Home Turf

With the warmer weather recently it was time to have another crack at the salt!!!!

A quick chat with a Noel Mckernan and it was arranged to meet on Saturday in my home village of Ardglass Co.Down. It was nice to actually lie in bed to a reasonable hour and get up, organised and arrive at the launch point (100 yards from my house) all in less than 30 minutes.

We did not take long to get on the water as usual, and my main target of the day was Cod, normally this time of year there are plenty of them around here, also the local trawler lads are catching boxes of them up to 30lb weight only 5 miles out, so this also motivated me to get out there. 

The weather was great with a slight westerly breeze so we headed straight out into the bay in search of the previously scarce Cod, with in 5 minutes Noel was into a fish and long and behold it was a decent little Cod of around a few pound weight, he shouted over " Happy days we could catch these all day".............. Well that Cod must have been lost or something as I think it was the only one in the Irish sea that day!!!!! 

Things were very slow after that, we tried everything and all the close by marks that normally produce fish with no joy. I paddled closer to the shore and anchored up to try a spot that very rarely lets me down, not long after I got the anchor down in around 35 feet of water I had a hook up, and was I glad as it saved me blanking, especially on my local grounds.

Two small Pollock

After an hour had passed sitting at anchor with nothing more than the two pollock it was time for a change of location and tactics, we paddled a mile further south to a large kelp bed in hope for a Wrasse and on the way stopping and having small drifts to try to pick something up, I had one sea Scorpion on the way.

Arrived at kelp bed a short time later and fished it for around 30 minutes with not a bump, at this point I realized that there was a nearby reef around half a mile out. I aimed for it as I had some cracking fish from it over the years from the boat but never fished it from the yak. I had a few failed attempts of targeting it from the yak with weather so I was pretty keen to get to it seeing I was so close. We paddled out and on our way the weather started to pick up, sea state was getting very choppy and the wind had shifted northerly making things tricky, we persisted!   

When we arrived at the reef with the big spring tides we were in 90 foot of water, very strange as iv never seen it deeper than 80, but anyways we had a few failed drifts and with the increasingly picking up weather I called the retreat back to shelter. Once again the weather has beaten me in fishing this mark from the kayak!

 
On our way in Noel fished along the rock faces and picked up a few small Coalie, I was over in the bay still trying to catch my Cod, but the only thing I could catch were the sea Scorpions 5 in total.

We called it a day and headed in, once we arrived back at the harbor we had some bait left so we tried for some fatties and conger. Well this was interesting as I had put a large Mackerel head onto a size 8 circle hook dropped it down the side of the harbor wall and with in minutes the rod started thumping, I never had bites like it, it then started pealing line of the reel. I tightened the drag down and it started pulling me into the wall, then nothing.....so I brought the bait up to check it and the head was clean bit in two. I re baited with another large head dropped it down and the same started happening all over again, I tightened the drag one again and wound down......this time I had something of size on It took a few runs then I had the better of it as I was nearer the kayak I looked down into the water below me and as soon as I spotted the largest flat fish iv seen it let go and swam straight back down, it was literally the size of a bin lid and as it was bottom side up and pure white I have no idea what it was. I re baited and tried again and again, same thing over and over mental bites and runs with no clean hook ups until I was out of bait. I blame the circle hook......and I will be back soon with different rigs to see what is down there....

While getting melted with something stealing my bait on the heavy rod over and over I had a doggie and crab after crab on the lighter rod.

   It was a very tough days fishing and I never got what I intended to catch, but most importantly we never blanked. I am itching to get back to the harbor with some better set ups to see what is annoying me, whether it was a large conger and that I hooked the flattie by chance or is there big flatties roaming around down there, only time will tell.

Tight lines  

A Day To Remember

The weather is starting to improve with arrival of spring, the mornings are brighter and there is a stretch in daylight in the evenings, a very welcome sight that a lot of us have been waiting on all winter.....

