Skipper of the Leah, Donal Kennedy reported on a recent trip on KillalaBay which produced just a few surprises! On Sunday, 29th September 2013 a party of anglers from Co. Sligo and Belfast set out from KillalaHarbour. The morning was bright with some clear sunshine, with the wind from the east and moderate. At first we drifted out in the middle of the bay to catch some fresh mackerel, which were slow to find at first, but during the second drift the group came upon a good shoal and landed plenty for fresh bait.
The next drift produced some small pollock, pouting and small coalfish which were all returned.
We then moved out to deeper water as the winds turned east to north east, producing sloppy waves. The fishing was slow but steady, with some patches of quiet moments but this did not deter the anglers. A number of drifts produced some fine fish including cod, pollock (the best weighing 7lbs) and some cracking ling, the best up to 10lbs.
As the day moved on the group were surprised to catch some fine spurdogs, the best weighting in at 10lbs. The wind never went around the South East as forecast, and as anglers would say from time to time in reference to the winds, ‘east is least’. As with another saying, the best is always kept till last, Mike Roulston a keen angler from Easkey Co. Sligo proved this point when he hooked into a strong fighting fish. After a number minutes, he landed a beautiful bull huss weighting 20lbs, just 3lbs short of the current Irish record. Congratulations to Mike on his catch, who, after a quick photo removed the hook and sportingly returned the fish.
safely released after this image was taken.
