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.

First off was my right hand rod - the middle of the three we were fishing between us - which pulled over after a minute or so on its very first cast. The fish splashed on the surface immediately and clearly wasn't very large by Rosscarbery standards. After a game little scrap I landed it and it weighed in at 2lb 3oz.

There was a lengthy lull in proceedings after that, though we could see fish moving all

round our baits and were getting occasional knocks and pulls that may well have been line bites.

Then my right hand rod was off again, a repeated pull that seemed to be getting stronger and stronger till I struck. A much more powerful fish this one, 4lb 6oz as it turned out. After another but shorter lull, a real belter of a bite on my left hand rod. This one ran out strongly and repeatedly and took over ten minutes to land, it weighed 4lb 11oz. My two 4s ...

Mick had a good bite at this stage but his strike didn't connect properly and the fish was gone in a splash and a whelm. A quiet spell was ended by a lunging bite on my right hand rod, and the mullet ploughed out into the middle of the pool. It seemed a better fish than those previous so I took it steady and Mick netted it nearly a quarter of an hour later. It went 5lb 10oz on my scales, my second biggest of the season, well pleased ...

The next lull was broken by a good pull on my right hand rod, but the fish came off after a couple of seconds. Soon I was in again on the same rod, and this fish held on. My fifth mullet of the day weighed 3lb 10oz.

Five mullet in a day is a great result anywhere, my joy was tempered only by the thought that Mick had blanked. He'd had just one decent bite, the same I'd had on my left hand rod. Five good bites and four fish had come on my right hand rod fishing in the middle of the three. It's inexplicable really, the baits were fishing only a few yards apart and we could see fish moving all around the area from time to time. Just luck of the draw I guess. Mick takes a decent photo and I hope I'll be able to reciprocate for him next time we are out.