Conger to 40lb....

Donie Geary, skippering the John Boy, had Cobh SAC out with him this Sunday. Weather conditions were superb and taking full advantage Donie decided to take them to an offshore wreck. Donie headed 11 miles south east of Roches Point and positioned the John Boy over the wreck of a WWI U-Boat. Things got off to a slow start, however. It was a struggle first to get 3 dozen mackeral for bait. They then drifted the U-Boat three times without a bite. Eventually, Donie decided to drop anchor to see if the bottom fishing was any better. After about 20 minutes the first fish was landed, a conger of 20lbs. They had steady fishing for the next three hours, finishing up with over 30 conger, one of which was touching the 40lb mark....a near specimen! However, with only one ling and no pollack for their efforts Donie suspects that the wreck was heavily netted recently.

Donie also reports that he had great fishing during the week. Nearly every day his party had over a box of cod to 8lbs drifting inshore reefs quite close to Roches Point. There'll be no shortage of cod and chips for the next while in the Geary household.

If you'd fancy a trip out on the John Boy check out Donie's website at http://www.sea-fishing-ireland.com/.

Mackeral trip surprise....

Jim Linehan, onboard Deora De, reports on a surprise catch on a mackeral trip. With the mackeral in plentiful supply again, Jim has been busy with evening trips targeting mackeral. During the week, one of his regular customers, Linda Lee, caught a specimen pouting while feathering for mackeral. Now that is unusual! Well done, Linda!! The fish weighed 3.75lbs....a hefty pouting at that.

The group had plenty of mackeral, but also picked up other species, such as red and grey gurnard, cod, pollack, and even ling. All on unbaited mackeral feathers! Even Jim was surprised, especially by the ling, as they were fishing a mark close inshore. They must have just hit it right, as by the end of the night they even had more pollack and cod than mackeral, and the mackeral were by no means scarce!!!

If you would fancy a trip out in Deora De why not check out Jim's website on http://www.charterangling.com/

3 specimens in one day....

Well it really was a red letter day for Martyn Rayner recently. Last week Martyn and fishing buddy, Seirt, managed three specimens in one day fishing aboard Martyn's boat, Screemin' Reels. Martyn takes up the story himself '....well the day started as a hunt for ray and huss, but rather turned out a flatty marathon. It was a cracking days fishing to say the least. We initially headed out to new ground near the Smiths and I soon had the first specimen onboard; a lesser spotted dogfish. This was much to the annoyance of Siert, as he couldn't get one over the magic mark, eventhough we had plenty to 3lbs. As we still had no ray a move was in order. We shifted to an inshore mark, where we decided to drift. Here we picked up plenty of grey gurnard, but still no ray.
We then moved to an area east of Trabolgan and again started to try for thornies. Still no joy but I picked up a nice plaice. This was soon followed by the second specimen of the day, a nice dab. We started to pick up some more nice plaice around the 2-3lb mark, and decided to continue fishing for flats. Seirt sent down his match bait special, and just as I said it was time to move, he said, "hang on whilst I just bring in this specimen plaice." Although, intended as a pun, he wasn't joking either! When I looked around, his 30lb class rod was bent over, and I could see long powerful runs. I grabbed the net and in went a lovely big plaice. Weighed onshore it tipped the scales at 4.15lbs. Seirt was a happy camper, as were we both with three specimens onboard!!! We then decided to move back to the Harbour, to try again for ray and huss, but as the flood started and still no joy, we called it a day. These days come very rarely and boy did we enjoy it.'

The specimen tally was a specimen dab at 1.55lbs, a specimen plaice at 4.15lbs, and a specimen LSD at 3.75lbs. What a great result! It looks like the lads on Screemin' Reels will be once more the ones to watch in the Cork Small Boats Festival http://www.skuaangling.net/

Specimen Red Gurnard

Skipper Jim Linehan of Deora De has got in on the act this time landing this fine specimen red gurnard of 2.2lbs. Jim just happened to be demonstrating to his clients techniques they could use to target bottom dwellers like haddock, whiting and gurnard when this beautiful red gurnard took a fancy to his offering. What a beautiful fish! Well done Jim!!!

Jim reports that the fishing is still excellent. He had various parties out this week and there were still plenty of cod, haddock, whiting, ling, pouting, poor cod, red gurnard, grey gurnard, tub gurnard, pollack, coalies, wrasse, doggies, conger, etc.,.... The most noticeable difference he reports is that the mackeral are now solid for the first time this year!

If you would like a trip out with Jim on Deora De why not contact him through http://www.charterangling.com/.

Cork Harbour Deep Sea Angling Championships

Monkstown SAC recently hosted the 2010 Cork Harbour Angling Championships. The event was a great success. The Harbour Championships is an annual event where all the Harbour angling clubs compete against each other. Its much looked forward to and is extremely competitive. This year the Angelsea A team, consisting of Tony Cotter, Kevin Cotter, Ian Murphy, and Finbar O' Sullivan, took the honours and held off stiff competition from 16 other teams. In second place were the Crosshaven A team, with Crosshaven C a close third.

In the individual rankings, Henry Ross of Crosshaven came first and is the Harbour Champion for 2010. Well done Henry! In second place was Ruud Boelhouwer also representing Crosshaven. Third was Ken Murphy of Anglesea. Very little separated the remaining anglers in the top ten spots reflecting the stiff competition for top places. In all 66 anglers fished the event and, despite the competiveness, a great day was had by all.

