Blankety blank cheque book....

Never caught a Guillemot before, one this weekend and another two weeks ago. Both birds went for my plug. Curios as I have not heard of anyone catching one either, must be starving to be honest. Anyway both safe and sound, probably still looking for their next meal. That aside, no fish on Saturday. I had one nice follow just when I announced to Jamie I was finished for the day and possibly saw another fish near my lure. Not exactly exciting stuff but I enjoyed the chase as ever. Maybe one other shot with lures this month and then it will be a switch in tactics although I’m not sure what that will be yet.

The Gambler

It’s been good this week, Blackberry switched off, no Excel and no clients to speak with. Since Friday I have enjoyed a couple of sessions, caught some fish and got some domestic choirs done and have even taken my mother and mother in law out for lunch…check me!

However cant help thinking that if the weather would have played ball I would be in Wexford with Jim, fishing, talking fishing, thinking fishing, learning fishing and quite possibly catching. I have to say that while I am genuinely disappointed that the trip didn’t happen there is a Kenny Rogers song that sums it up.

Next year….

More weed than Cheech & Chong

The weather has been true to forecast this week, wish it wasn’t but that’s showbiz! So with this in mind I went back to the same area I fished on Monday, bigger tides and possibly bigger problems with weed but I was optimistic with the incoming tide coinciding with the fading light. Anyway fished the tide down, good news, no weed to speak of. Weapon of choice fresh crab, like McDonalds I went large and didn’t hold back on the baits hoping for a big back end fish to beat my PB. Things looked promising from when on my third cast the rod indicated a solid thump followed by a standard issue slack liner which produced a fish of 3.10. This was followed by a slightly smaller fish about 20 minutes later. With the incoming tide still to come it looked like a promising session lay ahead. Well it came and went with no joy and instead the dreaded weed arrived, not a massive problem but enough to cause me to pull my hair out (if I had any). It was manageable till I got about 20 yards and the gripper, trace and leader knot picked it up like a hoover, lovely. I gave myself to 7.30pm and with the light almost gone I sat watching both rods as I tidied things up when the rod in the left cup displayed a decent bite which developed into a rod stand wrenching pull which sent the whole lot , 2 rods , stand and the bag suspended below it seaward. Having seen this happen before on this mark it’s usually the sign of a decent Bass and once I got a handle of saving the gear and with a slack liner I picked up and felt for what was surely a good fish…nada. I disappointedly wound in one rod and then the other and my reward was a surprise 2 pound cod on the other rod, not really what I was looking for but it was a fish. Makes you wonder how they can do it and not get a 2 x 3/0 pennel rig to stick, maybe a full on line bite in or around the bait and rig but I will never know that’s for sure…

Making the best of my options

It’s been about 5 weeks since my last trip. That wouldn’t have been that big a deal as I should have been in Wexford this week for 6 days Bass fishing. Unfortunately this was quite rightly cancelled due to a horrendous forecast that would have made it pretty difficult to catch anything on lures. Add this to the fact that I had to cancel my trip to Alderney late in October due to work commitments (Wexford was the replacement) left me feeling a little sorry for myself.

So on Monday despite a grim outlook in relation to wind strength and direction I left home at 4.30am. The plan worked, two fish on lures with the best one about 3 pounds and then with a bit of a drive and a change in tactics four fish on fresh crab with the best again 3 pounds and the other three about 2 pounds.

So there you have it, not where I wanted to be but with the time off work I made the best of it. There is little chance of me using lures for the rest of the week but I do have plenty of crab left over. The tides and weather look ok for Wednesday so, will see what that brings.

Here is how not to take a photo, self timer in sunshine oh dear! The fish sat pretty but I failed miserably and this is after trying to change the contrast in Photobucket!