Any anglers around?

Off on an epic quest to Portrush tommorrow in search of big pollack, Coalies and mayhaps the odd Wrasse or a garfish.

Every time I've gone there in the past to fish, it's been rained off, but the forecast for tomorrow's been getting steadily better all week.

Any of you partake?

For myself, it's almost all sea angling, with the occassional spot of pike hunting in lakes....ie something for which sea equipment (and a lack of talent) will do nicely.

Lovely way to spend a day as long as you don't have to deal with actually catching, unhooking and releasing/dispatching any fish. I was contemplating getting some boat gear together for some conger fishing (from the shore, but you still need Big Guns), then remembered how much fun it is RIGHT up until you're faced with 5ft of solid muscle with teeth at one end.....that you've just spiked in the gob and trailed out of it's house. Unlike most "proper" fish, conger seem to feel pain in the mouth with makes them somewhat mad at being hooked.....but also, unlike other fish, once unhooked they totally calm down, we've kept one out on the pier for ages (they can still partially process air as long as they are kept wet, a throwback to freshwater eels), and actually FED it off a knife, incredibly smart wee beasties, to be aware not only of their surroundings, but to comprehend the proffered food. Maybe that's the real reason I didn't but conger gear....I'm actually rather fond of them.

So errrrm, what's catching round your way?

( he asks, in the full expectation of the answer "clap" )

Gary/Pompey Order. He even has his own boat.

South coast of Englerland has MUCH good fishing. Actually that's why I'm off to Portrush, because although it's further north from here, there's a sort of warm current that rolls up the west coast of Ireland (an eddie off the gulf stream I suppose) and Portrush seems to get a lot of species usually found at the very bottom of Ireland or Engerland.

You have to have a boat to live in old pompey surely? ;)

I've got a collapsable chair though :D

Pretty much all trout and salmon fly fishing I do, got a nice salmon last week off one of the Tweed tributaries. Tight lines at Portrush.

Didn't Bernard S use to be a keen angler?

five hates six wrote: Pretty much all trout and salmon fly fishing I do, got a nice salmon last week off one of the Tweed tributaries. Tight lines at Portrush.

Didn't Bernard S use to be a keen angler?

Always fancied fly fishing, looks like great fun. can fly for mackerel which is quite an exciting thought. Conversely folks round here pick up the odd Sea Trout while spinning for mackerel, probably grabbing a last snack before going up the Lagan or Crawfordsburn. Funny, nobody ever picks up salmon that way, they must stop feeding further out.

five hates six wrote:

Didn't Bernard S use to be a keen angler?

Who cares?

Steven, what do you do with your fish? Pollack is one of my favourite eating fish.

Some of the Poles from around here got in trouble with the local anglers for angling for carp and then not putting them back. I'm with the Poles, if you've caught a free lunch, why throw it away? geeks.

Fishing for pike? Aren't they just like gars? Didn't think you could eat one of those.

And you mentioned how pike fishhing is easy... I thought they were similar to gars. I caught an 8 foot gar once in the mississipi river, it took me and my buddy about an hour to get it on shore... thing was a mean SOB, snapping and flipping around. We put it in the back of his truck (which was no easy feat) then on his front lawn to let the thing die... it lasted almost three days out of water... on day two I thought it was dead, thing almost took my hand clean off, scared teh livin' shit outta me. Thing was not good for eating though...

Slippin Jimmy Jamma wrote:

Some of the Poles

They're called rods

Slippin Jimmy Jamma wrote:

five hates six wrote:

Didn't Bernard S use to be a keen angler?

Who cares?

Steven, what do you do with your fish? Pollack is one of my favourite eating fish.

Some of the Poles from around here got in trouble with the local anglers for angling for carp and then not putting them back. I'm with the Poles, if you've caught a free lunch, why throw it away? geeks.

Carp's fuckin rotten. And in most cases someone paid to stock it. Having said that, there should be carp fisheries like trout fisheries cos I know folks from other parts love to eat the muddy bastards. Same thing happened in the RoI too.

If I get a pan sized pollack the bugger is SO dead. Reasonable grilled/fried in oatmeal.....but much nicer in a decent batter with chips. Far far nicer than cod. Really fresh Coaly (Saithe/Blocken/Bloggan/Coalfish/Pollachius Virens) is just as nice really, if you can stomach the odd coloured flesh. Most pollack round these parts range from fry to hand sized, and I release those as gently as I can, I even try to avoid handling them without a damp cloth in case my hand burns their lateral line. Every now and then though...WOLLOP....WTF's that....and a 2-3lb-er shows up. POrtrush has some much better examples though. They also have ballan wrasse in greater numbers than Bangor (very few here, might see one a year).....possibly the only fish that can out-dive a pollack, in fact it can out dive a 2lb lead, on account of being fitted with a tail like a paddle, and being muscle from stem to stern. They also do a nice line in biting limpets in half!!!....not a mouth to put fingers in!!

