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 Cobh SAC's first light line competition of the Winter season was positively glorious....a true calm before the storm!

The competitors were hoping to avail of a similar stamp of fishing to that that was experienced in the National Fish Offs over the Oct Bank Holiday Weekend. The inner harbour can certainly produce over the Winter months with vast shoals of whiting and codling in particular....and this competition didn't disappoint. Over 600 fish were caught by the 8 anglers over the 5 hours of the competition. Wow! Whiting dominated the catch with many of a good size, averaging between 2-3lbs. The breakdown of fish caught was as follows: 454 whiting, 101 dab, 4 doggies, 8 codling, 45 poor cod, and 1 scad. That's an average of 77 fish per competitor. That's a great start to the light line series!

Many of the dabs were over a 1lb in weight, coming close to the new specimen size. Surprisingly there were very few codling caught, but that may be because everyone switched to mackeral bait once the whiting turned up. There was also plenty of mackeral about, which kept everyone in fresh bait and a bit more.

Winner of the competition was Sandra O' Shea of Cobh SAC, pictured above, who had an impressive 112 fish. Second was Anthony Austin of Crosshaven SAC with 109 fish, and third, Sylvester Skowronski with 89 fish. Roll on the next light lines comp, which is being held on Sunday 5th December. If you would like to fish this event contact Cobh SAC secretary, Mary Geary on 021-4812167, or email seaangling@esatclear.ie

Another similar competition is being held on the 28th December to help raise money for the National Boat Team. If you are interested in fishing this event contact Dave Jolly on 086-2536389 or by email at davejol@eircom.net . This is being assisted by the Cork Harbour Angling Hub and the Hub's accommodation providers are offering a special accommodation package of one night bed, breakfast and evening meal for €50 per person. Now that's great value!!! If you want to avail of these deals you can make direct contact through one of the following email addresses (don't forget to quote the Irish Angling Team Fundraiser):

ardeenbandb@hotmail.com

info@bellavistahotel.ie

commodorehotel@eircom.net

Its a wrap.....

Cork Harbour Boats have been winding up their season over the last few weeks. Still they have been having some superb fishing. Eoin Barry reports: "The last Dutch group of the season was The JP Team. Their team leader, Joep Pinxteren, landed a fine specimen Pollack while shadding. This superb fish weighed in at 5.7Kg. Joep also picked up this fine cod of 4.6Kg. Eventhough, the lads encountered some poor weather during their week's fishing, they had some decent ling and conger when they did get the opportunity to fish outside the harbour. The group were joined by Michael Hennessey of the South Western Fisheries Board on their last day. Mike showed his expertise by landing two fine blonde rays of 10Kg and 8 Kg respectively. The best of these fish is pictured here."

Well done Eoin, we look forward to some more fine reports next season. Incidentally, that specimen pollack is the fourth one from Cork Harbour this year. Not a bad return at all!!!

If you'd fancy fishing on either one of the two boats of the Cork Harbour Boats Fleet, the Cuan Ban and the Castlemaiden, contact Eoin through their website at http://www.corkharbourboats.com/

Autumn Seatrout

Now that we are at the back end of the season, saltwater fly fishing expert, Cmdr. Richie Ryan is getting in some fishing of his own. Richie has had a busy season guiding and offering tuition in saltwater fly fishing. However, during a recent foray on his own, Richie managed this superb seatrout on the fly. This was caught on one of Richie's secret marks in the upper reaches of Cork Harbour.

Richie isn't the only one; some of Cobh SAC's members have been targeting the seatrout aswell. This fine fish over was caught by Cobh SAC member, Tom Hoyne; again at a well known upper harbour mark. This fish was caught on a Viva Maria Parade.

If you fancy a day out with Richie you can contact him through his website at http://www.corkbass.com/

National Fish-Offs

The National Fish Offs were held over the recent Bank Holiday weekend in Cork Harbour. This was the culmination of the process to select a boat angling team to represent Ireland in the World Championships in 2011. Thirty two anglers participated, twelve of these qualifying through the Boat Masters and the remaining anglers coming from the pool of top twenty anglers who qualified from last year's event.

The weather over the event was glorious, particularly on the Sunday with blue skies, calm seas and mild temperatures. Not that it would have mattered in any event as the competition is held entirely within the confines of the harbour targeting the hoardes of whiting and codling. As it turned out the codling didn't oblige but the whiting certainly did, as did the dabs, pouting, and other species. On the first day over 2,000 fish were caught but this was eclipsed on the Sunday when a massive 4,000 fish were caught. Over the two days the breakdown of fish caught were 3,229 whiting, 1,777 dabs, 573 poor cod, 89 codling, 33 lsd, 14 coalfish, 66 scad, 38 tub gurnard, 23 grey gurnard, 70 plaice, 5 dragonet, 91 pouting, 1 weever fish, 3 flounder, 2 scorpion fish, 1 turbot and 1 thornback ray.

Well done to Dave Jolly who won the competition outright. In the placings behind him, and joining him on the National team are Terry Boyle, Myles Howell, and Pio Enright. Brian Whelan qualifies for the team automatically having won the Boat Masters. Bian also finished in the top 20 which qualifies him for the panel next year.

The event was hosted by local club Cobh SAC and they used the following four charter boats of the Cork Harbour Angling Hub fleet:

The John Boy (http://www.sea-fishing-ireland.com/)

Lee Star (http://www.anglingcharters.eu/)

Noamh Cartha (http://www.corkanglingcharters.com/)

Lagosta II (alank167@gmail.com)

Cobh SAC are now organising light line competitions for the winter months. These competitions have been hugely popular and are confined to the harbour targeting the same stamp of fish. More codling will be expected to show as there will be no bait restrictions, and anglers armed with lugworm and codling should do very well. In contrast in the fish-offs bait was supplied and was restricted to mackeral, squid, and ragworm. The first of these competitions will be held on Sunday 7th November and the second on Sunday 5th December. For more information contact Cobh SAC secretary on 021-4812167.

There will also be a similar competition on 28th December to raise funds for the Irish Team. This is being organised by the Irish Team themselves and promises over €2,000 in prizes. A similar competition was held last year which proved very successful. Contact Dave Jolly at 086-2536389.