November Report

This will be a brief report as I've spent most of the month up to the eyes in work on an exceptionally busy exam session. I made myself take a couple of days out...

On the 4th I headed to Rosscarbery, main aim to add another month to my mullet run to make 44 months consecutive.

On arrival the tide was well up and I couldn't see much happening below the causeway, so I decided to start on the lagoon in the swim where Dave and I had had some good sport last month. It looked great but I fished for two hours without a bite or even sight of a mullet moving.

It was a first outing for new reels for both my leger rods. The bail rollers on both my Ninja 4000s had started trapping line while I was fishing with Dave, and while they may well be fixable if I can get the parts from Daiwa I didn't have time for that at the moment. This is a pair of Okuma Pitch Black 4000s, a special edition exclusive to Sportfiske in Sweden who delivered them in two days flat. They seem very nice for mid-range reels, smooth and solidly built. Maybe a touch smaller than I was expecting, closer to 3000 size, and I'll have to get used to the anti-reverse lever which is smaller than I'm accustomed to and works the other way.

Anyway, I decided to move across the main road to fish from the foreshore below the causeway, so I loaded my kit back into the car, drove up the lane a way to turn round, and spotted a decent shoal of mullet up in the shallow corner of the lagoon not two hundred yards from where I'd been fishing! I was tempted by them, but I was also keen to give the swim below the causeway a try so I stuck with that.

Action was slow to develop in the new swim but forty minutes or so after the move I had a good take on my left rod ... and while I was playing that mullet, another on my right rod. I landed a mullet of barely a pound with a badly deformed mouth, returned it quickly, made a grab for the other rod which was still hammering away and played what felt a much more substantial fish for all of five seconds before it came off. Great!

Fortunately no lasting harm was done though. Over the next hour or so I had more takes and landed three thicklips just either side of 3lbs to make a half-decent session.

Fast forward to the 26th and I was off to Kerry to try for the spurdogs again. I'd heard of some bigger spurs caught a week or so previous but since then we'd had snow and then Storm Bert. I wasn't sure what the combined effect of the melt-water and heavy rain would be on the fishing. The water was certainly as coloured as I'd ever seen it on the mark.

I did get spurs ... one early on that took a sandeel bait, and one late in the day on half a squid, both were males maybe 5 - 6lbs.

I'd have hoped for more spurs, and bigger, but it wasn't to be on this trip. There was plenty of action on the tips, but nearly all of it doggies so far as I could tell.

The exception was this tank of a huss that gave a slack line bite on a sandeel/sardine cocktail dead on high water and put up an unusually lively fight as huss go.

I've had my share of big huss that have spat out the hook at the edge, they are experts at it, but I had an element of revenge on this one. It was hooked through the tiniest flap of skin at the edge of its mouth, and I was astonished the hookhold survived both the fight and dragging the huss out onto the rocks. It weighed 12lbs exactly.

I'd really like a bigger spur or two before they are gone for another year, so I'll be back for sure in December. It's a lovely peaceful spot to fish, one of my favourite places to be whatever the fishing is like on the day.