tide but I managed about ninety minutes before deciding it was too much. Of that I wasted an hour on soft plastics for the wrasse, they were clearly not in the mood today, or just not there. I changed over to a Redgill for pollack ... not exactly hectic either but I had a couple about 3lbs each. I return most of my fish but I kept these two, one for us and one for our neighbours, taking two perfect-size fillets off each. Both looked well fed fish but I was surprised both were empty, given many of the mackerel I'd been catching were full of sandeel.

Next up, three mullet trips to Rosscarbery in weather that got steadily grimmer as the week progressed.

The 21st was a gloomy day with a freshening but warm southerly wind ahead of the arrival of ex-hurricane Ernesto that night.

 

I've had good bags of mullet at Ross before in similar conditions, fishing from the grass into the wind. It did indeed prove a busy day.

 

Before lunch I had a 4:04 and a 4:03 in rapid succession, one on each rod. The 4:03 was my 100th mullet of the year, mostly courtesy of a very productive winter season. Then I was in again on my left hand rod, and while I was playing a mullet of 3:09 the right hand rod pulled round too. I'd loosened off the drag as I'd moved away so I wouldn't risk losing the rod while my attention was elsewhere, but the downside of that is that you don't necessarily get such a positive hook-set. The mullet was there when I finally picked up the rod, and felt a bigger fish, but after a few seconds the hook came out.

 

Just after lunch I was in again on the left rod, and amazingly the right rod pulled over again too while I was playing the first fish. This time everything hung on for a brace just either side of 3lbs.

The rest of the the afternoon was quiet. About 5pm the first spots of proper rain ahead of Ernesto splatted into the back of the brolly, and soon it was lashing down. I was just contemplating whether to pack up and make a dash for the car or wait for a possible lull when my right hand rod lurched over. The fish thrashed on the surface a few moments, never a good thing, came in quite easily most of the way then dug in just beyond netting range. It chugged to and fro for what seemed ages, obviously now a good fish over 5lbs. Finally the mullet let me draw it towards the net, only for the hook to ping out with it a yard short. It was a disappointing end to the session for sure, the more so that I was soaked through after ten minutes stood playing the fish in the teeming rain.

 

The Ernesto deluge was followed rapidly by another even worse from Storm Lilian. My next visit to Ross on the 23rd was less eventful, either because the mullet had been put off the feed by the rainwater or they were just struggling to find the baits in the coloured water. I had only three takes, landing mullet of 4:06, 4:03 and 3:11. The two fours...

Each August Bank Holiday weekend in the UK, the National Mullet Club holds its annual three day Rover competition. As befitted the occasion, this year the weather was awful across the UK and Ireland. It got to Monday 26th and I thought I'd better give it a go anyway, so by 1030 I was set up under the brolly at Rosscarbery in the lashing rain...

It was a pretty attritional day with not many bites. Late morning my left hand rod folded over and I was attached to what felt a very good mullet heading for the centre of the pool ... for maybe seven or eight seconds till it came off. I seemed to be at risk of developing a habit of losing the bigger fish at Ross and landing the smaller ones, a pattern which repeated a few minutes later when I landed a 3:11 on my right hand rod without undue difficulty. I'd scooped a lot of green weed in the net along with the mullet, and while I was wiping it off the fish for a photo I noticed one strand was actually growing on the fish itself, attached to a single scale. It's not the first time I've seen this, but it is quite rare. Best thing seems to be to remove the offending scale ... the mullet will soon grow a replacement.

After a long wait, much later in the day my left rod pulled over again. The fish didn't run off strongly like the one I lost this morning, but it seemed to have some weight to it and it only came in very slowly, with the odd short surge out again.

 

After maybe eight or nine minutes I had the mullet in the edge and into the net. It was a nicely proportioned thicklip of 5:05.

 

It was a good fish but I wasn't expecting it to win the Rover ... it did though, on a much reduced entry it has to be said, presumably weather-related.

The last few days of August were forecast better weather, but there was still a fresh wind and a couple of metres of swell running up Bantry Bay on the 28th.

 

I headed well up the Bay again, to the mark where I'd had the conger mid-month.

 

There was plenty of action on the tips today with rattly bites on most casts. I'm pretty sure it was all dogfish, but I only hooked a couple on the big baits I was using.

 

A couple of hours before high water, the ratchet on my Slosh 30 signalled a proper run. I lifted into a heavy fish and kept it moving up away from the kelp before dragging it out onto the rocks ... a huss of dead on 10lbs.

By the 30th, summer seemed to have returned for a few days, with bright sun and a light south-east breeze. However, down on the rocks in Dunmanus Bay there was still an uneasy swell rolling in from the Atlantic.

 

I'd just taken my old carp rod and some soft plastics for wrasse, but it was harder going than it had been earlier in the month. Wrasse are tough fish but I do wonder if, in prolonged rough spells like we had through August, they mostly evacuate the rock margins and move offshore a little where the water is less unsettled.

 

Anyway, I stuck with it and had a few, mostly on the larger size of Zman Crawz. Biggest was the one in the photo which went 3:12.

2 Comments

Mon

15

Jul

2024

June and Early July

It's been a difficult few weeks: exam work still on, very up-and-down weather, and several sessions when the fishing just hasn't clicked for one reason or another.

 

It started on 2nd June, with a mulleting trip to Rosscarbery. It was a still, hot day and plenty of mullet were in evidence mooching over the mud bottom. It seemed impossible one of them wouldn't take a shine to my legered crust baits ... but I sat out a long session near the bridge with not a sniff of a bite till the tide came up and the mullet disappeared out onto the mudbank on the far side of the pool. There was a crowd of anglers down from Dublin fishing from the wall. I didn't see them catch either.

On the 3rd I visited a local rock mark to try to grab a few early mackerel for bait on a trip to Tralee the next day. It was a long shot and I wasn't surprised the mackerel didn't show. I'd taken along some soft plastics as Plan B and soon had out a chunky wrasse. It must have been a lonesome one though as I couldn't repeat the feat.

 

The wrasse turned out to be my only bite in about fifteen hours of fishing as I followed up the Rosscarbery blank with a big fat zero on the north side of Tralee Bay. It was a disappointing result at a good time of year on a mark I know can fish well ... just never when I go!

By this stage I was seriously in need of something to pull my string so after another round of online exam meetings, on the 10th I headed for my low water mullet mark in Bantry Bay, a venue that rarely disappoints.

 

Just as on my last visit in May, there were some very decent pollack in residence and I landed a string of 2 - 3lb fish and latched into a couple of beasts that made a nonsense of my mullet gear.

 

Nearing low water, the pollack were suddenly gone and I started to see promising surface activity from mullet and getting much more delicate bites than the pollack had been giving. I missed more than I should have, hooked four mullet but only landed two, a brace just either side of 3lbs. The others came adrift as I had to play them harder than I would have liked to keep them out of the banks of Japanese weed either side of my swim.

On the 16th, not liking to admit defeat, I was back at Rosscarbery, this time with Sylvi and the dog. There was a stiff west breeze and showers in the forecast, so we set up under the brolly on the grass. There wasn't much sign of mullet out in front, but to be honest anything could have been hiding in the ripple and overall I thought the conditions were more promising than on the sweltering, calm day when I was last down.

Well, that was just about the case. I did get bites this time, but only two. Around lunchtime one of my tips nodded and I struck into what seemed a fairly modest mullet. It was coming in quite easily till it dropped off about half way in.

 

Much later in the afternoon, the other rod pulled over hard and locked down. A much better mullet was already taking line as I picked the rod up, and carried on an awesome slow run. It stopped after maybe thirty yards, turned, and the hook came out!

 

Three blanks in a row at Rosscarbery, who'd have thought it? The consolation prize was a very tasty burger supper off the gas stove.

On the 22nd I was back down onto the rocks in Bantry Bay to try and re-establish my mullet catching credentials.

 

Result: more pollack bycatch from the off and later down the tide a trio of mullet including this very long and lean 3:10 that was a real handful to land.

 

The Japanese weed was a nuisance again but it doesn't seem to be overwhelming the mark. It's not that robust and a spell of rougher weather seems to thin it out.

 

On the 25th Sylvi and I were out again. The plan was to fish The Warren beach at Rosscarbery, which has a reputation for turning up some decent giltheads at this time of year.

A lot of driving, an hour of lug digging, more driving ... then my heart sank as I waded out through the shallows to make my first cast on The Warren. The water was a minestrone soup of mashed up weed. I don't know why I bothered making the cast as the outcome was inevitable. Within a couple of minutes the line was dragged down into the slight surf, and I wound in a washing line of weed.

 

We made a hasty relocation just along to Owenahincha which looked peachy and was completely free of weed ... but also devoid of fish it seemed as we fished right into the dusk.

On the 30th I fished with Stephen and Martin on a deep rock mark on the north side of Sheep's Head.

 

The lads were fishing a roving match as usual, which Martin won with nearly 56lbs of mostly pollack, including a beauty of 6:04.

 

Meanwhile Stephen joined me bottom fishing, which proved disappointing to put it mildly.

 

Stephen had just one dogfish. I was getting more knocks but it was all small congers. I landed six but none of them would have gone much more than 4lbs. And a solitary wrasse on the lugworm left over from Owenahincha.

Into July and on the 7th I was back at Rosscarbery.

 

A lot of blanketweed had appeared - an almost continuous band through the middle of the estuary pool and big clumps along the west side, also spreading in front of the grass area below the N71 where I often fish. The only area really clear of it was in front of the bridge where the flow from the lagoon was obviously keeping it at bay and this swim also had the advantage of a little extra depth on this neapish tide. I fished one rod straight out and one to the left, right into the flow.

 

There weren't many mullet showing at all today so it seemed a big loss when the first I hooked fell off a minute or so into a ponderous fight. It had felt a nice fish and I wasn't sure I'd get another chance but well into the afternoon my left hand rod wrenched round and I was into a much livelier fish. It stormed out, stopped luckily a few feet short of the big band of blanket weed, then kited round to the right. I played it as best I could between the clumps of weed but it picked up quite a lot and it was all a bit nerve-wracking till I was finally able to get the net under it. I thought it might be my first "six" of the season but the scales topped out at 5:14 ... lovely fish nevertheless.

 

On the 9th I had another abortive gilt session, this time in the estuary where I've had success before, though not really for a couple of years now to be fair. I dug lug as usual, missed a couple of tentative knocks on the last of the ebb flow then nothing at all over low water or early flood tide. The crabs were rampant, which I took to be a sign they weren't too concerned about getting crunched by a big gilt any time soon. The green lettuce weed was awful, it made fishing impossible drifting through as the tide picked up, and over the low water slack it was lying on the bottom masking baits.

 

I'd think a lot of nutrients - mostly from slurry spraying on silage fields - have run into the estuaries with the very wet winter and spring and now with the long daylight hours the green weed has gone mad.

 

No such worries when I was back chasing the Bantry Bay mullet on the 10th, on a middling tide so I wouldn't get as long on the low water spot as on the springs when I normally fish there. There were fewer bites all round this trip but the mullet to pollack ratio had improved and I landed three mullet with just a couple of chunky pollack this time. The mullet were a good size for this mark, up to a season best of 3:14.

On the 12th, a nice little outing just local on the south side of Sheep's Head. The tides were neap by now which aren't the best for pollack fishing and the pollack did indeed prove a struggle. Actually I was hooked into a very decent one second chuck with a pink afterburner Redgill, but it came unstuck half way in and after that I could only muster a couple of pound-size individuals and a few other snatches at the bait that didn't connect.

 

I don't have a lot of stamina for spinning when it's not going well, so after 45 minutes I was on to something different ... namely working soft plastic crayfish close in to see if there were any wrasse at home and hungry. Happily both proved to be the case and I was soon catching, and a good stamp of fish too with nothing that would have been much under 3lbs. Best was a particularly dark individual which at the time I estimated at 4lbs but possibly a good 4lbs looking again at the pic.

The plastics are Berkley Bubble Creepers, orange and green, and Zman Crawz. Of these I'd say the green Bubble Creeper is favourite but it doesn't seem to be a colour that's currently available. The one in the photo is my very last...

 

I was on something of a high after the wrasse fishing but was soon brought crashing back to earth with a dour five hour session yesterday. I was chasing huss on a Bantry Bay mark that can fish exceptionally well but does blow hot and cold, evidently. Not a bite even! Fortunately I still had the wrasse gear in the car so I grabbed that and winkled out a wrasse second cast with a Crawz to avoid the blank. After that, no more wrasse either. I'll put it down to a flat calm and very neap tide.

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Mon

03

Jun

2024

May Report

A relatively quiet fishing month for me with my seasonal exam work kicking off mid-month.

 

On the 4th I headed out for a short session on the rocks just local. There was a little swell but not much and it was low down the tide so I risked a west-pointing sloping ledge which isn't often fishable.

 

First cast was into the mouth of the bay to the right of the point and within moments I was in, in a serious way. A very nice pollack had engulfed the orange/red Redgill and it was everything I could do to keep it up out of the kelp with the angles all wrong at  long range.

A minute or so later I had it on the surface and into my net, a proper lump of 5.5lbs.

 

I tried several more casts that way but couldn't get another take, so I turned my attention to the open water to the left of the point and over the next hour had about a dozen more pollack, mostly 1 - 2lbs but a couple of bigger fish about 3lbs. I kept one of those for eating and because I was intrigued what it had packed into its stomach. It turned out to be two semi-digested wrasse about six inches long each.

 

The swell was getting up a bit but before evacuating I thought I'd see if there were any wrasse about with the green crayfish lure that had been quite deadly for them last year. I had a couple, then a 4lb pollack that snatched the crayfish under the rod tip to round off a wonderful little session.

On the 6th I headed to the airstrip strand near Bantry to fish a couple of hours either side of the low water.

 

There were doggies about, as usual, but happily not in plague numbers so I was in with a shout of something better.

 

About an hour before low, my rod fishing mackerel on an up-and-over rig pulled down then the line fell slack. I wound down into a weighty fish and soon a very decent thornback about 7lbs joined me briefly on the beach.

 

I'd taken along a third rod to scratch for small fish such as the grey gurnard sometimes caught along the airstrip there. Just before low water I noticed that line had dropped slack. I wound down and it was soon apparent this was no gurnard - I played the fish in very gingerly and picked another thornback out of the shallows, about 7lbs again. It had taken a tiny strip of bluey on a size 4 Aberdeen, though the hook would never be quite the same again! A couple of hours up the tide I had another ray, just a small one, on prawn and bluey cocktail.

On the 8th and 10th I headed east a ways to try for a gilthead. I dug lug and both days had a long wait through the low water period before getting a few bites in the narrow window between the flood tide picking up and becoming unfishable with weed.

 

I did have a gilt - comfortably my smallest from the venue - and a few schoolies. It didn't seem a lot for all the effort. I like catching gilts but the estuary I fish has definitely gone off the boil a bit the last couple of seasons, I may need a re-think.

On the 11th I did my only mullet trip of the month, and the first of the year to my low water mark in Bantry Bay. I was dismayed to find long strands of Japanese sargassum trailing up to the surface - an invasive menace I know well from my time fishing the Solent. Thinking about it there were a few clumps appeared last year till they were washed away in the August storms but this year it looks like it may form a continuous band that makes fishing difficult to impossible, we'll see I guess when I next visit in June. For now it was manageable.

 

There were plenty of mullet topping when I arrived with the tide still dropping. I missed a few bites then hooked a couple, just small fish barely 2lbs. Unfortunately the others melted away and didn't reappear as the new tide made as they often do.

The fish in the photo was the first victim of my Kingpin reel as it enters its 21st year, a remarkable innings really considering it's operating well outside its comfort zone and like most of my kit suffers a sort of benign neglect till it absolutely needs cleaning or a dab of oil for the bearings. I was lucky to get mine for £130 when they were first introduced, the latest models cost hundreds and most are exported to the USA and Canada.

My last outing of the month was back to the airstrip on the 24th.

 

The doggies were more prolific today, bites off them most casts and I landed six or seven.

 

I'd almost given up hope when  a couple of hours up the tide, one of my rods pulled over and locked down. Then followed an unusually spirited scrap as thornbacks go. It had picked up a bit of kelp adding to the impression of weight ... even so, a very decent fish about 8lbs.

 

The bait was the front half of a sardine on an up-and-over rig. Lidl was selling kilo bags of frozen for barbecue season ... and Sylvi grabbed me a couple of bags for the bait freezer. Good stuff, evidently.

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Wed

01

May

2024

April Report

On Tuesday 2nd April I collected Steve Smith from Cork Airport for a short visit. He only had four days to fish and the last of these looked seriously at risk from Storm Kathleen, so it was straight into action down on the Mizen on Wednesday.

 

Heavy rain over previous days had left a peat stain in the water, but I'd fished through such conditions quite a lot this year and done reasonably well so I was fairly confident.

 

Sure enough, Steve was soon getting bites. Sport was steady on the dropping tide and he bagged six mullet. I didn't fish myself but was happy enough on ghillie duties, loose-feeding Steve's swim and netting his fish. Unfortunately it was a shoal of 2lbers in residence so some way below potential size-wise but he seemed content with his haul...

The fishing died as the new tide flooded into the pool, perhaps surprisingly as it was still very fishable on this neap tide. We called time and headed for a coffee and cake at O'Sullivan's.

We headed to Rosscarbery on Thursday. It was a blustery grey day with heavy rain forecast later, so we made to set up on the road on the sheltered west side of the estuary pool. We'd barely got the rods out of the car when a passing walker told us they'd seen hundreds of fish lower down the channel towards the pier. We were seeing a few mullet moving where we were but not many, so it seemed worth a look lower down. Sure enough we found a big shoal spread over about a hundred yards of the channel.

 

It wasn't the easiest fishing with a flow down the channel punctuated by surges up as the 

tide made. It was difficult to get a good trot through but we were soon getting odd bites in unpredictable places.

 

Steve was first in with a mid-2lb fish. I hooked one that looked significantly bigger but it came off after a few seconds. Steve had another smaller than his first. I bumped one on the strike ... and suddenly the shoal was gone, just melted away, whether up the channel with the tide or back down towards the sea wasn't clear.

 

We had a good look round but couldn't relocate the shoal, so we decided to head back up to our first choice swim and break out the leger rods.

It was already spotting with rain but we managed to lash the brolly to the back of the car so we were reasonably snug as it got heavier, and heavier.

 

We had a fair number of mullet showing in front of us at all ranges but it seemed to be the fish further out that were feeding confidently. Steve struggles a bit for casting range and he only had a couple of half-hearted plucks on his tips. Meanwhile I had takes from decent mullet of 3:00 and 3:14 and rounded the session off with a smashing fight from this chunky 5:06. 

 

The fish seemed to move on as the tide spilled into the pool. It was lashing with rain by now anyway, and it was an easy decision to call time for the day.

Friday we headed back onto the Mizen, in hindsight probably the wrong decision as the torrential rainfall of last evening and overnight had coloured the water up really badly and the extra flow of floodwater through the pool made for difficult trotting. The wind was already whistling ahead of Kathleen and the session was peppered by heavy showers.

 

To be honest I thought a blank was the most likely outcome but we stuck with it and as the flow died off when the flood tide neared, Steve had a couple of bites. He landed one mullet that didn't quite make 2lbs, but it was something of a triumph under the difficult circumstances.

 

The storm reached its peak on Saturday morning and we wrote off the day as far as fishing was concerned. We took a drive out and had a nice lunch at the Ouvane Falls in Ballylickey. On Sunday 7th, Steve was off home.

 

I was back at Rosscarbery on Tuesday 9th, the only dry day of another wet week but with a strong wind raking across the pool from the west. I hunkered down under the brolly on the grass, clipped heavier leads on the leger rigs and settled down for what might be a difficult session.

 

As it turned out I had two good fish early on, 4:00 and 4:08 ...

... but then the fishing died on me for what seemed a long afternoon watching the wind buffeting the tips.

