Jim Clohessy of TopFisher.eu was making the most of Saturday ahead of the current unsettled conditions…

Saturday’s run was the last run for September. I think at this time of year you must consider any opportunity as being the potentially last run of the year… it’s happened before!

I was flying solo yesterday with all my usual victims unavailable (Or dodging me! ). I had two plans in prep. If the forecasted drop in wind didn’t happen I’d run to plan B. As it happened all worked out OK and plan A was go. A run offshore on wrecks and maybe some scratching around for haddock, whiting etc.

Roches Point outbound. Mackerel were scarce. Just when the harbour was teeming with small mackerel in recent weeks.
Roches Point outbound. Mackerel were scarce. Just when the harbour was teeming with small mackerel in recent weeks.

It was a cracking morning. I have always heard fishermen say that northerlies push the mackerel off. It seem to be the case as I was working hard for mackerel in the usual harbour spots. I had only a few stragglers. I pushed off a bit and had some mackerel of the smaller variety. They’d do fine.

Steamed offshore in perfect conditions. You could see from the offset that there was a lot of life about. Lots of dolphins and a huge amount of bird life. My first detour off the GOTO was to inspect a huge conglomeration of birds. I was just late to the party. As I arrived a few BFT showed among the dolphins but were there and gone. The water had a slick on top and was full of silvery scales… As I say I missed the party. There was a large show on the sounder toward bottom and a quick drop showed these to be big scad. I kept a couple for bait (I usually wouldn’t).

Some fine ling. All on mackerel bait on single paternoster wrecking rig.
Some fine ling. All on mackerel bait on single paternoster wrecking rig.

First stop was a wreck that I am beginning to know well. I like to drift the edges here but the combination of wind and tide made that well nigh impossible. I was picking up a few handy ling so I baited up a big-boy trace and sent it down with a big-boy bait. I had a steady stream of good ling topping out at around18lbs. Fine fish.

Great scrap from this one. Thought I’d lost him in the wreck as the first run was very strong. Usual rig and bait.
Great scrap from this one. Thought I’d lost him in the wreck as the first run was very strong. Usual rig and bait.

Eventually I moved off the wreck. There was no point in filling the cooler. I’d have to fillet them on return. As it was I had a fair amount of fish on board. I drifted further afield but the mixed fishing was very slow. On the way back in I passed a seiner, a local 22m boat that you wouldn’t expect to be fishing this close in. Good chance it was after doing “my patch” too.

As the wind built from the SE it was time to head for the slipway. As usual I had a drift too many making my spin home more bouncy than I hoped… typical. Last cast syndrome is strong with this one.

Some nicer day in the morning. The wind did come up later. You’ll always remember the morning though
Some nicer day in the morning. The wind did come up later. You’ll always remember the morning though

The worst part of the spin was closer to the harbour, a building wind and an ebb tide.
A handy enough retrieve and sort the boat for road and then I had to fillet the catch. The evenings are really closing in.

My pictures were taken from the phone in a cradle and using the camera remote – you get 3 seconds to compose! I’ll have to work on that.

The evenings are shot really. This was taken at 1900
The evenings are shot really. This was taken at 1900