LINK TO ARCHIVED REPORTS 2005 - 2006 - 2007 - 2008 - 2009

Fishing report September 24th by Luke Aston, Clare Dragoon Sea Angling Charter operating out of Carrigaholt, Co Clare

A TALE OF TWO WEEKS ON THE CLARE DRAGOON SEA ANGLING CHARTER

Well this is certainly a tale of two weeks! Since my last report I have had 2 groups of fisherman in for a weeks fishing. The first arrived with a bad forecast and had a good week with the weather working out fine. We did 2 days sharking and had a total of 7 sharks, also on those days we had some whiting, which were just under specimen weight. The Pollock fishing was it’s normal self, with fish to be found with little trouble. We had some Conger up to 30lbs and a good days ray fishing.

The second group also arrived with a bad forecast and by last Tuesday there was talk of a storm. That wind never came here, but boy did it rain! This forecast made it very hard to stay out at sea even though it was never that bad. We did get 2 nice days on the whitefish and the best fish was a 15lb Ling. Mackerel proved very hard to find, with the best results east of Ross after lots of looking. We did have some good fishing in the river, but the RAIN!!

Over the last 2 days the weather has been a lot kinder and today was most productive. We got a box of mackerel for shark bait without much trouble and they had a good days fishing on the drift which produced Pollock, Cod, Ling, Pouting, Saith, Haddock and Whiting.

TWO SPECIMENS THE HIGHLIGHT ON THE CLARE DRAGOON SEA ANGLING CHARTER

There is no doubt that we are moving into autumn now and is noticeable how much more quickly it gets dark in the evenings. But it is also noticeable that the fish are starting to get heavier with quite a lot of Pollock hitting the 8 to 10 pounds mark. As readers of this report will know I think the Pollock are one of the most underrated sport fish in our waters and indeed quite a few of my clients that fish regularly on Bass in the English channel and Dutch coast would say the Pollock fishing here is better! And the bigger they get the better the sport gets. The secret to getting the best out of the fishing is light tackle, why spend a fortune on bass tackle and then fish for Pollock with a broom handle.

People who have fished on my boat will know that my boat rods are Penn 30lb class rods and might seem like a contradiction to what I preach, but the light tackle I talk about will not make a all-round boat rod like my trusty Penn’s, but is well worth the while of any sports angler to have a light rod of their own on a charter trip.

As for the rest of the fishing, in the last week we have turned up a specimen John Dory and a specimen Scad. Both of these species are on the ground at the moment but while every john dory is a thrill, Scad can just mean that it is going to take longer to get your mackerel bait!!

Fishing report August 20th by Luke Aston

GOOD RANGE OF SEA FISH RECORDED IN THE MORE PLACID WATERS OF THE SHANNON ESTUARY

Well I would say the river fisherman are happy as there is some water in the rivers again but that’s the best thing I can say about August so far. Here in Carrigaholt we have had to put up with a lot of northerly wind but have had sheltered fishing under Loop Head. Getting further off has been a bit of a lottery.

However we have been getting a good range of fish and have missed out on a specimen Bullhuss and cuckoo Wrasse by less than an ounce which was ok once but unlucky twice!! The ground has been producing a great range of fish with over 20 species for some groups. One of the pleasant surprises has been quite a few codling from time to time. The mackerel are showing signs of breaking up but are still plentiful and a lot of shad have been moving onto the ground. The shark fishing has been difficult as it is hard to get a full day but we are still getting a few.

Fishing report August 1st by Luke Aston

BLUES TO 80LBS FELL TO THE LINES OF DUTCH ANGLERS ON BOARD THE CLARE DRAGOON

The last few days have seen a brief hiccup in the weather and has meant that my fishing has been limited to the sheltered waters of the estuary. This has produced mixed fishing with the catch comprising mostly thornback ray and dogfish. We have had ray up to 9lbs and the possibility of a tope has kept us on our toes, with a 30lb tope being the best result.

Before that over the last 10 days of lovely weather the fishing has sometimes been very good, with last Wednesday the 26^th July producing our first shark of the season. Two Blues of 50lbs and 80lbs fell to the lines of a group from the Dutch – Belgium border. Both were tagged and released and hopefully will show up again. We also had a days fishing with the same group that produced over 600kg’s of mixed whitefish. Most of this was Pollock, with fish up to10lbs.

One thing I have noticed over the last week or two is the lack of any range of good-sized fish. Although we have had the odd good cod, haddock and ling most of the catch has been Pollock or Saith. Maybe this has been because the Pollock are feeding so vigorously? I hope so. There has been a good selection of small fish, with big shoals of Saith to be found.

