Its so frustrating never catching fish!

dermo909

This summer myself and a mate have started sea fishing and in the last 2 months we've caught nothing. Well, he had one on but it came off....

We've tried lugworm, crab, spinners, plugs, poppers, mackeral feathers, different lures etc but with no success. We've being fishing places where other people fish, using the same methods but apart from that fish my mate lost there has been nothing. We've tried it at all stages of the tide, in sunny/cloudy conditions, in the rain, early in the day, late in the day etc.

After having no success for a month using bait & lures we switched to mackeral feathers and started fishing off a 'good' spot in Dunmore East. I've caught hundreds of mackeral in my time but all have been off-shore so I thought they would be an easy catch to boost our confidence!

Still nothing though! Its getting very frustrating not to have caught fish after this amount of time and I dont think we're doing anything wrong.

Just one fish would be nice!

Any thoughts or advice for Irelands worst fishermen?

coolwings

Try fishing at night.

kennyw

Jaysus man, uv been unlucky.. Just pot luck these days where the fish are an in the different type of water conditions..

if the sea angling aint been productive enough, take up either course fishing for carp, roach, perch, or try fy fishing for rainbow/brown trout.

I dont do course fishing myself but its open season all year round for most speices, and the trout angling is open from march till sept 30th..

There are also a shed load of stocked fisheries around waterford, wexford, cork an the country that are open all year round for rainbow trout.. Its cheap enough, good sport and "nearly always" guranteed a fish. Not all stocked fish lakes are like shooting fish in a barrel as some would suggest.. They can be challenging and fun.. Also a good way to build up diferent techniques for your fishing armoury..

I do alot fo fly fishing both rivers, lakes what ever has a head of fish that are willing to take a fly.. Good fun, loads of places in ireland and its always worth a shot if the sea fishing isnt going your way.

damagegt

I really only started shore fishing this year and I haven't had great success but I have had the best fishing iv ever had and its all been down to research.I walked the coastline,estuires and beaches on both high and low tide.I watched for bird activity aswell as water activity I talked to every person I met fishing,I bought all my gear from my local shop and got to know him and he helped me out.I talk to the bailiffs I met and ask them for a few tips and locations.

This all lead me to having the best fishing Iv ever had to date.Best of luck with it.

fisherking

Good advice there esp the tackle shop.....

Keep the faith !
And remember when you find a spot keep the gob shut !!

damagegt wrote: »

I really only started shore fishing this year and I haven't had great success but I have had the best fishing iv ever had and its all been down to research.I walked the coastline,estuires and beaches on both high and low tide.I watched for bird activity aswell as water activity I talked to every person I met fishing,I bought all my gear from my local shop and got to know him and he helped me out.I talk to the bailiffs I met and ask them for a few tips and locations.

This all lead me to having the best fishing Iv ever had to date.Best of luck with it.

ring 20

fisherking wrote: »

Good advice there esp the tackle shop.....

Keep the faith !
And remember when you find a spot keep the gob shut !!

plus 1 for that, i learned the hard way, tell lies!!

TheBody

As said above, a lot of it can be pot luck. I usually fish for pike or trout. I've always been very sucessful down the years. This year has just been a disaster for me. NEVER caught as few fish. Having said that, it just makes the thoughts of catch one more exciting. It's only a matter of time and patience.

Hang in there!!

syboit

unfortunately, a lot of spots so far for Mackerel fishing have been poor enough. Not sure what it is this year though, but don't see as many people from the beaches/piers catching as much fish as in previous years.
The only other suggestion is to try to match the bait/hook size to the species your after and keep at it

Holyboy

Im not at all saying this is the case with you but some people just arent able to catch fish! I used to fish with a guy years ago and he just didnt have "it" about twenty of us were fishing a comp' on a wexford beach one night,the average bag was about twenty dogfish I think the winner had over thirty,this guy had two,but he was happy as he usually caught nothing!

dermo909

Thanks for the replies! I dont think its that I cant catch fish since I've fished alot in my earlier years and caught loads of trout/salmon and mackeral.

Maybe I should just keep plugging away and hopefully something will bite in the end! It'll be quite a nice surprise when a fish eventually gets itself hooked on my line!

krissovo

Mackerel have been elusive for me this year as well, so much so I have had to resort to my faithful fish the Pollock after a few blanks. Also beach fishing has been a disaster with nothing biting for me not even the doggies.

Pollock are plentiful in Cork this year for me and I will pull out 3 or 4 decent fish a session mainly on the tide changes. So my advice would be grab a rod and a few lures and spoons and head to a rocky area and try for these. Most of the takes are within a meter of the rocks and when the lure/spoon are rising after a rod jerk. Travel light so if nothing is biting then move, try a few different techniques on each session and you will find what works for you.

damagegt

krissovo wrote: »

Mackerel have been elusive for me this year as well, so much so I have had to resort to my faithful fish the Pollock after a few blanks. Also beach fishing has been a disaster with nothing biting for me not even the doggies.

Pollock are plentiful in Cork this year for me and I will pull out 3 or 4 decent fish a session mainly on the tide changes. So my advice would be grab a rod and a few lures and spoons and head to a rocky area and try for these. Most of the takes are within a meter of the rocks and when the lure/spoon are rising after a rod jerk. Travel light so if nothing is biting then move, try a few different techniques on each session and you will find what works for you.