By 5pm I'd about had enough. The new tide had just broken into the pool and the water would soon be flooding over the grass where I was. Given how slow the fishing had been I couldn't be bothered with relocating higher up, so I started tidying my kit away to pack up, leaving the rods fishing.

 

While my back was turned I had a good take on the left hand rod. I was alerted by the drag clicking away and turned back to see the rod locked over in the rest.

 

The mullet was hooked at range and continued to run out powerfully. Shiny unused line appeared on the spool and I began to worry the fish would get into the snags on the fringe of the mudflats opposite, but fortunately it stopped just short. After a couple of minutes of stalemate I started getting line back slowly and the fish came in without too much bother. It kited to the right and I beached it in the shallow margins in the corner of the pool. It was a very healthy 5:11 thicklip.

 

The 17th was my birthday. Sylvi and I headed to Rosscarbery to fish the afternoon before getting burger and chips along the road from the chipper by the garage, celebrate in style why not?

 

It was a very neap tide and most of the mullet activity seemed to be focussed around the outflow from the lagoon. I gave the leger rods an hour without incident then made up the float rod as I was still seeing fish and they seemed quite active on and near the surface.

 

To be honest I should have done better than I did. Trotting down the flow I managed to miss about the first twenty bites and bumped a fish on the strike before getting into the swing of things. I landed three respectable fish to 3:08 before latching into something much better. One epic fight later, I slid this scale-perfect 5:02 over the net ...

The mullet were moved further out with the disturbance of all that. I had a couple more bites at the extreme limits of the trot, missed one and bumped another on the strike, then the fish melted away.

 

The next day we walked the dog along the rocky shore near Kilcrohane. Summer had arrived for a few days and we found some mullet enjoying the sunshine in a spot I'd not fished before. Some of these early arrivals in the Bay looked very decent size. We finished our walk then I dashed back with my float rod, but the tide was up another couple of feet by then and most of the mullet had moved on. The handful left showed a passing interest in floating scraps of bread, and I had a couple of bites fishing about a foot deep but missed them.

 

I returned next day for a better prepared session. The mullet were there again, not in yesterday's numbers but again some chunky individuals among them. Typically they seemed less interested in bread today, but I did get odd bites till eventually bumping a fish on the strike ... it felt absolutely solid for an instant so probably it was a big fish. Predictably everything went quiet after that, till a little flurry of bites about an hour later. I missed several before finally hooking into a little thicklip that would have made barely 12oz!

On the 20th Sylvi and I headed up to Kerry, making a most of the pleasant weather for a go at the spurdogs. My friend Stephen had four spurs on a nearby mark a couple of days before so I felt unusually confident after what has been a pretty dismal season for them.

The first hour passed uneventfully then I had a tiny drop-back bite on a mackerel/squid cocktail bait. Nothing else happened but when I decided to wind in a couple of minutes later there was a heavy fish on. It put up a good scrap especially close in but soon I had a nice thornback ray flapping at the edge of the rocks and was able to hand-line it out. The ray went just a shade over 10lbs on the scales, so a new PB for me in Ireland.

 

Soon after I missed a bite on a sandeel/squid cocktail that came back shredded ... interesting ... possibly a spur?

 

Seconds later my other rod went and this time I hooked into the fish, indeed a spur. Bites continued to come sporadically throughout the session. I missed a few, hooked a few and ended up with seven spurs on the rocks. They weren't big fish at all, probably 4 - 5lbs at most, but very welcome after such a lot of unproductive effort for them this year.

On the 25th we were back at Rosscarbery. Winter had returned and it was a cold and blustery day with rain forecast later on. The water in the estuary pool was an unpleasant shade of brown, apparently being coloured up by the water pouring out of the lagoon which was even browner and reeked of cattle slurry. Not great, but there were mullet showing themselves occasionally so maybe not so bad.

 

We started off down the west side where there were a few mullet visible in the shallow water but I couldn't get a bite from those fish and after a couple of hours the swans moved onto my groundbait and made fishing impossible. We moved up to the grass at the north end and took shelter under the brolly, and more hours ticked by without any interest on the tips. It got to mid-afternoon and Sylvi took the dog for a walk before the rain arrived. While she was away I thought I might have had a drop-back on one of the tips but nothing came of it and it may have just been the wind moving the lead.

It was spotting with rain when Sylvi returned, she took some of the kit back to the car and I said I'd have a last cast then pack up. It was soon raining steadily and seemed to be set in.

 

I made the cast last as long as I reasonably could, wound in my right hand rod and started packing it away ... and my left hand rod wrapped round!

 

The mullet splashed on the surface and came in easily about ten yards. I was just thinking it didn't seem very big when it got its head down and steamed off about thirty yards. It came in very grudgingly indeed, kiting round slowly to the right so I had to get out from under the brolly to follow it across. I got soaked but it was worth it for a lovely 5:06. Another last gasp mullet!

On the 26th I went to the airstrip strand near Bantry for an afternoon session over the low water.

 

A light north-east breeze was forecast which wasn't ideal, and when I arrived it was blowing about 20mph! Still, here now so I may as well fish ...

 

As expected it was a pretty gruelling session, plenty of bites actually but all dogfish. Other casts I wound in massive starfish which I presume had been sitting on my bait fending off all-comers. It was a disappointing outing for sure but unsurprising in the conditions.

 

On the 27th we were back up in Kerry. The forecast was for a light north breeze which would have been sheltered by the forestry behind, but in practice there was a moderate easterly which increased to fresh every time a cloud came over. It was perishing cold and didn't seem like nearly May at all.

 

First bite was a good pull followed by slack an hour or so up the tide, resulting in another nice thornback, if a fairly drab one as they go. This one was just a shade under 10lbs.

 

The spurs were gone though, just a couple of LSDs to show for the rest of the tide. There were lots of seabirds working shoals of bait fish the last time we were there, but nothing like that today ... I guess the spurs follow the shoals. It would probably help matters if the pair trawlers didn't strip out thousands of tons of sprat from the bays each winter.

My last outing of the month was on the 29th, Rosscarbery again, another day with a strong and surprisingly chilly westerly cross wind. At least it was mainly dry apart from a couple of brief showers.

 

Those keeping count will realise I'd had a 5lber on each of my last four trips to Ross, so I was about due a duff session. As far as I could tell with the wind rattling the tips, I didn't get a bite all day and I barely saw a mullet move. The venue seems to be a bit off form to be honest - just one definite bite in the last two trips, about eleven hours of fishing. I'll probably give it a miss for a few weeks now; hopefully there'll be some decent mullet fishing available in the bays nearer home when the weather settles down again.

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Sun

31

Mar

2024

March Report

Before we start this month, I'd like to ask my blog readers to please take a few minutes to respond to the Irish Government consultation on trawling within six nautical miles of the shore which can be found here.

 

Responses can be emailed to TrawlingConsultation@agriculture.gov.ie and must be received by 1300 hours on 12th April 2024.

 

If like me you believe all inshore trawling should be stopped, please respond and say just that. As a fall-back position I shall also be indicating my support for two of the possible options presented. Option 2: All sea-fishing boats excluded from pair trawling inside the six nautical mile zone; and Option 4: All sea-fishing boats over 15m in length overall excluded from trawling inside the six nautical mile zone. Adoption of these two measures would remove the most damaging large trawlers from the inshore environment and also stop the winter pair trawling which has done so much harm to stocks of sprat and everything up the food-chain that depends on sprat, including larger fish, sea birds and marine mammals such as dolphins and whales.

The weather through March was mostly bleak but at least the 1st started a pleasant day with broken cloud and a light, if chilly, breeze.

 

I headed down onto the Mizen hoping to find plenty of mullet showing in the estuary. My heart sank on arrival, nothing at all moving on the surface despite the near-ideal conditions. Only the scales left scattered by the otters hinted that there could be some mullet present.

 

I set my float to fish the flake bait well down, and was getting bites almost immediately. They were timid and I missed a few, but I soon connected with a 2lb class mullet.

I was delighted with that fish as it brought my monthly run to 36 ... three full years since the last covid lockdown with mullet caught in every month. Unfortunately, it seemed it may have been the only mullet present as when I got back to fishing, the bites had dried up completely.

A couple of hours later I started seeing mullet moving in the shallow margins of the pool off to my right. I moved across and dropped my float on the fringe of the shoal, keeping myself low and well back from the edge.

 

I was straight back in to bites, though frustratingly missed several that looked really positive before finally hooking up. The mullet first ran to the right through the shallows then left into deeper water where it bored for the bottom and stayed deep for ages. Steady pressure took its toll and eventually the fish surfaced then it was soon in the net. At 4:14 it was my best of the year so far.

 

Not surprisingly, the disturbance had dispersed the shoal of fish. It was well into the dusk anyway by now and starting to drizzle, so I called time.

 

I was back on the 11th, a marginally less unpleasant day after a particularly miserable spell of weather.  To my surprise, there were loads of mullet showing  and I knew straight away a big bag might be on the cards. It was indeed a remarkable session, with bites coming almost every cast and far longer spent playing and returning mullet than actually sat fishing.

I finished after three hours as the new tide poured through the bridge arches and moved the shoal of fish on.

 

In the meantime I'd caught sixteen, equalling my best bag of mullet from the venue (or anywhere else.) 

 

Mostly the mullet were 2lb and 3lb class fish, the best of the day was the eleventh landed, a chunky 4:02.

 

My next mullet session was at Rosscarbery on the 15th, where I'd be unlikely to match the numbers of mullet but I was hoping for some bigger fish.

I arrived late morning soon after high water and had a good look round, and the only mullet I could see were a few in the corner by the hotel.

 

I set up with two leger rods on the grass. As the water gradually fell away more fish were evident, but it was an hour or so before I had a definite take.

 

That fish came off after a few seconds but I hooked two more in the feeding spell which lasted, appropriately enough, over lunchtime and I landed chunky 4lbers of 4:04 and 4:06.

With more and more fish showing I was confident of getting another but as has been fairly common at Ross this winter, I spent the afternoon with substantial numbers of mullet swimming all round my baits ... and not a further take.

I was back down on the Mizen on the 22nd.

 

Today, hardly any mullet showed on the surface but good numbers of fish had to be present judging by the number of bites I was getting fishing three or four feet down.

 

I'd amassed a total of nine by the time the new tide started pushing through but I thought I might eke a tenth out as the tide was fairly neap and the flow not too strong yet.

 

My float moved up with the stream then caught in a big eddy, moved closer to the bank then back towards where it had started. It bobbed, resurfaced and then buried, and I struck into a very powerful mullet. The fight seemed to go on for ever in the strengthening flow, but in reality it was probably eight or nine minutes before I could get the net under a lovely thicklip of 5:01.

 

By the time I'd returned the mullet, the tide was motoring through the pool and it was impossible to fish on in any sensible way.

 

Fishing for other species was proving hard-going at the moment (see below!) so it wasn't too difficult a decision to make on the 28th to head back to the Mizen for another go at the mullet while it was fishing well. 

 

There were good numbers present today, though not feeding as avidly as they sometimes do, perhaps because of the bright sunlight and/or a perishing cold NW breeze. As is often the way when they are being picky, I hooked and lost mullet today that were probably lightly hooked round the edge of the mouth. Four fish came adrift, three of them well into the fight. It's frustrating but all part of mullet fishing and anyway, I landed eight. They were a proper mix of sizes from 1:12 up to a pair each 4:01, very enjoyable fishing.

The big mullet shoals will be dispersing soon, leaving much leaner pickings, but it has been a remarkable winter season. I've landed over seventy already, despite having to be very selective over the days to fish because of the mostly awful weather.

 

In other news, I did two very dour trips up to Kerry on the 10th and 25th, not only blanking on the spurdogs but no meaningful bycatch either - just one doggie each day to stave off the blank.

 

Between times on the 20th I headed that way again to join my friend Stephen on a new mark. Thanks Donal if you're reading this for putting us onto the spot. Ironically on the neapest of neap tides and with a touch of east in the breeze, it fished well. No spurs again, but the huss were in the mood and we contacted about a dozen between us. A couple of mine dropped off, Stephen's hung on better to his Pennell rig and among his haul he had the biggest of the day at 11lb 2oz (not the one in the photo.)

Anticipating the spurs might not materialise, I'd taken along some heavier tackle than usual specifically to drop a bait for huss about 20 yards out, hopefully at the edge of the graunch along the foot of the rocks. It worked well enough, though in fairness the huss seemed pretty well distributed at all ranges anyway. Late in the afternoon and well down the tide I had a stronger take than the huss had been giving. I flicked the reel into gear, felt the rod pulling over and lifted into the fish. From the power of the run that developed I knew immediately I'd hooked another skate, remarkably only weeks after my last encounter. 

 

The good news was that it was on tackle that, although still short of ideal, I felt gave me a better chance this time. I was using my heaviest beachcaster, an old Shimano and Daiwa SL30SH reel with 30lb line, a strong circle hook. The bad news was that being hooked close in, the skate was already down around a load of potential snags and it was running off to the left, more parallel to the shore than out to sea, so this situation wasn't really improving.

 

Anyway, to cut a long story short, despite my best efforts with the beefier tackle, the skate went to ground at the end of its first slow but awesome run. I managed to get it moving again several times but each time it went back down, and on the last couple of times it moved I could feel the line grating through a snag. Eventually the line parted, the last few feet frayed badly. Very disappointing ... and this time I have the video that Stephen took to remind me! I'm thinking more seriously about a proper heavy duty rock fishing rod now...

 

My last outing of the month was on the 30th. There was a southerly breeze blowing but there was a westerly swell nearly 3m left over from the rough spell earlier in the week. I decided not to chance driving up to Kerry and finding it unfishable, and stopped at Bantry airstrip instead. To cut a long story short ... five hours, two dogfish, a couple of missed rattles probably also dogfish. It wasn't the greatest tide but I thought I'd do better. All seems a bit out of sorts ... the colour of the water isn't too bad but I do wonder about the amount of fresh water in the bays following this unusually wet winter and spring and whether it's affecting the fishing.

 

 

There's a nice puff for the Mullet Club, and this blog, appeared in IFI's Sea Angling Update. Always good to get some recognition.

 

My friend and NMC colleague, Steve Smith, is coming over for a few days from 2nd April so hopefully next month's update will start with us dodging the worst of the rain and catching a few mullet.

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Sat

09

Mar

2024

February Report

Mullet-wise I spent most of my time down on the Mizen, failing to replicate the wonderful fishing of February 2023 but nevertheless clocking up a few fish.

 

The weather continued poor throughout the month, the venue carrying extra rainwater and a horrible peaty colour. Few mullet were evident on the surface but they were obviously present in modest numbers as bites would come fairly regularly fishing deeper down.

 

These two guys were an unwelcome addition to the local fauna, the more so in that they seemed already tuned in to bread and some days wouldn't leave me alone for more than a few minutes. Presumably they'd flown in from Rosscarbery or somewhere else they were used to getting fed.

 

My first trip was on the 1st. Conditions were challenging as described but the float dipped every now and then and occasionally my strike connected. I had three mullet around 3lbs to take my monthly run to 35 consecutive...

I was back on the 9th for another go. The ebb tide/floodwater was running out too fast to fish effectively at first but as the flow eased off I started getting bites. I finished with five mullet, bumped one on the strike and lost another after a couple of minutes. That was a bit bigger fish but the ones I landed were mostly 2 - 3lbs...

I wasn't back till after a particularly grim spell of weather, on the 24th. I bagged another five thicklips in a remarkably similar session.

 

It's not just the number of fish that's down, but the smattering of 4 and 5lb mullet I was getting in the bigger bags last year seems to be missing too. The biggest of today's haul was 3:12.

 

The Fox Adjusta Level chair, incidentally, is one of the best pieces of fishing kit I've ever bought, this one's now into its eleventh year and replaced one that lasted twelve. Very comfy and the fold-out undercarraige gives some instant height adjustment for uneven ground without the faff of four adjustable feet which would also need to be kept clean and functional.

In between times, on the 14th, I had an afternoon session at Rosscarbery. I had other plans but it had already started raining when I arrived and it was soon set in for a bleak, dank afternoon. I took the easy option and fished out of the back of the car along the first section of wall.

 

The water was surpringly clear but as I mixed up my groundbait I noticed it was perishing cold, even compared to the air temperature which wasn't great in itself.

 

I wasn't too hopeful the few fish I could see well out from the wall would feed, but for an hour mid-afternoon they seemed to get more active and I had three good takes, each converted to a mullet on the bank. The first was about 2lbs, the second a chunky 3:12. The third was a useful 4:10 that might have gone an ounce heavier if something hadn't bitten off half of its tail! A seal probably...

It was still pretty dank on the 16th when I had the big rods out for my first visit of the year to the airstrip strand near Bantry.

 

I arrived to fish the second half of the ebb tide then as much of the flood as I could into the dusk. It was a neapish tide, not ideal.

 

It was a quiet session punctuated by just two bites. The first was a little drop-back an hour before low that yielded a nice little thornback of 2 - 3lbs. The second, about an hour up the new tide just as I was on the phone to my friend Stephen, was a full-blooded take that had the rod pulled over about a yard. The fight though didn't live up, and I'd soon landed another smallish ray, this one about 5lbs. The successful baits were mackerel and bluey - I've never found much to choose between them though each seems to have its day.

I should really take down some whitewash for the concrete slab to get some better contrast on the photos! Just how effective is their camo?

I was out again on the 18th, to mark on Sheep's Head where I had some very decent bullhuss last summer. No such luck today though.

 

Unusually for this February it was a pleasant day in a brief window in the otherwise relentless rain.

 

Early on I had a few little knocks on mackerel head baits which I put down to small fish pulling at the soft bits. Nothing came of them and soon they petered out. I was really hopeful of some proper action as the tide topped out but it wasn't to be.

 

I had a couple of days up in Kerry, on the 10th and the 26th, hoping for a spurdog but I didn't get one, again, as has become the usual state of affairs over the last few seasons.

Both sessions I fished the tide up from low to just after high.

 

The 10th was a slow session, eventually I had a couple of takes close together about mid-tide, both on mackerel bait. The first was a little nod followed by slackline, and I soon had a bullhuss about 7 - 8lbs on the surface at the edge ... where it opened its mouth and let go of the bait. Not ten minutes later I had an identical bite on my other rod and this time had a much bigger huss about 11 - 12lbs do exactly the same thing! Huss are absolute masters at clamping their jaws on a bait without getting hooked so it's never exactly a surprise when it happens - still disappointing though, particularly the bigger fish and on a day when there was no other action.

 

The 26th was an even slower start. It was nice seeing otters, seals and then dolphins all within a stone's throw but maybe they weren't doing much for the fishing! About 90 minutes before high water I had a couple of knocks on my left hand rod. Nothing seemed to come of them, so I left the mackerel bait out. Ten minutes later, the rod pulled hard over.

 

The fish headed out, slowly but powerfully, peeling line off against the drag. Then it turned and headed straight in, not very fast but as fast as I could wind on a 6500. I began to worry it was going to come right in to the margin, so I worked my way forwards to the edge of the rocks. The fish turned and started stripping line again ... then the hook came out. 

 

I cast my mind back to my PB spur of 14lbs and some other big ones I had about the same time. As I remembered they zipped around and took a little line off the drag ... but the fish I'd just lost seemed in a different league altogether. I couldn't rule out its being the mother of all spurs, but I really doubted it.

 

No sooner had I sorted out a new bait and cast it out than my other rod locked over, line already pulling off the drag as I picked the rod out of the rest, with some difficulty. The fish carried on running slowly, further than the first, then just like the first turned and swam slowly in. It turned again and headed back out - this time the hook held - on an awesome run that took it well past my original casting range. Eventually it stopped and I could start pumping back line, but as it got closer to the rocks and the line became more vertical the fish seemed to get heavier and heavier. It kited left a bit which was bad news as I couldn't stay directly over it ... I had an inkling what the fish was now and wasn't that surprised when it went to ground somewhere at the foot of the rocks.

