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.

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.