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St Catherine’s Breakwater 18th Aug 2002
Map Ref: 720,529
Tide: LW: 10.25pm (3.6m)
Weather Forecast: Cloudy with possibility of thunder. Wind S to SW, backing W to NW F3 to 4
Drove down to Gorey with Chris early, around 10am, in order to dig sufficient worms for the evening, when we’d be fishing with Karen, Mick, and Fran…… Karen and myself made a detour later that afternoon, via the MotorWorks to grab a couple of pots of ragworm.
Collected Chris, and drove over to St Cathrine’s, and arrived around 5.30pm … looked like everyone and their mother had also descended upon the area, with swimmers, surfers, and loads of BBQ’s going on….. parked up, unloaded the gear, and then trudged the length of the breakwater, stopping off at the Watch Tower tackleshop, so Chris could get some batteries for his rod tip lights…..
Set up on the inside, on the last section of the breakwater, before the end…..
Set up the rods for Karen, Fran, Mick, and myself, with Wessex ledgers with 1/0 hooks, and used a mixture of hook baits from, Lug, rag, squid, mackerel, and garfish as the mood took us…… whilst Chris started with a 3 hook pat, and another rod to float-fish with……
Started fishing by 6pm, and very soon afterwards Mick and Fran arrived, and joined in…..
Decided to get out the other rod, and just have a go with a set of feathers for a while…. Partly to catch any mackerel that may be about, but also just to stretch the casting arm, and rebed some of the line on the 6500c…… unfortunately 3 casts out on the inside, and I got snagged on a submerged reef… pulled out, but lost half the feathers and the weight by doing so!!!! :-(
Restrung the feathers and focused off the back wall …. Second cast out, and a large fish followed behind on the surface….. looked like a smoothhound or similar small shark……. But the fish turned away before I could clearly see it……
7.05pm… Fran got snagged up… lost her trace and leader…… Karen and Chris went to her aid and sorted things out, so she was soon back in business….
7.10pm….. gave up with the feathers due to terminal boredom, and focused on ground fishing with the others…… set up the second rod, with a long flowing wishbone, with 1/0’s….
7.15pm ….. Mick caught the first fish of the day.. well almost…… small 8” pouting, that fell off, just as he was bringing it up the wall…..
7.30pm….. managed to get myself snagged in a reef… lost my terminal tackle and leader in the process of trying to pull free….. :-(
7.40pm… Chris gave a shout, and pulled up a 6” Pollack, caught on float fished garfish strip….. soon unhooked it, and popped it back……
7.45pm Fran hooked an 8” wrasse…we took some pix, and popped it back…..
7.50pm…. Karen got snagged up on the submerged reef…… again lost her tackle….. restrung her gear, whilst her and Fran started to get the BBQ underway….
7.55pm…. Mick seemed very pleased with himself, when he pulled up an 11” wrasse …… took some pix, and let him put it back……
8.05pm…. Unfortunately Fran got snagged up again, restrung the rod for her, and suggested she may wish to fish slightly further down, next to Mick, but she decided to just help Mick, and so Karen took over her vacant rod……
8.15pm ….. had a series of rattling bites on the Wessex rod… lifted the rod and started to reel-in ….. soon realised I had something on, although not large…… turned out to be a small black bream of 8” or so, that had taken a liking to the top hook, baited with rag and squid… took some pictures, and returned it……..
8.25pm….. Chris pulled up a second Pollack, again falling to float fished garfish strip…. This was a little better, at 12”……. Soon popped it back…… before I could take a picture…..
8.34pm….. Had another series of rattling bites on the wishbone rod, just as I was about to take position of my cheese burger… left the food, to run to my rod, much to the delight of the others, who passed various comments about my obsessive behaviour…. Reeled in to find a double shot on the end….. an 8.1/2” black bream and a smaller 7” pouting… took some pictures, and popped them back…….
8.40pm….. no sooner had I returned the fish, than Mick pulled up an 8” bream (falling to his squid strip on the top hook), that again brought a wide beaming smile… someone was having fun……
9.05pm…. pulled up a 7” pouting, hooked on the top of the Wessex ledger, that I’d baited with ragworm only…. Didn’t really know it was there, until it hit the surface on the retrieve…… took a picture, and returned it as quickly as possible……
9.25pm… oooops… cast out Karens rod, and managed to have the backend of the rod-tip light with the batteries fly off into the distance during the cast…… had to borrow a rod ball from Chris…….
9.26pm… sorting out the rod bell, when Karen pulls up a 9” pouting on her other rod……
9.55pm…. Mick brought up a 6” pouting and unhooked it in the glow from the Colemans lantern, and popped it back…..
10.10pm…. brought up a 6” pouting myself on the top hook of the Wessex, again falling to ragworm only…..
10.20pm….. Chris gave a shout, as his rod started to bend during his retrieve… at first we thought it was a large clump of drifting weed, until with the aid of my spotlight headlamp, a huge spider crab came into view……. Unfortunately during the lift up the wall, and after a couple of bumps, the crab fell off, leaving Chris with just a very large claw to show for his efforts…… :-)
10.54pm…. another pouting, this time on the wishbone, but again on ragworm…… measured all of 7”….
11.00pm….. Mick and Fran said their goodbyes, as they had to work the next morning…. Chris, Karen and myself, could only smile at the thought!!!! ;-)
Chris took the opportunity to start fishing of the backwall behind us…..
11.35pm…… a serried of bounces on the Wessex, produced a 9” pouting on a lug / ragworm combo…..
11.35pm Chris at the same time hooked into a dogfish… he’d had a number of missed bites, using mackerel as the hook bait… this time he’d struck home… gave him a hand by looking over the top of the wall, and guiding his up…. nice fish of 23”…… took it to show Karen, as she loves their green emerald eyes, and then I popped it back on the inside for him…..
Midnight….. things had gone quiet, and we were all quite tired, and so decided to call it a night…… jolly lucky we did, as it poured with rain on the way home!!!!!!