“And cast in wild foam we found Atlantic bass
Living on your western shore
Saw summer sunsets asked for more
I stood by your Atlantic sea
And sang a song for Ireland”
Killybegs Mariners SAC are an active bunch, with regular competitions, and they have some very keen anglers among their members, who have been out exploring the wild Donegal coastline this week, picking windows in the weather in between storms and finding some great fish feeding from beach and rock marks.
It was competition time last Friday night, with a perfect barrel surf welcoming the anglers on a lovely evening.
Fishing was good from first cast, with plenty of good size flatfish being caught, followed thereafter by dogfish to keep score cards ticking over. Scores were very tight, and the longest fish cash prize was taken by Pat Cunningham with the longest flounder of 38cm, followed by Peter McGroary, and John Cunningham took the first place pot.
Two of the intrepid anglers fancied a bass session, and fished lures – “Just the lure rods walking the rocks armed with surface lures and weedless soft plastics, these modern lures allow you to cast where you wouldn’t dream of putting a lure a few years ago, real shallow ground where the Donegal bass lurk in the fizzing salty foam that tumbles over the craggy shoreline”. Both lads had some nice bass, and it is great to see these fish possibly extending their range, or maybe anglers beginning to explore more marks and find them!
Species hunting is becoming a popular pastime among many sea anglers, with competitions over the year in many clubs for the highest species count. This can make fishing for even small species a lot of fun, every cast hoping for a new species to add to the list. Christopher Noctor is undoubtedly one of the best of these species hunters, with 52 species to his name this year, but the latest one was a little bit special – an extremely rare catch. Fishing with tiny hooks he landed a Connemara Clingfish, a very rare find indeed and our Catch of the Week.
Christopher also had a two spotted goby, and further added to the count with saury, a small gar-like species that is found in large shoals and brings the mighty Bluefin tuna into Donegal Bay to feed. Himself and Johnny had an enjoyable sesson on the rocks in a weather window spinning small lures for saury and found a good number. Saury is a great bait also, so no doubt the freezers are well stocked now for the winter!
Finally, Stefan Martin took advantage of the cam before Storm Ali to get a rock session in chasing pollack and wrasse: “Storm Ali was brewing outside of the bay yesterday and we were well warned of the impending gales ahead and so it was time to take advantage of the weather window and grab the lightweight ugly stik and walk the trails and try to temp some kelp dwellers on the soft plastics.. September can be a great month for the lures on the shore as the water is warm and fish are still in attack mode with all the feed about. Small lunker city paddle tails worked out the wrasse in close but it can be hard to work the lures when the swell is running. So the heavier and quite expensive but absolutely lethal fiish black minnow was fired out at distance for pollack. This weedless lure can be let sink all the way to lie on the bottom and popped up and straight retrieved back and you feel every waggle of the tail through the braid and the heavy pull and arching run of a crash diving pollack.. great sport in the dying of the light now as the evenings draw in”
Stefan Martin
Killybegs mariners SAC
Facebook: www.facebook.com/mariner.sac
Go fishing…
Mariners sea angling club Killybegs Co Donegal. The club runs a shore league and boat comps and angling trips around Ireland doing the sport we love. Get in touch at www.facebook.com/mariner.sac