Sundays weather looked promising, So David, John and myself arranged to meet at a lake in the midlands for one last bash at fresh water before the real fishing starts with the good weather approaching. I loaded the car up on Sunday morning and set off around 6am, arriving at the lake just over an hour later to find the other two had just arrived before me. A quick coffee while discussing tactics and setting up, we agreed on mainly targeting Perch as none of us have ever caught any. I have had a pretty productive winter chasing Pike and really wanted to catch a Perch to the point that I was not going to target Pike at all that day!!!

When we got to the waters edge there where a lot of small fish breaking the surface so we all set up simple rigs, small hooks some lead shot and floats with maggots as bait to small jig heads for drop shoting. David was first in the water from the bank and instantly pulled out a Perch, I couldn't believe it, nor was I amused as he caught one before me lol, but as soon as my bait hit the water I had my first as well (Above pic) shortly followed by John using drop shots. It was great crack we were pulling them out hand over fist all small but it was addictive fishing and as small as they were they put up a great little fight.

David with his first

Followed by John    

    

Anyways more to the point we needed to start catching them from the Kayaks, so on to the water we went. David and John had there first kayak caught Perch with in minutes and continued to keep catching them one after the other..........I couldn't catch one!.............It was driving me nuts and to make matters worse the lads were taking the piss out of me laughing at my misfortune, but what was I doing wrong as I caught loads of the bank?. My rig was fishing about two feet deep so I adjusted the depth to around four feet and BANG my first kayak caught Perch, I couldn't stop smiling lol.

    Another one for the species hunt!

After that they just kept coming, mostly tiny little fellas with the odd bigger one, John had the biggest of the day as far as I remember.

They look to have a right attitude problem :)

You could sit and catch them all day but as we caught what we came for it was decided to have a go for our last Pike of the season.

John hooked up nearly straight away with a nice fish around the 8lb mark but the man always underestimates his size, shortly followed by another small jack while David and myself paddled all around the lake trying everything with no joy. At this point we decided to head in for some lunch so I stuck on a copper spoon to trawl on the way in, with in 10 feet I had a thump on the rod........fish on......just as I was taking a pic my dead bait rod bent over and line started screaming of the reel like mad. I just about got a pic of the small Pike before having to drop it over the side so I could grab and strike the dead bait rod.............

  First little jack on a copper spoon

This fish felt a lot bigger every time I gained a little line it took double, It faught like mad and I was convinced it was going to be a personal best! After a cracking scrap I had the Pike on my lap in disappointment, It fought like a fish at least twice its size the water temp was up quite a bit maybe this has livened them up..... who knows.

    Number 2

Anyways happy with two Pike back to back it was time for lunch, I paddled in to find John just stepping out of his kayak too. As I went to step out of mine I felt one of my rods thumping at first it looked snagged on the bottom but as the kayak was stationary and the rod was still thumping I lifted it to find another Pike on the end of it lol,

No 3

The weather was great, but quite cold

After a quick bite to eat from our cook David and myself giving him some abuse as he had yet to catch a Pike we where back on the water as the day was becoming very much enjoyable.

I was not on the water for five minutes when I had hook up number Four

Again a small jack No 4

What a day I was having definitely my most productive fresh water session to date....

 At this point David lay down and give up, I think he was on ebay looking to buy a set of golf clubs on his phone....

 Karmas a B***h lol

John at this point was playing with the drop shop rigs obsessed with trying to catch a big Perch as apparently there are a few in this lake.

Then again my lure rod trawling the copper spoon about started thumping again, another hook up..........and YES another jack Pike.......starting to wonder is there any big Pike in this lake at all.

This one had some scaring from a bigger Pike or a bird.

We called it a day shortly after and on our way back in had one last crack at the Perch.

This last crack turned into an hours fishing for them as its bloody addictive 

We also tried with some sweetcorn to see what was about and had a few Roach too.

By far one of my most enjoyable and exciting days fishing with more Perch than we could count 5 Pike and Roach.

Until Next Time

Tight Lines...