The last couple of salt adventures for Cod have failed but today things changed!
I originally planned to head out early Saturday morning but when I woke up at 6am Saturday morning I could not see the wall outside my house with the fog, So back to bed I went and that was that.
Sunday morning I got up at 7am and nipped down to the shop for a coffee the weather was lovely, the sea like a mirror and a slight bit of fog that looked like it was burning off quite quickly. I returned to the house a happy bunny and packed the car. All ready to head off to my local launch point 100 yards away I just happened to take a glance out the window " Not so good" a blanket of fog had returned from no where.
I normally would not dare, NOR would I advise any one to head out in these conditions but today was the only chance I had of catching a fish. Over the past few years I personally feel like I have been well trained by the members of Irish Kayak Angling and have gained the knowledge and experiences to deal with such a condition confidently and more important safely!
I went straight back out to the car and double checked all my safety kit, compass, flares, vhf and fully charged, phone also fully charged. I phoned my father and let him know that I was heading out and where I would be fishing, and while launching at the marina I let the lad know that runs the place of my plans.
Happy with all I could do I launched the yak and paddled out past the Harbour took a compass bearing back to shore (North west) and continued on out into the bay, approx half a mile out I lost sight of everything, an extremely freaky feeling.
My favorite rig on (Shamrock tackle bleeding glow worms) baited with mackerel and sent it to the bottom, BUMP.............straight away fish on , happy days then to make things better it was a long over due Codling. Shortly following that I had another things where looking good for the day until I snagged the bottom and lost the rig. Bummer this was the only one I had so I set up a euro champ in gold and continued.
During the summer I detest catching \scorpion fish but with things being slow over the winter I have started to enjoy pulling them up as no two are the same. The fog started to thin out and the sun was breaking through, conditions were picking up quickly and as the did a few lads on boats headed out past me.
In around 15 minutes it went from this!!!
To this.
By far the best day of the year, and the fish kept coming I had countless small codling and Scorpion fish all caught on a reef half a mile out from the bay. I thought I would try for a coley for the species hunt and paddled back to the shore, different tactics needed so out came the spinning rod with a berkley jig head and jelly fire tail. My personal favorite for Pollock and Coley, first cast I hooked a fish but to disappointment it was a small pollock.
I paddled half a mile north along the rocks with the spinning rod along the way I picked up another small pollock but things were poor for an hour after that so I headed back out to the reef for another bash for some bigger cod as the tide was full in. I got the anchor down in around 80 feet of water and put bigger baits on, again straight away I was into something a little bigger.........another Cod happy days as it was the biggest so far.
My father put the boat in for a run out and came out to me before heading up the coast a few miles to a spot that produces decent Cod and Ling on a regular basis, a short time later he was back with out a bite to fish the same reef I was on. He was the only other person that caught fish that day with four other boats on the water, he had 9 small whiting.
He was going mad as he had the whiting back to back then not a thing in an hour and I was still catching Codling ever drop with the odd Scorpion as well.
Another decent one....
They started to gradually get bigger but it was time to call it a day and head in
On the way in there was a lad getting towed in by another crab boat as his engine was giving trouble, just gives you another advantage of kayak angling!!!!
As I was passing the harbor I dropped a rig for the last time and had a few bites followed by a hook up....... another species for the year my first Coley ;)
It was an interesting day to say the least with decent fishing, not much I could complain about plus it was the first run out with my new scotty flust mounts and rocket launchers which allow my rods to face forward to allow me to see the bites instead of the rods resting on my lap, they also double up as decent arm rests.
Until my next adventure
Tight lines....
