By the second week of October the swallows left, or were blown away to start their journey. Down to northern France and the Med then across the Atlas mountains, Namib, Kalahari, Gulf of Guinea and the Sahara before reaching their winter home in South Africa. 9500 km in around two months, not bad for a bird that weights little more than a few ounces.
Staring in the direction of the Burren, I know it is there I just cannot see it for the constant poor weather, I wonder how the talismans of summer are fairing on their journey, struggling against the same winds that are keeping me off the shores.
There where I’m sure a few good days in October in fact I remember them well. For a start the two days I lay under the Landrover getting covered in grease and filth changing all the suspension for something a little more robust. The long-lost exhaust which now litters some remote part of the country has been replaced with some stainless steel parts so at the end of each journey my eyes are no longer red from carbon monoxide poisoning and I no longer have to drive with the window open. It was not a conscious malicious act of littering I just noticed it wasn’t there one day.
Reports from around the county reflect the conditions and catches are not helping to lift the spirits of those who brave the weather. While many of our counterparts in the UK and other parts of Ireland are looking forward to the promise of winter codding Clare holds very little to entice us away from a warm hearth. A few flounder and bass up until Christmas and then if we are lucky there will be a run of pollack. I hope I am wrong but in years gone by there has been very little to show for a lot of time put in. Maybe the cod are there, I just haven’t found them yet. the lads from Galway pick them up but from what I have heard a keeper would be a rare thing.
Watching Jamie Oliver on the telly on one such wind and rain-swept night encouraged me to get out and dig a few shellfish. I like Jamie’s cooking, once you get past the mockney thing he actually cooks food that you can do at home, stuff you can feed the family with rather than a lot of the noncy stuff many chefs produce. I understand the concept of fine dining but it isn’t for me. I refuse to eat somewhere that makes you want to get a burger two hours later because you are still hungry.
So fork in hand I waded across shallow gullies to reach the razor banks disturbing scooting flounder as I walked, lifting clouds of feeding gulls that were picking in the shallows. I couldn’t see what they were feeding on but I guess it was maggots from the rotting weed.
Trying to do too many things at once I spent too little time digging but got enough razors, calms and cockles for a nice pasta dish. I notice a large amount of sea potato’s but no sandeels during digging. While I was there dug a couple of dozen worms just in case.
I had already missed low water and decided to fish for a few hours at a nearby mark. I was blighted by indecision as I had intended to fish two rods with baits but as I was setting up silver flashes in the shallows tempted me to leave the unbaited rod to idle on the tripod. Splashy rises all around me but nothing I could tempt with the contents of my lure box. After sitting still for a while it became clear that I would have had more chance floating a piece of bread as the flashes revealed themselves, ‘flicking’ against the weed covered rocks. I have seen this behaviour before in freshwater barbel and chub and have heard two different theories. firstly the fish is trying to dislodge parasites from its flanks and secondly it is an attempt to dislodge food. Either way it alerts us to the presence of fish.
With the tide rapidly rising I finished setting up the bait rod having no luck with the lures and within five minutes of it being in the water the frozen mackerel was picked up by a scavenging dog-fish. A couple more dogs and a small huss all took the frozen mackerel before I was pushed back to the rocks which at this stage are still too uncomfortable for me to stand on.
Although I took lots of photos there were none within context that I feel anyone would be interested in looking at. A while ago when I was considering advertising as a shore guide I asked a well-known guide in the UK what he does if his clients don’t catch fish. He replied people are happy if you teach them something they didn’t know or show them something new. So with that in mind I hope to find something of interest to write about. For those who are new to fishing I am planning a series of bait presentation articles. I wanted to take pictures on the beach but the long shadows and the lack of three hands prevented me from the step by step instructions. Of all the things I write the simplest are the most popular. For others all I can offer is continuing tales of marks tried and hopefully fish caught.
I have also become more actively involved with the club I mentioned in a previous post. Galway Buccaneers SAC . Yes me, the person who struggles daily to talk to people. I have agreed to act as Public Relations Officer and will give it my best shot.
The first event for us will be a fundraiser for the RNLI. The intended date for this event is the 10th December 2011 and will be held on Salthill. When the details are finalised I will publish them here. For now this is the flyer I intend to go with.
Speaking of charity when working on a layout for the flyer I posted on possibly the largest sea fishing forum asking if anyone had a photo of a beach match fishing scene that they could let me have. Of all the people who looked at the post only one person offered any help and that was by private message. I wonder just how many people involved in forums are there purely for what they can get out of them without offering anything back in return? How many people cannot be bothered to reply just because they have seen the question posted before? Unless we are very careful and are willing to give of ourselves recreational sea fishing could die out within a few generations.
