Tuesday, November 9, 2010

The calm before the storm....


Hurricane Thomas was due to lash the south coast last Sunday but forecasters were confident that it wouldn't come in until after dark. They were spot on! In fact the weather for our first light line competition of the Winter series was positively glorious....a true calm before the storm!
Eight competitors gathered on the pier early Sunday morning and were soon under way on the John Boy. By 9:30am Donie had the anchor down and positioned the boat on the northern edge of deep hole in line with No. 5. This spot had fished very well in the National fish-offs over the Oct long weekend and Donie was hopeful that similar fishing could be had this Sunday. How right he was!!! Over 600 fish were caught by the 8 anglers over the 5 hours of the competition. Wow, now that's good fishing.

Whiting dominated the catch with many of a good size; averaging between 2-3lbs. The final tally was 454 whiting, 101 dabs, 4 doggies, 8 codling, 45 poor cod, and 1 scad. That's an average of 77 fish per angler. That's a great start to the light line series!

Many of the dabs were a 1lb in weight, coming close to the new specimen size. Surprisingly there were very few cod, but the trawlers have been hammering them for weeks now! There were also plenty of mackeral about, keeping everyone's bait supplies topped up.
Winner of the competition was Sandra O' Shea, pictured above, who had an impressive haul of 112 fish. In second place was Anthony Austin, Crosshaven SAC, who had 109 fish, and in third was Sylvester Skowronski with 89 fish. Roll on the next light lines comp, which is on Sunday 5th December. If you want to fish this comp give Mary Geary a bell on 087-4812167 or drop her a line on seaangling@esatclear.ie .

Monday, November 8, 2010

Autumn Seatrout


What about this for a fine seatrout!!! This superb fish was caught recently by Cobh SAC member, Cmdr. Richie Ryan. This fish was picked up on a secret mark in the upper reaches of Cork Harbour. What makes it extra special was that it was a salt water fly caught fish. Well done Richie!!!
Richie wasn't the only one bagging the seatrout. Fellow Cobh SAC member, Tom Hoynes, picked up a few towards the back end of the season, again, at an upper harbour mark. These fish were caught on a Viva Maria Parade.