Irish specimen Mullet & 22.25lb conger

mann · Member Joined: May 10, 2008 Posts: 48

Here's the start of them Digger,

The Conger I Caught off the rocks just after Kilkee pier Sunday 20th July… using an 8/0 hook on a 150lb trace baited with a fillet of mackerel also used a 6oz grip lead to hold it against the tide… the fish went to ground before I could strike and get it moving so I had to stand there ( in full view of the people swimming around the pier ) with the rod bent over as I tried to get the fish moving… after about 5 minutes and a couple of prayers I felt it slide from its hold and in it came by this time I had an audience around me so I got one of them to take the picture,

I caught 2 other congers on the 13 July and the first one was number 19 on my species list for 2008,

I wanted to get a mullet for my 20th fish on the list before I went back to limerick so I went to sea field pier in Quilty Co Clare and as I had caught them about 3 years ago on a fly rod at Liscanner Pier and found them to be the best fighting fish I’ve ever caught… the fly rod it had to be,

Of I went on Monday and caught 2 mullet.. and later my friend ( Dulittle ) asked me how long the fight lasted and I couldn’t honestly tell him so I said I would try for another next day and would try to capture it on film as I wanted to know for certain how long it takes to get them in with a size 12 fly and 4lb leader without losing them by pulling the hook out,

So on Tuesday I went back to Quilty and caught this specimen of 5.23... The skipper of the boat in the picture came over when I landed the fish and seen the fly that I used and said the fish was around 5lb for sure.. so I got my digi scales and the fish came in at 5.23lb,

When I told the skipper that the fly was made from fur of a teddy bear that my sister got for her child a couple of weeks ago.. we had a good laugh about it.

I got the idea for the fly from an article I seen in a magazine about a guy fishing by a foul outlet.. He was using a fly with a white body and white hackle but the mullet ignored his fly so he watched them suck in every bit of brown crap that came down the pipe.. That night he soaked his fly in black tea and next day he had great sport… so he called it the sh*te fly… and that’s what I made my fly look like except mine had a dubbed body and I teased some strands out with a needle to give the effect of the hackle.

Hope I didn’t bore you with all this,

ps, i got the whole fight on video from getting set up to taking the hook out and showing it to the camera.. your lucky i cant figure out how to upload it

because the fight went on forever... allmost as long as it took me to write this,

sniggle · Posted: Fri Aug 08, 2008 7:55 pm Post subject:

Couple of cracking fish there mann , are the mullet there normally that dark ? Theres a few people on this site will be keen to see the video . Can the shy** fly be tied dry....... big grin

welshsteve · Occasional Joined: Dec 28, 2007 Posts: 152 Location: Barry

nice fish mate, I really like the mullet big grin

mann · Member Joined: May 10, 2008 Posts: 48

gazza76 · Posted: Fri Aug 08, 2008 10:15 pm Post subject:

very nice mann thanks for the piccys m8
gary

sniggle · Posted: Sat Aug 09, 2008 8:26 am Post subject:

I`d heard of tipping the fly with maggots but never thought about flavouring the flies with mackerel essence, i suppose you could do the same with liquidised bread on a white fly or shrimpy fly , or harbour rag juice, it could easily turn a look into a take .
You never stop learning with this fishiing lark !

mann · Member Joined: May 10, 2008 Posts: 48

Sounds tasty Sniggles winking

dizzy · Regular Joined: Oct 16, 2007 Posts: 266 Location: Bridport

My godd!!!, well done m8. Really good to see. big grin

baitdigger · Posted: Sun Aug 10, 2008 9:24 pm Post subject:

Hi Mann looks like youve been busy, cracking fish. I havent been posting many reports myself lately.
I've been spending most of my time trying to take a few bass with surface lures, had some sucess with shallow lures, the best of these was taken by my mate, 73 cm but we didnt get a weight on it. The water has been too dirty and too much wind for good surface action.
I took a group of Scottish lads down on the Shannon yesterday, most of them had rays, huss and dogs . I had a nice thornie about 6-7 lb, not big enough to put on the scales!! The lads stayed fishing when i left so i hope they had a good few more. I sent them to Ballyreen to look for pollack and conger so i hope to catch up with them for a report tomorrow.
I still havent bumped into you, we fish so many of the same marks, I had a few small pollack on a jelly at Seafield one evening a few weeks ago, great sport on light gear.

mann · Member Joined: May 10, 2008 Posts: 48

Cheers Gary.. you need to give up that smoking dude,

Sound Dizzy, happy to see you enjoyed the picture's,

Digger man,
Nice to here from you again.. I got to thinking you had stayed in Wales then i seen your post about the lack of reports so i said i would give you a little bit of what i been up to for the past 2 months,

I been having some great sport.. The God's seemed to smile at me everytime i picked up a rod, big grin

it couldnt last for ever i knew that.. but the only thing that stopped me fishing was a phone call asking me to come back to work for a month and i couldnt refuse the man,

I wont be fishing for a couple of weeks due to work, having said that, i was thinking of heading down the estuary for a sea trout.. all this rain has its good side as well as the bad,

Caught 2 of them a couple of weeks ago and it felt good,

Did you manage to get a bit of fishing in while you where in Wale's,

On another site they started a specimen hunt where you had to send a piture in with a tape measure alongside the fish.. And if they where over the size stated for each species they give you a cert.. i managed to get four in before anyone one got started,

Conger / Mullet / Wrasse and Bass. big grin

4 specimen fish in five days,