Few sea anglers at present would consider the coast of County Down in Northern Ireland when choosing a venue for a fishing orientated holiday, but they'd be making a bad mistake. Frankly, you don't know what you're missing.

I was asked to spend just a couple of brief days by North Down and Ards Borough Councils, who are running a joint tourist venture for the area, to assess the angling potential at Bangor on the shores of Belfast Lough, and at Portaferry at the mouth of Strangford Lough long famed for it's giant common skate.

I happened to arrive just as a three week period of flat calm, and very warm weather was coming to an end. Literally, as I got off the plane at Belfast the thunder that had been threatening turned into a full blooded downpour. By morning the wind had increased to force 5 easterly and I'd already worked out the consequences.

I was booked aboard Brian Maharg's "Purple Heather" leaving Bangor Harbour for a look at Belfast Lough. My skipper for the day was Bertie Morrow, who, with over 50 years experience of the Lough was a mine of information.

Bertie wasn't impressed with the weather either, but because we needed photos, and I needed to get the feel of the area we elected to poke our noses out into what was a very deep swell, maybe as much as 10ft at times and capped by white water.

The ground directly out from the harbour is clean and shallow, it averages 50ft, but as you get level with Black Head Lighthouse you start to see depths of 150ft plus. Again the ground is clean, but is effectively drift fished for whiting, codling, rays, haddock, mackerel, and herring. Locals prefer feathers baited with lugworm, though I switched to Flat Jack lures and found them equally good.

As you look north up the Lough there's a power station marked by high chimneys to the left. You use this as a marker for the top ray spot. That day thornbacks to well over 14lbs were taken, and in good numbers too, but there is a degree of tangle netting going on, though their numbers remain high.

Moving on up this left side, the lighthouse it'self marks a deep dropoff very close in to shore. This is a rated wrasse hole with ballans occasionally reaching 6lbs, these on feathers too! The mind boggles at what a few crab fished down the side of the dropoff would produce.
The mark everybody gets excited about is Black Head itself and Gobbins Caves. The atrocious seas would not allow me close enough to fish these, but this area is deepish water, over very rough ground, with high rising peaks. Pollack running to 6lbs are average, double figure fish are taken from time to time, but nobody uses artificial eels nor big pirks when the bigger fish would be resident from September on wards.

This mark is also good for codling virtually right through the year. Again, most run around the 6lb band, but seem available in excellent numbers. Don't discount the residency of much bigger fish. Last year produced a 25lber from the deeper water. Now you're not going to take many jumbo cod on feathers, but a live whiting fished hard on the bottom would bring a whole new ball game into play.

On the Bangor side of the lough there are two islands, Lighthouse Island for obvious reasons, and Copeland Island. There is a tide race between the two that produces huge numbers of pollack with double figure fish more likely here than anywhere else. Again, cod run with the pollack, and there are large numbers of coalies upto about 5lbs.

Bigger coalies exist over many of the pollack marks, 17lbs being the biggest Bertie told me about. These are available pretty well all year, but as I mentioned, little fishing is done after September. Where I would expect far bigger coalies, pollack, and cod, is from the wrecks that lay out at the mouth of the lough. At present these are virtually untouched.

June onwards is the real start of the fishing season. Brian and Bertie do night time herring trips which are very successful from both the unusual and tourism point of view. Not that many mainland anglers have ever even see a live herring let alone caught one on their hooks. It's the most frequently missing fish on an anglers species caught list.

August and September are the top months, but I feel this is because that's when most fishing is done. Given good weather in the autumn and winter I'm sure some excellent whiting, cod, and haddock would be taken. The wrecks would be the other obvious target to tackle for winter species too. Big packs of spurdog move into the Grey Point area in September, and probably remain well beyond that.

The best tides for fishing are the smaller neaps. There is a fair tide running through the lough on a spring that needs heavy leads to combat it. On normal tides a pound of lead, or down to 8ozs is enough. All fishing is done on the drift, but if one or two of the rocky inshore areas could be fished, then I'd expect big conger to be two a penny. The ground really does spell conger, and maybe huss and big ling, but nobody seems to use fish baits.

