David Muirin of East Coast Fishing reports:
I didn’t expect November shore fishing in Ireland would be this good.
The first two weeks of November my friend David and I spent fishing species which eluded us all summer long- the conger eels.
It took us a couple weeks to gather all the information about locations, gear, baits, technique and the other stuff. We learn t a lot from our summer mistakes and this time we were well prepared.
30 lbs class rods-7000 size reels loaded with 50lb mono, 50lb wire trace and hooks range from 6/0 to 9/0.
Some say this is over powerful gear. Not for the way we fish. Close to the pier wall or cracks . We don’t leave our rods unattended even for a while, and strike very early. Why? To avoid deep hooking and give the most chance of freeing an eel with no harm. Strong gear is a must-the eel can’t take an inch line from the reel- otherwise he’s going to be lost.
Irish East Coast has a dozen harbours, small and big, where a good population of congers are present.
Those places busy in the day time becomes fish heaven after the dark.
But during a good wind- tide combination, there is a chance to catch an eel in the day time too.
And it is not true that conger eels have no teeth and can’t bite through the mono line, like some say. Here is an perfect example.
Keeping a long story short, during our trips we managed to land and release 11 eels and set our personal bests on 140cms ( David )and 141cms (Me).
Season is over for now, water is too cold for eels, they will be thriving in comatose until Spring.
Roll on April then !
Compliments of:
David Muirin
Web: http://ecoastfishing.blogspot.com/