Fishing report dated 19th July by Luke Aston

BEST TOPE FISHING SO FAR THIS YEAR AS TEMPERATURES RISE

Well over the last 2 weeks we have had it all! 10 days ago it was blowing a gale with heavy rain and today is the hottest day in almost 15 years. It does not matter how sheltered the water is good weather is best for fun and fishing!!

The fishing was limited to the estuary for 4 or 5 days and the catches were mainly ray and dogfish with the odd tope thrown in to liven things up. As the weather settled down and we got back to sea there was a type of algal bloom in the mouth of the estuary and close to Loop Head, this made even fishing for mackerel difficult, but thankfully the water cleared up once we were a couple of miles off. The last couple of days have seen a great improvement in these conditions.

Catches of whitefish have held up over the last couple of days, with a few nice Haddock and Spurdog on the ground. While fishing for whitefish Enda Power from Limerick got a specimen Scad of 0.73 kg (1lb 6oz) caught on a baited feather.

As the temperature of the water has gone up I was tempted to try a day’s sharking last week but it proved still too early, as all we had for the day was 1 run with no fish to the boat. We will probably try again some day next week. Maybe because of this rise in temperature today has been the best days tope fishing so far this year.

Fishing report to 3^rd July by Luke Aston

SPECIMEN JOHN DORY THE HIGHLIGHT OF LAST WEEKS REPORT ON THE CLARE DRAGOON

Into July already, it’s hard to believe we are into the second half of 2006! At this stage I am well into my busy season and am fishing most days. This might seem like heaven to some readers of this report but it also takes some hard work, not that I am complaining mind!!

And what of the fishing? Well I think it is going well. The star catch of this report has to be a specimen John Dory of just over 4lb 2ozs caught on the Clare Dragoon by Michael Beville on the 24^th of June.

As for the general fishing, mackerel are in plentiful supply at this stage. There is also a good supply of whitefish, but while it is possible to get a good range of small fish, you do have to move around to get a larger sized fish. We have been tracking down Pollock of up to 10lb and some reasonable sized Ling, Cod, Haddock and Whiting although it must be said (and sad to say) more than 2 or 3 cod over 5lbs in a day is exceptional. Most fishing trips with reasonable weather would yield over 400lbs of fish.

The tope fishing is going well with fish landed on most days that we target them. The best this year so far was 38lb and the surprising thing is that every fish we have had was a male.

FANTASTIC WEATHER ALLOWS ENJOYABLE AND OFTEN LIVELY SEA FISHING OFF THE LOOP

Luke Aston Carrigaholt Sea Angling Centre Reports to June 20th, 2006

Well another, lets hope, short brake in the weather. But it does give me a chance to catch up on some jobs on the land!!

However over the last couple of weeks we have had some fantastic days on the sea. There is one photo of loop head I took that, although it does not do it justice, does give you some idea of how splendid it can be out there.

Of course it is not always like that and last Sunday was a day in point with a good 5 or 6 south westerly blowing and lots of rock and roll, however the group of hardy folk that had booked still wanted to go and we were able to take advantage of the pleasant arrival, over the last week, of some good sized whitefish closer to the land. This week has been the first where I could get some consistent fishing within 2 miles of the shore.

Further off we did come on some good Ling fishing with the best tipping 14 pounds.

Tope are still showing in the river but there does not seem to be much more than the very occasional other fish in the estuary with Ray proving very scarce.

SEA FISHING IS AS GOOD AS IT GETS AS SUMMER ARRIVES

Luke Aston Carrigaholt Sea Angling Centre Reports to June 2nd, 2006

Well the summer has arrived, what a week!! In weather like this Ireland must be one of the best places in the world and fishing off the west coast this week is as good as it gets!

With the good weather the mackerel have turned up in force and I would say they are now also available from the shore from Loop Head to Kilkee. With a good supply of fresh bait I have been catching a good range of fish, although whitefish are still in short supply close to the land. One noticeable exception is large shoals of small Saith, which we came across a couple of times.

We did catch a few good-sized Bullhuss, the occasional conger and the first Tope of the year for the Clare Dragoon. Good catches of mixed fish were also caught a few miles off the land.

REPORT DATED MAY 20th

POOR WEATHER HAMPERING SEA ANGLING AS WE WRITE

Luke Aston Carrigaholt Sea Angling Centre Reports

As I write this we are going through what I hope is the May break and the bad weather has put a stop to any chance of getting out a few miles off the land. However during last week when the weather was more obliging I had been out quite a bit and the fishing was proving quite fruitful.

