So my mate and his daughter were in Ireland this week and we did a bit of fishing together. I met up with Chris down in Cork and we fished in the sea at a few marks down there before heading up to Mayo where we trolled for Pike and also had a trip to Clare Island and fished off the pier there. Let’s start off down in County Cork………….
A few pints in the local pubs were required for us to catch up and decide on a plan. We finally settled on the rough shore marks of Dursey Sound at the extreme end of the Beara peninsular. Deep water and rough ground pointed to the probable presence of Pollack with maybe the chance of a huss or conger on the bottom to bait. Dursey island is connected to the mainland via Ireland’s only cable car.
We toyed with the idea of going over to the island and trying the near virgin marks there but long queues for the cable car put us off. Instead we fished 2 or 3 marks on the mainland below the rusting pylons. Chris was first in action with a couple of small pollack taken by spinning as close as he dare to the reefs.
I eventually found the right depth and we had a hectic 30 minutes when it was virtually a fish every cast, mainly Pollack and one solitary Mackerel.
The fish seemed to go off the feed as it neared low water so we packed up and headed further down the coast to try our luck elsewhere. Chris reckoned that there was a good mark on Sheepshead so we drove down there and finally located the pier in question.
This was very comfortable fishing as we drove to the end of the pier and simply lobbed our baits into deep water. A mixed bag of Mackerel and Pollack fell to various lures and feathers, while a dogfish snaffled some sandeel bait on the bottom. By 8pm we were getting weary and decided to head back to the campsite for a bite to eat.
The next day we tried for a Bass on a nice strand but met with no success. The long road back to Mayo beckoned and all too soon we said goodbye to County Cork.
Friday afternoon found us trolling for Pike. Five minutes after we started Kirsten hood a fish and it was soon in the net, a fish of about 4 pounds maybe. More followed, including the smallest Pike I have ever seen (sorry Chris)
The weather forecast was for a poor day on Sunday so we decided to head over to Clare Island on Saturday. I will tell you all about that in my next post.
Claretbumbler 