 

I spent a good ten to fifteen minutes trying to get the fish on the move again. Occasionally it would pull off a couple of feet of line which I could then get back with a lot of effort, but it wasn't really budging. Eventually I pointed the rod down the line and pulled gently at first, gradually harder ... I was expecting the line to break, but then I sensed some give and then the fish was coming up ... very slowly. I got the rod up again and started pumping - it was like lifting a slightly animated fridge! After about ten or twelve feet, the hook came out. It had opened out slightly, either by my pulling or more likely the fish pulling against whatever it had been snagged in. It was a Sakuma Manta Extra in 4/0, a good strong hook for most purposes.

 

I'm sure the fish was a common skate - a good bit livelier and a good bit lighter probably than the one I lost in January 2022, but a skate all the same. In some ways the hook coming out was the best possible result as there was no way I'd have lifted it out of the water, or even got very close to the water to cut the trace. But for a few moments I felt there was a chance this one was coming to the surface and I was disappointed I didn't at least see it.

 

I don't really want to invest a grand in tackle that might give me a better chance of getting a skate to the top next time - bearing in mind there may not be a next time - and take much of the enjoyment out of catching spurs, huss and rays. Maybe see about upgrading the hooks though...

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Wed

31

Jan

2024

January Report

I kicked the New Year off with a couple of unsuccessful mullet sessions at Rosscarbery.

 

On the 4th I arrived at lunchtime and started down the west side, the trees giving some shelter from the blustery west wind in the aftermath of Storm Henk. After a couple of hours I'd not had a bite nor seen much mullet activity, so I went for a walk and soon found a big shoal in the shallow corner by the hotel. I relocated and spent another couple of hours with mullet swimming all round my baits but not taking them. I had a few knocks on the tips but nothing I'd swear wasn't a line bite.

 

I was back on the 7th at the start of a cold spell before the east wind set in too deeply, again arriving at lunchtime to give the day time to warm up a little. There wasn't much showing so I set up to fish the slightly deeper water by the bridge. As the water dropped away I started seeing a few mullet moving for the hour or so until the air temperature started dropping as the sun set, but there was absolutely no interest in my baits.

I gave the next week of bitterly cold east winds a miss and headed back on the 14th. It was a cold day and there was still a touch of east breeze blowing so I wasn't overly optimistic.

 

I fished over by the bridge again, and today there were reasonable numbers of mullet showing from the off. The late morning and early afternoon passed without a touch then, after two and a half blank sessions, the mullet finally decided to feed! In quick succession I landed a 3:15, lost another one that felt similar, then landed a 4:01. I'd caught my January mullet - that's now 34 months consecutive.

I was back again on the 18th, another chilly day with the wind now out of the north. I fished a couple of hours by the bridge without interest, then mid-afternoon started seeing fish over in the corner again, well to my right. I walked over for a look - there were hundreds of mullet, dorsal fins and tips of tails scything through the water everywhere and big whelms when fish spooked. I quickly fetched my tackle over and cast out expecting an instant response given how active the fish seemed ... and two hours later packed up without a bite! 

 

Jason's big haul on Christmas Day was taken mostly on maddies, perhaps that's the way to go when the winter mullet are playing hard to get on bread. Though the extra time, travel and effort digging doesn't really appeal versus picking a loaf off the shelf!

The prolonged cold spell came to an end with storms Isha and Jocelyn in quick succession.

 

Facebook started sending "memory" posts through my newsfeed of the big bags of mullet I had down on the Mizen in late January last year and the year before. I was anxious to give it a go though doubtful about the ongoing unsettled conditions, anyway on the 26th I travelled down for a look.

 

The pool was raked by a strong southwest breeze. Nothing was showing on the surface but the otters had left a few piles of scales on the bank so I thought there might be a few mullet deeper down. I got the brolly up as shelter against the wind and the occasional squally showers that punctuated an otherwise sunny afternoon.

 

I fished a couple of feet deeper than I normally do at this spot and soon was getting bites, sporadic at first but more frequent as fish turned on to my mashed bread loose feed. I missed more than I should have, bumped a couple of fish on the strike, and landed four up to 3:10.

The session marked the first outing for a new Korum Glide 12ft/14ft float rod that I fished with the 2ft dolly section to make 14ft. I'd only bought it to have as a spare in case my Preston float rod comes to grief, but I wanted to give it a try. I'm really quite impressed for the £70 it cost - light to hold, casting's a breeze due to the larger than average eyes for a float rod, not quite the pleasant action of the Preston for playing fish but not far short. 

On the 27th I had the big rods out after far, far too long. I travelled up to Kerry to fish for spurdogs, but the spurdog fishing hasn't shone the last few years so I had realistic expectations ... huss are a safer bet.

 

I fished an island mark accessible across a causeway from half tide down for about a five hour session before having to evacuate, unless you want a much longer session!

 

The mark looked a million dollars with a warm south breeze from behind and a nice colour in the water left from the storms.  Yet it was a slow session overall with no action at all on the dropping tide or over low water.

 

About an hour up the tide one of my rod tips straightened as the line fell slack. I tightened down and struck into a heavy fish, and heaved a good huss into the edge where it spat out my hook as they sometimes do, disappointing to put it mildly.

 

It's not often in fishing you get a chance for instant redemption, but I was still baiting up that rod when I had an exact repeat of the bite on my other one. This time no misfortunes, and a huss of 11lbs joined me briefly on the rocks having taken a squid/mackerel cocktail.

 

I stayed as long as I could but no further action. The tide was just flooding over the causeway as I got back...

On the 29th my thoughts turned back to the mullet on the Mizen. It was a calm day, just a breath of north breeze, and with sunshine forecast for the afternoon I just knew the mullet would be showing in force and feeding well.

Sure enough there were mullet topping all over the pool when I arrived.

 

I set up the Korum float rod again with a small waggler float to fish about 18" deep.

 

Bites were tentative at first but became bolder as the fish turned on to my loose feed, and soon I was into a nice 3:12 thicklip to start.

 

Fish kept coming regularly. My tenth was the biggest of the day, the 4:03 in the photo left. The others were mostly big 2s and 3s, every one a good scrap on the light float tackle.

 

By this stage the mullet were mostly showing across the far side of the pool. I swapped my centrepin reel for a fixed spool and put on a heavier 3SSG float for greater casting range, and soon added an eleventh mullet. 

 

Shortly after I was in again ... I'd not seen a bite but I started to wind back at the end of a long trot and found myself attached to a very powerful fish. It ran off about ten yards then leapt clear of the water, another run and another leap, then it was off. It wasn't a normal mullet fight at all, I wondered if I'd foul-hooked one as I began to retrieve or if maybe a big trout had grabbed the bread.

 

The sun was setting now, the temperature dropping like a stone, there were still plenty of mullet topping across the pool but they were stopped feeding and I was no longer getting bites. I called time on a great session.

0 Comments

2023

Sun

31

Dec

2023

December Report

Well this won't take long!

 

I only found time for one session ahead of our UK trip, on the 7th. The previous night was very cold - I had to scrape a thick frost off the car and the air temperature was -3degC for most of the drive down to Rosscarbery. The tides were very neap so the water in the estuary pool was shallow, probably with little salt content, and the bottom half of the pool was actually frozen over when I arrived! There was no obvious sign of mullety activity in the rest of the pool.

 

I set up to fish the slightly deeper water in front of the bridge arch hoping it might be hiding a few mullet; though I was dubious about the flow of water out of the lagoon that must have been borderline freezing because the lagoon itself was completely iced over.

 

The morning passed without a twitch on the tips. Into the afternoon I did see a few mullet moving, though they seemed to be paddling round lazily not feeding. I had a tiny drop-back on one tip and a couple of plucks on the other that looked like they could develop, but didn't.

 

We were back from UK on the 23rd. I had plans to fish on Christmas Eve but it was way too wet and windy. Christmas Day was better, mild and a gentle west breeze, but I'm not that fanatical ... meanwhile Jason fished at Ross and caught eight mullet to 5lb 1oz, mostly on maddies, and lost a rod when another mullet pulled it over the wall. He reported the venue was full of mullet, which was encouraging, but looking at the forecast it was almost uniformly grim now right through to New Year. The best bet seemed to be St Stephen's Day morning which looked reasonably calm and dry ahead of the arrival of Storm Gerrit during the afternoon.

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Sat

02

Dec

2023

October & November Report - Mostly Mulleting

We arrived into Fishguard late on 30th September, stayed the night in St Clears and travelled on down to my sister's in Christchurch next morning. Ahead of us, a week in Dorset and Cornwall ahead of our son's wedding in Somerset on 8th October.

 

The original plan had been to fish a couple of days at Christchurch, one with an old friend Steve Tierney, but as the date neared and with poor reports from the venue, carting all the gear over seemed less and less appealing. I blew out the Christchurch fishing and instead had a pleasant afternoon with Steve in the Thomas Tripp in town on the 2nd.

 

On the 3rd we arranged to meet Steve Smith in Lymington for lunch and then maybe to fish with the skeleton kit I'd packed if the conditions seemed okay. Sylvi and I were there early and we took a walk along the river front either side of the Royal Lymington Yacht Club. The north side was being raked by a chilly wind blowing down and across the river; the south side was more sheltered and we saw a few decent mullet browsing around in the shallows.

 

Anyway, we had a nice lunch with Steve in The Mayflower then he and I headed for a short session in the same area we'd seen the fish. The tide had filled in while we were eating and no mullet were visible now, but we were reasonably confident they'd still be about. We both floatfished breadflake a few feet deep,

 

I had loads of bites, but so far as I know they were all from small bass between 4" and 6" long. Steve was fishing to my right a bit closer to the pontoons, and his string of nuisance basslets was interrupted by a couple of mullet. They were only small, less than 2lbs probably, but it was a success of kinds. I have to say it all seemed a lot harder than I remembered - the venue has been heavily netted I know - later on I took a walk right along the marina front and saw only a single mullet lying under the pontoon. It was a nice one about 6lbs but really, there should have been hundreds.

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Wed

06

Sep

2023

September Report

The month started off on a disappointing note on the 1st with a visit to my low water mullet mark in Bantry Bay. It was a bite a chuck for the first hour but all mackerel and although they cleared off an hour before low tide, the damage was done. The mullet just won't hang around to compete with mackerel when they are there in that sort of force and I fished on for a couple of hours with no interest at all. Right at the death, just as I was getting washed off the mark, a couple of mullet swirled tantalisingly out of range. I stayed as long as I could but they didn't come any closer.

 

On the 6th I headed to Rosscarbery on a warm day with broken cloud. There was a little breeze blowing up the estuary putting a bit of a lop on the water. Not much was showing on the surface but the mullet were there alright ... 

 

I fished from the grass with two leger rods out as usual, baiting up two areas, one at maximum range slightly left and one closer in slightly right. After thirty minutes or so I hooked a mullet about 3lbs on my left hand rod and played it in only for the hook to ping out with it just short of the net. Not the greatest start and I was immediately wondering if my August habit of losing as many mullet as I landed was going to carry over into September. However, five hours later that monkey was well and truly off my back as a succession of positive takes were converted into seven mullet on the bank. What a session! In ascending order the fish were 3:14, 4:02, 4:09, 4:12, 5:01, 5:11 and a clonking mullet of 6:01 ...

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Sun

03

Sep

2023

August Report

First up, mulleting and on the 1st I headed to Rosscarbery on a gloomy, grey day with heavy rain forecast to arrive about 4pm. I turned up about 11am and fished from the grass across from the hotel so I could get the brolly up in preparation.

 

After a quiet first hour I started seeing a few fish out in front of me and getting odd knocks on the tips, possibly just line bites. 

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Mon

31

Jul

2023

July report

On 1st July Sylvi and I headed down to Rosscarbery. We were going to miss some time later in the month for a UK trip so I was keen to get a July mullet under my belt.

 

I should have paid more attention to the tides. The late afternoon HW was predicted a decent size but the early morning tide had been smaller and coming off the back of a set of neaps there wasn't much depth in the pool. Coupled with mostly bright sunshine and a gusty NW breeze raking across the pool, it looked like the day would be a proper struggle.

 

And so it proved. We could see mullet moving occasionally across the far side of the pool among the wreckage of the old oyster trestles but few if any ventured within casting range. Four hours and more dragged by with no interest at all on the quivertips.

 

The new high water seemed to be taking forever to break into the pool, but it did eventually make it and the water level started rising quickly. Almost immediately I was seeing mullet whelm close in, probably fish that had come up the channel with the tide. 

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Fri

30

Jun

2023

May & June Report

This has been one of the quieter fishing spells I've had over the last few seasons. The poor spring weather spilled from April into May then mid-month summer arrived but with a protracted spell of east winds. Also mid-May my exam work kicked off, back to pre-pandemic levels with a vengeance but even more so because of the numbers of experienced markers who've moved on in the past two and three years. My last bundle of scripts despatched back to UK this morning but the weather has turned wet and windy so I'm still stuck indoors, at least with this chance to update the blog.

 

Throughout I've been carrying a nagging knee injury that has only really improved over the last few days. Hopefully it's the start of a permanent recovery, but I'm still waiting for an MRI scan so we'll see what that throws up.

 

The knee has more-or-less kept me off the rocks but against my better judgement I did do one last trip up to Kerry early in May to try for a late spurdog. It proved a wasted effort, in fact a complete blank and I had plenty of time hobbling back up through the forestry and on the drive home to muse on what had been a disappointing spur season.

 

Talking of disappointments, this gilthead season has pretty much passed me by with not much to show. 

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Wed

03

May

2023

April Report

On Saturday 1st I headed down onto the Mizen with the twin aims of getting an April mullet under my belt and checking out the form ahead of the visit of my old friend Mike Buckley who would be arriving in West Cork later in the week after a few days stop-off near Dublin for coarse fishing with Jim Murray.

 

It was exactly a fortnight after I'd caught an astonishing sixteen fish bag from a pool full of mullet, but there wasn't going to be a repeat of that today. The water was carrying a peaty stain after the rain during the week and although I saw an odd fish or two breaking the surface ripple they seemed very sparse indeed.

 

I fished patiently for a couple of hours without a bite, feeding mashed bread little and often but to no obvious effect. Then, just as the new tide started to creep through the bridge arch, I started getting bites. I missed a few and hooked a couple, thicklips just either side of 2lbs. They were the 74th and 75th mullet of the year after my best-ever winter season, though the fishing looked to be taking a turn for the more difficult now.

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Thu

30

Mar

2023

March Report

The easterly airflow spilled over into March. The breeze wasn't forecast too strong for the 1st so I headed to Rosscarbery. Mission: to catch a mullet to complete 24 months consecutive since the last covid travel restriction ended.

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Mon

27

Feb

2023

February Report - PB Huss

On the 1st I was down at Rosscarbery, looking for a February mullet.

 

I started off legering from the wall on the west side. There was a huge shoal of mullet well out  and from time to time a large group would break off and rampage round the pool, putting up a spectacular bow wave. Several times I had mullet boiling all round my baits but I couldn't get a touch apart from a couple of very obvious line-bites.

 

I was picking up some horrible black slime on my line which I guess was the rotting remains of last summer's lettuce weed. Sometimes I'd have to stop two or three times while retrieving to pick it off as it jammed in my tip ring. After a couple of hours I'd had enough and I decided to move over by the bridge hoping there might be some mullet feeding and/or less black slime in the deeper water channel.

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Mon

06

Feb

2023

January Report

2nd January was the only calm day forecast for the forseeable future, so I decided to try to get my mullet season kicked off at Rosscarbery. Conditions were hardly ideal though - it was bitterly cold and last evening's sleet had frozen solid to my windscreen. I chiselled it off and set off with the car's outside temperature gauge telling me it was -3degC!

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2022

Sat

31

Dec

2022

Tackle Stuff

No fishing for me since the last blog update. We had our UK trip through mid-December, very enjoyable to be fair but not for the first time I brought back a very unpleasant virus that has laid me low since. I hope to get out early in the New Year but for now I've just been doing a bit of tackle tinkering that has inspired me to write this piece ... basically just some random tackle-related stuff from the last year. 

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Mon

05

Dec

2022

Mullet Run Still Going, Just About ...

The grisly weather through the second half of October looked like continuing well into November. It was a case of looking for a short break in it to try for a November mullet. One such opportunity came by on the 4th, so I headed down to Rosscarbery.

 

It was flat calm on arrival and despite my doubts after all the recent wind and rain, there were mullet showing all over. The grass by the bridge looked as good as anywhere, so I set up the leger rods and cast out two crust baits. I didn't get as many bites as I'd thought considering the number of fish about, but by lunch I'd had a couple 2:12  and 3:13 ...

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Mon

31

Oct

2022

October Report - Irish PB Mullet

On the 2nd I was up at 3 a.m. to drive Sylvi to the airport for a ridiculously early flight to Manchester. I'd loaded my mullet gear into the car the previous evening, and diverted back via Rosscarbery on the way home.

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Fri

30

Sep

2022

September Report - Mostly Mullet!

My last trip to Rosscarbery with Dave Matthews was on Friday 2nd September. As on our visits earlier in the week we fished from the grass bank near the bridge with Dave to my left fishing the slightly deeper water on the edge of the flow from the lagoon.

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Wed

31

Aug

2022

August Report

We were back from England on 4th August.

 

I took a day to get sorted then on the 6th headed over to a Bantry Bay mark, mission to catch some mackerel. Alas the shoals that had arrived just before our departure seemed to have moved on, either further up the bay or back out into the Atlantic. 

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Sun

31

Jul

2022

July Report

Only really a half report though - the last fortnight of the month we've been visiting family and friends in the UK and I've been taking a break from fishing.

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Fri

01

Jul

2022

May/June Update - New PB Gilt

My exam work proved busier than expected, so fishing opportunities have been few over the last month or so.

 

It was a glorious summer's morning on 28th May, and I couldn't resist sneaking off for a few hours down onto my low water rock mark in Bantry Bay. There was unbroken sunshine and a little heat haze over the Beara, the water was clear and perfectly calm. 

 

I set up with light float tackle on my Preston rod and centre-pin reel, baiting with scraps of fish on a #8 hook. First run through, the float dipped...

 

There were plenty of mullet about, though on the small side again as has been the norm this season. I had a couple around 2lbs as the tide dropped away, then two more as it started to flood back. 

 

Finally as the water was lapping over my feet, I struck into a positive bite and found myself attached to a better fish. It put up a stubborn resistance for a good few minutes, and for a while I thought it might go bigger than its 3lb 6oz, probably something to do with its huge paddle of a tail.

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Wed

18

May

2022

April, and into May

The easterly winds at the end of March spilled into April. Mulleting seems to be one of the last forms of fishing to be badly affected by easterlies, but even so...

 

On the 1st Sylvi and I headed down to Rosscarbery, setting up on the grass near the bridge with the brolly up against the chilly breeze. The water was unusually clear and the sunshine unbroken ... I immediately knew that it would be a struggle for bites and so it proved, with just one good take well into the afternoon. Sylvi was just across the road at the hotel grabbing us a coffee, but she was back in time to take the photo of a 3:09 thicklip that had fought above its weight.

 

Another hour passed uneventfully. We packed up as the new tide broke into the pool and took the dog for a walk down the west side of the estuary, only to find good numbers of mullet milling around close in at the bottom end of the pool. I wished we'd made a move down there earlier!

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Thu

31

Mar

2022

March Report

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Wed

02

Mar

2022

February Report

It wasn't going to last, but February did at least get off to an encouraging start.

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Mon

31

Jan

2022

January: Mullet, Huss & the Sea Monster That Got Away

As has become traditional, I started my mullet angling year on New Year's Day at Rosscarbery.

 

It was a grey but calm day. I found good numbers of mullet moving in the shallows down the west bank and soon had two leger baits out amongst them. But just like on my last visit in December, these fish showed little sign of feeding and three hours passed with only a couple of knocks on the tips that didn't develop into anything.