The mackerel are doing their best to turn up close to the shore, they are still not reliable, but with a little searching good shoal’s can be found. The mixed fishing was proving poor close to the shore with very little in the way of whitefish within 2 miles of the coast. However when I got further off we were turning up some good catches of mixed whitefish with our best day yielding about 120 fish up to 8 lbs. Most of them were Pollock but on a couple of occasions we did run into nice mixed fishing with a few Cod, Ling, Whiting and Haddock showing up. One of the more unusual catches we had was a fine Octopus! It turned up on a bit of mackerel bait when we were fishing at anchor just south of Loop Head.

Luke Aston Carrigaholt Sea Angling Centre Reports

REPORT DATED MAY 10th, 2006

After getting the boat in order and back in the water I got out fishing again last week. The first day was on Easter Monday and there was a fresh westerly blowing, so it was hard to get out past Loop Head. We tried in the estuary but with only frozen bait the fishing was poor. Later in the week another party had some good fishing in a moderate northerly wind in the shelter of the shore. A good selection of fish was caught with the catch of the day being a 3lb Ballan Wrasse. Then over the weekend I got out clear of the land and had a good days fishing with lots of Mackerel and Pollock, and a good selection of other fish including Haddock, Whiting, Ling, Pouting and 1 or 2 codling. We did have a short crack at a Tope but no luck there…..yet!!

BLUE SHARK

Fishing for Blue Shark is about the closest we come on the south west coast of Ireland to big game fishing! And the blue shark fishing here is about the best in Europe.

Because of the crazy policy of allowing commercial long lining by the Spanish and Japanese fisherman in the northeast Atlantic, blue shark are not as plentiful as they were only10 years ago, but even so if you are willing to put in the effort it is still possible to get good fishing in the months of July, August, September and October.

A successful fishing trip for Blues does take a bit of planning as the first thing you need is a plentiful supply of smelly mackerel, bran and oil for a rubby dubby! and ideally that involves catching a box of mackerel the day before your shark trip. Then after sitting for a night the mackerel are chopped up and mixed with the bran and oil. Now you are ready to go!

On my shark trips last year I liked to get at least 10 miles off the land as this gave you plenty of room for a long drift in clear water. Once at my chosen spot with the engine stopped, the first thing I do is get the foul smelling mixture described above into a net bag and over the side. Then as we start to lay down a slick to attract the sharks I start to get the fishing tackle out.

This comprises of a 10/0 hook made up with about 3 feet of 250lbs wire a heavy swivel snap and another 15 feet of 100lb wire with another couple of heavy swivels. This amount of wire is needed, as the shark will roll itself up in the line as it gets near the boat. If you do not have enough wire, the shark’s rough skin will part your fishing line. The hook is baited with a whole fresh mackerel and allowed to sink to your required depth. A balloon is then attached to the line and allowed to drift away from the boat. I let out up to six hooks with the furthest away one deepest and the hooks set shallower as they get nearer the boat. Then with the brake set loose and the ratchet on, the rods are put in their holders and the wait begins.

A bobbing of the balloon is normally the first sign of a shark followed by the scream of the reel ratchet. Then the lucky angler is in for a fight of up to half an hour depending on the size of the shark and if all goes well a great photo for his (or hers) fishing album!!

WHITE POLLOCK

In my opinion Pollock are one of the most underrated fish caught on rod and line. The number of times I have had clients out who have said that they have no interest in catching Pollock and then, after getting them down on a shoal of hard diving Pollock, don’t want to leave.

I think the secret to having sport with Pollock is to find a shoal in deep water with the fish feeding midwater. If you can find that and manage to get the fish to take your bait then you are in for a thrilling ride as the fish heads for the bottom. This sport is of course added to if you are using light tackle. Most of the continental clients that I have would bring light 8 to 10 ounce rods about 8 or 9 feet in length that are more like casting rods than traditional boat rods. Using these rods with pirks or shads adds immeasurably to your sport although I have seen a few of them break under the strain!

The Pollock fishing off Loop head out of the Shannon estuary is as good as any where in Ireland and indeed better than most and would make up the biggest part of any white fish catch for my clients. And in these days of limited Cod catches, Pollock have the added advantage of being a very good eating fish.

If using the boats tackle on the Clare Dragoon for catching Pollock, I would again hand out my trusty 30 pounders. These have the reels loaded with 30lb mono. The standard tackle would be a three-hook feather rig and an 8-ounce lead. The catch rate of this rig can be improved by baiting the feathers with strips of mackerel. The standard technique would be to let the weight travel to the bottom, take in a little line and jig the hooks. I think it is important to keep trying different depths so I would encourage people to jig 4 or 5 times and then take in a couple of meters of line and repeat! If using this method it is vital that your reel brake is not too tight as once the Pollock feels the hook their first run is quite violent and fast and I have seen lots of fish lost because the fish could not take line and has broken the tackle. After the first run tighten up on the reel brake a little and play your fish to the boat.

