HOBBIES

I'm in Waterford, South East, Ireland with work for the week and looking forward to fishing later in the week.

The weather is calm after a big blow so it could produce some good fishing.

Will let you know how it goes.....

I was expecting to write about how I went fishing not expecting to catch because of Tides Weather blah blah and that's exactly how it turned out but in fact the opposite happened.

I called in on a spot to finish the evening tried something that's never worked for me in that spot before and, as they say on local radio it was hit after hit. First cast and an almighty disturbance near the lure second cast the same, next cast, bang fish on and quickly gone again with lure!

Schoolboy error, I hadn't clipped up properly. Next problem ,that was the only lure of its kind I was carrying and the vehicle ,unusually, was half a mile away, nothing for it but to run back get all similar lures, returned, carried on fishing and catching until it got dark. Between ten and fifteen fish landed in the end, all returned safely except one deep hooked fish which was kept for the table. I have no idea why the fish were where I found them and hard on the feed.

Been catching plenty of Pollock, yesterday it was five with a couple of Bass mixed in and today it was five in an hour, good fun in the glourious weather we are having.

Hope it continues for a while, we deserve some good weather with it having been the third awful summer in a row we've had here.

No this is not a field, its a beach, a local Blue Flag Beach after a Spring Tide.

The green stuff is Lettuce Weed which is thriving due to an over enrichment of the estuary waters from farm run offs, poor sewage treatment etc, so I'm told.

It's a nightmare for fishing when its bad and also effects windsurfers, surfers, walkers, wildlife, etc . It stinks as it starts to decay so when it gets really bad the council are out with Diggers scooping it up into tractor drawn trailers for disposal at sea, which is also controversial.

Apparently there has been a public meeting about it recently, I will be attending any further meetings. We need a solution.......

After the horrific weather, but good fishing, of the previous day we set out for one last try before it was time to head to the airport. Things started very well with Anton hooking a fish straight away but alas, it made good it's escape after a brief struggle. The one that got away, and the only one that weekend so we couldn't really complain, normally the statistics are much worse for hooked to actually landed fish. We fished hard with all our experience of the previous two days but it looked like we were going to have our first blank until, with my very last cast I landed a small but beautiful fish on a new method which pleased me and was a great way to finish off a memorable weekends fishing. It was really great to spend some QT with my big bro and share some great experiences in beautiful West Cork. We caught in all of the locations we visited and we had all manner of weather from howling winds and lashing rain to calm and sunny, I guess that's classic Ireland for you......

Its not easy trying to do the hundred meters sprint across quicksand, in chest waders, with a fishing rod but I managed it just in time to see a beautifully dark fish of a decent size landed by Anton much to the delight of us both. He was on a roll now and we finished off the session with a further fish each in quick succession from another spot before seeking warmth and shelter in the local bar. A sandwich with a pint never tasted better!

To be continued.........