Irish kayak angling meet 2014, One to remember.

Hi everyone,
Here's what happened last weekend Saturday the 24th and Sunday the 25th of may 2014.
Well it was that time of year again and it was my turn to organise a meet in Donegal. I choose mid may to early june as the bass ban is on and it gives the bass men some thing different to have a craic at.
This year I had the best turn out so far with 10 kayak anglers on the water there was to be many more but the usual family life and work held some lads back that would have liked to be here.

Saturday the 24th
Well nearly all landed on Saturday morning and the weather was brutal to say the least. It was blowing a gale of wind but the lads knew that but they where determined to come and take a chance on the weather. Well they came so I brought them to a bay I know that is sheltered in a NE wind so we went there.

In a bay for some ray
Seven of us launched with another 3 to come later in the day. It was breezy but more than fishable and I was first out to get on the mark to show the lads where I reckoned where it would be worth ago.
I got anchored and next out was the brother David, he dropped his line down and done a fast drift past me to see if he could get a fish from under my nose and of course he did the bugger he had a nice little turbot in the first 5 mins of his drift .
Very soon after Sean, Anthony and Martin where out beside me, anchors down and we waited for the ray. We didn't have to wait long and we started to hit them my first up was no bigger than a butterfly lol.

Here is the little beauty lol.

David was not to be out done and had to go and catch a bigger one. David is the brother if you didn't already know.[ You can feel the rivalry lol].

He only laughed for a short while as I managed this beaut a few minutes later.
This one was caught on the lynx tope flowing rig.

Anto was on the ball to with this thornback ray.

We where all into ray and the craic was good. But the strong breeze and cold seemed not to bother us one bit. And to make my day extra special this PB dab came to the kayak for me I was delighted it looks small in the photo but he was a nice 35cm. Sean also had a cracker at 34cm.

More ray was had by all and the craic was great. But as the tide turned and on queue the ray went quiet. So with that everyone was staring to feel the cold and it was time to hit the shore for a BBQ at my place and a few beers. 

On the road heading for grub and some beer. Thankfully Linda my wife had the bbq on for us when we got back.

Back at my place Tony was busy chatting up a few females lol.

SUNDAY THE 25TH, In hope of some Tope time.

Our tope mark was unfishable on Saturday so as the weather settled we were all busting to hit the tope on Sunday.
Even with a few sore heads all were up and ready to rock at 7am. As the low water slack was at 12.30 we had to head out when the tide was strong so we where out and anchored up as the tide starts to ease as that's when the tope come on the feed here. We all got some fresh whiting on the way out and headed on to anchor up. This area has a strong tide and you really need to anchor wright the first time so your not back and forward trying to get it wright.
 We all got settled in and waited for the tope to come. At this stage the tide was quiet strong and we got the lines in and waited.
I was first on but only briefly, he hit my bait I gave him the usual short run and struck but I missed him, I let it drop straight away again and whack he hit it again, As they normally devour it on the second hit I just gave him a short go a it and struck and I missed him again, again I dropped the bait but nothing.
This got every one awake and every rod was being watched as if our lives depended on it lol.
Then 15mins later my rod got hit again I gave him the usual few seconds struck and FISH ON,
He took off and I was grinning like a good thing, but what happened next ended in BO##OX
Fish off, Oh I was gutted. But 2 mins later a shout came from Anthony Byrne FISH ON,
He was having a screamer of a fight and yelps and shouts of pure mayhem mix with delight could be heard every where. Very soon Anto had the first tope of the weekend on his lap for a photo. 1 very happy angler,  And it had the rest of us green with envy.

But again we did not have to wait long. David let out a yelp FISH ON and to add to the excitement he hooked it on the shamrock animal rig, an all mono trace. I was afraid it would bite through the trace but he was lucky and landed a nice tope of 25 to 30lb

 

Again no sooner had David got his on his lap, Tony let out the now becoming familiar yelp FISH ON, Oh the yelps of delight and shear joy could be heard all around lol. He also had a seriously good scrap. Eventually tope came along side Tony and the decision to take it in for a pic or not seemed an awfull dilemma lol.

