Tough fishing, but great to be out.

Hi everyone.
I went out after work yesterday as it was to good an evening to miss, the tides where all wrong but I was going in any way.
I finished work at 1pm and grabbed a bite to eat on the way out.
Again it was my old haunt in the north of Inishowen.
I was heading out and I hardly contain myself with the thoughts of specimen spurdogs and tope devouring baits as hard as I could put them down, but a dirty big black thunder storm soon appeared as I arrived at the launch site.
A huge black cloud unleashed a monsoons worth of rain in no time.
I wasn't giving up and sat it out in the car waiting for it to pass.
And sure enough it did. With that the kayak was loaded up and I was away across a flat calm sea delighted at the prospect of a fantastic evening afloat.

Time to find some bait.
As I went out all I had in the line of bait was 10 whiting, some small and some bigger ones for the tope.
I dropped the dark green glow worm rig down in 40ft of water and also dropped a feathered rig and began to troll but no sooner had I started I got a hit, oh yes mackerel, just 2 at first , next drop another 2 then 5 all on the dark green glow worm rig, and not a sniff on the feathered rig. I am assuming this is because they where feeding on plankton rather than fry. Also they where tight to the bottom, not the usual spot for plankton on a nice day.

Anchors away.
I got to my anchoring spot in 90ft of water to see what was happening there.
It was desperately quiet, I fished for an hour and only managed a few doggies.
But some where a good size the best I got later on it was a tad over 2.5lb and measuring 71cm.

 

Time to move.

 It was very quiet for this spot and being the ebb tide didn't help.
So I upped anchor and headed about 3/4 of a mile west into 100ft of water,
Things seemed better here and the rods got some interest fairly quickly.
But it was mostly doggies but I then started to get some small ling and the fish below was the best of them, he was about 3lb and went very nicely with a few chips today. They are a very under rated table fish, if you catch one have a try you should like them.

I fished away and although things where quiet it was great to be out as don't I get many evening sessions in.

The 2 rods where down a tope pulley rig on one and a mickeyfish rig on the other.

But still there where no tope or spurs about so I went for the glow worm rigs with the yellow blades on them. They where down a while and getting more doggies and again when I dropped the rod went quiet. I guessed they robbed my bait so I went to lift it and there was definitely some extra weight, I thought it was a crab or spider crab but half way he decided to object and gave enough of struggle to be certin that it wasn't a crab. Thankfully it was my first bullhuss of the year. Ye he was a tiddler but great to see him.

 

But that was the run of it, some more small ling the best of them was 40cm and not much else so I thought I would head in for some more macks.

It wasn't easy leaving an evening like this behind. Oh I would have loved to do an all nighter, but it gets very cold out here until about 1 hour after dark and it normally warms up a bit then.

 

In for some bait

So in I went in search of bait for the weekend.

As I trolled my gear in behind me I could here what sounded like water rushing by. I was expecting mackerel on the surface but it was actually 2 tides running alongside each other.

 My favourite place to find bait. This tide was running in 70ft of open water. So I dropped the glow worms with the yellow blades down expecting mackerel or gurnards on the bottom.

Down they went I thought all the way to the bottom and as I went to reel up bang a nice Pollack on. I was delighted. Line down again and another but not as big but great fun all the same.

 Very few mackerel about but I had 6 Pollack, 2 coalies and a few big mackerel for a short dip.
Pity I wasn't there all day lol



So on in I went leaving this fantastic view behind me.
Don't worry it won't be long until I am back lol.
Myself and around 6 of others will be here the weekend, the 14th and 15th of june so if you like come along and enjoy what Donegal kayak angling has to offer.

So until next time tight lines and thanks for reading.