 

As the water level started to back up slightly, I began seeing fish moving close in to the wall to my left. This was very much into last chance territory, because in wintertime once the seawater floods through the pool on the new tide it seems to kill the fishing. I moved along taking one leger rod and my float rod with me, cast out the leger line then concentrated on the float. 

 

I struck and missed at a couple of bobs of the float. Next cast it buried properly, and I was into a decent mullet that scrapped well for a few minutes before I could net it. I weighed and returned the fish then went to re-bait the leger rod ... the line was moved well round to the right and was slightly slack. I tightened into another mullet that had self-hooked while I was playing the first. It looked remarkably similar in size, and in fact both went exactly the same weight at 3:15.

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2021

Fri

31

Dec

2021

December Report

We weren't back from our UK trip till the 21st. We'd managed to avoid catching covid over there, so we passed our tests and were allowed back into Ireland, albeit both with a really unpleasant cold we'd picked up along the way and which still lingers on...

 

I didn't feel fit for much with the cold and tired after all the travelling, but on the 23rd I headed down to Rosscarbery to try to catch a December mullet. There was more water in the pool than I expected, rainwater probably, and I had to hunt around for signs of fish. Eventually I found some in the shallows down the west side.

 

The mullet were present in reasonable numbers and seemed quite active, but I couldn't get any interest apart from a few trembles on the tips that I put down to fish swimming over my lines rather than attention on the baits. After a couple of fruitless hours I packed up and headed over to Clonakilty hoping to find some more obliging mullet in the estuary there. That proved a complete waste of time, no mullet at all to be seen, so 90 minutes later I was back at Ross for another go in the remaining couple of hours of daylight.

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Sun

28

Nov

2021

November Report

Just a brief mullet-only report this month. I've not been doing much with my seasonal exam work underway.

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Thu

04

Nov

2021

October Report

A slightly truncated report this month with fishing opportunities limited by a variety of factors.

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Thu

30

Sep

2021

September Report - Two PBs

I started September with a few trips just local onto the rocks near Kilcrohane, mostly spinning for pollack. The wind had been set in the east for a good while so I wasn't expecting much, but in practice there were plenty about.

 

Many of the bites came from what seems to be a healthy year-class of fish about ten or twelve ounces, a good sign for future sport but not much more than nuisance value at the moment. Among them, a good few fish around 2lbs.

 

Occasionally the redgill would be stopped in its tracks by bigger pollack. These two were just either side of 4lbs caught on the 1st ...

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Tue

31

Aug

2021

August Report - Mostly Fishing with Mike

I did two more gilthead trips in August. Both were unsuccessful, though on the first early in the month I was hooked into a gilt within about ten minutes of starting. It felt reasonable but nowhere near the biggest fish I've had this year and it came off after a few seconds anyway. The rest of that session was quiet, as was the entirety of the other. A flounder and a modest schoolie chanced along to save me from blanking on each occasion, but it wasn't scintillating fishing and I feel the gilt hunt is over for this year.

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Sun

01

Aug

2021

July Report

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Sun

11

Jul

2021

June, and into July

My exam work, though reduced, kept up a steady pace from mid-May and inevitably limited fishing opportunities to a few shortish sessions.

 

My mullet fishing has felt rather on the back-burner recently anyway. I somewhat lost the habit over the winter lockdown then was unenthused if not actually demotivated by some pretty dour sessions in the grim spring weather once travel restrictions were eased.

 

Over the last month or so I have had a few quick goes in the bay here just local. In fairness I've found mullet each time but only in small groups and very easily spooked in the clear, shallow water. A few opportunities came and went fleetingly as I missed the handful of hard-earned bites, a bit frustrating.

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Tue

25

May

2021

PB Gilt

On the 5th I headed down to Rosscarbery on a mission to catch a mullet for May before moving on to other things. It was a fairly miserable day's weather, grey and blustery, spitting with rain on and off and none too warm. I had a good look round but couldn't see sign of mullet so I set up to fish the deeper water by the bridge arch.

 

After a couple of hours I hadn't had a bite or seen a mullet in that swim, but as the water had shallowed up on the ebbing tide I had started to see an odd one or two moving in front of the rocks to my right. I shuttled my kit over but had to endure another couple of biteless hours. Those mullet seemed not to be feeding then disappeared anyway.

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Sat

01

May

2021

Mullet, Gilts and Flounders Too

The 5km travel restriction came off on 12th April and I was straight down to Rosscarbery to try to get my mullet year underway.

 

After a long spell of northerlies and easterlies, the wind had at least gone west for the day, but it was cold and mostly grey with dishearteningly few signs of mullet present. I set up on the grass under my brolly and settled down for what was likely to be an attritional session on the leger.

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Sun

11

Apr

2021

Slow Time on the Rocks

Hungry Hill in the background but not many hungry fish in Bantry Bay
Hungry Hill in the background but not many hungry fish in Bantry Bay
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Mon

08

Mar

2021

Lockdown Latest

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Thu

07

Jan

2021

December Update and Into the New Year

I headed down to Rosscarbery again on 7th December. It was a grey, gloomy day with occasional rain showers, so I set up under the brolly on the grass. Although it was mild there were evidently far fewer mullet present than last week; I'd see a bit of surface activity from time to time but bites were hard to come by. I had a couple of takes mid-afternoon and landed both fish, 2lb-class thicklips.

 

A wet and windy spell followed, and my next trip out was on the 12th for a night session on the pier just local on Sheep's Head. It's a Jekyll and Hyde sort of venue but tonight it was on form; colour in the water seems to help the bottom fishing and there was plenty of colour at the moment.

 

First fish out was a three bearded rockling that took lugworm on a scratching rig ...

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2020

Sat

05

Dec

2020

Over, but not out ...

Well, my run of consecutive months with mullet came to an end (at 32) with the 5km travel restriction throughout November. I can't even say it went out with a bang; more of a fizzle ...

 

I thought I was in with a shout at the start of the month. On the 1st I went for a walk along the brackish lake that had turned up trumps during the spring lockdown. It's never a prolific venue but I spooked a couple of mullet out of the margins so I was hopeful of some action when I went back with my float rod on the 2nd. 

 

I waded out in a favourite area, and ran through a float on the drift caused by the gentle SW breeze, loose-feeding a little mashed bread every trot. After about ten minutes the ripple was broken by a swirl under some floating scraps of bread. Whether it was a mullet or one of the resident trout I don't know, the fish didn't show again and I didn't get a bite. I gave up after a couple of hours.

 

I was back next day in a flat calm, but didn't see a sign of mullet aside from a small shoal of fingerling fish in the margins. 

 

I decided I'd leave it a few days till the lake had had a top-up on the next set of springs, but instead the weather took a turn for the worse with one of the wettest and windiest spells since we moved over here.

 

By the time we had a couple of better days we were heading into the last week of November, and winter seemed to have set in. The leaves were off the trees and the lake seemed devoid of life. The fingerling mullet had gone; even the resident swans had disappeared. It didn't seem worth getting the mullet rods out either at the lake or indeed off the pier, the water in the bay being unusually clouded from all the swells and rain. 

 

I decided to call time on my mullet run ... a decision not exactly helped when Jason posted photos on Facebook of the six mullet he'd caught in the shelter of the estuary near his home at Clonakilty the very same day! I was tempted ... but stuck to the Level 5 rules.

 

Instead I ventured out onto the pier one evening with the big rods. I was hoping for a huss but in the event managed only dogfish and poor cod. I had one tentative take on a mackerel head, but my leader parted when I tightened into the fish, the last few inches shredded - I'm guessing it was a conger that had just backed off with the bait under a sharp rock ledge.

 

It wasn't much of a session but appetite whetted I headed out onto the rocks on the 27th ...

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Fri

30

Oct

2020

October Update: Mostly Mullet and COVID Levels

My October fishing started on the 2nd at Rosscarbery.

 

I arrived late morning and had a good look round. I couldn't find many mullet anywhere, so in the end I went for the default option of the grass by the N71 where I could get the brolly up as shelter from the chilly north breeze and the showers that were threatening. It's also nicer for Fern collie than fishing off the side of the road and where I'd be more socially-distanced from people passing by!

 

I was spotting occasional mullet whelming, mostly further out, but it was lunchtime before I had a take on one of the leger rods. The mullet ran out powerfully then took me right along the grass to the right to land it. I was a bit surprised it was smaller than I thought and only went 3:15. It was a decent enough start though.

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Sun

04

Oct

2020

September Update

September was a busy fishing month, with the weather thankfully much improved after the storms and flooding in August.

 

Possibly the most exciting news was the appearence in Bantry Bay of shoals of spurdogs, big ones some of them. The boat doing mostly short trips out of Glengarriff was reporting them on their Facebook page late in August and into the first few days of September, seemingly mostly high up the Bay, not far below Garinish Island I think. I got as far as having a look for some shore access in that area but there doesn't seem to be much - a mark that seemed promising on Google looked much less so on the ground. I didn't pursue it as the spurs didn't reappear on the next set of tides; I suspect their appearence coincided with some really exceptional numbers of mackerel in the Bay and once the mackerel started to thin out the spurs were gone. If anyone knows of any shore access to deep water up towards Glengarriff I'd be very happy to hear from you for future reference.

 

On the 1st of the month I headed to a north coast mark on Sheep's Head mainly intending to get a hit of mackerel for the smoker and the final top-up of my bait freezer. There'd been loads of mackerel on this mark for several weeks and it had become quite popular, and I'd noticed some of the guys fishing were cleaning the mackerel on the spot and dumping the heads and guts over the side. It seemed too good an opportunity to miss, so I took one of the big rods with me and lobbed out the head of the first mackerel I caught, stopping the spool as the bait sunk through the deep water so it would swing in towards the base of the rock face. As usual I popped-up the head by lashing on a small piece of polystyrene with bait elastic; it's a proper snag-pit of a mark.

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Sat

05

Sep

2020

August Update

It's been a funny few weeks. It took a few days to get properly mobile again after crocking my knee on the rocks, then August became something of an exercise in weather-dodging. First we had thunderstorms that caused flash flooding around West Cork - Rosscarbery was hit twice in the space of 48 hours - and the bays both sides of Sheep's Head turned brown with peaty water pouring in off the hills. Then later in the month, two major storm events - Ellen and Francis - kept things stirred up and brought more floods including wrecking the middle of Bantry town.

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Thu

30

Jul

2020

Mixed Stuff for July

July isn't normally a month I get to do much fishing but with my work from the UK cancelled this year I found myself with plenty of time on my hands. I was determined not to spend it all mullet fishing ...

 

Early in the month I did a couple more trips to the Airstrip Strand. It was hard work getting past the dogfish but I landed three more thornbacks, a couple of small ones and my best for the venue so far just a shade over 6lbs.

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Tue

30

Jun

2020

June Update

We entered June still on a 5km travel restriction, due to be extended to 20km on the 8th on the government's covid roadmap. Unfortunately the small mullet population of the brackish lake seemed to have dwindled to nothing, perhaps gone out on the last set of springs or eaten by the otters. My attention turned to the bay here.

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Sun

31

May

2020

May Update

The 2km travel restriction was raised to 5km, but this did nothing meaningful to increase the choice of mullet marks available. We were blessed with warm sunny weather for the most part but easterly winds persisted on and off throughout the month. Only once did I find a few mullet on the open shoreline of Dunmanus Bay and I couldn't get them interested in feeding in the fleeting opportunity available. This left me with the brackish lake, and unfortunately numbers appeared well down from when I'd caught in April.

 

I found an old research paper online about the lake, which is apparently a designated Local Nature Reserve though there's no signage on site to suggest that. It was an interesting read though not an encouraging one ... an unusual ecology but not a rich one, with few species of flora and fauna able to cope with both the sudden increase in salinity when spring tides break in and massive influxes of acid, peat-stained water after heavy rainfall. Relatively poor feeding is perhaps why despite looking the part the lake never seems to hold more than a handful of sizeable mullet. I also wonder whether even on spring tides many fish would be deterred by the journey up through the narrow channel and under the very low flagstone bridge.

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Sat

16

May

2020

Developing Pop-Up Crust

My previous writings about pop-up crust mullet baits in NMC's Grey Ghost magazine and on my blog here seem to have attracted some interest both back in the UK and in Ireland. I started some new experiments with the technique last autumn. In an ideal world I'd have liked some firmer conclusions but some particularly poor winter weather limited progress and now the covid travel restrictions look set to reduce my leger opportunities severely till at least 20th July ... so I thought I'd get on and share some thoughts now.

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Mon

11

May

2020

More Old Rods

Some more rod renovations as the covid lockdown grinds on...

 

These are not as old as some of the others I've been giving a facelift, but they still have history.

 

On the right is my Zziplex 3500. It was a gift from my friends and colleagues in 2000 when I moved on from Fareham College in Hampshire after nineteen years there teaching physics. It's a lovely slim blank that in many ways reminded me of my original 1005, more so anyway than the Dream Machine GS Match I'd had in the interim.

 

In 2001 I caught a 52.5lb stingray on the 3500, by accident really when I was hound fishing at Selsey but it won me the fish of the month competition in Sea Angler magazine, and the prize was the rod on the left. It's a Shimano Antares 129 Beach. It is a nice blank but the rod came without any sort of reel fitting which I thought was a bit cheapskate (I bought coasters for it) and the rings had poncey gold ceramic liners which started chipping and cracking at the first sight of a shingle beach, so within a couple of weeks I'd had them off and replaced them with a set of BNHGs.

 

Photos. The 3500 in action with a Solent smooth-hound, my lad Luke is now 26! And one of several Selsey tope I had 2005 - 2008 mostly on the Shimano Antares, this one 38lbs.

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Thu

30

Apr

2020

An April Mullet Against the Odds

On Friday 17th April IFI published clarification that we are, after all, allowed to go fishing during the covid lockdown as part of our exercise regime. The inevitable conditions attached are rather limiting though ... only for brief periods, walking to a venue within 2km of home. A "brief period" is defined on their website as not more than an hour or an hour and a half.

 

This allowed just a chance that I might be able to keep my monthly mullet record going, but only a slim chance. The mullet don't seem to arrive in the bay here particularly early in the year. The earliest I've seen them is mid-April and the earliest I've caught one is well into May. So I wasn't expecting much over the next few days as I used my dog walks to check out some possible spots. Indeed nothing at all was showing along the rocky shore; the chances of an early mullet showing were probably being further diminished by a nagging easterly breeze.

 

I did however see some encouraging swirls and bow-waves in the brackish lake east of the village, 1.1km away from home measured on Google Maps. It's not a venue I've fished much as it's mostly only inches deep, and though it looks the part and there are usually half-pound size mullet to be seen, it's rare to see more than an odd bigger mullet in there. It's also very badly affected by heavy rainfall though the mullet must be able to survive the sudden plunges in salinity as they can only get in and out on the biggest couple of tides each month when the lake tops up from the sea.

 

I waited a few days for the east breeze to die away. Then on the 23rd I printed off the IFI poster in case anyone objected and set off with Fern collie and fishing tackle ...

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Mon

20

Apr

2020

Old Rods

One of the few positives about being locked down has been the opportunity to get on with some rod renovations, some of which were tentatively underway already and accelerated, some were scheduled and others brought forward. I have some fairly modern mullet rods but otherwise it's been a bit of an eye-opener realising just how old some of my kit is - some rods already on their second or third iterations and in need of TLC again ...

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Sat

04

Apr

2020

A March Mullet Before Lockdown

March was always going to be a truncated fishing month with a UK trip planned.

 

I drove down to Rosscarbery on the 2nd. The water was horribly coloured after Storm Jorge and the day was grey and blustery. I didn't get a bite or even see a mullet move for sure.

 

We headed for the Rosslare ferry on the 4th with Ireland beginning to shut down with the coronavirus crisis. It was good to see family and friends but we were pleased to get back on Patrick's Day ... it was obvious by now the way things were headed and the Atlantic coast of Ireland seems as safe a place as anywhere to weather out the storm.

 

I went back to Rosscarbery on the 18th, fishing from the grass by the bridge arch. It was blustery again and none too warm. I couldn't see any fish moving but after a couple of hours Jason arrived and said there'd been "thousands" of mullet here yesterday and no way could they have moved out of the pool on the very neap tides at the time. Jason hadn't caught yesterday and went off to fish down the west side but he didn't stay long. As it calmed down later in the day I started to see big shoals of mullet boiling from time to time along the fringe of the mudbank, way out of range across the pool. There didn't seem to be any at all straying closer in and eventually I tired of waiting and took Fern collie for a walk down the estuary before driving home ... and promptly wished I'd packed up earlier as we found an active group of mullet in one of the deeper pools lower down. A quick dash back to get the car and tackle and soon we were relocated by the pool with the mullet still showing. I wasn't sure whether to try trotting a float through, the ebb flow looked a bit fast for that so in the end I broke out one of the leger rods again and touch-legered. I had quite a few knocks but I couldn't say for sure if they were proper bites or just fish bumping into the line ... nothing I could strike anyway and after ten minutes or so the fish moved off and out of the estuary with the tide.

 

I was back again on Sunday 22nd. Someone else was fishing from the grass, a blessing in disguise as it turned out. I drove slowly down the west side and soon came across a big shoal of mullet just within casting range, so I parked up there and set up the leger rods. I had these fish all over and around my baits for a couple of hours, but they obviously weren't feeding as there was barely a twitch on either tip. I started to see an odd straggler from the main group closer in, so I dropped one of my baits in there just in case one of these fish might be bucking the trend and feeding ... and a few minutes later, mid-coffee as usual, the rod fishing closer in jagged over.

 

The fish powered off and put up a good scrap all the way in, to the extent I was surprised it looked relatively modest in size when it reached the foot of the wall. After a bit more struggle it was in the net, it went 3lb 14oz on the scales and had a massive paddle of a tail that was probably something to do with how well it had fought...

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Sat

29

Feb

2020

Weather Windows and Personal Bests

After those first few calm days and my mullet on the 5th, the February weather has been truly dire. Storms Ciara, Dennis and Jorge have written off three out of four weekends and the weather between was scarcely better with a string of other low-pressure systems pouring in off the Atlantic. I don't think there's been such a protracted windy spell since we moved to Ireland and the rain ... well at least living on a mountainside we don't have to worry about flooding.

 

It was an effort to get out fishing at all but fortunately there were a few brief gaps in the dismal weather.

 

The wind dropped light on the afternoon of the 18th in the aftermath of Dennis. I headed out onto the pier that evening not sure what to expect, but in the event the huss were unusually active again. Perhaps the water in the bay, now as coloured as I've ever seen it, suits them. I missed a few runs and latched into five. Two were only 5 - 6lb size; two better fish let go of the baits as they reached the surface but fortunately the best of the night had the circle hook firmly planted in its scissors. The scales said spot on 13lbs, equal to my personal best ...

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Wed

05

Feb

2020

Two Years of Mullet

After the busy session on New Year's Day, the Rosscarbery mullet fishing quietened down in January. I went down twice, on the 8th and 22nd, and on each day I could see a shoal of mullet well out in the middle of the pool and mainly staying put. The sessions became a bit attritional, whacking out leger baits to maximum range and hoping an odd straggler would find them. In the event I had just one mullet each day, both middle three pounders ...

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Tue

04

Feb

2020

Mostly Huss

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Wed

01

Jan

2020

Happy New Year

I arrived back at Rosscarbery at about 9.45am on New Year's Day. The mild spell had persisted and a gentle southerly breeze was putting a slight lop on the water. The tide had only just peaked and I couldn't see any sign of fish moving, but I felt confident I'd be in with a good shout in the swim where I'd caught last time out.

 

I was fishing by 10.15 but the first couple of casts passed without any indications on the quivertips. Around 11.15 the left-hand tip trembled slightly then a few seconds later it nodded more decisively. The nodding repeated and I struck, hooking into a solid-feeling fish that chugged out a little then hung out there a while before coming back in very slowly, hugging the bottom. It wasn't a scintillating fight to be honest, but the fish obviously had some weight to it and when it surfaced just slightly off to my left I thought it might make 6lbs. I had it in the net at the second attempt and soon had it in the weigh-bag on the scales, 5lb 14oz as it turned out and a very satisfactory start to the year.