The prevailing winds are from the southwest and west, but because of the protection offered by the Antrim coast this gives fairly flat seas. The winds to watch are the full east and northeasters. These create a high swell that makes fishing almost impossible. However, as most of you will be aware east winds don't dominate around our islands.

Bangor harbour has a new marina development that sports excellent facilities, and for small boat users there is a slipway launch available for a small levy charged by the council. Also look out for the unusual black guillemots that perch themselves around the pier and breakwater areas. Something is always going on here function wise. My trip coincided with the stay of the Golden Hind reproduction vessel for instance.

Brian Maharg has two boats, "Purple Heather" and "White Heather", both are wooden hulls, but in the very best of condition and you can't beat their traditional design for the rough waters sometimes found here. Brian's rates are very reasonable at �90 for the average days charter.

Another boat of interest is the "Salutay" owned by Peter Wright. She is a 59ft motor yacht fitted out for diving operations, but would make an ideal living and fishing platform for longer trips out to the Scottish coast which is less than 20 miles away.

For those of independent minds, then Gordon Darragh of Bangor Boat Charter Ltd has six Orkney Fastliners available for self drive hire. These are equipped with full safety gear and a VHF radio. These craft would be ideal for exploring the inshore waters which are populated by rays, flatfish, codling, etc.

Boats and boating aside, I'd like to have spent some time exploring the shore fishing. There were hints here that gave me a hunch the shore sport could be quite exceptional. Very little shore fishing is done, but there has been a 40lb conger from the North Breakwater and a host of smaller eels. Plaice to 3lbs have come to worm baits casting straight out from the end, along with dabs, dogs, whiting, and rays.

Everybody says there are no bass, but the Power Station has a warm water outlet and is surrounded by rough, weedy ground that holds crab. Also, local rods have hooked big roundfish in September and October when fishing big fish baits off the harbour mouth. These fish run straight out to sea. They could be large solitary, roaming pollack, but I think they're bass.

The harbour area is alive with mullet. I watched a shoal of about twenty working their way under the pontoons. Flounder well over 2lbs show from the little bay to the right of the breakwater. Small pout, poor cod, and small whiting also reside in the permanent water of the harbour area.

I awoke on the morning of the second day to hear heavy rain battering the roof of my hotel, but at least the wind had fallen light, though it persisted from the east. East winds just about anywhere in the British Isles spell out poor fishing.

Portaferry, just a couple of miles from the mouth of Strangford Lough, sports only a couple of commercial boats, a few private pleasure craft, a jetty and slipway where the Strangford ferry boards and disembarks, and Desi Rodgers charter boat the Cuan Shore. Cuan being gaelic for Strangford. But the scenery of wooded rolling hills makes the best possible start to a day. My skipper was to be Desi's brother Gabriel and we also had aboard his mate Jimmy, a keen local angler.

The mouth of the lough is not for the faint hearted. Gabriel told me that Angus Rock between Ballyquintin Point on the north side of the mouth, and Killard Point on the south side is an area that sports 40ft waves when storms sweep in from the southeast. But the sea had settled nicely and we began a drift just on the inside of Killard Point. Feathers were the advised tackle, quickly producing small pollack to maybe 2lbs. These are called laithe locally. Coalfish to the same weight showed periodically, but Gabriel wanted to try out towards Guns Island for codling.

The island lay to the south, so we drifted towards it across continuous fairly flat, but solid rocky ground. Surprisingly, tackle loss was minimal, infact I didn't lose a thing. Locals prefer standard coloured feathers, but again I changed to Flat Jack lures and continued to take fish. This change of lure found me a herring which, I understand, was very early this close inshore.

Codling in the 1 to 3lbs range started to come aboard quite quickly, often two or three a drop. Some of these wore the reddish orange hue that signifies a codling living a permanent existence over rocky ground. Fat, healthy fish too, not the ulcerated, star war mutations that keep cropping up elsewhere.

