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Last week was a week of day charters

REPORT TO JULY 11th ....

All of my fishing over the last week has been made up of day charters. This tends to mean that the fishing based around a few drifts and a spell at anchor in the afternoon. That is unless a group want to target something in particular. While this type of fishing tends to turn up quite a few species in a day it also can become quite predictable for me. The only variable is the weather and this has been throwing a spanner in the works over the last week.
Two trips in the second half of last week were more of a tour of the estuary with a little Mackerel fishing thrown in. The fishing trips over the weekend were more productive with the reef fishing producing a good selection including Cod, Haddock, Whiting, Ling, a lot of Pollock and some nice Gurnard. We had one Red Gurnard that was a whisker off specimen weight. The weather and tide also gave us another opportunity to have a crack at the Tope today, with an end of day hour producing Two fish.

Fishing good but where's the summer

REPORT TO JULY 4th ....

Another week of unseasonable weather! This must be what the prophets of doom meant when they were muttering in April about “paying for this yet”! Anyway we have to get on with what we get, and in all fairness I have been lucky in that on the windiest days I did not have trips booked. Here’s hoping for a return of summer as the fishing gets very busy for me after this week. As for the fishing over the last week, of the 4 days I was out, only one was badly hampered by the weather. We had planned to spend a day drifting over some sand banks 10 to 12 miles North West of the Loop and see if we could get some Turbot. This is a fishing that needs some effort to develop here. As a commercial fisherman I would have made quite a bit of my yearly turnover from fishing for Turbot and there are some very good grounds here for this species. However they are a fish that take some patience to fish and as long traces in deep water are needed, not a fishing for a packed boat. But such is sods law that with a seasoned fisherman willing to put in the effort the weather turned against us. Something for another day. The rest of the trips went their merry way. At sea the fishing was lively, with lots of fish coming to the boat and with a good variety. One good Pollock session produced over 200kg with fish up to 9.5lbs. I tried out some new Storm jigging shads on 135gr heads with my spinning rod and 3 drops produced 3 fish over 8 lbs, a great buzz! The only hiccup was that 2 short end of day sessions at the Tope failed to turn up anything other than some fine Thornback Ray. Hopefully if the weather settles down I can put that right!

REPORT TO JUNE 27th....

Fishing on board the Clare Dragoon hampered at times by easterly winds

We spent most of last week dodging some quite fresh east to north east winds which are not the ideal fishing conditions and our catch rate slowed down consequently. However we did manage to have some good fishing with drifts over some inshore peaks offering exciting action with Pollock taking shads with their normal ferocity! And true to the varied nature of the fishing to be had here, the only day that did not produce at least 10 species, was a concentrated Tope session that produced 9 Tope up to 36lbs to the boat! So not the best week on the Clare Dragoon but proof that even in inclement weather conditions this is an angling destination that won’t let you fall flat on your face!!??
 

REPORT TO JUNE 19th....

Good mixed fishing off the Loop

After such a fine week last week this past few days were more “normal” and although the winds were still light there was a northerly breeze towards the weekend. With the cool down in the temperature the fish were back at the baits again. One thing that was noticeable was that the Pollock were not dominating to the same degree when drifting further off on the reefs. There was some good mixed fishing with lots of different whitefish coming to the boat. Drifts were producing Cod, Ling, Whiting, Haddock, Pouting, Gurnard, Saith and Pollock and last weekend Pollock were only making up about half the catch of whitefish. There was a lot more Pollock through the Mackerel close to the shore, which kept people on their toes while filling the bait box! With the strong tides the Tope fishing was patchy. We were still getting fish at slack water, but this was only a half hour window with the water rushing pass for the rest of the time. At least a group of Fisherman from Summerset got one in the boat for a picture this year after missing about 10 runs last year!!

REPORT TO JUNE 13th....

Whitefish putting on some size !

What a glorious week! I had a lucky group of Germans over for 6 days fishing and each day was better than the next. Then 2 day charters this weekend and the temperature in the middle of the afternoon hit 37’C. The fishing had been going well all week and the average fish size seems to be improving with lots of Pollock to 8 lbs and some Cod up to 11lbs. Fish were plenty full on the ground and one day produced 7 Tope in 2 hours. We also had 700lbs of Whitefish in a day with a lot of them returned but the freezer was also well stocked for the group on board.
Conger were a little harder to hook up and indeed as the weather got very hot and still over the weekend the fishing slowed down. Mackerel got very hard to get at Loop Head with the shoals moving more into the estuary. These were replaced by shoals of big sand eels which make great bait. The Pollock also got harder to catch but we turned up some fine Cod and a couple of Pouting to 2.7lbs.