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2019

Tue

31

Dec

2019

November & December Update

To be fair, there's not a great amount to update here! I was busy with exam work throughout November and well into December, and the weather was mostly wet and windy. I did however get out in a few of the calmer interludes to try to keep my monthly mullet run going.

 

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Wed

16

Oct

2019

October Fishing - Mostly Mullet & Steve's Back

4:11 in the first rays of morning sun.
4:11 in the first rays of morning sun.
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Wed

02

Oct

2019

Atlantic Chub Mackerel

I had a couple of days mullet fishing yesterday and today, making the most of a brief calmer spell before ex-hurricane Lorenzo heralds the arrival of another lengthy unsettled spell. I'll write up the mulleting separately but today's session on a low water rock mark in Bantry Bay brought something of interest - my fourth new species of the year.

 

There were mullet present but they weren't really hanging on and nearly every positive bite I hit turned out to be a mackerel. They were quite good size and I decided to keep a few for eating, in the end taking a dozen. One immediately attracted attention, being a really slippery customer to get hold of, much more so than the others. Then I noticed its black band markings weren't quite right and it had feint spots right down its silver flank to its belly. Its tail was noticeably yellow and its eye seemed bigger than normal. Here it is with a standard mackerel below for comparison. The spots and yellow tail have faded somewhat in death ...

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Fri

27

Sep

2019

September Mullet

My first trip out after Dave's return home was down onto the Mizen on September 5th.

 

I really wanted one of the bigger thicklips that browse the sandflats over HW like I had fishing last month with Mike. But after a couple of hours on the leger, the tide hadn't come in as far as I'd hoped and I'd had only one small mullet with no other bites. I wasn't even seeing any fish moving over the flats so there didn't seem to be much prospect of getting anything else and a change of plan was called for.

 

As the first of the ebb flow eased off, there were some quite decent numbers of mullet starting to show in the deep pool by the bridge arches. Although most of them looked small, occasionally I'd see a bigger fish so I decided to take the leger rods back to the car and break out the float rod. 

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Mon

02

Sep

2019

Triggers and Other Fish

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Thu

29

Aug

2019

August Mullet: Fishing with Mike & Fishing with Dave

On 1st August I headed down to see my old friend Mike Buckley who was over on a break from UK. Mike had been staying in B&B in Skibbereen for a few days already but had found the fishing along the road at Rosscarbery still in poor sorts, with just a few smallish mullet landed. So we decided to head to a pontoon mark to the east where he'd found more consistent fishing.

 

Sadly this day most of the mullet seemed to have vacated the pontoon: we saw a few fish but after an hour we were still without a bite between us. 

 

Someone called down to us that they could see some mullet under a small boat moored next to the adjacent higher section of quay, so I went to investigate. Sure enough, I could see three or four mullet under the bow of the boat that was actually tied to the outside of a larger vessel that was against the quay. I was able to drift some crusts down towards them and I thought odd pieces were being taken just as they disappeared out of sight down the far side of the boat. We didn't have a drop-net with us but I decided to fish anyway with a vague plan to walk a hooked fish back to the pontoon or send Mike with the landing net down a rather rusty-looking ladder ...

 

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Mon

12

Aug

2019

Rock Sessions

Late in July a German friend in the village had visitors, including twin lads who wanted to go fishing. I somehow got volunteered to take them ...

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Wed

31

Jul

2019

June & July Mullet

June and July are never the greatest fishing months for me, with loads of exam work on and precious few opportunities to get out. However I did manage to slip away a few times ...

 

On 7th June I headed down to Rosscarbery for a shortish session over lunchtime. It was a blustery day threatening rain, and as far as I could see in the choppy water there didn't seem to be many fish in residence. 

 

I set up on the grass and catapulted out a dozen small balls of groundbait in a tight pattern, supplemented each cast into the same area by another ball moulded round my leger weight . Often it's not possible to tell if this groundbaiting does much good, but today when I started to see mullet moving, after about an hour, it was right in the area I was baiting. Activity remained concentrated in the same area over the next couple of hours.

 

Soon after this activity started up, I began getting bites. First up a modest fish that threw the hook after a few seconds. No matter, as I was soon in again, and then again, with a couple of fish either side of 3lbs ...

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Wed

22

May

2019

May Mullet - Fishing with Steve

Each spring some sickly mullet return inshore, individuals that haven't coped with the rigours of the winter and spawning, most probably old fish nearing the end of their lives ... "on their last fins" as one of my Facebook friends put it. These fish are particularly visible at shallow venues like Rosscarbery, and I'd seen a couple earlier this year. One, pale in colour, swam along listlessly just under the surface. Even more distressed, one was belly up near the bottom but just barely paddling itself along against the gentle current. Such sad specimens can't last long before the otters get them.

 

Then early this month reports started circulating of greater numbers of poorly mullet at Rosscarbery. I wasn't convinced it was anything (much) more than the normal state of affairs for the time of year, but still when I headed down on the 10th there was a slight sense of fearing the worst.

 

In the event everything seemed fine. There weren't great numbers of mullet around - a legacy of weeks of mostly easterly winds I think - but the small gaggles of fish moving past me as I fished near the bridge all seemed to be in good nick apart from one tatty-looking individual that even so was keeping up with the others. I couldn't get a bite from those close-in fish but eventually got one legering further out. Later I walked Fern Collie all down the west side of the estuary and saw more mullet in ones and twos, and they all looked fit and alert. I decided to have a last hour fishing from the wall. Again I couldn't get any interest from the near-in fish but had one at long range. Both the fish I'd landed were pristine four pounders ...

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Sun

12

May

2019

Rock Sessions - and Another First.

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Tue

30

Apr

2019

April Mullet

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Sat

13

Apr

2019

Sheepshead Rocks

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Tue

09

Apr

2019

First Spurs

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Fri

29

Mar

2019

March Mullet

Back from Africa, a few days to recover ... and then a really stormy spell of weather that knocked thoughts of fishing on the head!

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Thu

28

Feb

2019

Namibia 2019

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Mon

11

Feb

2019

Twelve Months Running

I next ventured down to Rosscarbery on 25th January, just about over a miserable cold that had hung on me for most of the month. There were plenty of mullet present but they seemed to be in two or three big shoals way out in the middle of the pool - I'd see them occasionally boiling the surface when a bird flew over and spooked them.

 

I fished from the same area as last time and cast both leger rigs out as far as possible, which was still well short of where they needed to be. It proved quite a wait before (I guess) one of the shoals edged my way a couple of hours after starting. My left-hand rod nodded then pulled over, and soon I was involved in a feisty scrap with a decent mullet ... and while that was on, my right hand rod pulled over too and line started stripping off against the drag! I got the first fish in fairly quickly, left it in the landing net in the shallows then went to the other rod. This felt a better fish and it was miles out by now, though fortunately it didn't seem to have found any of the many snags out there. The mullet came back very grudgingly but I did eventually get it in to complete my second brace of the year already ... 3lb 5oz and 5lbs exact.

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Sun

06

Jan

2019

Up and Running in 2019

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2018

Thu

20

Dec

2018

Season's Greetings ... and a little update

Apologies to my regular readers for the lack of new material over the last couple of months.

 

I'd planned to have a good few rock sessions through the early autumn but it certainly didn't work out that way. First time out on the rocks and I somehow injured my back. I'm not even sure how, I had a few chucks with mackerel feathers to no avail then sat down on the rock ledge dangling a float close in for wrasse. Had a couple of small ones out then realised I couldn't stand up! Eventually I managed to get onto all-fours and scrabble my kit together and crawl off the rocks. Then I hobbled my way back to the car using my net handle and a rod butt-section as makeshift crutches. Not recommended.

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Mon

17

Sep

2018

With Steve and Just After

Last Tuesday I met Steve Smith at Cork Airport for his second trip over this year.

 

Best laid plans and all ... Steve's flight was delayed and an already tight schedule to fish a low-water pool in an estuary not too far from the Airport became even tighter. We were heartened to find some good numbers of mullet on arrival, and even more heartened when they showed interest in the scraps of floating bread we put in. But by the time we were set up and fishing, the first of the tide was beginning to push through the pool, and soon it became a torrent, taking the mullet with it upriver.

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Tue

11

Sep

2018

Mullet Here & There

My mullet fishing has also been patchy recently. I missed a potentially good week for a family visitor staying with us, and the mullet themselves seem a bit unsettled by some up-and-down weather.

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Sat

08

Sep

2018

Rock Update

I've not done a huge amount of rock fishing this summer, and the rock fishing form has been patchy on those occasions I have been out.

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Tue

14

Aug

2018

Mullet Update

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Fri

20

Jul

2018

Ticking Over ...

Apologies to my regular readers for the lack of recent updates. I've not been fishing much - a trip away in the UK, an exceptionally busy exam work season and the World Cup footie being mostly responsible.

 

I did manage to get out on the last day of June for a short mullet session on the Bantry Bay rocks. I caught it just right with lots of mullet showing on a sunny day with just a touch of breeze to ripple the surface. I briefly contacted a decent fish first cast on bread bait, but after that the bites became very finnicky on bread and I couldn't hook up again. I changed to using slivers of salmon and the fish bait produced much better bites. I finished the session with three nice mullet before the rising tide forced me off the spot, the best a lovely 4lb 12 oz thicklip, the best I've had from this particular mark.

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Sun

20

May

2018

Contrasts

Last Friday was a wonderfully sunny day with a fresh westerly breeze. I had to go to the dentist in Bantry about lunchtime but on the way back I drove along the coast road. I wanted to have a look at an outfall pipe that I haven't fished before, and maybe get the rod out if conditions looked suitable. The pipe has been there a while but only over the last few months does it seem to have become active, carrying waste from a fish processing plant.

 

It's not an easy spot to fish, the end of the pipe only being accessible for a short session over low water and it's not far above water level so it's prone to getting sloshed over if there's any swell. The water in front of it is not very deep, and there's a kelp-covered reef just under the surface only slightly to the left.

 

Anyway, today the conditions looked fishable with just a light cross-wind from the left and only a small swell. I walked out to the end of the pipe and it was working well ...

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Wed

16

May

2018

Steve Back Again ...

Last Friday my old friend Steve Smith flew into Cork Airport for a short mullet fishing break. He'd decided to try an trip over in May on the basis of my early-season fishing the last couple of years, but regular followers of this blog will know that this year the fishing has been patchy so far, with a long winter stretching into a disappointing early spring.

 

The most consistent venue has been Rosscarbery, so there we headed on Saturday for Steve's first session. The tide was still quite neap and, paradoxically, unbroken bright sunshine streamed down on us. We could see lots of mullet in the shallow water, contentedly browsing over the surface of the mud, possibly sampling the algae that has put on a growth spurt over the last week or so. They looked like they might be difficult to turn onto bread baits, and so it proved.

 

We started off by the bridge arch. I set Steve up with two leger rods and fished one myself. Predictably, because I was keen for Steve to get off the mark, it was my tip that nodded first. I struck and played a modest mullet two-thirds of the way in, at which point it picked up one of Steve's lines and then came off. 

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Tue

08

May

2018

Scratching ...

Writing these blogs it's easy to gloss over the bad days, concentrate on the good days and give a sometimes over-optimistic impression of the fishing. There's no disguising though that the last month has been difficult, and after some promising catches in March and April the mullet fishing has gone backwards. Main culprit I'm sure has been the unseasonal weather. Two early heatwaves have come and gone in the UK and the east of Ireland, while West Cork has languished under a blanket of cloud and mist with temperatures struggling to get into the teens of Celsius and some days much colder than that!

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Wed

11

Apr

2018

Back on the Rocks

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Mon

09

Apr

2018

More Mullet

I've been keeping an eye on some marks further west, but for now there's been little sign of any mullet on them. To get my mullet fix I've been heading back to Rosscarbery, trying to pick the milder days with a gentle southerly breeze to maximise my chances of getting a few fish. The last couple of weeks the tactic seems to have been working.

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Fri

16

Mar

2018

Catching Again

February mullet fishing proved difficult and ultimately unsuccessful. I did a first trip to Rosscarbery on the 4th. I couldn't see any sign of mullet and ended up fishing blind in the swim where I'd caught the two fish at the end of January. Incredibly, I missed a decent pull on my very first cast! As I wound in, the thought flitted through my mind that I may have just missed my best chance of a February mullet. And how prophetic that turned out to be, as that session petered out without further interest, and three further blank sessions followed before we headed for the ferry and a long-scheduled UK trip on the 19th. That put an end to any prospect of a mullet in February, though as the Beast from the East and Storm Emma arrived shortly after and dumped a blanket of snow over West Cork, I doubt I'd have been out much anyway.

 

It was frustrating that I'd missed that chance, frustrating also that I'd seen mullet on the other trips, albeit not in big numbers and apparently not feeding. And frustrating that as soon as we were back in Ireland and I was fishing again, the mullet were around in greater numbers and feeding again ... in March!

 

My first trip was on the 8th and there were decent numbers of fish showing out from the west bank when I arrived about lunchtime. I put out the usual two leger lines but I didn't get any definite takes, I thought slightly surprisingly given the fish seemed quite active. Eventually a sizeable group of them gathered in a shallow corner and I decided to break out the float rod. Tackled up again, I waded out a little way, crouched low and put a little Puddlechucker out into the midst of the feeding mullet, fishing a small flake bait just a few inches deep. Still bites were hard to come by, then unexpectedly the float stabbed under and I missed with the strike. But I was better prepared a minute or two later when the float dipped again and I was in ...

 

The fish bow-waved out through the shallow water scattering its shoal mates then put up a decent if uneventful scrap before I could beach it. It weighed 4lb 5oz. The blingy reel is the Shimano Catana that I won in the raffle drawn at the Mullet Club AGM ... it seemed churlish not to give it a whirl and in fairness it did a decent job but I don't really like rear-drags much on fixed-spool reels so it may not get a lot of other outings.

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Tue

30

Jan

2018

Slow Start (but Worth the Wait)

The storms between Christmas and New Year and on into January made for some difficult fishing.

 

I visited Rosscarbery on the 1st and the 10th of the month without seeing a mullet or getting a bite fishing blind. On the 10th I packed up early and had a good look round several parts of the Clonakilty estuary hoping to find some fish but to no avail there either.

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2017

Sat

23

Dec

2017

More December Mullet

The weather has stayed very mild this week, so today it was back to Rosscarbery for some more winter mullet.

 

On arrival I could see a group of fish grubbing around in very shallow water on the west bank. I fished for them for twenty minutes or so, getting a couple of line bites but no proper takes. Then a couple of cormorants arrived and started harassing the fish, which soon moved on. The cormorants left and I fished on for a few minutes hoping the mullet would reappear, then I decided to move. I was just breaking down my first rod when the other pulled over hard then sprang back before I could pick it up - a missed chance.

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Thu

21

Dec

2017

Long Time Coming

Work took up the rest of November, and the first week of December. I finished the last batch of exam scripts just in time for a visit by Keith Gillett, the chairman of the National Mullet Club in UK. 

 

Unfortunately Keith brought some horrible weather with him, a blast of strong northerly winds straight from the Arctic dropping the air temperature close to zero. We fished two long days at Rosscarbery and though I was slightly surprised that we saw a few mullet each day and we did have a couple of half-hearted bites on the first afternoon, ultimately we blanked. The swan population of West Cork seemed to have descended on Rosscarbery and they made a real nuisance of themselves.

 

On Monday this week I was back, this time with Julian. It was flat calm and the water was both low and very clear and although the air temperature was up to about 10 celsius, the water still felt icy cold. There seemed to be plenty of mullet about but they mostly stayed well out in the middle of the pool. The few that strayed into range showed no sign of feeding on our baits, another blank! Most of the swans had moved on but those still present hung around us right through the session, a proper pain. 

 

And so to today. It was overcast with drizzle on and off, but there was a gentle SW breeze putting a ripple on the surface and the air temperature was up to 13 celsius so despite the recent poor form I felt much more confident about the prospects. Another positive, the swan population was down to just two adults and their four nearly-grown cygnets, and happily they left me alone all day!

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Sat

04

Nov

2017

Fishing at Christchurch

Ex-Hurricane Ophelia and Storm Brian rattled through in quick succession and the inshore waters around West Cork were thoroughly stirred up. I ventured down to Rosscarbery on 22nd October, just after Brian, and even in the relatively sheltered waters there the mullet had made themselves scarce. It was a six hour blank across two different swims, not a bite and only a couple of fish seen. That was my last chance gone before a trip to the UK spanning two sets of work meetings in Cambridge, more than a fortnight away in all.

 

However, between the meetings I was staying in Christchurch in Dorset with my sister, and late in the season though it was, it just wouldn't have been right not to have a go fishing in the Harbour there.

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Sat

14

Oct

2017

Fishing with Julian

I arrived at Lough Hyne in the half-light early on Monday morning to find the Lough mirror-calm. The place hasn't been on great mullet form this year, and I was disappointed again not to see much sign of activity on the surface. Still, I got the rods out and started feeding a little mashed bread, and soon Julian arrived. Mission: to catch his first mullet.

 

Given there weren't many mullet showing, and maybe it would be a one fish day, I got Julian fishing while I sat next to him slowly feeding the swim. Soon his float dipped away and he struck into ... a mackerel. A few missed bites, then another mackerel!

 

Soon we were seeing an occasional mullet swirl on the surface and Julian was getting, and missing, bites regularly. The mullet we were seeing looked small and in keeping with that the bites weren't particularly positive. Julian wasn't doing a lot wrong, but every miss was increasing the frustration level, and in his frustration he passed the rod to me to show him how to strike. I suppose the outcome was inevitable, one miss on another fiddly bite, then next cast when the float was pulled under much more decisively, I struck into a very decent-looking mullet.

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Mon

09

Oct

2017

Rock Sessions

Mackerel had only been showing patchily here this summer, but on both sets of springs in September they seemed to be around in force, especially on the Bantry Bay side of the peninsula.

 

I do quite enjoy catching them individually on light tackle, but for now the order of the day was to catch big numbers for some meals and to stock up the bait drawers of the freezer.

 

I've been a long-term fan of the Mustad Ayaka shrimp rig for mackerel fishing, and these were catching well enough, but I had a few sets of TronixPro Sabikis I'd been meaning to try and one of these did finally get a go ... and I must admit they were better fish catchers than the Ayakas. Quality kit though they aren't: at the end of their first session the set of six had lost one hook completely and two others had been reduced to bare hooks. I had in mind to salvage what I could as a set of three, but by the time I got round to it the hooks were all very rusted so I chopped the rig up and consigned it to the bin.

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Tue

03

Oct

2017

Rosscarbery Mullet Sessions

Three mullet sessions to report on here, all at Rosscarbery which is a great venue to have available when westerly winds write off most of my other mullet marks, as they have all too often recently.

 

On 26th September I had a morning appointment in Cork, so I arrived late lunchtime. It was another dull and blustery day, so I set up the leger rods on the sheltered west side of the estuary pool. There were decent numbers of fish about and I ended up with four on the bank ... 4:06, 2:14, 4:10 and a lovely specimen fish of 5:07 to round the day off nicely.

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Thu

21

Sep

2017

Mullet Update

It's been a slightly frustrating few weeks at what is generally one of the best times of year for mullet fishing. The up and down weather has limited my opportunities, but even when I have got out I seem to have missed the best of the fishing. I've also lost a couple of good fish under unusual circumstances, more of which later.

 

On 4th September I had a short session on the rock mark on the north side of Sheep's Head which had been reasonably consistent when Steve was over, if not hitting the heights of earlier in the summer. There were still mullet in residence, but the size was disappointing. I had three between 1:12 and 1:14, this from a mark where I've rarely had fish under 2lbs before. Pretty little fish though...

