Seeing this months feature in sea angler magazine about out last trip to Shetland has prompted me to post some bits about some of our other busman’s holidays while reports are slower this time of year. I will try to keep them very brief and share a few pictures as there is a full report of each in past sea angler mags.
I shall start with one of my last ones and work backwards from there.
We love Ireland and had planned a trip to visit Donegal which is a new area for us and fish with Adrian Molloy for tuna as well as sample the general fishing there too. Unfortunately the trip was postponed for a couple of years due to covid stopping our first attempt. However we made it over there and with an additional crewman to our first plans as now our son Stanley had arrived in the mean time.
We travelled by road and ferry and all met up over there. The first day we spent exploring and even did some shore fishing. eventually we found a nice little place to drown some worms and caught some wrasse and blennies in the sun.
The next two days were aboard ‘deep blue’ with Adrian Molloy who is a man passionate about blue fin tuna with unrivalled experience and knowledge in northern Europe in my opinion.
Having heard and seen a lot about the tuna off of Donegal we were very excited about our trip. We had seen a huge amount from Galloper on our trip to Plymouth the year before and even been lucky enough to catch them but it had merely whetted our appetite for this trip.
We saw tuna from very early on in our trip but had to work hard to get one on the line. however Adrian’s experience payed off and we had a couple to the boat by the end of the day. interestingly they came at the state of tide he predicted and at the time he predicted. Now that’s experience for you.
The next day was a bit different with fish showing much closer in and a hook up very early on as well as fish feeding mist of the day. although we had seen them the day before there were far more whales and dolphins today too as well as bird life. We had some fantastic displays of airborne saury being chased by tuna.
We had a few more tuna that day with the biggest over 400lb. although Stanley was the only one not to get one he wasn’t too sad as at 13 months old it was exciting enough seeing the fish, the birds, the dolphins and whales.
The next two days were slightly more sedate fishing but just as much fun. We boarded ‘Meridian’ for a couple of days general fishing. Brian and John welcomed us aboard and we headed out for day one. mackerel weren’t prolific but we soon had enough and then spent the day drifting for inshore reef and ground marks. We were on the drift both days although some times very slowly so improving our chance of different species. As expected we had a great variety of fish from the expected wrasse, pouting, whiting,, dogfish, coalfish, codling and some decent pollock through to a little john dory and other species. It was a very pleasant day in the shelter of the bay close to shore. The lads worked hard for us and seeing our experience and enthusiasm they planned a run further offshore the next day.
Day two started well, we got away quickly with everybody a bit more settled. Brian ran us right down past the end of Donegal bay. We fished a wreck and when between the large amounts of coalfish, pollock, pouting and whiting one or two different species showed. John was the first one to catch a blue mouth but Stephen Clark soon had some too. As the tide turned we headed to fish rear some small islands. As the drift started john spotted some tuna busting between us and the islands just a few yards away where they were chasing the small coalfish and pollock that lived there. With no new species for us showing here the lads ran us into some sandy bays back on the headland. We hoped to find some rays and flatties here. We had already had some dabs on other marks and we had more here as well as a flounder or two. We moved around a bit as to be honest many of these sandy marks in particular were full of octopus. These aren’t uncommon and I’ve caught them each time we visited Ireland but we were getting them two at a time quite often. They were unusually abundant and robbing our baits so we had to move around. We had one or two drifts in a huge bay surrounded by cliffs leading to slieve league cliffs and mountain. These are some of the highest sea cliffs in Ireland. The bay is breath taking and a very pleasant place to be. John and Brian told us how they had been pursuing the same shoal of tuna as Adrian once and the tuna ended up pushing the bait fish into this bay. This culminated in Adrian hooking up to a tuna right under the beach in just a few feet of water! Luckily the fish avoided the rocks and snags surrounding the bay as it headed out to sea. They eventually got it boat side a few miles away in a fantastic tale of luck and skill. We managed a few more species and plenty more fish before the end of the day. there were even more octopus too which kept Stanley entertained for a while. As did a rather stinky rope and bucket of mackerel juice resulting in Stacey disowning him by the time we left!. The lads were fantastic hosts, they stayed out late for us, put us on the fish and were very welcoming. John and Brian even rigged up a tuna rod in the fighting chair so Stanley could have a picture with it. on deep blue Adrian and Gav made a fuss of him too letting him play with lures and sit in the helm seat. I’m not sure they encourage 13 month old toddlers on all charter boats but the lads were very good with him and he had a lovely time. I should also mention Terresa at the Kilcar lodge b&b who looked after us very well and was the perfect place for an angling stay with a nice early breakfast.
As several of the lads headed home Stacey, Stanley, uncle Steve and myself headed south for the rest of our trip. We had an overnight stay at the inch beach house b&b and enjoyed a glorious sunny afternoon on inch beach. Not much fishing was done but Stanley had an impromptu paddle!
The next day we visited dingle and the aquarium there before heading to cork for the next few days.
We had a few days staying at bella vista hotel in cobh where we have stayed many times. Unfortunately they no longer offered the self drive boats but it was still a great base camp to stay. We had a day ashore with the weather still calm and sunny I ended up booking a boat for the following day. on our shore day we had a nice time catching a pipe fish (by hand) and missing some mullet before ending up at Ballycotton where I fished from the pier and caught lots of wrasse and small pollock and coal fish.
The next two days we spent on small open self drive boats from Courtmacsherry, Stacey and Stanley went on their own adventures to the zoo and stuff so it was just myself and uncle Steve. The boats are 16ft open boats capable of 7-8 knots. We were restricted to the bay just outside the harbour which has some fantastic fishing within it. the first day was absolutely glassy calm and I must admit I was a little frustrated I couldn’t go any further but it was nice to be afloat and exploring new places. Really the estuary and coastline around the harbour are some of the best places to fish with some cracking bass to be had but to be honest I’d seen a lot of bass at home so I went in search of some reef for pollock and wrasse for a change. With not depth sounder or navigational devices on boat it was back to basics to find likely areas. Lobster pots suggested the end of the sand and the start of the rough ground. some bits of reef were awash so gave away the bottom substrate and we had a hand drawn map with suggestions of roughly what to expect where. All nice and simple and very rewarding when first drop down Steve had a wrasse. Plenty more small wrasse, pollock, codling, mackerel and other bits came out throughout the day as we moved around trying different areas. The next day was forecast quite windy but started calm again. The wind got up throughout the day which hampered our fishing somewhat. We still had plenty of fish similar to the first day with a few dabs and dogfish when we anchored as well as garfish. We found a big shoal of sardines in a bay, we caught a few but didn’t find anything chasing them. that was about it for the fishing on our last Irish adventure. The weather closed in so we spent the last day visiting a few new places and took Stanley swimming (this time in a pool not a beach) before the ferry and drive home. as always we enjoyed our time in Ireland and will head back as soon as we get the time. I would recommend a trip over there to anybody, angling or otherwise.
Back here in Essex its 2024 and although it may be a little cold outside there are fish to be caught if you want to venture out any time soon and a steady steam of bookings gradually filling the sought after dates however there are still plenty of spaces. For more information please contact 07956411528
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Currently next spaces on board Galloper from Brightlingsea
27/01/24- 5 spaces @ £60pp inshore / £100pp offshore
28/01/24- boat available from £528 or individual spaces
03/02- offshore trip 1 space @ £100pp
04/02- boat available inshore from £528 or offshore from £800 individuals welcome
05/02- offshore trip 6 spaces @ £100pp
More dates available please call 07956411528
