David from Arklow was out fishing and reports:
When the sun is shining this Country is lovely – as my old friend Sean used to say. And the fishing is even better -I must add. This is my eight Summer in Ireland and the wettest one. I don’t remember dreadful weather like this.
It used to be large number of mullets lazing around in my local river during the summer time, but not this year. Too much fresh rain water in the Avoca and all the fish were pushed away, back to the sea.
But last Tuesday we had a proper summer day, for a change. A long sunny spells with SW wind and the air temperature in Arklow has reached a whopping 23 degrees.
On my way back from work I stopped my car at the Avoca’s boat slip. Quick look on the river and…they are back! I set up that quickly like I could and after a minute, float with the bread flake on it, went in the water. I just couldn’t believe in that, when I got a take in a very first cast. Fish on!
Ok, so my rod bent over and finally after a nice battle I landed this strong, big tailed beauty fish.
But when I looked closer, there was a big surprise. Sea lice parasite on the mullet! I haven’t seen something like this any time before. How it could be bite thru the mullet scales? Is this mean that the fish just entered the river from the sea?
After landing this fish my shoal dissapeared and I had to move to another location. I found an even biggest shoal and again , fish on from a very first cast!
But this time I had a lot of space to manouvre the fish after hooking. I walked with it about 50 meters down the river, then slipped it into the net. From now, I repeated this tactics on every time when I striked the mullet. Thanks this I avoided to spooke the shoal. When my fish was safely returned, I went back to the spot-cast-bang-and another one was bending the rod.
My next fish was a bit different than the previous ones. I caught my a very first Thin lipped mullet ! Fish in a region of 4 lb and a brilliant fighter. She strongly swam off after a quick session.
But finally I got hooked in something bigger. In about 10 min battle I landed this fat fish. What a stonker! Close to 6 lbs, maybe more. I didn’t bother to weight her , coz she was tired. But the picture tells its own story.
I cast one more time and after a while I got my 6th mullet for a day!
That was a last fish for me. Shorthly after ,the tide has started to rising up and my shoal dissapeared. I was so close to beat my pb of the number of mullets landed in one session- 2 year ago I had a very similar day when I banked 6 fish. I know also, from my previous mullet experience, that session like this could be once a year only. I was in the right time , in the right place 😉
On July 25th….
This is what happened on my recent trip to Wexford, shortly before I went for a short summer break. This beast smashed my previous PB on sea bass.
I have no acces to my PC at the moment, so posting only two photos now. My setup: Rod- Shimano Vengeance Sea Bass 240 H, Reel- Spro Red Arc 10300, Braid- Dragon Guide Select 20lb, Lure- Slug’n’go with 9grm bullet leds…
Report by: David
http://ecoastfishing.blogspot.ie/