Edel, pike are simmilar to the north american gar, tho nowhere near as large, total bastards to fight/land/unhook, but any twat can get into one just twiddling his fingers in the water. They go back naturally, as they're rancid (there are old English and Irish recipes for baked pike and so on, but clearly people were a lot hungrier then). Some comercial fisheries will pay you good money to exterminate the greedy cunts, but for one thing, I'm on the side of the pike in this, and for another, SMART fisheries actually USE pike as a kind of accelerated natural selection in the breeding ponds....wiping out the sick and injured fish.

Dodjem wrote:

Slippin Jimmy Jamma wrote:

Some of the Poles

They're called rods

Unless you're fishing for roach!

7/10 for effort though

I used to do a lot of match fishing 20 years ago, then got bored with it. Have hardly been for years.

Carp is traditionally eaten as Christmas dinner in some parts of Eastern Europe.

And the Chinese rate them up there with Salmon

Tim wrote: I used to do a lot of match fishing 20 years ago, then got bored with it. Have hardly been for years.

ditto

The reason I don't really eat fish is due to my Dad going on a deep sea fishing trip when I was 8. My Dad never even fished at home, never mind out at sea.

Anyway, he returned home triumphant with his considerable catch (which included a baby shark).

I walked into the kitchen early the following moring to witness every available surface covered in fish (or rather heads, tails, skeletons, guts, the works).

Fish never held the same appeal for me after that.

My first boyfriend used to fish and I would happily sit alongside him reading my book in the sunshine. At least I would until he started flicking maggots at me out of boredom.

Bastard.

Last year I started coarse fishing again after 20 years off. Catching bigger fish now than before. It's changed a lot since then. Poles are now for carp bagging not just roach.

Hello mate you can see me readers fish pics on my face book gary edwards portsmouth. I am a bass man had two over 10lb and one just under. catch and release boy got a little boat in pompey flying my cup final winners flag at the moment

Jemma

the ideal girlfriend would not only sit next to you in the sun but would also dig yer bait for you

"My first boyfriend used to fish and I would happily sit alongside him reading my book in the sunshine. At least I would until he started flicking maggots at me out of boredom."

"the ideal girlfriend would not only sit next to you in the sun but would also dig yer bait for you"

ENOUGH OF THESE CRASS SEXUAL METAPHORS. I'M OFF TO PLAY WITH ME SCALLOPS.

I used to dangle my rod quite frequently...

Well, the slaughterboats have cleaned Portrush out too :( Caught fuck all off the shore at the Blue Pool, had one tiny Pollack on, but the fucker was (in typical pollack fashion), just holding on to the bait, and let go at the surface. Some huge grey mullet cruised by now and then to sneer at us, and desperate though we were, we weren't desperate enough to waste time trying to actually catch them.

So we got on a tourist fishing boat, which had to head half way to Donegal to escape the incredibly brown flood waters pouring out of the Foyle. Turned into a shooting in a barrel scenario, I had over two dozen mackerel, and 4 grey gurnard......first time I've caught them larger than juveniles, and while they were still decidely sub-dinner sized, they still spiked me up a fuckin treat. A chap got a 1+1/2lb tub gurnard........that was unhooked with the aid of a towel :D Couple of respectable sand dab too.

After yesterday's bait fishing mission turned into a monsoon forced march (when we left house, no wind and slight drizzle, as soon as we got to our mark, we were getting drowned on dry land and blown about badly....all eased off as soon as we got home of cours), we reckoned today would be JUST bearable. Turns out we were right.....but not cos of rain/wind.....sun was out all day, and we were in a boat for half of that, and we'd brought everything we needed for a hard day's fishing in iffy conditions and hadn't even considered suncream. As a result, I am BBQ'd and just hovering on the edge of sunstroke (been necking sugary drinks like mad, and am about to seek some salty food in the hope of staving off the worst which is yet to come), BUT I had a hat and polarising shades (they take the glare off water so you can see in), tucked behind my normal goggles. One of the chaps I was with had no had, no shades, and didn't listen to the Dr when he said "water, salt, sugar, lots of it, NOW". He was already looking dead when I bid him farewell an hour ago.....he will be totally FUCKED tonight/tomorrow morning if he doesn't fill up on the right things as soon as he gets home.

All in all though, a great day, might pop a few pics up later/in the morning. TBH I'd have been happy enough sitting on my portachair on the rocks (and not my mates, where I rested while tending my ledger rod, leaned over to get my coffee and went arse over tit onto the rocks, somehow avoiding boiling myself with coffee), after all..."piscator non solem piscatur", but the fish and the boat trip were just extra good.

Aside from the sunstroke, I've done my "usual trouble" a lot of harm, and a few bad days ahead.

Down to Ardglass on Saturday I think.....hopefully the home fleet at ardglass deters trawlers from wrecking coastal waters.

PS, I didn't bring a single fish home LOL.......stomach shut down in the sun, and just didn't fancy any at all.......could murder a grilled macker right now though....for medical reasons of nothing else.....lots of salt and useful oils.

with all that swearing you would really fit into my fishing club house. When I joined I was told that i wounldnt really fit in as I didnt swear enough. Theres always lots of stories of how the big cnutin conger got away etc on a wet Saturday moring in our tea hut.

Sea fishing can be a bit hit and miss this time of year September to October is the best round our way big bass and early cod if yer lucky doctor