Fishing at Dun Laoghaire

Whoops. Some lessons are best learned the hard way, I suppose.  So it was this day- my first time fishing in Dublin Bay.  After our trip to Dun Laoghaire, I knew I wanted to try fishing from the pier and from nearby Seapoint Beach.  I had a morning free in the middle of the week and the weather forecast looked promising, so I made my plans.

I left the house at about 8:00 in the morning.  It is about 20 minutes of cycling to get to an accessible piece of coastline from our home.  I was excited and fully equipped- ready for anything.  Except...

Where did the ocean go?

When I arrived, the ocean was gone.  The tide was all the way out.  My arms fell to my side in disbelief at my own thoughtlessness.  What kind of fishing fool makes plans to shore fish in the ocean without checking the tide table?  A fishing fool who learned to fish in lakes and inland freshwater rivers- that's who does this.  I couldn't believe I left out this detail.

It isn't that I didn't know tides exist here.  I understand the cycle of high and low tides, ebbing and flowing, spring and neap tides, even one of my favorite words, syzygy.  The case was one of those where my tidal knowledge existed in one part of my brain and my fishing knowledge lived in another.  The synapses didn't make that extra connection between tides and fishing until that fateful day.  After scolding and laughing at myself, I decided to make the best of it and poke around the beach at low tide.

Seaweed and barnacles

One of Dublin's famous defense towers

I knew the piers in Dun Laoghaire would still have deep enough water for fishing, so I got back on the bike and headed a few minutes down the coast.  I rode out on the pier, parked the bike, and rigged up to fish.

Fishing kit ready for action

Not much was happening fish-wise in the bay, it was still low tide after all.  I was able to watch the fog rolling down from the hills over the village and the sailboats bobbing in the harbor, so the experience wasn't altogether unpleasant.

One fisher stopped by and asked me what I was going.  He saw my six-foot spinning rod and couldn't believe I was using such small equipment in the bay.  He offered some advice to get bigger, heavier equipment or "you'll lose all your equipment!"  I was a little miffed when he left.  I had seen the mackerel the people were catching, and they weren't any larger than a few pounds.  Not to brag, but I have caught fish much larger that on the same equipment I was using.  Do saltwater fish possess some kind of small-rod-breaking-magic of which I'm not aware?  Saltwater fishers do tend to use stouter equipment for certain kinds of fish and fishing, but I will keep just the one rod, thank you.

Rolling fog

As the day went on, the tide shifted and began to flow back into the harbor.  Unfortunately, my open morning fishing time was up, so I had to get on my way.  I did stop by to talk to another angler on my way off the pier. He had seen me fishing and asked if I had any action.  We ended up exchanging some fishing stories and he gave me lots of great bay fishing tips that I will use when I tackle the sea again.  He even offered to give me some bait- the second Irish angler to make such an offer.  I had to decline and be on my way, but it was a great offer and a great way to end my first morning fishing the sea... when the sea finally showed up.