Experimenting

I dropped Sylvi off at the pony trekking centre for her ride and carried on down to some nearby rocks on the north side of the Sheep's Head; I had about a four hour session available before picking her up again. I fished this area in April and struggled to be honest - very deep water and a veritable snag-pit, pretty much the antithesis of what I was used to in Hampshire! Rotten-bottom rigs hadn't really worked at all, suggesting most of the time it was the hook rather than the lead getting caught.

Anyway, I'd come armed with some ideas ... baits popped-up with polystyrene on a shortish snood, and circle hooks which my friend Jeff suggested would be less snag prone, at least that was his experience with reef conger from his boat.

To cut a long story short, both tactics seemed pretty successful with only one pop-up rig lost and no circle hook rigs. It remains to be seen if this outcome is repeatable or if I was just finding a clear patch among the snags! 

The only downside was that little apart from dogfish was feeding in the easterly breeze that really seemed to be suppressing the fishing now.