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Sat

09

Sep

2017

Before the Storm

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Thu

31

Aug

2017

Wrasse ... No, Pollack

I arrived back from driving Steve to the Airport about lunchtime. After a pretty gloomy week weatherwise while he'd been here, today it was bright and sunny. I was feeling inspired  by my efforts with the wrasse on soft plastics yesterday, so I bundled the kit together and headed to a rock mark close to the mouth of Bantry Bay.

 

Well sometimes things just don't go to script ...

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Wed

30

Aug

2017

Fishing with Steve - Again

Tuesday last week I picked up my old friend Steve Smith from Cork Airport; Steve was over for his annual mullet bash with us. It had been a miserable wet day and we didn't intend fishing, but it brightened up progressively as we headed west and I couldn't resist a look at a mark on the Sheep's Head as we neared home. 

 

I chucked out a few crusts and we watched, but nothing moved to them. Steve however spotted a mullet flanking occasionally as it scraped the stones on the bottom of the shallow gulley. It looked a decent fish, so we headed back to the house, offloaded Steve's suitcase and headed out again with fishing tackle. 

 

Ninety minutes later we packed up fishless, Steve having missed the only bite of the session. I secretly hoped this wouldn't set a trend for the week ahead, especially after the lean trip Steve had had last year.

 

Bright and early we were out to fish the bottom of the ebb and low water on a local rock mark. I really wanted to get Steve off the mark, so I fed bread into the swim little and often while he fished. He was getting sporadic bites almost from the off, and before long he connected with one ...

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Sat

19

Aug

2017

Rock Fishing Two Ways

Two different ends of the rock fishing spectrum this week.

 

On Monday - coarse float rod, centrepin, 6lb line, waggler float and size 10 hook. The target was mullet, and I had five, two on bread bait and three on mussel flesh. I kept them in a rockpool pending release at the end of the session. No monsters today, the biggest was a middle-three pounder.

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Sat

12

Aug

2017

Pollack on a New Rock Mark

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Fri

11

Aug

2017

Mullet Round-up

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Mon

07

Aug

2017

Wrasse

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Thu

03

Aug

2017

Rosscarbery Trips ... and a new PB.

I finally emerged from under my mountain of exam marking in mid-July, with just a short window before we had family visiting and then I had another short work-related trip to the UK. Desperate for a mullet fix, on 12 July I headed for Rosscarbery for an afternoon session. It was a bright if blustery day, and Sylvi came too.

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Sun

25

Jun

2017

Mullet on the Doorstep

I have a load of work to do from the last few days of May through to mid-July, so the option of some quick mullet sessions on the shore near our home in Kilcrohane is very attractive.

 

A lot of the fish are tiddlers like this one, but get past them and there are some bigger fish to be had.

 

I arrived one particular Sunday evening to find a few fish moving, and I soon had them swirling on loose-fed mashed bread. I had some stabby little bites on my little Puddlechucker float and wasn't unduly surprised when the first fish I connected with was a small one. However, as high water neared I started to see some bigger swirls, and after a few more misses I connected with a much heavier fish which put up a terrific fight trying to get among the rocks to my left ... 4lb 3oz. I waded out again and fished on more in hope than expectation, and as the tide started to drop away another decent fish turned up and started attacking floating pieces of bread. I tried fishing a surface bait but couldn't get a proper take ... I reset the Puddlechucker to fish flake a foot deep and soon had a good bite. The fish felt more solid than the first but the fight was steadier and less spectacular ... 4lb 10oz.

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Tue

30

May

2017

Rock Sessions

I've had a few short sessions out on the rocks recently, making use of some settled weather.

 

First up a trip to a mark on the north side of The Sheep's Head to fish for conger and huss. Disappointingly after a bit of a walk and climbing down to the rock ledge, I noticed one of the local crabbers had dropped a pot in the exact same spot I usually cast to! I relocated thirty yards or so along the ledge and cast into the unknown, only to find it a bit of a snag pit. I persevered and eventually got out a couple of eels before deciding I'd lost enough kit for the day. This the best, just into double figures ...

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Wed

24

May

2017

Mullet Sessions

A couple of mullet sessions to report over the last few days. Firstly to Rosscarbery earlier in the week, where some new flags were flying to welcome me, and some new advice for would-be swan feeders...

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Sat

13

May

2017

And After the East Wind

The east wind certainly didn't bring any favours fishing-wise ... though the associated dry weather was a bonus for some work we were doing in the garden. Perhaps I should have stuck with the gardening, but I gave over two days to investigating new rock marks. Both marks accessed cleanish ground, and both maybe will fare better later in the year, but I couldn't muster a credible bite from either on a variety of baits. One day the wind fell light enough to get onto a favourite rock mark for some mulleting, but the place was infested with baby coalfish.

 

The easterlies had now been replaced with a southerly, much better but already the strength was kicking up towards a proper blow over the next couple of days. I still haven't seen much by way of mullet locally this year, and these conditions weren't ideal, so I headed down to Rosscarbery.

 

Not so many fish were visible as earlier in the month, but the ones I could see seemed a better size. Both observations were borne out by what was a slowish session, punctuated by occasional bites on the leger baits that yielded three fish of 4:11, 4:04 and another 4:04 ...

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Tue

02

May

2017

Before the East Wind

The weather forecast for the next few days or so isn't great, a strong and cold east wind about to set in for a week at least. I was keen to get out fishing before that arrived, and there being little sign of mullet around Sheep's Head yet this spring, I headed down to Rosscarbery. There was already a touch of east in the wind, but mostly it was southerly and running up the estuary, variable in strength but never more than a fresh breeze.

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Sun

23

Apr

2017

Calm ...

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Sat

22

Apr

2017

Mulleting

I've had a few mullet sessions over the last week or so that I can report on - had some fish but nothing very special size-wise.

 

On the 13th I headed down to Rosscarbery for an afternoon session. It was a grey day with a none-too-warm breeze blowing up the estuary. I settled for a favourite west bank swim where I could sit in the lee of the car. It proved a slowish session with just three definite takes on the leger baits ... 2:04, 2:12 and to finish a 3:10.

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Tue

11

Apr

2017

Another Day ...

... another rock mark. Again on the south shore of Bantry Bay. And more bullhuss. Three of them today, all on popped-up mackerel heads. Two were about 7lbs, and last knockings out came this one just over 10lbs. This is a good illustration of why I use a wire biting-piece for them ...

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Sun

09

Apr

2017

Bantry Bay Rocks

In contrast to the mulleting, other fishing has been slow recently. I fished a rock mark last week for just a couple of doggies. The only better fish of the day - probably a big huss - escaped when the Sakuma circle hook snapped, there's a first. This was followed by a blank session one morning on Bantry Airport strand, definitely not a first.

 

This afternoon I headed to another rock mark on the Bantry Bay side of the peninsula.

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Tue

04

Apr

2017

Ten Mullet Day

Today I headed back to the same estuary as Saturday.

 

I was hopeful that the falling water level over the smaller tides would have concentrated the fish into the deep pool, if indeed they hadn't evacuated altogether when they could on the last of the bigger tides. This is a risk particularly in high summer - perhaps when it's warmer they fear the water deoxygenating over several days without a top-up. But equally I've had some big bags in springtime before. Also after a foul day's weather yesterday, I thought there might be a little more colour in the water which might help.

 

On arrival I could see mullet topping occasionally in several parts of the pool ... game on.

 

I set up in the same swim as Saturday, but this time set the float to fish only about eighteen inches deep. I could already see fish swirling around the floating bits of the first handful of loose-feed I'd chucked in, so they were obviously going to feed shallow, at least to start with.

 

What followed was an incredible four-hour session that resulted in ten mullet landed. None of the fish were over 4lbs but who cares really when you can fish in such wonderful surroundings and get loads of bites and rod-bending action from mullet around the 3lbs mark? For the record the best was 3:11 ...

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Sat

01

Apr

2017

Out West

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Thu

30

Mar

2017

Rosscarbery Braces

Two trips here, separated by a few days, in contrasting weather conditions but with similar results.

 

Last Saturday, and it was back from warmer climes to a chilly easterly breeze that looked set to increase in strength over the next few days. I decided to get out at the earliest opportunity to get some fishing in before the worst arrived. This meant a relatively brief Saturday afternoon session. 

 

I headed for Rosscarbery and although there were good numbers of mullet to be seen, I wasn't that hopeful with the water low and very clear, bright sunshine and the breeze a bit fresher than forecast. I cast out my leger rods well out expecting an attritional session, but in the event I had a good pull-down bite on only my second cast and landed a 4:12 thicklip a few minutes later. 

 

It was quiet for a couple of hours after that, but as the water level (and colour) increased as the flood tide arrived, I had another bite. This time I struck at a couple of knocks and duly played in a 3:11 ... it fought better than the first fish and I was mildly disappointed it didn't turn out a bit bigger.

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Tue

21

Mar

2017

Namibia Holiday

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Sat

11

Mar

2017

First Irish 'Six'

After a wet old week, Saturday was a lovely warm and sunny spring-like day and an ideal opportunity to get a March mullet before I'm off on holiday on Monday.

 

I drove down to Rosscarbery and set up on the west side of the estuary, arriving soon after low water. I could see odd fish moving in the shallow water in front of me and to both sides so I was hopeful of some quick action as I welted out both my leger baits.

 

The reality was somewhat different with not a touch for the first four hours. The swans were a complete pain, back and forth in front of me and occasionally one would get its head down on my groundbait. I noticed a pair of anglers set up near the bridge ... but didn't see any action their end either and they left a couple of hours later.

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Sun

26

Feb

2017

National Mullet Club AGM

One bonus of our trip to the UK was that it allowed me to attend the Mullet Club AGM held in Portsmouth. It was the first time I'd been for a couple of years. It was nice to meet so many old friends again at one time, and there was a nice buzz about the meeting from the 40ish members present.

 

One good feature of the AGM is that the formal business of reports and elections is dispensed with quickly, allowing time for plenty of chat before the meeting and over lunch, and a series of presentations by guest speakers.

 

This time we had Martin Salter of Angling Trust in the morning and after lunch, Mat Mander of Devon & Severn IFCA both giving conservation-related talks. Then there was a presentation on fly-fishing for mullet by Colin Macleod and finally my good friend Mike Ladle, who'd been doing book signings with me on and off all day, gave the last talk about his innovative fishing as only Mike can. All the speakers did a great job.

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Tue

14

Feb

2017

Rock Session

Not much fishing to report on in February.

 

I had a blank mullet session at Rosscarbery early in the month; there were still a few fish around just no takers.

 

Then a spell of cold east winds set in for a week, and only abated today. We are off on an extended visit to the UK later this week, so I was keen to get out if not overly hopeful following the easterlies.

 

I chose a deep rock mark on the north shore of the Sheep's Head. For bait I grabbed some mackerel bodies and a bag of heads from the freezer, and fished fillet baits and heads as pop-ups to raise the bait a foot above the snaggy sea-bed.

 

As half expected action was slow to come, but as the tide neared high in late afternoon I did start to get a few knocks and eventually a couple of decent takes, both on heads, and both yielded bullhuss.

 

The first huss was about 7lbs, the second was bigger and put up a good scrap as it neared the rocks. It went just into double figures on my scales. Neither was particularly co-operative about holding still for a photo, so not the best pics I'm afraid ...

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Tue

31

Jan

2017

More January Mullet

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Sun

22

Jan

2017

Underway in 2017

It's not been a hectic start to 2017.

 

I've had two blank mullet trips, a night session on a local pier that produced only two poor cod and the smallest conger I've ever seen, and today a session on the rocks locally that produced a few rattly bites but nothing that held on to the large hooks I was using for huss or conger.

 

In the midst of all this, a small success story. I headed down to Rosscarbery last Tuesday for a go at the mullet. I'd been there the previous week and blanked, though I'd seen a few mullet moving. Today was such a mild day I really fancied my chances if there were any mullet present. It was so calm when I arrived I was sure I'd see any mullet if they were about, but disappointingly the normal swims down the west side of the estuary pool seemed barren of fish. I walked round to the bridge arch, still without seeing anything. Then, to my relief, I saw a few fish moving further along to the east.

 

It's not an area I've fished before as it requires an awkward jump down from the road causeway then an undignified scramble back up at the end. Still, needs must ... a few minutes later I was back with my kit. I had one leger rod set up so I put out a pop-up crust bait on that while I set about making up my second rod. The line was half-threaded up through the rod rings when I noticed a couple of bumps on the tip of the rod in the rest. Line bites probably ... I stopped a moment to watch, and suddenly the rod pulled right over. I grabbed it as the rod rest threatened to collapse, and a great scrap followed with a thicklip that turned in at 4lb 6oz ...

 

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2016

Sat

10

Dec

2016

More December Mullet

Make hay while the sun shines. Or translated for West Cork, catch mullet while the mild, still, misty weather persists ...

 

I arrived at Rosscarbery to find the water still well down and mullet all over the estuary pool topping, bow-waving and occasionally jumping. They seemed slightly more numerous near the top end so I walked round to the grass bank by the bridge arch and set up my leger rods there.

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Thu

08

Dec

2016

December Mullet

I'd never caught a December mullet before. I'd caught late into November on the south coast of England, but that was always a bit of a struggle and I'd run out of enthusiasm by the time December came. Years ago I took a pre-Christmas trip to Alderney and managed to blank.

 

December is a busy time of year for me work-wise. Last year I'd missed out on some potential good fishing, finding out after the event there'd been big shoals of mullet at Rosscarbery. So in the current mild weather I was determined to get out ...

 

I arrived to find good numbers of mullet in the shallows down the west side of the estuary, so I was keen to make a start. As I unloaded my stuff from the back of the car, I was dismayed to realise I'd left my landing net head at home. I had to relocate a hundred yards along the wall so I could fish close to an area where I'd be able to beach hooked fish ... not a problem in itself but the road is much narrower here so I wouldn't be able to fish out of the back of the car, and there was a persistent heavy drizzle.

 

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Wed

07

Dec

2016

Pop-up Crust

National Mullet Club's Grey Ghost magazine is arriving with members about now. I have an article in it about fishing the pop-up crust leger bait that has been so productive for me in Ireland this year, and before that at venues such as Christchurch and Broadwater in the UK.

 

If it helps, here is the picture sequence for baiting up that appears in the article, in colour ...

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Sat

05

Nov

2016

At Christchurch Again

After work meetings in Cambridge I headed down to the south coast for a few days before returning. It proved to be a fairly hectic stay trying to dovetail work stuff with seeing family and friends, but on Saturday I managed to steal a few hours to fish in the morning, before driving back to Cambridge later that afternoon.

 

I set off across Stanpit Marsh before it was properly light. My friend Dave Matthews had been catching up to last weekend, but the temperature had plummeted this week and the heavy frost on the ground didn't bode well. On the plus side I was treated to a wonderful dawn as I set up to fish the river channel down from Grimbury ...

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Fri

28

Oct

2016

Fishing for Ghosts

I found out today that my long-term writing project with Mike Ladle has finally been published. Mike and I wrote the first draft of the book - now titled "Fishing for Ghosts" - way back in 1990. At that time it turned out Mike's previous publishers weren't interested - mullet fishing too niche - and we had a similar result when we tried again a few years later.

 

Since then it had been a case of "we must do something about the book" without ever getting round to doing anything, until Mike sent Medlar Press a couple of chapters in 2013 and they wanted it! Only trouble then was that the text was pretty out of date, so we spent the thick end of a year rewriting sections and adding new material, and I recruited Paul Fennell and Nick Murphy to add sections on kayak fishing and dinghy fishing for mullet respectively. We spent the summer of 2014 sourcing more and better photographic material and the package went off to Medlars in the autumn.

 

Since then it's been slow progress but the outcome was never in doubt and I'm pretty pleased with the book, especially considering it's my first (and probably only) attempt.

 

If you're interested in mullet fishing or just in collecting angling books, you can get more detail and order a copy from the Medlar Press website here.

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Fri

28

Oct

2016

Two Mullet Sessions

I have an extended visit to the UK coming up followed by a load of work to do. I wasn't at all sure what the mullet prospects would be later on in November and into December when I might get a chance to go again, so I was keen to get out this week.

 

First up on Wednesday, a trip to Rosscarbery for a relatively short afternoon session. I headed straight for the shallow west bank swims that had been so productive for me this year, and set up both leger rods to fish the pop-up crust baits that had done so well. The tide was well down so I cast well out and sat back to await developments. 

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Wed

26

Oct

2016

Saved by a Conger

It was an unusually quiet session on the north of the peninsula today. I had just a few rattles that didn't come to anything and a couple of small LSDs. Then near the end the session was rescued by a proper run at last on a popped-up mackerel head and this character joined me briefly on the rocks ...

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Thu

20

Oct

2016

Mullet Large and Small

Two mullet sessions to report on this week.

 

On Tuesday I went down to Rosscarbery to catch the last of a series of really big spring tides. Although I arrived well down the ebb, the estuary pool had had a really good top-up and there was plenty of depth to fish the west side swims throughout the low water period.

 

I fished two leger rods with pop-up crust as usual.  The first hour was slow, but shortly after missing the first, rather half-hearted bite I was into a good fish that pulled the left hand rod over. It turned out to be 4lb 3oz ... 

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Mon

17

Oct

2016

Evening Pollack Session

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Sat

15

Oct

2016

Hard Work but ...

I fished today at an estuary on the Mizen peninsula. There had been a lot of mullet showing there on the same tides a fortnight ago, on a day I wasn't fishing for them, but that was a fortnight ago and today I was disappointed to see hardly any mullet activity as I looked around on arrival. There were a few shoals of fingerling fish surfacing from time to time, but that was all. The  breeze was just about southerly so whether it was still recovering from the east winds of the last two weeks or now winding down for the winter, I don't know.

 

I set up to float-fish in the deep pool just above the bridge. The float was trotting through nicely left to right, with the breeze in my face gradually pushing it in closer to the bank. Many trots later, the float dipped near the end of the run ... missed it, but I was ready for the repeat performance on the next time through and struck into a weighty fish.

 

The fish chugged all round the pool staying deep, but never did anything very spectacular. Eventually it weakened and a very thick-looking fish surfaced. Soon after I had it in my net. It weighed 5lbs exactly, and I was well pleased with that as it was only my second "five" from this venue.

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Thu

13

Oct

2016

East Wind Mulleting

We've been plagued by east winds of varying strength for well over a week now. All forms of fishing seem to become instantly harder with the easterlies blowing; mulleting seems to hold up better than most, but after a few days even the mullet seem to go off the feed.

 

Wednesday last week I fished a newish mark south and east of Skibbereen, crucially on a west facing shore so I'd be out of the worst. I'd fished the spot briefly a couple of times before and had seen mullet on each visit, but I was yet to catch one there or even have a definite bite. Today I arrived halfway down the ebb tide and immediately saw a couple of mullet working over mudflats near where I parked the car, but I chose to ignore them to go and floatfish some deeper water a few hundred yards away. It was a mistake, and three hours later I returned to the mudflat area without having had a bite.

 

There was barely a foot of water over the flats now, but I could see a half-dozen or so decent mullet moving around. It was too shallow to floatfish sensibly so I set up my leger rods and cast out a pop-up crust bait on one and flake on the other. I fished an hour or so without a bite but as the new tide started to push up the shingle, some interest at last. I had a couple of very sharp tugs on the flake, but nothing hung on; I missed a half-decent take on the crust; then more tugs on the flake that came to nothing.

 

By this time mullet were moving close in so, frustrated by my failure to catch on leger, I dropped a float out just past the bladderwrack fringe, fishing flake a foot deep. After a couple of minutes the float bobbed but didn't move away; I left it and after another minute it buried, and I struck into a good mullet that immediately cartwheeled out of the water then ran out strongly.

 

The fish put up a good scrap. At one stage I had to wade out and free the line from a clump of weed it had swum round, but I landed it without further mishap. I was pleased with this 4lb 8oz thicklip as the first fish from a new venue ... 

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Sat

01

Oct

2016

Mixed Stuff

A mixed bag of stuff here covering the last few days; none really seemed to warrant a blog entry on its own.

