On Tuesday 2nd April I collected Steve Smith from Cork Airport for a short visit. He only had four days to fish and the last of these looked seriously at risk from Storm Kathleen, so it was straight into action down on the Mizen on Wednesday.   Heavy rain over previous days had left a peat stain in the water, but I'd fished through such conditions quite a lot this year and done reasonably well so I was fairly confident.   Sure enough, Steve was soon getting bites. Sport was steady on the dropping tide and he bagged six mullet. I didn't fish myself but was happy enough on ghillie d ..read more

Mullet-wise I spent most of my time down on the Mizen, failing to replicate the wonderful fishing of February 2023 but nevertheless clocking up a few fish.   The weather continued poor throughout the month, the venue carrying extra rainwater and a horrible peaty colour. Few mullet were evident on the surface but they were obviously present in modest numbers as bites would come fairly regularly fishing deeper down.   These two guys were an unwelcome addition to the local fauna, the more so in that they seemed already tuned in to bread and some days wouldn't leave me alone for more ..read more

I kicked the New Year off with a couple of unsuccessful mullet sessions at Rosscarbery.   On the 4th I arrived at lunchtime and started down the west side, the trees giving some shelter from the blustery west wind, the aftermath of Storm Henk. After a couple of hours I'd not had a bite nor seen much mullet activity, so I went for a walk and soon found a big shoal in the shallow corner by the hotel. I relocated and spent another couple of hours with mullet swimming all round my baits but not taking them. I had a few knocks on the tips but nothing I'd swear wasn't a line bite.   I wa ..read more

Well this won't take long!   I only found time for one session ahead of our UK trip, on the 7th. The previous night was very cold - I had to scrape a thick frost off the car and the air temperature was -3degC for most of the drive down to Rosscarbery. The tides were very neap so the water in the estuary pool was shallow, probably with little salt content, and the bottom half of the pool was actually frozen over when I arrived! There was no obvious sign of mullety activity in the rest of the pool.   I set up to fish the slightly deeper water in front of the bridge arch hoping it mig ..read more

We arrived into Fishguard late on 30th September, stayed the night in St Clears and travelled on down to my sister's in Christchurch next morning. Ahead of us, a week in Dorset and Cornwall ahead of our son's wedding in Somerset on 8th October.   The original plan had been to fish a couple of days at Christchurch, one with an old friend Steve Tierney, but as the date neared and with poor reports from the venue, carting all the gear over seemed less and less appealing. I blew out the Christchurch fishing and instead had a pleasant afternoon with Steve in the Thomas Tripp in town on the 2 ..read more

The month started off on a disappointing note on the 1st with a visit to my low water mullet mark in Bantry Bay. It was a bite a chuck for the first hour but all mackerel and although they cleared off an hour before low tide, the damage was done. The mullet just won't hang around to compete with mackerel when they are there in that sort of force and I fished on for a couple of hours with no interest at all. Right at the death, just as I was getting washed off the mark, a couple of mullet swirled tantalisingly out of range. I stayed as long as I could but they didn't come any closer.   O ..read more

First up, mulleting and on the 1st I headed to Rosscarbery on a gloomy, grey day with heavy rain forecast to arrive about 4pm. I turned up about 11am and fished from the grass across from the hotel so I could get the brolly up in preparation.   After a quiet first hour I started seeing a few fish out in front of me and getting odd knocks on the tips, possibly just line bites.  Then a little pull followed by slack line on my left hand rod and I struck into a feisty but smallish mullet of 2:10 which was notable mostly for being my 100th landed of the year, mostly down some  p ..read more

We were back from England on 4th August.   I took a day to get sorted then on the 6th headed over to a Bantry Bay mark, mission to catch some mackerel. Alas the shoals that had arrived just before our departure seemed to have moved on, either further up the bay or back out into the Atlantic.  I gave it an hour before deciding it wasn't going to happen today. Unfortunately I hadn't thrown anything by way of a plan B into the bag but I found a Redgill hiding in one of the pockets. I soon had a couple of pollack about 2.5lbs, and took one home for dinner.   My friend Mike Buck ..read more

My exam work proved busier than expected, so fishing opportunities have been few over the last month or so.   It was a glorious summer's morning on 28th May, and I couldn't resist sneaking off for a few hours down onto my low water rock mark in Bantry Bay. There was unbroken sunshine and a little heat haze over the Beara, the water was clear and perfectly calm.    I set up with light float tackle on my Preston rod and centre-pin reel, baiting with scraps of fish on a #8 hook. First run through, the float dipped...   There were plenty of mullet about, though on the small ..read more

On the 1st I headed up to my favourite mark in Kerry, arriving on the morning low water. The gentle southerly breeze when I arrived soon turned and freshened into a full-on easterly blowing down the bay.   By half tide I was biteless and fearing the worst when my right-hand rod pulled over. It was a decent fish and seemed to get heavier and heavier as it came closer to the rocks, in true huss fashion. Under the rod tip, also in true huss fashion, it shook its head and spat out the bait! Losing the fish was a bit frustrating after such a long wait but while I was baiting that rod up ..read more