It was Tony's first kayak tope and you could see him looking for a spot to grab it to haul it in. Of course us heckling him telling it won't bite you OR WILL IT lol didn't help. Like a pro Tony got it in and got one of the best tope pics I have seen to date here it is below. Excellent selfie lol.

Thank fully it was my turn. As I had dropped 2 tope in a row I had changed to large fillets and sure enough it was my turn to let out the FISH ON yelp.

Again this fish was on steroids he screamed off line down tide then turned and power up the strong tide turning me side on to the tide, David was about 80yards above me and I was very worried he was going to run into his anchor. But some heavy pressure on the drag to slow the bugger got him turned, he fought to the bitter end I thankfully got him in for a quick pic. Another very happy chappy.

 Again in the 25lb to 28lb range

This set the theme of the rest of the session, with tope being hooked all over the place no sooner was one returned another rod would take off. At one stage we had 3 tope at 3 kayaks at the same time.

 

Heres another of mine.

Here's Tony's fish, this fish we called the macko lol. I was fishing away and a loud yelp came from Tony FISH ON and with that a tope came flying completely out of the water like a missile towards me. Tony seemed to be fighting a fish in front of him, but no 2 seconds later his kayak done a 180degree turn as the tope gave another cracking fight.  It was a fine tope of at least 30lb.

Trophy shot of one of my 3 fish

One very happy welsh man, well done Tony. One of 3 Tony had that day

 

 

Another fish of Tony's, A lot bigger than he looks in the pic.

And Sean landed this beauty at the end of the day and we had a full house of happy kayak anglers.

Well done to all that attended you's all done immensely well and it was a pleasure to see you's all catch fantastic hard fighting fish.
So the final tope tally was Tony 3, David 2, myself [Graham] 3, Anto 1, and Sean 1.
So until the next bass ban lads tight lines thanks for coming up and hope to see you's all up here again.

Well thanks for reading everyone hope it wasn't to dragged out for you's.
Until next time tight lines.

Cold smoking, the easy way.

Hi every one.
This a follow on from the last day I was out at the Pollack and wrasse.
Since the Pollack where a nice size for smoking I decided to keep them. As there is no point going to all the bother for 1 or 2 fish I like to do a full load at a time. Which is about twelve 2.5lb Pollack. A handy size and they don't need a heap of smoking. About 4hrs is enough to smoke fish this size as there fillets are not very thick.

Here they are just a nice size along with a few smaller ones.

 

 Here's the brine mix, Tasty looking isn't it lol.

My mix is

250g of salt,

100g of sugar,

 half a teaspoon of garlic granules,

3 teaspoons of turmeric purely for colour.

1/2 of a tea spoon of Chinese 5 spice.

 You can put what ever else you like in that's just what I use. 

Put it all in together and top it up with boiling water to get it all mixed together.

Then go and fillet your fish while it cools.

 

All filleted, skinned and deboned. Its ready for the cooled brine mix.

 

I add the mix into a deep tub and add a further 2 pints of water, then add the fish.

Here they are added to the mix, as you can see they float in the mix from all the salt in it.

 

After 2hrs in the mix the are ready, but no for the smoker yet. They need a heavy washing to remove the salt. Then dry each fillet and place on the racks. As you can see when they are brined enough they become almost transparent.

 

Then I leave them on the racks in the breeze to further dry the fillets. They should feel sticky to the touch when they are ready to go in to the smoker.

Here are mine rapped in fine mesh to keep any insects away until they are ready.

So now its into the smoker after about 1hr drying.

 

Here they are in the smoker, that's the cold smoke generator in the middle left of the pic. I have been using whiskey cask oak. Very nice stuff.

 

Here they are, not like the stuff in the shop. Real smoked fish isn't luminous orange lol.

Most of the colour you see here is from the turmeric. 

The fish should be dry and not at all wet.

