Downings 15th June 2014

This was the clubs 2nd outing of the year with Trevor Ryder, and with 2 scheduled trips to other venues cancelled, we were keen to get fishing again. 10 Members attended the trip.

Stephen Montgomery

Frankie Montgomery

Glen Murphy

Alan Campbell

Bill Bannon

Gerard Foster

Dan Boyle

Mark Buchanan

John McCourt

Alan Buchanan

With a forecast of clear skies and light winds, we had high hopes for this trip, as we would definitely get out to our favourite wreck, H.M.S. Audacious, lying 16 miles off the coast. This mark always produces fish, even when they are thin on the ground elsewhere.

We set out from our moorings in Mulroy Bay, and Skipper Trevor made a couple of stops for mackerel on the way out. They were rather patchy, but after 30 minutes or so we had enough for our bait requirements, and we pushed on out to the wreck.

An hour’s steaming later, and we were dropping down a variety of lures and baits in the hope of connecting with the fish. First to show were the obliging coalfish, which can be a nuisance at times. They took everything on offer, and anglers using 3 or 4 hook rigs got 3 or 4 fish each drop. The favoured “flying collar” rigs also took coalfish, but soon Pollock also started to show, with a few good fish among them. Best Pollock on the day fell to Bill Bannon, who took numerous fish including 2 of 8lb 5oz and 7lb. One of these fish had 2 lures stuck in its mouth, including 1 of Bills lost Sidewinders, showing how fierce the fish were feeding. These 2 were the 2 biggest of the trip, until Glen Murphy hit into a nice ling, which pulled the scales to 8lb 12oz, and would win him the day’s pool.

Some of our hooked fish were snatched on the retrieve by something huge and unstoppable, which caused some excitement as tens of metres of braid were stripped from our reels, before breaking our lines. We initially thought this was a seal, but with no seals showing at any time on the surface, porbeagle sharks may well have been the culprits. In total, we took around 30 Pollock to 8lb 5oz, 10 ling to 8lb 12oz, and returned countless coalfish to around 5lb from the wreck, before calling it a day.

After around 3 hours, we moved to another mark, the “Lime Burner”, where we tried a variety of rigs for whatever was about. Fishing here was rather poor, with only some red gurnards, small ling and whiting showing, and not the hoped for haddock, which according to Trevor had been on the ground the previous week.

Our final move to the bay, saw 3 or 4 thornback rays caught, best of which was a fish around 5lb for Dan McMahon.

All told, not a bad days sport and with a bonus suntan you can’t say fairer than that. : )

1st Place          Glen Murphy              8lb 12oz Ling              15 points

2nd Place         Bill Bannon                 8lb 5oz Pollock           10 points

3rd place         Bill Bannon                 7lb Pollock                   5 points