Haughs beach, Co. Clare 24-October-2010

People: me


Duration: 11:00am until 3:00pm

Tide: 13:06 (0.8m) 19:20 (4.8m)

Weather: S breeze, brilliant sun and clear water. Very slight wave

Bait: Me: Eel and mackerel frozen

Rigs: pulleys 2/0 penels, 3 hook cascades, 3 hook golds size 2s

Results: I blanked. Only two fish caught a dog to Aiden to win and Ger a flounder.


Report: Lovely weather for a walk but not for fishing here. I was looking forward to this comp when I looked at it in calendar at the start of the year but weather conditions were against us. A spring low water which meant we could see the bank of rocks and kelp that encircle this beach at LW. The place I fished I had been able to cast out in the spring with very few snags and no losses earlier in the year. After an hour I was snagged on most casts and switched over to pulleys. I may have been a few yards to the right of where I was the last day but I can’t be sure.

I kept casting long even though I could see the kelp as there no one else getting bites and it seemed the most likely place to get fish. I only lost 4 rigs in all as I pulled out of most snags once I switched to 20lb line and 100% leader knot. No one else was losing rigs but I was probably casting a big longer. Over an hour into the flood I thought I could switch back to 3 hook rigs as we were pushed back well past where we had setup even though LW was the half way point in the comp. Also the previous cast had resulted in no snag.

With a half an hour to go I had a walloping bite and a few seconds later it was hit again. I struck a solid rock and the leader broke under pressure. This was made worse by the fact I had ignored half the leader spider loop after had broke on a previous snag pull out. After that Aiden had his dog to half a crab and a coaly lost in the water to the same bait. The flounder was caught on the last cast.

I was raging with myself for loosing the fish especially due to my own bad fishing. It could well of won me the comp but more importantly saved my blank. I had desperate head ache all day, partly due to drink and partly due to the watery sun which put my fishing right off. Between that and lack of preparation (I should of brought another 525 loaded with 20lb) as I was busy with the kids the days before.

Carig west Co. Kerry 10th-October-2010

People: me
Duration: 12:50pm until 4:30pm
Tide: 13:59 (0.3m) 20:21 (5.1m)
Weather: NE breeze, Cloudy mild with a mist
Bait: Eel, Squid and mackerel frozen
Rigs: Ledgers, pulleys, 3 hook flappers size 2s, 3 hook golds size 2s
Results: a dog and a strap

Report: I could have had my dinner mid-day and fished into darkness but with a 5.1m tide I could have been cut off or worse the water went around my car. The car probably would have been ok but the weed from the 5.3m tides the day before went over a lot of the road to this place and I don’t know where’s safe and where’s not. John Lynch used to reckon this was a low water mark but that could have been for whites and dabs. I’ve always had my best fishing on the flood but this would be a strong tide to fish the whole of the flood here.

I fished one rod with paternosters interchanging them and the other with pulleys and the occasional ledger. I fished in the middle and with the water being so low I could see the weed to my left and fished the paternosters to the right to avoid tackle losses. LW was a wash out. After an hour I did hear my rachet click on the big bait rod while I pulled out of a snag but that could have been anything. Around 3pm, the water had started to flood and I saw my pulley rod twitch. This had been mack/squid and when I reeled in with no weight I could see why there was no fish, the squid had masked to hook point due to the crabs as it was left out a long time rather than bad bait presentation. Squid sand eel penel was sent out to the same spot and after 5 minutes I had a doggy to the top hook of the 2/0 penel. I fired out the flapper in the same spot with sand eel as well as another penel but nothing

At this point I switched the paternoster to ledger and pulleys under the rock platform. This can give decent huss and straps. I was obliged by a small run after 3:30 that resulted in a small strap of around 1 Kg. After 4pm the weed started to run with the strong tide. After losing two rigs from the weed pulling the rigs into snags I kept everything close in and by 4:30pm even they were under threat. At that I went home. I didn’t take any photos but here’s one from the past.