The quality of the fishing was superb. The weather was very kind, which allowed all boats the opportunity to fish the outer harbour grounds. Many boats ventured to the Smiths, with a few heading down east to Power Head and the Pollack Rock buoy. This was reflected in the fish catches with 1,121 fish caught and over 14 species landed. This gave an average of 17 fish per angler, a great return by any means. Pollack predominated the catches, followed by conger, and then whiting, lsd's, cod, pouting, ling, ballen wrasse, cuckoo wrasse, grey gurnard, coalfish, dabs, bull huss, and haddock. A great selection!

Many thanks to John Martin, Denis O' Byrne, Mary Geary and the crew at Monkstown SAC whose organisation beforehand and on the day was superb.

This annual event is a great competition and a great day out. It is, however, restricted to members of the Harbour angling clubs. All these clubs are very progressive and organise a full calender of matches fished inside and outside the harbour. Some also have a shore match calender. If you would like to join one of these clubs you should contact the club secretary. All new members are very welcome. Details are as follows:

AGHADA SAC, Donal Domeney, E-mail: ddomeney@gmail.com

ANGELSEA SAC, Pete Davis, E-mail: angelseasac@gmail.com
CARRIGALINE SAC, Flor Kent, E-mail: crossersec@hotmail.com
CLOYNE SAC, Maria Lewis, E-mail: jdom@eircom.net
COBH SAC, Mary Geary, E-mail: seaangling@esatclear.ie
CROSSHAVEN SAC, Jackie O' Keeffe, E-mail: crossersec@hotmail.com
EAST FERRY SAC, Des O' Connell, E-mail: desfishing@yahoo.ie
MONKSTOWN SAC, Aiden O' Byrne, E-mail: aidenobyrne@hotmail.com

Great season out of Ballycotton....

Fishing the eastern end of the hub's fishing grounds, Colm Sliney, aboard the Sarah Marie reports that the season has been excellent so far. Based in Ballycotton, Colm can have clients out on prime fishing grounds within 20 minutes of leaving the pier. Colm reports that they are having superb fishing so far with an excellent stamp of ling and cod in particular.

If you'd fancy a trip out with Colm on the Sarah Marie why not contact him here http://www.ballycottonangling.com/

Big Bass on plugs and fly....

Cork Harbour salt water fly fishing specialist, Richie Ryan, has been getting some superb bass lately. Across is a magnificent 12lb bass caught on an angel kiss lure recently. Unfortunately, Richie did not have a certified scales with him at the time and will not be claiming an official specimen fish. Richie was more anxious to return the fish alive. Well done, Richie!!!

The dimensions of the fish can clearly be seen in the picture. Measured up against Richie's salmon spinning rod the fish is approximately 84cms in length. According to the UK B.A.S.S. tape a fish of that length would weigh 13lb 8oz. Wow!!!

Cian Ryan, Richie's son, is one of the people benefiting from Richie's expert tuition. Cian is no mean angler himself having clinced the Munster Juvenile Deep Sea Angling title in 2009. However, this was a milestone for Cian being his first salt water fly caught fish. Hence, the broad smile.

Another group of anglers who have benefited from Richie's guiding and fly fishing expertise were from Sky Sports Italy. They were recently filming a clip to be aired on Sky Sports on fly fishing within Cork Harbour. Richie brought them to one of his favourite marks that produces excellent pollack fishing on the fly. In Richie's own words they 'murdered' the fish. I'm sure it will make for interesting TV viewing.

If you would like to book a day out with Richie why not contact him here http://www.corkbass.com/

Specimen Tub Gurnard

Fishing over the last few weeks has been hectic, so much so that it has been very hard to get any reports from any of the charter skippers as they have been too busy!!! One report that has been logged has been of the capture of a specimen tub gurnard. Tub gurnard are common enough in Cork waters but are not as commonplace as grey and red gurnard. Their average size tends to be small aswell and by no means do they reach the large proportions of tubs found in northern and western waters. That's why a catch a specimen tub is so unusual for this area. A fine 5.5lbs tub gurnard was caught recently by Paulina Turcza fishing with Jim Linehane aboard Deora De. Paulina, from Cork city, is a regular aboard Deora De and on that day herself and her companions were targeting white fish on a mark close to the Smiths. Upto that point they had plenty of fine cod and ling, but this surely was the highlight of the day out! Paulina certainly looks pleased!!!

Jim also reports that the fishing is still on fire at the moment. On Thursday he had a group of novice teenagers out in sloppy conditions on a mark east of Power Head. Despite their inexperience the group still landed over 60 conger between them! Another group had a great mixed bag of species with conger, cod, coalfish, pollack, ling, poor cod, pouting, red gurnard, grey gurnard, tub gurnard, haddock, whiting, lesser spotted dogfish, and bullhuss. According to Jim, the whiting are still in plague proportions.

While the weather is still so good you should consider a trip out with one of the hub's boats. If you fancy a trip out on the Deora De you can contact Jim on http://www.charterangling.com/

Big Bass show in Cork Harbour

There have been a number of good catches of large bass reported in recent weeks. Internationally renowned bass angler and guide, Jim Hendrick had one fantastic session. Jim, from Wexford, was holidaying in the general area with his family. He took the opportunity to shore fish the harbour. Jim's superior waterskills definitely came into play as, fishing an untried shore location, Jim had several fish over 8lbs, with two over 10lbs. One of these was 84cm. Spectacular fishing!!! Even more spectacular was that all fish were taken on the fly!!!

Jim wasn't the only one to score with a double. Myles Kelly of the CFB went big bass hunting with Pat O' Shea, of Cobh SAC. Myles thought Pat was joking when he advised him to gear up for big fish. He wasn't laughing, though, after landing this fine double, weighing in at 10lb 8oz. He was smiling, however, and well pleased he should be.

If you have landed a fine bass recently why not send us on the details and a pic to cobhsac09@yahoo.com