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 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):

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