House on the Sheep's Head
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.
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Sam Smith (Tuesday, 01 October 2024)
Another great months worth of reports David. I always look forward to the beginning of a new month just to read them. I’m sure more people read them but don’t bother to comment, which I don’t understand as they’re so good.
Anyway looking forward to more of the same in the coming months, Tight Lines, Regards Sam.
David Rigden (Wednesday, 02 October 2024 07:41)
Cheers Sam - hope you & yours are keeping well. The blog gets views from about 150 different IP addresses per month but as you say very few comments. In fact I probably meet more people in person who say they've read the blog than people who leave a comment :-)