blowin
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are the mackerel in yet ( Sligo / Mayo ) ?It still seems a bit early and cold but an angling site reports that small macks are already being taken from the shore in some parts of the country . Does anyone know whether they are up here yet ?
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patsonline
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I think it is a tad early, too cold as well, nothing usually till late May early June.
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wayland
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Large shoals are reported by local fishermen off the south coast. Have not heard of any off the beaches as yet.
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blowin
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Had a good catch from a boat within about 500 yards of the shore but no luck from the rocks or pier as yet . Can't be long now tho' 
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Guest
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Still haven't had another try from the rocks due to the constant wind . The Northerly makes it difficult to cast any distance and the Westerly kicks up a huge amount of debris like seaweed soup which the mackerel prefer to avoid . It may be different on other parts of the coast , of course .
Went out on mate's boat about 10 days after the first very productive session and struggled to catch enough mackerel to use as bait for other things . The few we did land were stuffed full of sandeel which would explain why they weren't feeding with the usual frenzy .
Out again yesterday and consistently found that you'd get a lot of gentle knocks without hooking fish . The trick turned out to be dropping the feathers a few feet below where you got the knocks , then you would catch -- but even then only one or two at a time . Very unusual for macks . Sounds far fetched but concluded that the knocks weren't missed bites but were the result of the weight bouncing off fish which were in very dense shoals . The fish-finder showed these as tight columns going down to as far as 50 ft . That is pretty unusual as macks normally seem to swim in horizontal shoals about 10 ft from top to bottom . Again , they were full of sandeel .
So , Phil and Camile , I haven't forgotten my promise to take you to the pier but don't think we have missed much yet . Does anyone know any different ( Innischrone > Ballysadare Bay ) ?
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dara
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Went shore fishing today - off the pier at Augris Head, Sligo and the rocks a little west of it. Didn't have any takers (apart from thieving crabs) but saw salmon rolling and splashing about near the pier and a few big mullet that weren't interested in the bread flake that we floated almost onto their noses. Was talking to a fellow who was spinning and had caught macs and pollock the previous evening. Also saw what looked like bait fish scattering from something on the surface but not within casting range - not for float fishing anyway.
Nice thing happened - got talking to an old fellow (a lobster man) as he was going out to check his business and when he came back he let me have two good sized lobsters - when I asked him how much I owed him he said give me the price of a pint and wouldn't take more than a fiver!
I'm just waiting for them to cool down...
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blowin
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| dara wrote: |
.... got talking to an old fellow (a lobster man) ....he let me have two good sized lobsters - when I asked him how much I owed him he said give me the price of a pint and wouldn't take more than a fiver!
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I wish I had picked up your phone message a bit earlier and I would have met you there  .
That is a fantastic price for lobster . A couple of years ago the main man there was asking 7 euro each for medium sized ones .Did you get the name of the guy ?
Not that this has necessarily got anything to do with it but this year there are a lot more pots around the Long Rock , which is the treacherous reef which stretches out from the shore about 1/2 mile to the East of the pier . Take care if you take a boat out there because the marker buoys are ridiculously small and very difficult to spot . Caught Coalfish there a couple of weeks ago , which was a real surprise .
Could have been seals chasing the bait fish . There are plenty of those about or , more likely , Harbour Porpoise . You sometimes see them very close to the rocks in that area .
Haven't fished that pier for a while but have previously found that sandeel fished 4 - 6 ft under a float cast between 10 and 25 ft out was very effective for macks . Fewer fish to be found at greater distance .
Good conger , too , if you drop a whole mack straight down off the end of the pier . I landed a strap of about 9 lb and lost a much bigger one -- best guess mid 20's -- as I was trying to drag it up the slipway .
Good luck
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blowin
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For the uninitiated a 22 lb conger is about the size and shape of a 5 ft long 4" round fence pole but with a very bad attitude and much stronger jaws . They can take off your fingers or toes some hours after you think you have managed to kill them . This is a bit grim to describe but the "common-sense" method of killing by beating them over the head simply doesn't work --- or at least doesn't stop them from wriggling and biting up to three or 4 hours after they have been immobile . Roll them over and give one hard whack on the stomach just above the anus . That kills and stops any reflex action .
Not bad eating but by no means my favourite .
One recipe ( which I am afraid I might have put on here before ) :-
Cut conger into 2" steaks .
Put steaks onto a sheet of chip-board and place into a moderate oven ( 180 deg ) for 20 mins .
Remove from oven .
Dispose of conger .
Eat the chip board .
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dara
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I didn't get his name but he's a very tall thin gent, thin on top in his early seventies. Look out for him if you're down there, his boat has a red hull, moored just off the pier. I went to Inniscrone yesterday and caught a bucket of macs off the pier - what surprised me most was the ammount of eastern europeans fishing. I waited until late evening because during the day there wasn't room to get your rod in.
Conger eh? I'd like to have a go at that. I'm off for the next couple of weeks so give me a ring if you fancy giving it a try...maybe one or two of the others will come out...
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phil
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Count me in
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quarryman
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The only contact I have had with a conger was while out with a lobster man in Clew Bay. Having pulled up a number of pots with nothing in them., the last one came up with a conger in it. The lobster man said just to leave it and it would die. I don't believe in that sort of thing so I took the mans knife and stuck it through the pot and into the conger's brain and after a few seconds of squirming the conger was dead. The lobster man cut it up for bait for the pots.
They are beautiful animals in their own environment.
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