So have a go yourself it's not that hard and if it's done wright it can be excellent. Ideal for fish pies and chowder.

Most fish can be done like this but for kippers and smoked mackerel I brush them with a very light brown sugar wash which is surprisingly very nice, but doesn't taste sweet when cooked.

 

Thanks again for reading and until the next time tight lines.

 

 

 

 

Cracking evening in Donegal

Hi all,
I managed to get out despite a poor forecast. At this time of year I have tope on the brain but with the forecast any chance of looking for them off shore was out the window.
I leisurely got out of bed this day and decided I would dig some rag and hide around the head lands and try for wrasse and Pollack  as Anthony Byrne from Dublin had some nice wrasse recently so that was encouraging. And we all like a bash at the hard fighting wrasse.
I was down digging bait and it was flat calm and I was cursing the forecast as it was meant to be at least 15mph at this stage.
In any way I got a decent few rag and away I went to a local in shore in search of wrasse and Pollack.
I landed there to a flat calm bay, not a ripple on the water and all I could think I was I should be out at the tope.
But sod it, it was a lovely day in Inishowen and I was going fishing. It was great I paddled out and dropped a jelly worm from shamrock tackle and trolled that down near the bottom as I went out.
It wasn't to long before the rod registered a TAP TAP and zzzzz, Class a nice charging run from a modest Pollack. It was a good omen since it was low water slack.

It was great to see a reasonable Pollack straight away but with all this rag I was busting to hit  the wrasse. Again the line wasn't down long and I got a wrasse about 1.5lb.

 

But that was apart from 2 or 3 more very small wrasse. So I wasn't sitting there all day for nothing ad went at the Pollack with the intension of going back to the wrasse.

I put a flowing trace with some nice rag on as I had a good few and the wrasse where quiet.

I wasn't long down and I had Pollack every 5 to 10 minutes. But as the tide strengthened the quicker they came. At this stage the day was flying in I was catching away at Pollack and the next 4hrs seemed like 10 mins.

 

 

All the while I had the glow worm rig just lightly trailing behind me, As  reeled in Pollack after Pollack they would sink half way down, And I was hoping for an odd mackerel or sandeel.

And on one stop these 3 came up high in the water and nailed them. 3 in the one go It was good craic.

Shortly after and time was cracking on I again dropped down the flowing trace and very unusual for this spot whack a wrasse on my rag and flowing trace. I was delighted to see him and out the line went again and again I got another.

 

I was thinking it's time for the proper wrasse gear here but the tide was flying so I went back to my usual wrasse mark. And on the paddle there I got 1 mack on the trolled rag and 1 on the glow worm rig.

 I got to my mark and I had wrasse after wrasse 11 in total for the day I think about 7 on this stop on the way home. This beauty took a medium rag on the glow worm rig from shamrock tackle. He gave a great fight and a fantastic way to finish the day.

 

Well it was meant to be the end of the day but you know the last cast. This day it lasted for 25mins and 3 fish lol. It was far to nice to go home.

It was a great day out and with Irish kayak angling's Donegal meet coming up very soon it is a great sign even if the tope don't show.

So thanks for reading and hopefully I'll see you's in Donegal enjoying the fishing and the scenery,

In Inishowen co.Donegal.

Tight lines and Paddle safe.

Here's myspecies list for 2014.

Here's just a basic list of the species I get as the year goes on,
I had 32 last year so hopefully I can beat that this year.
Here's what I have so far, it should be more but I have a habit of loosing track of them as the year goes on.

Species no.1 Coalfish

 Species no.2 rainbow trout

 

 Species no.3 Plaice

 

 Species no.4 mackerel

Species no.5 Dab

 

 Species no. 6 flounder

 Species no.7 weaver fish

 Species no.8

Species no.9 Ballen wrasse

Species no. 10 Dogfish

Species no.11 Herring.

Species no.12 codling

Species 13 thornback ray

Species 14 tope, definitely one of my favourite species. Fantastic scrappers.