Tuesday the 3rd of August had seen another fantastic boat trip at one of my favourite locations in Ireland - the mighty Lough Swilly. This time I've met up with the man behind Masterbaits.ie himself - Cillian, along with other friends. We've left the Rathmullan pier on board of the Swilly Explorer at roughly 9am and headed west in search of fresh bait - mackerel of course. Weather was stunning with very little wind and just a light shower, that thankfully didn't last for too long. After about 20 minutes into the journey, we've found a small shoal of mackerel which was enough to provide us with some fresh bait. From there, we've steamed towards the mouth of the lough and a very short moment after, we dropped our lines near the wreck of White Star Line ship, SS Laurentic that was built in Harland and Wolff shipyard in Belfast, place of birth of the legendary Titanic.
Shortly after our leads hit the bottom, I pulled a small 2lbs pollock. Things went quiet for a few minutes and we've seen another, this time slightly bigger pollock about 4lbs caught by my friend Angelika that has never fished before! This was also the biggest pollock of the day... And who said that women can't fish.
Following her pollock, we got plagued by rather large pouting and poor cod that were taking our wrecking rig 6/0 hooks with muppets and mackerel fillets. Disappointed wasn't the word, however we did not blank! There were also a few small Gurnards and a small ling caught near the wreck, as well as two small haddock and a couple of coalfish, which was a nice little bonus, providing that the fish did not really cooperate at that spot.
Roughly after an hour spent on the wreck, the skipper decided to take a drift over sandy bottom... And that's where the fun began....
We had found a real spurdog el dorado! Within about an hour and a half of drifting over sand we caught easily 60 if not more of the spiny critters of different sizes, between 2 and 10lbs, including Adrian's first ever spurs, which he was delighted with to say the least! And of course, Angelika also managed to land a few herself, what gave her more motivation to buy her own gear, as at this point, she was already hooked into boat fishing! I feel sorry for her boyfriend Colm (who was also present on the boat as a photographer). I believe that a part of his next wages will be spent on a brand-new rod and reel for the new angler!
2pm... Time to change the spot...
This time our skipper took us back into the lough in search of thornback rays, which definitely wasn't a failure!
As soon as our running ledger rigs arrived at the sea bed, our rods registered first bites. In the space of about 40 minutes we managed to catch at least a dozen of lovely male and female rays up to 7lbs that were taking baits as big as half of a medium sized mackerel on a 8/0 circle tope hook! Being told by the boat master that tope may be present in this particular swim I've rigged up with a tope running ledger rig and as a bait I've used a whole joey mackerel. A few moments later, my rod was bent. Heart started beating so fast, hoping to catch a decent toothy critter. Sadly, after striking, I've reeled the rig back in, only to see a mackerel head hanging on the hook. Tough luck!!!
It's 4pm, time to steam back to the old faithful Rathmullan pier and make our journeys back home...
All in all, it was an absolutely fabulous day spent with great people. Between seven of us we have managed to catch 10 different species of fish, we have also seen a magnificent pod of playful dolphins from a distance that had definitely brightened our day!
The next Donegal adventure will be porbeagle shark hunt. Hopefully with some success!
Stay tuned for another write up. In the meantime, check out Cillian's latest YouTube vlog from this very adventure!
Report from talented angler and good friend Jack of NI Fishing Adventures
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