Water temperature low for April – 9 degrees centigrade. Few Mackeral around, but not many. Wrecks – lots of Coalfish & some Pollack. Lot of unusually small Pollack (1.5 – 2 pounds) on the wrecks. Limeburner fishing well – Haddock, Cod, Gurnards, Ling etc. Bays fishing OK as well.
Hope weather is better in 2009!

Mid October & the 2008 season draws to a close.

Mackeral in their huge numbers have left.  Wrecks fishing well.  Bays still OK.  Blue Sharks are probably gone but there are still some Porbeagles around.

All in all the 2008 season was not too bad.  Weather was practically the same as in 2007 – great in April & May and then no settled weather right through June, July, August & September.

Limeburner still fishing very well for Gurnards, Ling, Doggies, Scad, Coalies and occasional Whiting.  Haddock and Cod seem to be extinct!

Big story continues to be both Blue and Porbeagle Sharks, with fairly regular 100 pounders of both species being caught.  The Porbeagle story is particularily interesting as in 2007 there started appearing 60 – 80 pounders (previous years saw only 30 pounders with an occasional 50 pounder).  It appears that these fish are back as 90- 110 pounders and one wonders will 2009 see them return as 120 – 150 pounders or will they need bigger mouthfuls and concentrate on Pollack/Coalfish.  End september and the Limeburner grounds are still stuffed with Mackeral which normally thin out start September.

Sharks remain the big story of autumn 2008.  The Rosguill had 15 runs on one day and another 10 runs the day after.  Limeburber not fishing particularily well – lots of Red Gurnards but little else.   Wrecks fishing well for good sized Pollack, inshore reefs Ok & Bays also fishing normal.

Back fishing now!  Shark fishing fairly good – not sure if just as good as 2007.  Bays good.  Limeburner – loads of Red Gurnard but not many other species, which is unusual for September.

Rosguill has been taking divers out recently, but reports from other boats are as follows:-

Shark fishing has been good – most days boats are averaging 4 Blue Sharks a day and the occasional good sized Porbeagle – one of 104 pounds landed and another of 88 pounds.

General bottom fishing below average – plenty of Gurnards but very few Haddock, Cod & Whiting.  Conger fishing good.  Bays average.  Wrecks good with big Pollack and good Ling and Coalfish. 

Rosguill had a very good day with 15 good sized Turbot & Brill  -  check out the photos.

Other fishing has been normal.  Blue Sharks – a couple days have been done by other local boats – no success.

The Rosguill is booked in August with Divers and not fishing again to September – will try to update Fishing News with news from other local charter boats.

End July – lost a Blue Shark which took a flapper designed for a Ling while fishing a wreck.  Next day went Shark fishing and had 3 runs – boated a 40 pounder and a 50 pounder.  This is indeed very early for good numbers of Blues to show and almost certainly means a bumper season for Blues – this follows the excellent season in 2007 after about 5 years of “drought”

23 July saw 2 Blue Sharks for another charter boat -  this is a really good sign for this season.  Limeburner fishing OK – Haddock & Cod scarce but lots of Gurnards, Whiting, few Spurdogs etc.  Millions of Mackeral.  Lost first Common Skate of the season – spat the hook after 15 minutes.    Flatfish and Rays  Ok in bays, but no big flatfish so far.

Nice male Blonde Ray of around 12 pounds from one of the sheltered bays.  Fishing recently has been OK – weather a little unsettled.

Fishing continues mixed.  Lots of Mackeral.  Water temperature now around 13 degrees.  Good numbers of Tope but no bonazas yet.  Wrecks loaded with Coalfish but some good Pollack and a few Ling.  Limeburner & reefs fishing well.  Bays not so good – they have not really got back to the halcion days of May.  No sign of Porbeagles.

Past week fishing has slowly being returning to normal.  Average fishing on the Limeburner and the Bays.  Had a good day on the Audacious with lots of good Pollack.

Cannot wait until this poor period ends.  Fished far wreck – 8 Pollack, 2 Ling and millions of Coalfish.

Seems to be a few Megrim around this year.  Two boated on Rosguill & another 2 on another local boat.

3 tope boated and another boat had a good number of runs.  Hopefully they will be here in numbers from now onwards.

Fishing remains poor to average.  Plenty of Mackeral.  Wrecks have loads of small Coalfish and few good Pollack and Ling.   Tory fishing poorly.  Limeburner and Bays fishing average. 

Rosguill saw her first Tope of 2008 – fine Tope of over 40 pounds – tagged and released.  However, just one Tope for early June was very disapointing.  Another small boat fishing nearby had 2 Tope – again, very disapointing.

Spoke to a local SCUBA diver – he stated that the visibility is absolutely atrocious at the moment & in his memory had only happened once before in 1997.  Then also the fishing had deteriorated, but had recovered in a few weeks when the vis had also improved………………..?????

Fishing on the last week of May has “nose dived”!      Wrecks have lots of small Coalfish and only a few Pollack – no numbers of good sized wreck Pollack and very few Ling.  The Limeburner grounds are fishing average but the Bays have simply stopped producing.

I suppose this is what “Fishing” is all about.

The weather has been fairly settled for around 8 weeks now with mostly east winds & I wonder has this affected the fishing? 

Rosguill had a 2.12 pound Red Gurnard – nice specimen.
Mackeral have returned – good numbers. Reports of Tope caught in Lough Swilly. Limeburner fishing well.
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