 

On Tuesday I grabbed a couple of hours fishing in Bantry while Sylvi did some shopping and had her hair done. The harbour there has a lot of development work going on, including a new pontoon extension for the old railway pier that is currently being used for the Whiddy Island ferry while construction work goes on around its old berth. Swimming and diving are prohibited from the pontoon, but fishing is allowed ... 

 

I set up with sliding float tackle for mullet on the harbour side of the pontoon towards the end. I plumbed the depth - about 14 feet - so set the float to fish around 12 feet and fished breadflake, dropping in loosefeed.

 

A couple of guys were fishing from the end of the pontoon. One was getting plenty of mackerel on a set of feathers, the other catching them singly on a Toby-type spoon. So it wasn't a huge surprise when my float first slid under after a few minutes and I struck into ... a mackerel. Two more followed, then a few bites that I missed ... maybe a mullet, but probably more mackerel. Sylvi arrived; I changed to a mackerel-sliver bait which upped the bite rate and she landed a few more till we had enough for a good meal.

 

On Wednesday I headed to a shallow estuary south-west of us. It had fished really well for mullet early on in the season but really poorly recently. Today it was still carrying a peaty stain, the surface was ruffled by a stiff breeze and there was not a sign of mullet moving around. I feared the worst but I did in fact have a few flurries of bites. I should have done better but ended up with just the one fish, 3lb 6oz ...

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Sun

25

Sep

2016

Close but ...

I was hoping to fish for mullet near home today but a big swell running into Dunmanus and Bantry Bays and a strong westerly wind put paid to that. With rain forecast too I opted for the relative shelter of the Rosscarbery estuary.

 

I set up by the bridge arch on arrival, not the most sheltered swim but the only one offering much depth of water with the neap flood tide yet to arrive. I put out my two leger lines, put some additional groundbait out by catapult and sat back to watch the tips. All was quiet for an hour or so, as best as I could tell with the gusty wind waving the tips around. Maybe timid bites were passing by unnoticed but there was no missing what was going on when my right hand rod suddenly pulled over and locked down in the rest.

 

The mullet didn't seem that big at first but then got its head down in a series of short but powerful runs out and to the left - fortunately my left-hand line was out of the water being baited up when the fish took so no worries there. Eventually I was able to stop it and recover line little by little, till the fish was in the deep water in front of the bridge arch where it swam to-and-fro hugging the bottom. I was acutely aware of losing a big mullet in exactly the same circumstances a few weeks back, and this time the wind buffeting the rod around only added to my nerves ... but the hook held and eventually the mullet surfaced and I was soon able to net it.

 

I've not had a mullet over 6lbs in Ireland yet. I knew this one would be close, but the scales stopped at 5lb 14oz. Very happy with that but still waiting ...

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Wed

21

Sep

2016

Fishing with Eddie

I drove down to Rosscarbery today to fish with Eddie Baker on the last full day of his holiday there. The tides were dropping away in height but I arrived on the high water which may have been somewhat wind-assisted by the strong southerly wind. Whatever - there was enough depth to float-fish along the west bank below the N71. Eddie was already fishing when I arrived, and had just landed a four-pounder. I had barely started fishing a few yards down from him when he struck into another good mullet, and after a long scrap he netted this 4lb 12oz thicklip ...

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Sun

18

Sep

2016

Near Home

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Sat

17

Sep

2016

Back on the Rocks

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Tue

13

Sep

2016

Steve's Week

My good friend Steve Smith arrived on Tuesday 6th September for a week of mullet fishing. Steve has had a dreadful year with illness since his trip over last September, but looks to be on the mend again. It was good to see him out and fishing again, albeit a little rusty after his lay-off. His flight into Cork was delayed so the planned afternoon session became a 90 minute evening session.

 

We went to the spot near Castletownshend where I'd seen the mullet yesterday. It  was even foggier this time. The mullet were there again in some force, but in the end we didn't catch. We had a few knocks and pulls on our quivertips, but couldn't really tell if these were proper bites or just fish bumping into the line.

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Mon

05

Sep

2016

Moving Around

I started today at the wonderful Lough Hyne near Skibbereen. I arrived on the morning high tide and could immediately see lots of mullet finning on the surface on either side of my chosen spot. I floatfished over the drop off from the shallow nearside shelf into the depths of the Lough. Considering how many mullet were around, bites were relatively few and far between, but when they came they were quite positive and over about 90 minutes I had four mullet out. Slightly disappointingly they were all less than 2lbs, although there were clearly some bigger fish around. 

 

As the tide began to drop, bites more or less dried up. Then as I was on the verge of knocking off, I had one last good bite and I was into a better fish, only 3lb 5oz but they always fight above their weight in the clear, deep water.

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Wed

31

Aug

2016

Just Local

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Sun

28

Aug

2016

Away Days at Christchurch

I've been over in England this week visiting family and friends. It has been a pretty hectic schedule but I'd left time to fish Christchurch for two mornings on the weekend of the National Mullet Club's National Rover fish-in.

 

The tide timings weren't great with an 8 a.m. high water yesterday, on Rover Saturday. I was out and fishing by 6.30 a.m., specifically legering at Grimbury Point with one rod fishing the edge of the main river channel slightly to my left and one fishing further into Grimbury Bay slightly to my right. 

 

All was quiet till just before high water when I had a couple of healthy plucks on the left hand tip. I struck and found myself playing a small mullet. The fight had a slightly different feel from normal and I had an inkling what this fish was before seeing it clearly - a lovely little golden grey of 1lb 9oz, a rare capture this far up Christchurch Harbour, especially mixing with the coarse fish on a neap tide when the water is almost fresh.

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Sat

20

Aug

2016

Last Trip with Mick

I have to travel back to England tomorrow for a week and Mick will have moved on in his tour of Ireland by the time I'm back ... so one last session together today.

 

Mick had blanked after I left on Wednesday, and was unlucky to lose two big fish in the lagoon at Rosscarbery on Thursday, but he had four out from the estuary yesterday including a 5:02 and was clearly on a roll as he had a fish on the bank before I'd even tackled up today ...

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Wed

17

Aug

2016

More at Rosscarbery

Back at Rosscarbery today to fish with Mick after we'd failed to contact the mullet on a Sheep's Head rock mark yesterday - though we had a bit of fun later on catching mackerel on light tackle.

 

I arrived after lunch to find the pool below the N71 very low but well populated by mullet, most of which seemed to be cruising around with little sign of feeding. Mick wasn't there yet so I dropped into the swim where I'd done so well last week and started off trotting a float down the flow of water coming through the bridge arch.

 

30 minutes later, without a bite, I was changing over to my leger rods to fish further out. Mick arrived and set up to my right. The first hour legering was quiet apart from one pull-round that may well have been a line-bite. But as the flood tide arrived and the water level began to edge up, I started getting a few trembles and knocks on the tips and eventually three good bites which yielded at hat-trick of four-pounders at 4:03, 4:07 and 4:01 ...

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Mon

15

Aug

2016

Who Let The Dogs Out?

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Sat

13

Aug

2016

Perfection in Miniature

What a difference three days makes.

 

Saw hundreds of mullet today but all juveniles from fry up to about herring size. I mostly fished down in the water hoping there might be one or two bigger fish lurking beneath. But the only bites suggested micro-mullet and eventually I hooked this scale-perfect specimen, one of the smallest I've ever had on rod and line ...

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Wed

10

Aug

2016

Five a Day at Rosscarbery

I fished with Mick Buckley today at Rosscarbery. It was a very neap tide that had not yet started to flood; the best bet seemed the slightly deeper water close to the bridge arch on the N71 bank of the pool below the causeway. We could see many mullet breaking surface with their backs and fins a fair distance out. We set up leger rods to fish the pop-up crust baits that have been so successful for me this year.

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Mon

08

Aug

2016

Fishing with Mick

I fished today with an old friend from the National Mullet Club, Mick Buckley, who has recently retired and is on an extended fishing tour of Ireland. I can't even remember the last time I saw Mick, it may well have been on a trip to Alderney in 1989! He came to see us for the day, leaving his highly impressive trailer home on a site near Skibbereen.

 

After the blow yesterday afternoon and evening I was concerned the rocks here would be unfishable, but the swell had gone down quickly leaving a difficult but fishable choppy sea. I wasn't sure either the mullet would have hung around during the rough weather, and it did indeed prove to be a day of few bites.

 

About an hour after starting, and continual drip-feeding of mashed bread, my float finally dived under. I struck and instead of the pollack or coalfish I was expecting, a mullet came to the surface. It was only a small one 2lb 12oz but it was a start.

 

About an hour later I missed a similar bite. At least there was another fish around and a few minutes later, it found Mick's bait. It was a fish similar in size to mine. Mick played it for a couple of minutes and then it came off.

 

Half an hour later, a repeat performance ... I missed a bite, and Mick hooked the fish a few minutes later. This one stayed attached and was a bit bigger - Mick didn't weight it but it I'd think it was over 3lbs. 

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Sun

07

Aug

2016

Blown Off

This was a pretty forgettable session to be sure. It was forecast windy so I chose an estuary mark south-west of us. On arrival in the early morning it was slightly misty and more-or-less calm, and I could see some fish moving on the shallows below the road causeway. I set up my leger rods and started fishing.

 

Second cast in I had a persistent bite and hooked a decent but obviously not huge mullet that turned out to be a long and lean 2lb 14oz ...

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Fri

05

Aug

2016

Stocking Up

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Wed

03

Aug

2016

Back to Rosscarbery

It's been a while since I'd been down at Rosscarbery and I've been out of touch with how it's fishing. But a new guy, Martin, on the Chelon labrosus forum posted this week that he'd been there recently and had a 6 and a 5 and some smaller mullet - it seemed like time to head back.

 

I started in the lagoon float-fishing. It soon became clear there were huge shoals of tiny mullet in there. They were very quick into the groundbait and onto my hookbait. After 30 minutes of almost constant dink bites on the float, but nothing remotely strikeable, I decided this was a waste of time. I moved over the road and wasted some more time trying to fish the edge of the stream of water exiting the lagoon - it was really far too windy for effective float fishing and I saw not a sign of a mullet.

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Sun

31

Jul

2016

Mackerel ... and Shark?

This session came about by accident. I'd been onto a south coast mark after pollack, and although I'd found plenty they were all disappointingly small. There was a fresh southerly wind and the swell got up before high water cutting the session short. I headed instead for a north coast mark, stopping in at home for a cuppa on the way.

 

I was set up and fishing again soon after high water. The pollack were again playing hard to get, with just a couple of small ones taking the redgill over the first hour. Then a mackerel latched on, and it seemed a good cue to change over to a shrimp rig.

 

I had eight more mackerel in ones and twos. Not great numbers but they were decent size, around a pound each. They were down deep and I could only find them with a very slow retrieve; fortunately the bottom is quite clear on this mark till close in.

 

 

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Sat

30

Jul

2016

Duck Broken

I first fished this swim in August 2014 with Steve Smith. Steve had a nice 4lb thicklip and I missed a few good takes until bumping a fish off on the strike. Next visit wasn't until September 2015 ... more missed bites and another fish bumped. Yesterday evening I managed to lose two decent mullet, one when the hook length parted on the strike, one that came off after about a minute. So you can imagine I was pleased to actually land a mullet here this morning, albeit not the biggest ever ...

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Sat

23

Jul

2016

Mullet ... Wrasse

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Sun

03

Jul

2016

Needed This

I've been grinding out the exam work over the past few weeks - and more of the same to come over the next few weeks - got to lunchtime today and thought, "I need a break from this."

 

I drove along the south coast of the Sheep's Head looking at likely mullet marks but at every one there seemed to be just that bit too much breeze and swell. It looked a struggle so in the event I headed off the peninsula and south-west to a small estuary where I've done well before.

 

The high tide was pouring through the bridge arch into the pool above the causeway. My normal swim looked impossible so I settled on legering over the sand flats on the other side of the road.

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Wed

22

Jun

2016

Congers with Stu

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Tue

21

Jun

2016

Pollack - and Mackerel

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Sun

12

Jun

2016

Ignored in Dungarvan

I've been back in UK working for the past week. I managed a half day on the National Mullet Club fish-in at Lymington yesterday, and blanked, before heading for the ferry home last evening. This morning I stopped off at Dungarvan for a break on the drive back across Ireland, and found these mullet (and many others) around the boats and pontoons in the harbour ...

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Wed

01

Jun

2016

Mussel Power

Eight days later, the sun is still shining. And the wind has turned west - it's a pity I have work on now! I had to drive into Bantry this afternoon and I decided I could afford the time for an evening session from about half-tide down on the way home.

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Tue

24

May

2016

Quick Rock Session

Work on and visitors staying so not much fishing at the moment. I managed to find the time today but it was always going to be a struggle in a strong easterly wind against a larger-than-expected swell off the Atlantic, and bright sunlight. I picked some limpets for bait and headed off to one of the few rock marks that would be sheltered.

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Thu

19

May

2016

Slightly Unusual Mullet Session

It was a rough old day on the Sheep's Head with Atlantic swells pounding the rocks, so I decided to head for the calmer waters of an estuary on the Mizen peninsula.

 

I arrived at 4 p.m. which was about high tide, so there was a decent depth over the sand flats below the road causeway. There was a stiff breeze and small wavelets running up the estuary, so I decided it would be best to leger. I set up on a rocky outcrop of the west bank, and cast out two pop-up crust baits.

 

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Wed

18

May

2016

Dogged Out

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Mon

16

May

2016

New Rock Mark

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Sat

14

May

2016

Rock Session

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Thu

12

May

2016

Quieter Day

It was time for a return to the rock mark in Bantry Bay where I'd done so well with seven mullet in a session last week.

 

Any pretensions of a similar haul today were soon dashed. I took up exactly where I'd finished last week with a string of small coalfish that were whacking the float under. However, as the tide dropped away towards low water I started to get some more delicate and missable bites, and I wondered if a mullet or two may have moved into the swim. After a few more misses I was suddenly into a powerful fish that shot off down the tide then came up and splashed on the surface - a mullet!

 

After a good old scrap I slid the net under this one, a pristine 3lb 10oz ...

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Tue

10

May

2016

Rosscarbery Return

Rosscarbery today! I arrived late morning at about high water. There was a good depth in the lagoon after several big spring tides, so I decided to make a start there.

 

An hour later, slightly deflated, I decided on a move. I'd only seen one mullet whelm and had only had one proper bite, which I'd missed, plus a few dinks and trembles on the float that may have been gobies or sandsmelt rather than mullet.

 

I headed down to the bottom of the tidal pool below the N71. It's been a kind swim to me this year, and once again there were mullet in residence. Despite the reasonable depth they seemed to be staying out from the wall, so I opted for legering with pop-up crust baits.

 

It was a slow start but I kept catapulting a couple of extra balls of groundbait out every cast, and eventually a pod of fish seemed to move over the carpet I was building up. I had three solid takes. The first fish came off about half way in, but I landed the other two. They were nothing spectacular in size but nice clean fish of 3:02 and 3:10 ...

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Thu

05

May

2016

Bantry Bay Mullet

There was a big swell running yesterday but this morning it had calmed off enough for a first mullet trip this year on the rocks on the Bantry Bay side of the Sheep's Head ... I was keen to give it a go before yet more northerly winds arrive for the weekend.

 

I set up a sliding float to fish bread flake about ten feet deep. I'd slightly over-shotted the float and it was struggling a little with the lop, but I thought I had bites on my first two trots through the swim. Then on the third trot, the float buried. I struck into a powerful fish that ran off parallel to the rocks on my right, worryingly close to the kelp, before coming out into open water. It turned out to be a very long and lean thicklip of 4lbs exactly with a great paddle of a tail.

 

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Tue

03

May

2016

Disappointed

Really quite a disappointing day ... I drove off the peninsula along the Dunmanus Bay shore, checking several shallow spots for mullet ... but the fish that were present last week were nowhere to be found. So I carried on to the south west and the estuary where I'd had good bags in March.

 

Clearly there were far fewer mullet present now, apart from large shoals of fingerlings. I did however have quite a few bites on float both above the road causeway and below when I tried a move to change my luck. I really should have caught more, but I only connected with two mullet, one very briefly as the trace parted just above the hook on the strike. The other was this slightly sorry specimen of 2lb 4oz and half its tail missing ... it fought surprisingly well considering.

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Sat

30

Apr

2016

Wind's in the West ...

Just a couple of short and blank mullet sessions since the last post, both in the shallows of Dunmanus Bay. There were plenty of mullet around for a while both times, but chasing each other and bow-waving around at speed, no real feeding activity. A cold north wind had persisted all week, and the water felt chilled despite good sunshine, definitely not helping.

 

Then today the wind was turned to west. I headed to a Bantry Bay rock mark with the big rods. On one I fished big pop-up baits either mackerel head or squid/mackerel cocktail. On the other, a two-hook paternoster with size 2 hooks baited with frozen lug and mackerel strip to see if there were any smaller fish about.

 

I had a dogfish out on the mackerel strip first cast, then surprisingly despite knocks and rattles most casts, nothing else hung on to the small hooks.

 

Meanwhile, a missed run on a mackerel head, then a dogfish on the same head cast out again. Then two missed bullhuss. One felt heavy for a few seconds then came off, the squid/mackerel bait had slipped down and choked the hook. The other was an unusually pale-coloured fish for the area that spat out the hook at the edge, good size too. Finally a good run on a mackerel head and this one stayed on ...

 

 

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Tue

19

Apr

2016

Slow at Rosscarbery

The east wind didn't seem to be blowing more than a gentle breeze yet, maybe time for one more session before it really kicked in ... I headed down to Rosscarbery.

 

Straightaway on arriving I knew it was going to be a struggle ... a fresh and cold SE wind blowing up the estuary, bright sunshine and the water the clearest and lowest in the pool that I'd seen this year. How low? About thigh deep for a heron ...

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Mon

18

Apr

2016

Well you don't see that every day ...

There were strong east winds forecast for the rest of the week after today, so I was keen to get out. I chose a deep water rock mark over the hill on the Bantry Bay side of the peninsula. I set up with two big baits - mackerel heads and squid/mackerel cocktails.

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Sun

17

Apr

2016

Birthday Mullet

Back from our trip to the UK and my birthday today. I really wanted a birthday mullet, a feat I've only managed a couple of times over the years back in Hampshire. So I headed back towards the estuary that had been producing so well before our trip away.

 

A few minutes fishing was enough to tell me the number of mullet in the pool had reduced significantly over the past fortnight, and on this very neap tide there was no chance of any more arriving on the high water a couple of hours hence. So I fished patiently hoping for a chance with whatever mullet were left trapped in the pool.

 

After the thick end of an hour, my float bobbed then slid away, and I struck into a mullet. It put up a decent fight but obviously wasn't a massive fish, and after a few minutes this thicklip of 3lbs exactly was in the net ...

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Sun

03

Apr

2016

Back on the Rocks

I fished a rock mark on the north side of the Sheep's Head today. It was in the main a rather quiet session ... somehow the ground fishing hasn't quite kicked off this year yet. However there was a little flurry of activity in the run-up to high water with a few knocks and pulls and a fish (almost certainly a bull huss) that let go part way in. Finally this one, possibly the same one, was landed after taking a popped-up squid and mackerel cocktail. It was nothing special in size, about 6lbs to 7lbs, but I was pleased to have avoided a blank with a decent fish. We have some time away back in the UK coming up, I'm hoping the rock fishing will get going in my absence.

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Thu

31

Mar

2016

Bass ... Nah, Mullet

Today I intended to dig some lug then go fish for bass on a surf beach on the Mizen peninsula. However as this took me close to the estuary where I caught mullet on Tuesday, and as my mullet gear was still in the car, I thought I'd head out a bit early and get in a couple of hours of mulleting before going to dig at low water.

 

I set up in the swim where I'd finished on Tuesday. The conditions were very different - gentle SW breeze and wall-to-wall sunshine - but the mullet were still at home.