In amongst the codling remained the ever present pollack and coalies, though any bigger fish eluded us. Gabriel fancied he knew a mark that might yield an early ling, so, me being keen to get a few extra species aboard for the camera, we elected to try it. Sure enough, Jimmy got a ling. Only a couple of pounds, but then I was a month early for the real fishing to start.

What also surprised Gabriel was that mackerel were already present close to shore. He took three on the one string whilst drifting just north of Guns Island. May is not noted for mackerel, whereas June brings the big shoals right into the mouth of the lough.

This inshore rough is a haven for codling and cod, ling to 12lbs, pollack and coalies running to 6lbs, and strap conger when a rare anchoring trip is undertaken. To the north of Carnan Point is where cod to 20lbs come from along with bigger pollack. There is a wreck straight out from the lough's mouth that has yielded conger to 90lbs on commercial lines. This would be my main target with superb pollack, coalies, ling, cod, and conger in mind, but you're almost into the submarine zone here fishing 150ft plus of water. This offshore area looks ideal for shark drifts, and I'd like to try for porbeagle here in high summer, and especially the early autumn.

There are overfalls at the mouth near St Patrick's rock and I'd like to get the chance to run a redgill through this turbulent stretch of water. I fancy there's big pollack in there that have never ever seen a hook. If more anchoring was done close in, then I'd also expect some very large bull huss to show.

Strangford Lough still has it's tope. These show in late May running the banks at the lough's mouth, and also enter the lough proper, no doubt after the flatfish and for the females to drop their pups. The best fish topped 63lbs. The tope stay well into September, with August giving the peak numbers.

Common skate are also part of the lough's hall of fame, but in less numbers inevitably than in past years. The last one weighed 56lbs and was taken from inside the lough in the summer of 1990 by a commercial vessel. Undoubtedly, big fish still remain, with September being the favoured month for the bigger fish.

If the weather does cut up rough, you can fish the wreck of a barge that sits just to the west of Portaferry. There are pollack and coalies on it, plus a few codling. Little fishing is done inside the lough it'self, but I reckon uptiding would take heaps of flatties, maybe thornbacks, monkfish, and possibly bass.

There was no information on shore fishing at all. There is rocky ground just 50yds out from the stone jetty in about 30ft of water that must hold codling virtually all year round. I also watched huge sandeels shoaling around the jetty that must bring a few bigger pollack in from time to time. Conger would be the other possibility.

Travelling back along the road that skirts the north side of the lough you've a mixture of sandy ground that has patches of boulders and weed beds. Honestly, it's over 20 miles long this road, and I never saw the lug beds end. It was one solid mass of worm the whole way. This area reminded me of the Menai Straits in North Wales. On that basis I would expect king rag to be fairly abundant in the muddy areas, crab available in the weed and stones, and that combination adds up to bass on night tides. Flounders must also be there in huge numbers.

With the greatest respect, the areas of Belfast Lough and Strangford Lough retain a fishing innocence that if realised would be the envy of most other European waters. The skippers in the area know their marks, but naturally only cater for the demanded market. Baited feathers catch fish, so why change? A mind full of the wisdom of how devastating modern techniques can be would open the doors to a cavalcade of catches never likely to be equalled again.

Anglers wanting to follow in my footsteps will be guaranteed the very best in accommodation and hospitality. I received the warmest welcome possible, and had numerous visits and phonecalls from people involved in the areas angling scene. Most readers know me well enough from past reviews and comments in SEA FISHING MAGAZINE, that if I could pick fault, then I would without hesitation. It's an honest statement that I can't!

A few tips may be in order. I flew there, but this means you can take very little tackle. Taking the ferries from Liverpool or Stranraer would suit keen anglers with a lot of gear better. There are well stocked tackle shops in Bangor and other ports on the coast, but specialist items seem to be in short supply.

All areas require a fair amount of lead weight, 6ozs being the absolute minimum on neaps at Strangford and Bangor. Personally I'd take leads upto 2lbs. An uptider would be versatile for pollacking and general feathering, but any bottom fishing needs a standard 30lb class outfit. A 50lb class combo would be a useful addition for any real deep water work.