Although the method I have described is a good standard method for catching Pollock (and indeed many other species) I think it is well worth trying other lures and baits. I have seen days when one type of rig has caught the most fish and the next day has caught nothing while a different rig would be on fire! So Pollock is one fish where it is worth having a good selection in your tackle box and if going for the “Big One” its hard to beat a shad, just take a look at the Specimen book for this year.

I will finish off with the one that got away, almost! We were fishing about 5 or 6 miles of loop head on a gentle drift when one of the lads using a shad had a good bite, but after just a moment the line went slack. Tackle lost! About 5 minuets later when he got fishing again he got another good bite and this time got the fish to the boat. As he wanted to keep the fish we were gutting it and what should we find in the gut of the fish but the shad that he had lost. So never give up “cause the fish don’t”!!

FISHING FOR TOPE IN THE SHANNON ESTUARY - HINTS & TIPS by Luke Aston

TOPE

Charter fishing out of Carrigaholt has the great advantage of the sheltered waters of the Shannon estuary and the best fishing in the estuary is for Ray and one of my favourite sport fish, the Tope.

Every body has their favourite method and tackle for catching different species, but for tope in the Shannon estuary the best bit of equipment you can have is a tide table! Different marks fish well at different stages of the tide and indeed my favourite mark only fishes for about an hour and a half at the turn of the tide. You could be there for the whole day and I think only get a bite during that window in the tide. It’s like a tap, one day we had 15 fish up to 45 lbs in an hour and then as the tide started to run, not another bite!

If using the boats tackle when fishing for Tope on the Clare Dragoon, I would use the 30lb rods loaded with 30lb mono and a simple down tide rig with a short running boom and about a pound lead. Making up the hook length I would use an 8/0 O’Shaughnessy hook and about 3 or 4 feet of snood made from 100lb wire. I find the best bait is a mackerel flapper and it works a lot better if it has been caught the same day and kept out of the sun. It is important to keep the hook well down in the bait and indeed it is worth using a second pennel hook for this purpose.

Once you are baited up and the boat is at anchor, just let the weight to the bottom, put your rod in the rod holder, loosen the reel brake as much as possible so that the tide will not take the line but a fish can run with the bait, engage the reel ratchet and wait for the first scream of the reel as a tope takes your bait. There is a debate about how soon you should strike into a tope, so as to set your hook but I think the most important thing is not to let the fish swallow the hook as this makes it less likely that you can get it back without harming it. To this end I would argue it is best to strike quite quickly and this is were a pennel hook works so well.

Once you have hooked your fish you can settle down to a good fight while you play your fish to the boat. Then once it is landed I unhook it as quick as possible, tag it, take a few pictures and get it back to fight again another day.

LUKE ASTON REFLECTS ON 2005 SEASON

" Well it’s the start of a new year and a good time to look back at the year past.

As any one looking at my fishing reports will know '05 was my first season skippering a charter boat instead of a commercial fishing boat. It took a little getting used to, firstly because the boats were so different, one 60 feet long and moving along at 8 knots and the other just 37 feet and making almost 20 knots. Secondly because I was making my living from people paying to go out with me to catch fish, instead of me having to catch fish to pay a crew and make a wage!

How did 2005 go? Well getting the new boat in the water took up most of the first 6 months, as it was a new build. Of course it took longer to get ready than it was suppose to, but when we did get launched in the middle of June, the Clare Dragoon proved to be all I had hoped for.

After that I had to get used to catching fish with rod and line instead of nets. I had a great advantage knowing the fishing grounds so well, but it was not always the case that places that had fished well with nets also fished well by rod and line and you also had to persuade the fish to take a bait instead of just getting a net for the fish to swim into! I have always enjoyed fishing with a rod but it was great to be able to spend so much time doing it and I must say I found that any time I had space on the boat I was also fishing. I think the fish I enjoyed catching the most were big white Pollock. When we got down on a feeding shoal of them, in 70 or 80 metres of water it was the best of sport. Of course catching the bigger fish like the Tope in the river and blue shark out in deep water is a great thrill also

So all in all, I have enjoyed my first year as a charter skipper and am looking forward to getting the Clare Dragoon back in the water in early march, after a few small jobs on her (that is the same as any fishing boat!!) and starting a new season. So here is to 2006 and a happy new year to you all. Tight Lines, Luke "

SEE 2005 ANGLING REPORT