 

I had the first bite on my second cast, and my first fish on the bank after about fifteen minutes, 3lb 14oz. Then a sort of pattern set up with bites stopped till the mullet gradually came back onto the feed, another fish and repeat ... the non-feeding spell getting longer each time. Five more mullet followed of 3:12, 3:07, 3:10, 3:05 and 2:10 ... I fished on another hour without a bite so decided that was that.

 

Somehow I'd fished right through the low water period, I'm sure I could have still got a few worms if I'd rushed off but I was happy with what I'd had and there didn't seem much point in rushing. The lugworms, and bass, could wait for another day.

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Tue

29

Mar

2016

Change of Venue

I fished a shallow estuary south and west of us today, one that had fished well when we'd been over on holiday in April 2014 and 2015. I'd had a look a couple of weeks ago but not seen any fish, and I wondered if I was still too early today ... it looked windswept and bleak on arrival.

 

I felt mildly encouraged to find a pile of scales on the bank ... looked like an otter had had some luck with the mullet anyway. I set up in a swim that offered a little shelter, but the first few times the float trotted through uninterrupted.

 

Then I started to get stabby little bites. They were impossible to hit but eventually one held under slightly longer and I connected. After a short scrap this pretty little 1:10 thick lip was netted; it had been hooked in the outside of the lip.

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Fri

25

Mar

2016

More Mullets

I had a blank session from the rocks midweek so decided on another trip down to Rosscarbery on Good Friday.

 

There were visibly less mullet this time in the shallows where I'd fished before, but I could still see a few moving around with trademark bow waves and swirls.

 

I put out two leger rods with pop-up crust baits like last time, and soon had a good take on the right-hand line. The fight was dogged but unspectacular, and after a few minutes I was able to reach down from the wall to net this one of 4lb 4oz.

 

On starting again there were now very few fish at all showing but I fished on more in hope than expectation while I ate lunch. All was quiet on the tips but just after I'd finished eating the left- hand tip pulled over.

 

It was obviously not a big fish but after a game scrap I landed my smallest mullet of the winter to date, this pretty 2:10 ...

 

 

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Sun

20

Mar

2016

Five at Rosscarbery

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Thu

17

Mar

2016

Strap Congers

I had a decent session this morning considering the chilly and freshening east wind blowing across the rock mark on the north side of the peninsula.

 

I had a couple of aborted pulls on mackerel head but most of the action came on squid/mackerel cocktail fished as a pop-up. This produced a small bullhuss and this brace of strap congers ...

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Mon

14

Mar

2016

Off the Marks on the Rocks

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Thu

10

Mar

2016

Great Winter Mullet Session

I had another blank session with the beach rods since my last post, this time at Bantry Airport Strand, so it didn't take a lot of thought deciding to head back to Rosscarbery today. There were many fish browsing around in the margins when I arrived but the first hour was quiet. It was much calmer today and easy to see the mullet swimming around and over not just my hookbait but free offerings too.

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Tue

01

Mar

2016

More Winter Mullet

I headed back to Rosscarbery today. There were good numbers of mullet in the shallows where I caught on Sunday.

 

I soon had a float out among them, but there was very little of interest in the bait. The float bobbed or pulled across the surface a few times, but as far as I could tell this was just fish brushing the line as they passed.

 

Then, after about an hour, a mullet stopped by my bait and the float bobbed repeatedly three or four times. I struck and hooked the fish.

 

This one fought much better than Sunday's 4:01 with a long initial run out towards the middle of the pool and several spells of resistance bringing it back. It was eventually in the net and weighed at 3lb 9oz.

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Sun

28

Feb

2016

AGM Day Mullet

It was a bright if chilly, breezy morning. We decided to have a drive out  and walk the dog somewhere different, and as it was the National Mullet Club AGM back in the UK and I thought it might be a smart trick to catch a mullet to coincide, I put my mullet tackle in the car and we headed for Rosscarbery just in case there were some winter mullet about.

 

Despite the sunshine there was a perishingly cold south-east wind coming up the estuary. We sat in the car to eat our picnic next to the pool below the road causeway. I kept my eye on the water but saw no sign of fish in an area I'd normally expect to see them if present. 

 

However, as we started to walk the dog down the west bank, we started to see odd mullet in the shallows towards the bottom of the pool ... then a group of fish that bow-waved out as we spooked them ... then a large shoal that was apparently feeding.

 

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Wed

24

Feb

2016

New Mark ... New Bait ... Same Result

I decided to use my lugworms at a mark on the south side of the Sheep's Head that I'd looked at several times but not yet fished. I reckoned - correctly as it turned out - that it might give way to a clean seabed away from the rocks.

 

The day was bright and sunny with a touch of east breeze. Not great to be honest but I fancied the mark for a plaice or other flatfish.

 

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Tue

23

Feb

2016

Lug Digging

Another blank session on the pier followed. I thought possibly the seabed had taken such a pounding that the area had been temporarily vacated by fishes, but at the same time I wanted to ring the changes on my normal fish and squid baits just in case. So today I set off on a drive off the peninsula to a spot I'd seen before and which looked to have some prolific lugworm beds.

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Thu

11

Feb

2016

Back Out Again

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2015

Sat

24

Oct

2015

New Mark

I'd been meaning to try the spot for a while. It's east-facing and sheltered from the worst of the Atlantic weather by a headland. It may become a regular haunt over the winter!

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Mon

19

Oct

2015

Pop-Ups

I feel like I'm beginning to get to grips with the rough ground fishing on (most of) the rock marks here now.

 

I'm fishing 30lb mainline on a fast retrieve multiplier (Daiwa SL30SH or Penn 525) with an 80lb leader - partly to give abrasion resistance down near the terminal tackle and partly because I am sliding/lifting out biggish fish. I don't like using a gaff for fish I'm returning and anyway it's just not safe to get that close to water level most days.

 

The end tackle is shown in the photo. The lead-link very free running on a plastic leger ring, and the link itself is 25lb so strong enough to lob-cast with but also provides a rotten bottom effect which has saved me a few rigs and a couple of fish so far.

 

The hook trace is 100lb mono knotted to 60lb plastic covered wire for the last few inches, crimped to a 6/0 hook.


The jury is out on the breakaway lead. I think it does reduce snagging by not rolling into crevices etc; but when one is lost it is expensive. I may change to using some form of disposable weight in the snaggiest areas.

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Thu

15

Oct

2015

Little Dogs, Big Dogs ...

I headed down to a north coast rock mark for an afternoon session on the rising tide. Plan was to put out a bottom bait on one rod, leave it with the reel on the ratchet, and floatfish for mullet with a second, feeding bread close in to the rock face. It was the first time I'd tried this combination, and maybe one of the last. There was so much action on the bottom bait I couldn't really concentrate on the mullet fishing at all, though as far as I know none turned up! I soon had to give up and concentrated on the big rod ...

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Wed

14

Oct

2015

Mixed Session

The last time I'd fished this mark for mullet I'd lost two powerful fish that went to ground in the kelpy reef a few yards out and to the left of where I fish. Even though they took bread I was sure they were big ballan wrasse, so today I arrived with some more appropriate gear ... carp rod, 10lb line and sliding float to fish a limpet bait.


I was soon getting bites fishing about 10 feet down close in, and landed several wrasse to about 3lb 8oz ... point proved, sort of, but even allowing for the lighter mullet gear I think the fish I lost before were substantially bigger ... must try again. After the wrasse came a couple of pollack over a pound, also on limpet.

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Tue

13

Oct

2015

Snakebitten

Just a short session on the rocks this evening. The fishing was a bit patchy as a large seal was around with a shared interest in the pollack.


Lure fishing isn't really my thing and I'd begrudge the price some lures cost. But I saw these in the Snowbee end-of-year clearance sale and thought why not? They are called Snakebites and I bought a load in different colours: as well as the pink, orange, black and a rather subtle shade of peach.


They seem to do the job ...


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Thu

08

Oct

2015

Change of Plan

A weather-enforced change of plan today. It was forecast dry but the morning dawned grey with repeated heavy rain showers. I'd thought I'd bottom fish a deep rock mark but the rocks here get very slippy when wet with rain and it no longer seemed a great idea. Instead I packed my mullet gear into the car, and my brolly, and headed off to the estuary where Steve and I had done so well nearly a fortnight before.

 

Doubts set in as soon as I arrived. For a start it had brightened up a lot and the showers had stopped, maybe I should have stayed on Sheep's Head and fished the rocks after all? Then as I unpacked I realised I'd left my landing net head at home! The shallows below the causeway seemed empty of fish. I saw an occasional fish move in the deep pool above the causeway, but couldn't be sure if they were mullet or trout. I decided to try there anyway.

 

I fished for an hour without a bite. I could see fish - now recognisably mullet - moving regularly  but all across the far side of the pool near a sandbank. Only a very occasional fish strayed closer.

 

I walked up through the reeds till the pool shallowed then waded out onto the sandbank, then crept back down to where the mullet were. I put some bread samples out, followed by my float and bait. The fish didn't spook but neither did they show any interest, they seemed engrossed by whatever they were scraping from the bottom. Then, out of the blue, a single fish clooped a couple of pieces of floating bread off the surface near my float, dived and my float shot under ... and I missed the bite. Soon after, the mullet just melted away, perhaps because the new tide was just starting to push through the bridge arches into the pool.

 

I returned to my original swim which seemed more hopeful now with more flow through it. I missed another bite third or fourth trot through, but no more followed. Instead I started to see fish surfacing where the pool shallowed up near where I had waded on and off the sandbank. I moved up there and straight away was getting a bite a cast. I missed several - what a muppet - had a hook open out on the strike and had a fish come off after a few seconds. The number of fish showing and the number of bites started to decrease as the flow through the pool slowed - it had only lasted forty minutes on this smallish tide. 

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Wed

07

Oct

2015

Gone to the Dogs at Bantry

Bantry Airport Strand is a relatively well known mark and perhaps the nearest I'll come locally to beach fishing back in Hampshire. Okay the cobblestone beach is a bit difficult underfoot and the water's deeper, but it goes out onto a more-or-less clean bottom so I can use normal beach tackle! And I can fish at night, which I won't do alone on the rock marks.

 

It has a reputation for producing thornbacks and bull huss as well as smaller stuff. Well, I'm sure it has its moments but as of yet I've not experienced one.

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Sun

04

Oct

2015

Quick Session

I've had a few days off from fishing after Steve flew home on Wednesday, and only time for a quick session today.

 

Had an early start, down to Skibbereen for an 8 a.m. cancellation appointment for an NCT test on Sylvi's car, the final stage in a convoluted two month long process of getting it re-registered and legally driveable in Ireland. Then a nice walk with the dog in the woods overlooking Lough Hyne, and on to Schull via a couple of possible future fishing marks for a late breakfast at Café Cois Cuan  (very recommended!) Back home the scenic route, couple of cuppas, washed my car ... and so on to the rocks near Kilcrohane this evening for a quick pollack session.

 

There were pollack aplenty about though a couple of quieter interludes possibly to do with a large seal who stuck his head up a couple of times to eye-ball me. I had a dozen or so in 90 minutes on the trusty firetail Redgill, mostly around 2lbs size but a smattering of larger fish, best this one just 5lbs ...

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Tue

29

Sep

2015

Steve's Last Day

Steve's last day, and miserable conditions. There was a heavy overcast and it felt distinctly parky in the east wind that was still blowing about f6.

 

We settled on revisiting the estuary where we'd had nine mullet between us on Saturday, partly because the wind would be behind us on the causeway, and partly because of the number of fish we'd seen. Surely some would still be there ... maybe in hindsight that was a mistake. We stood on the causeway watching the surface of the shallow water raked by the cold wind and the pool looked devoid of fish.

 

We tackled up anyway and were relieved finally to see a fish or two moving as we prepared to make our first casts. These casts passed without incident but on my next the rod pulled well over and I was in. What followed was a terrific fight of ten or twelve minutes as the fish kited round to the right and got its head down in the flow coming through the bridge arches, perilously close to the rocks where we'd started on Saturday.

 

Eventually the fish weakened and Steve was able to net a 4lb 3oz thicklip ...

 

 

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Mon

28

Sep

2015

Variety ...

Today was much brighter but the east wind was really howling now. We decided to have a break from the mullet fishing and do some general rock fishing for wrasse and pollack instead.


First we headed to a shallow rocky bay to collect some shore crabs for the wrasse bait. We found plenty of crabs ... but nearly all baby edibles that had to be returned as undersize. The shore crabs were like gold dust ... eventually we got a few but I really need to sort out a better supply, perhaps on the muddier ground towards Durrus. We topped up the crabs with some big limpets knocked off the rocks.


After a bite of lunch, we headed off only a mile or so from home to fish from a rock mark that would be out the worst of the wind and swell in the lee of a headland.


No monsters today but we had a very enjoyable session. I caught some decent pollack on redgills. Steve spent the time floatfishing the few crabs we had and limpets close to the rock edge, catching wrasse up to 3lbs or so. Plenty of the wrasse came to the limpet baits, and they also picked up a number of smallish pollack.

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Sun

27

Sep

2015

Back to Rosscarbery

Today was a dull day with a freshening easterly wind that was threatening to make fishing difficult.


We started by spending an hour at a north coast rock mark on our way off the peninsula, just before low tide. It quickly became obvious there were no mullet in residence today, and with no guarantee any would turn up we stuck with Plan A and soon headed off back to Rosscarbery.


There was more water in the lagoon now on bigger tides, but it retained its brown tinge and apparent dearth of mullet. We tried an hour or so but soon moved to the estuary proper.


The wind was indeed troublesome, but I tucked myself down behind a grass bank and legered out into the shallow water in front of me. I did see occasional whelms but had not a single bite all afternoon.


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Sat

26

Sep

2015

Nine Mullet Day

Venue today was an estuary about an hour's drive from Kilcrohane where I've had some big bags of mullet before ... but it can be a very moody venue.


We arrived to find one of the bridge arches on the road causeway collapsed in the flash floods the previous weekend, and the road causeway closed to traffic. This actually enabled us to park on the road very close to the fishing! 


Even better, good numbers of mullet could be seen swirling in the pool below the causeway.

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Fri

25

Sep

2015

Mulleting + Fun Session

We dropped Sylvi off at the trekking centre then headed to a north coast rock mark to fish the first half of the tide up for mullet.


It proved to be a slow session with just a few bites for me and none at all for Steve. Mine yielded a mackerel then a small coalfish ...

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Thu

24

Sep

2015

Rosscarbery with Steve

The stiff west wind threatened to make mullet fishing on Sheep's Head very difficult, but I was keen for Steve to get his first mullet of his holiday under his belt. So the decision was made to drive the hour or so to Rosscarbery, known to be in some mullet form after Pete and Jen's trip, and offering some shelter from the wind.


We parked up alongside the lagoon. The water was a foot lower than last week after the neap tides and carried a brown colour. We fished for an hour but with no bites and it seemed pretty hopeless, so we moved over the N71 to fish the estuary outside the lagoon. The tide was low but we could see a (very) few mullet moving on the shallows well out of range.


I set up leger gear and welted out a pop-up crust bait as far as possible. Steve set up float gear to fish in the outflow from the lagoon, the only area with any meaningful depth.

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Wed

23

Sep

2015

Steve's Pollack

I had been back in the UK for a few days for my Mum's 90th birthday party, and flew back into Cork yesterday on the same flight as my friend and NMC chairman, Steve Smith who was over to stay with us for a week.


The weather was against us today, grey and blustery and intermittently wet. 

 

We decided to start at a sheltered pier close to Kilcrohane. I hung a bread bag off the end, and set about trying to catch a few mackerel for tea while the tide was still high. Steve started tackling up to fish for mullet.


Almost straight away I saw a small mullet on the surface. I called Steve over and we saw it again, but before Steve had finished setting up it had disappeared.

 

An hour passed with just three mackerel for me and Steve one missed bite on the float with bread bait. I decided to join the mullet hunt, and set up a sliding float to fish deeper than Steve, about twelve feet.

 


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Fri

18

Sep

2015

Pollack on Redgills

Those who know me will know that lure fishing isn't really my thing. I'll make an exception though when it comes to pollack and when it comes to Redgills.


The pollack are a novelty for me and I'm impressed with the attitude they seem to develop when they reach 4lbs or so. Redgills bring back fond memories of childhood holidays in Cornwall. I must say though the modern colours seem a lot more effective than the natural finishes on Ingrams' original Mevagissey Eels. I particularly like the black/orange firetail and bubblegum pink.

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Thu

17

Sep

2015

Pete's Day

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Tue

15

Sep

2015

Jen's Day

I arrived at the venue on the north shore of the peninsula at 10.00 a.m. to find my friends and fellow NMC members Pete and Jen just getting out of their car. They are over from Cornwall staying at Rosscarbery for the week but were making the most of a calm day to come on a first visit to fish the rocks down on the Sheep's Head.

 

 

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Sun

13

Sep

2015

Salvaged Session

Made a right mess of swim selection today. Went out to drive along the south side of the peninsula back towards Durrus to check the various shallows for mullet, only to find the water everywhere still heavily peat-stained from Friday's deluge. And seemingly devoid of mullet.

 

I ended up on a north coast rock mark at the "wrong" state of the tide - nearly HW whereas I've usually fished this mark for mullet over LW. At least the water was clear. I started feeding close to the edge and watching the sinking bread - no sign for ten minutes or so. Then I saw a suspicious swirl further out and then (to my surprise given the water must have been at least 30 feet deep) a piece of floating bread disappeared amidst another swirl. 

 

The breeze was carrying the floating bread offshore and all this was going on far out of range using my usual centrepin reel. I set up with a fixed spool and a Puddlechucker float set to fish a flake bait shallow, about two feet. But by the time I was ready, the surface activity had stopped.

 

I carried on feeding and fishing at all depths, but it was another hour before the mullet returned. This time they were much closer in, but the bites were really hard to hit and I missed six or seven before finally connecting. And even then the mullet came off after a minute or so. A tiny scale from around the outside of its mouth came back on the hook point. 

 

Happily there were still signs of mullet feeding in the swim, and I was soon into a fish. I was wishing I'd changed back to my centrepin. For some reason I really hate playing mullet on a fixed spool on my float rod though it doesn't bother me using one when legering - go figure! I felt I had way less control over the fish than normal but disaster was avoided and the mullet duly landed. It turned out to be the only one of the day ... 3lb 12oz.


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Sat

12

Sep

2015

Bonus Pollack

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Thu

10

Sep

2015

Bull Huss

Same routine as last time but I headed a mile or so further west to a different rock mark. The east wind was really set in now and even the dogfish were subdued: quite a few typically rattly bites on the squid and sandeel baits but only two were hooked. Then towards the end of the session a much better bite ... the fish came in grudgingly, seeming to get heavier and heavier as it neared the rocks, then finally really diving for the kelp. No doubt what this was. Sure enough a bull huss surfaced, a typically dark fish from the kelpy bottom, about 9lbs ...


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Mon

07

Sep

2015

Experimenting

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Sun

06

Sep

2015

Pollack and Chips

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Fri

04

Sep

2015

Rock Mulleting

We've been here properly in Kilcrohane a week. I've had a few short fishing outings and have caught a few smallish mullet at different marks, but now with the worst of the unpacking done it was time for a serious session.


I chose a rock mark on the north side of the peninsula I'd fished before, and arrived a couple of hours before low water. There was an easterly cross-breeze blowing which was rippling the surface, but as I fed a little mashed bread in close to the rock face, I thought I could already see mullet moving down deep.


I set up with a sliding float set at about ten feet, and started fishing. Almost straight away I was getting bites but they were unusually timid for this mark and I missed a few before connecting. It was a decent fish about 3lbs and fought strongly in the clear water but all seemed under control till I thought about reaching for the net, at which point the mullet gave a twist and was off!


I was mentally cursing because I've had this swim die on me before in response to losing a fish, but this time bites resumed after  five minutes or so and I was soon playing and landing a smaller mullet, weighed at 2:05. 


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