This report in from Jim Clohessy of TopFisher.eu:
Wednesdays run was a while in the planning. All summer Alex and myself failed to get a day fishing but the weather and work aligned for us this week and the plan was set in motion. Back to the wrecks we’d go. Of course we’d have to catch some fresh mackerel too. These proved to be a struggle (they shouldn’t be). But we were losing valuable fishing time on already shortened days.
Luckily Alex packed a few mackerel that he had frozen down. This proves to be a trip saver as after 90 mins we had only four small mackerel.
We cruised offshore at a steady 24 knots in grey but lovely conditions. Wrecks can be strange places to fish. Some can appear dead and spring to life… sometimes the bite can switch from manic to nothing in a second.
Our wreck was slow to get going. I was fishing big baits on a single hooked paternoster. The drift was slow in the weak wind and tide. It saved on tackle losses. Alex had a few fine fish before I got off the mark.
On my second fish I thought I saw a flash of blue under the boat. The next fish confirmed the presence of a marauding shark. It managed a good chunk from my fish, a really decent ling.
On the next fish we counted three more blue shark – Alex was grabbing for my heavy popping rod (Penn Battalion with Slammer 8500). Free lined bait was enough… a lump of ling guts (we were short on mackerel). He had a great tussle with two sharks. It was some laugh and craic. Blues can fight well. These were hit early and they fought like demons. At one stage we thought a blue was going to attack a hooked shark – blue on blue if you will. Alex fought them aggressively so there was no wrapping.
They were both bruisers of shark and the second one would threaten the specimen length. We decided on the more prudent course of releasing at the side of the boat. Shark – another annual itch scratched for Alex. I must say the sharks seemed particularly active (read: cranky) and really aggressive. The water temp was just touching 13°. After two super fish the skipper wanted to go back to the wreck.
We went back to our wreck and tried the area around looking for smaller species. Our bait situation was desperate so we decided to head to try some deep ground a bit more inshore. A spurdog and the smallest doggy we’ve ever seen later, we were running out of light.
In the early part of the day there was not much life about. Soon there were tons of dolphins. The grey conditions made it hard to see birds working at distance.
It’s November. It’s still mild. There’s plenty happening on the water. We’ll not declare it winter yet!