REPORT TO JUNE 6th....

Tope fishing coming up trumps with fish to the boat at every try

After the mixed week the fishing was more “normal” this week. The Mackerel are in their usual haunts again and it is easer to fill the bait box. I had the boat chartered to two Germans for the whole of last week and it was nice to have so much room on the boat. I managed to get in a bit of fishing myself and tested out some new Penn power stix gillers that I have just got. They added to the fun of fishing with shads and I am very pleased with them. The fishing offshore is coming back to normal as well and today we had a few nice Cod. There were also some good Pouting about. The tope fishing has been coming up trumps with fish to the boat at every try. This is steady fishing and it was the second half of June last year before it was as good.

REPORT TO MAY 28th....

Tope season gets started on the Clare Dragoon

Just after my last report the tale end of a storm passed through with very strong west to northwest winds here. Fishing was limited to a few spots in the estuary and with the water very mixed up and loaded with dirt, the fishing was very slow.
As the week went on we got a chance to get back outside and the first thing that had changed was that the mackerel that had been plentiful were all broken up. It took some looking around to gather enough for the bait box. Over the last 2 days it has improved a lot. Another thing that had changed was that the good mixed fishing further off on the drift has stopped and up to today I have not seen another Cod. Hopefully that will be put right soon! The size of the Pollock has improved, though there are still lots of small ones about. Fishing with lead heads is turning up the bigger fish. There are also lots of fine whiting on the edge of the hard rocky ground.
Fishing at anchor has been the star of the show with a lot of Conger and Bullhuss about, also a few Ling up to 15lbs. A try for Tope also at anchor produced the first fish of the year for me, with a female of 32lbs. I will be giving this fishing more attention now and over the next 2 months. June and July were the height of the Tope season for me last year. The wrasse fishing is also going well and I hope to turn up a specimen if the weather allows me to get in tight on the shore on 1 or 2 good marks.

REPORT TO MAY 16th, 2007...

Clare Dragoon at anchor some days due to changeable weather

The fishing here is getting more varied and the changeable weather has lead to the odd day in the estuary. Over the last 2 weeks the fishing has picked up closer to the land and we spent one full day fishing along the north side of Loop head sheltering from a strong south east wind. This produced some fine wrasse fishing, with a few Ballan Wrasse just under the specimen weight of 4.75lbs. They were taken on some rag worm. 

On the days we were further off, the fishing was also very productive with plenty of fish about. It is nice to see some Cod and Ling coming to the boat along with the normal run of Pollock. The average size of the Pollock is a little on the light size with an average of 4lbs to 5 lbs, but hopefully this will improve like last year as the feeding season gets underway! And there seems to be lots of feed on the ground at the moment. Mackerel are plentiful and there are lots of sand eels about.

We also had to spend a few days in the estuary as some strong south westerlies stopped any chance of getting into the open sea. Fishing at anchor produced some fine Thornback Ray and the normal run of doggies, but it must be said that the fishing was slow. I did try for a tope but no luck yet. However having the sheltered water in the estuary is one of the plusses of the fishing here. What do they say “a slow days fishing is better than a good days work” and we hopefully have the Tope fishing getting into full swing over the next month. 

REPORT TO MAY 2nd, 2007

Sea Angling going well with weekends very busy

Surface temperature has gone from 9.5 to 12 degrees C in the last 3 weeks. Mackerel are quite reliable now and it is noticeable that they are big fish. I wonder if it has something to do with the fact that the big commercial boats have been under strict quota restrictions for the last 2 years?

The general fishing is improving also and it is great to see that the numbers of codling showing up. We had 7 codling in a couple of hours through about 200 kilos of mixed fish with one group. That drift produced about 7 species with 2 fine Ballon Wrasse. The reef fishing did quieten down a bit this weekend as the tides build and with a lot of easterly wind. However, fish were still coming steadily to the boat. We targeted the conger on Monday last but this just turned up the normal run of doggies! Being at anchor did allow us to have some good fun with a spinning rod in the shallow water, with lots of small Pollock and Saith about.

Although one other charter boat did report catches of decent Pollock close in, I still haven't seen any sign of steady fishing inside 3 miles, but hopefully this will also improve.

REPORT TO APRIL 16th, 2007

Sea angling season has commenced in Carrigaholt as the fine spell of weather continues