Im the same didnt hit one mackerel until 3nights ago while fishing for bass but iv had some great pollock fishing but then again I havent really been looking for mackeral unless i was heading piking the next day.

dermo909

krissovo wrote: »

Mackerel have been elusive for me this year as well, so much so I have had to resort to my faithful fish the Pollock after a few blanks. Also beach fishing has been a disaster with nothing biting for me not even the doggies.

Pollock are plentiful in Cork this year for me and I will pull out 3 or 4 decent fish a session mainly on the tide changes. So my advice would be grab a rod and a few lures and spoons and head to a rocky area and try for these. Most of the takes are within a meter of the rocks and when the lure/spoon are rising after a rod jerk. Travel light so if nothing is biting then move, try a few different techniques on each session and you will find what works for you.

Are there any lures you find that work best? The local shop here sold me a couple of kilty catchers but I have'nt done much with them as I did'nt want to lose them in weeds. I might just throw caution to the wind and spend a couple of hours next week with them to see what happens.

krissovo

These types are working great for me in brass and stainless. Brass for very bright days and stainless for overcast.





If these dont attract the fish then I switch to a toby lure which has a good action.

damagegt

As with any fishing your best bet is to match the hatch.Im getting my best pollock on 3" storm jelly sand eels. Either the blue and silver or the black and green.

con___manx1

you should always check the tide times for your area before u go shore fishng .your wastng your time if yr fishing on a low tide..go to the irish times website and u can find the tide timetable each day.. best time in my opinion is t go an hour or two before high tide. best of luck

ltdslipdiff

Dunmore has been appallingly bad this year.... We've launched many times and headed way out to the hot spots and wrecks to very little avail. I even thought there may have been a fault with the fish finder but no, just nothing out there!!

Icyseanfitz

you cant be doing as bad as me started lake, river and sea fishing around march and havnt caught a bloody thing, went to a stocked lake 3 times and not one fish while my buddy and my father got 2 each on two different days, going to try barrow in kerry Wednesday any suggestions on what kind of stuff i should use? baits lures? what kind of fish should i even be looking at should i even head to barrow? ive been to fenit pier numerous times but again nothing

DoneDL

I think everyone has blank days, but it is worth it when you feel thet lovely bite and you`re into a fish. Makes you forget all the days of catching nothing at all.

dermo909

Icyseanfitz wrote: »

you cant be doing as bad as me started lake, river and sea fishing around march and havnt caught a bloody thing, went to a stocked lake 3 times and not one fish while my buddy and my father got 2 each on two different days, going to try barrow in kerry Wednesday any suggestions on what kind of stuff i should use? baits lures? what kind of fish should i even be looking at should i even head to barrow? ive been to fenit pier numerous times but again nothing

Jeez I feel your pain! Hopefully it'll happen soon for you!

I'm going fishing in tramore this evening just before high tide. Was swimming out there yesterday and could see loads of small fish swimming around the rocks and thought of larger fish hunting them in towards shelter. On the way back I passed some fishermen who had a few mackeral in their buckets. Fingers crossed for tonight!

dermo909

Yesterday evening I went to a spot near Tramore with a couple of mates and they caught 19 and 8 mackeral repectively. I caught none!

I do however put that down to not having the right feathers. They both had small shiny/silver ones while mine were brightly coloured. The guy who caught 19 had very distinctive feathers which I had never seen before.

I'll be going out there again today but I'll visit the tackle shop first to get some feather like their ones!

I feel like today is going to be the day I finally catch a fish.

dermo909

It happened!

I caught a 1lb pollock off the flat rocks in Dunmore East! It was very nice to have the feeling of a fish on the end of my rod and I have to admit I kinda played it a bit before I brought it in! And 2 mins later I got another one but lost it while bringing it in. Felt the same size and I hooked it very close to the rocks so I'm presuming it was'nt a mackeral.

I also hooked a sand eel through its back. I'm not counting this because it was'nt hooked properly.

Thanks for all the advice. Matching my lure/size to the fish I'm persuing was the thing that did it for me. As well as perseverance!

TheBody

That's great news. Doesn't it just feel like magic when you want it so bad and it finally happens.

syboit

dermo909 wrote: »

It happened!

I caught a 1lb pollock off the flat rocks in Dunmore East! It was very nice to have the feeling of a fish on the end of my rod and I have to admit I kinda played it a bit before I brought it in! And 2 mins later I got another one but lost it while bringing it in. Felt the same size and I hooked it very close to the rocks so I'm presuming it was'nt a mackeral.

I also hooked a sand eel through its back. I'm not counting this because it was'nt hooked properly.

Thanks for all the advice. Matching my lure/size to the fish I'm persuing was the thing that did it for me. As well as perseverance!

keep the sand eel though, good as fresh bait.

damagegt

Pollock arent picky when it comes to lures.I catch some of my biggest pollock 10 feet in front of me.I getting great fishing on storm jelly sand eels rigged on there own and left sink to the bottom and either slowly retrieved or small twitches and left sink in between.Well done on your first fish Im sure there will be plenty more.

Icyseanfitz

caught my first proper fish there last Wednesday a decent sized sting ray, caught it with sand eel and a weight, dont know how i didnt catch a mackerel that day, my buddy who was using the same rig as me brought in 5 nice sized ones and there where lads with proper mackerel gear hauling them in 5 on a line

dermo909

TheBody wrote: »

That's great news. Doesn't it just feel like magic when you want it so bad and it finally happens.

Yup it certainly was magic!