Martin McGowan of Ullcatch remembers back to when he first started fishing from the rocks for mackerel. Being always fascinated by lures it’s no wonder he is in his element with the array of lures on the market at the moment. This week he decided to fish in the Tralee bay for flounder and reports:
I went along to an estuary not too far from where I live to see how badly it was affected by the above average rainfall. I could see all the debris that had been washed down from recent floods and the colour of the water was nothing short of black. Would this be a problem I asked myself? Luckily I knew of another mark that would have better water clarity. So I set off with John O Connor and John Sheehan that I knew relished in flounder fishing, to get an hour of the ebb tide and 2-3 hours of the flood.
I had a setup of very light tackle which included my trusty Berkley Phazer ll rod, an Okuma Tiro 40s loaded with 4lb braid and 3lb fluorocarbon leader. To join the leader to the braid I used the improved all-bright knot. I find this edition of the Albright special knot a little easier to tie than the customary version, and it is stronger. I was using a 2g muscle jig-head size 4 hook with a 1.75” perch grub white soft plastic grub.
John Sheehan was using a bush wacker rod and a dawia swep-fire 4000x reel loaded with 8lb braid and 4lb fluorocarbon leader. John also had a 2g jig head size four hook and was using an extreme soft 5.5cm grub red by Jaxon. John O Connor was using a somewhat heavier outfit: an ugly stick lite 8.0ft 20-50gm, a Penn captive spinning reel 2g jig head size four hook and was using an extreme soft 5.5cm grub red also by Jaxon.
The conditions were good, calm and over-cast. We did not have to wait long before the first flounder came ashore, the fourth cast to be precise. A 39cm flounder caught by John Sheehan, a great start! We got something right here. We thought we were in for an eventful day.
The next two and half hours we fished our socks off with no joy. Just over an hour and half into the flood things started to happen, as they normally do when fishing this mark with bait. The flounder were on the feed. John O Connor landed a nice flounder this was followed by a flurry of flounder for us all. I will have to point out that the red grub tail being a predatory color and all, out fished the white grubs, hands down. Little did we know that the best was yet to come! John O Connor was fishing a little way down when he started jumping and splashing around like crazed mackerel feeding on bait fish. Plaice, plaice it’s a plaice! As you know Plaice from the shore caught on bait is a bonus on any day, but to get one on a soft plastic was a blessing. John had a smile from ear to ear. Plaice are a fantastic fish with lovely orange spots dashed all over their back.
What I have learned from this outing, and others, is you have to hit a hot spot where flounder really come together to feed. The results are far better, remember you are relying on sight and not scent unless you buy those scent pens for lures.
Read the full article ‘here’
Compliments of:
Ullcatch
Martin McGowan 087 3152516 or Eugene Farrelly 0864044671
Email: martin@ullcatch.com
Web: www.ullcatch.com
