Loads of Mackeral around in May – now in June they seem to a lot less. Have to wait and see. Mostly 10 inch Mackeral feeding on Plankton around to 10 to 20m depth. Limeburner fishing well especially for Haddock – lots & lots of Haddock this year – mostly around 1 pound but some 1.5 pounders also. Laurentic fishing well for Congers and after 1 poor trip to Malin Head for Common Skate & caught just 3 Tope, a second trip resulted in a fine 191 pounder and another very large Common lost – (39) Common Skate V Gjis – YouTube

Mackeral seem to have almost disappeared after a reasonable showing up to start of August. Have Bluefin Tuna chased them off!

Most other fishing has been OK, neither spectacularly good or bad.

Many years ago, Common Skate were thought to have been mis-named & Uncommon Skate would have been more appropriate. I believe no longer!

Late start in 2022, but biggest news is that Mackeral are back to 90% + of what they should be.

Limeburner fishing well for Whiting, Haddock & Spurdogs.

Had a bit of a surprise fishing reefs in Lough Swilly and caught a number of super Pollack – just one under 5 pounds – don’t think that will last!

Sand sort of normal, but lack of Turbot & Brill (What’s new).

2021 has ended and the biggest story has been the reappearance of Mackeral in reasonable numbers right through the season – although some days Mackeral have been difficult to catch, on the whole there haven’t been too many problems. Let’s hope that 2022 sees Mackeral back in the sort of numbers that we had 10 or 20 years ago.

Most other species have been mostly normal in 2021, perhaps the biggest exception was Blue Shark which didn’t really show up.

Roll on 2022!!!

It’s been a while since I had more than a single Turbot from Tory, but 4 today, couple in photo….nice

Mackeral, although patchy have been better than this past 6 years. Let’s hope that continues. Fishing generally has been OK. Poor fishing at Tory on one day, check soon to see if it has improved. Went wrecking and somewhat disappointing, but a couple of reasonable fish.

******INTERESTING*****

Some of the Pollack caught at Tory Island had a number of Crabs in their stomach – the most obvious explanation for this is IDA – That is Hurricane Ida which was in the Caribbean last week – the tail of Ida has caused a swell of 3 to 5 metres, but with a period of around 14 seconds. This huge ground swell would cause a tremendous surge in shallow water and no doubt would have crabs swirling around near the bottom – hence the unusual feeding by Pollack.

Nice 30 pounder, or heavier, Conger from the Laurentic. Mackeral have reappeared this year after 6 years of scarcity. Great to at least have them back. Fishing was reasonable until the weather settled for over 5/6 weeks when fishing nose dived.

The Lockdown may have stopped the fishing – but not the fish. 2020 has finished with fishing still good – just Mackeral which are scarce(except in the mouth of Lough Swilly).

Despite the Virus decimating the fishing season, I have had some days out, mostly productive (except for Blue Sharks!). Mackeral have indeed bucked the trend of this past half dozen years and are reasonably available. Limeburner fishes good. Haven’t been to Tory!!!!

2020 angling has been badly affected by Coronavirus, but is now starting to shape up to be fairly good. Mackeral have turned a little patchy. Limeburner good with a lot of Spurdogs. A few Blue Sharks around. One charter boat had a number of Tope on the Limeburner grounds. There seems to be good numbers of Cod.

But, the usual suspects are all there……..

Enough Mackeral around – not as they were 7/7+ years ago when by July they were everywhere in huge numbers, but spent just 20 minutes or so to get enough for the day. Hit a huge shoal of Herring – only picked up a few from it but got a dozen or so Mackeral which were amongst it.

Tory fished as normal, except the Flatfish were still not up to standard – 2/3 years now where Flatfish, especially Turbot & Brill, have been difficult to catch at Tory. Loads of Coalies (as damn usual), Gurnard, Whiting, Haddock, Doggies as expected.

Mulroy Bay, loads of Thornbacks but no Flatfish – maybe just one of those days – we’ll see.

4th John Dory this season – nice….

A third John Dory this year – first time ever caught 3 in one season.

Fishing this week, and a few Mackeral still around. Pollack fishing has been poor – I wonder if, after the extremely settled spell of weather last week, is there a little bit of a Red Tide going. Marking good numbers of Pollack on the sounder, but not much interest in feeding – or maybe just neap tides???

Nice John Dory off the Limeburner – first this year – and probably only one of 10 or so in 19 years.

2019 has started and the REALLY big news – Mackeral are back to pre-2014 levels – at least for now. Have not got a single clue what has happened, but we are catching Mackeral almost everywhere in good numbers and good sizes. How long it will last????

Tory fishing well, as is the mouth of Mulroy Bay. More info to follow…..