Cobh SAC Inter-pub Competition 2012

Well we're given you plenty of notice. This competition is a great craic and is being held this year in two week's time - Saturday 9th June. Get your entries into Danny Kane (086-8161946) as soon as possible.

Just to remind you how good last year's outing was have a read here.....

A few bass before the ban....

The pre-ban bass season was shaping up to be a good one. With such a mild winter water temperatures held up well and rarely fell below the 10 degree mark. Good numbers of fish were showing up all winter on the outer harbour beach marks to bait. Some of the die hard bass anglers, such as Cobh SAC Treasurer, Pat O' Shea, were sticking to the lures and this was paying off as the first fish started to showing to lures in late January.

This continued right through into March but then in April it all went pear shaped. With winds constantly coming from the Northern quarter, particularly north easterly winds, the water temperatures actually dropped at a time when they would normally be rising gradually. This weather pattern was constant right upto the ban with water temps staying around the 10 degree mark. This impacted on the fishing which was proving difficult. Despite this some anglers were in amongst the fish. Pat O'Shea reported plenty of blanks interspersed with cracking sessions of 6, 7, 8, 9 and even 10 fish!!!

These sessions were really turning accepted logic on its head. Normally pre-ban you'd expect a good session to produce 2 or maybe 3 fish. In truth the fishing pre-ban can be a bit hit and miss. Pat assures us that they were plenty of misses and he had to work hard. Who minds the misses and hard work if you can have sessions like that every so often. It augurs well for the season ahead and let's hope its a good one for all you bass anglers out there. It certainly looks promising for the Cork Harbour area. Roll on the 16th!!!

Skipper's Diaries - Lee Star

Skipper John Geary of the Lee Star was out on Monday. He reckons the fishing on Monday was just as good as it had been the day before.

John brought his party down East but they fished off Guileen first. Here they had plenty of the red kelpy cod but they were small; most being below the 4lb mark.

John decided a move was in order and brought his party down further East; a couple of miles off Power Head to be exact. Here they had cracking fishing with some fine cod in the 6lb - 8lb bracket with a few fish nudging 9lbs.

By the end of the day they had a few dozen fish in the boxes and the lads had plenty of fillets for the freezer going home!!! Well done John!!!



If you'd fancy a day out on the Lee Star have a look at John's website here for contact details.

Skippers Diaries - Bellavista Fleet (Part 2)

Buoyed by their success on Sunday, the Dutch party headed off for more of the same on Monday. Of course they headed directly for Jim Clohessy's mark but tried a few other reef marks aswell. Owner of the fleet Kevin Murphy takes up the story....


"8am, full of excitement from the previous day the lads headed back to the off-shore reef and caught some fine cod (upto 95cm!!!) and also caught some nice pollack. The afternoon was to prove difficult and we moved 6 miles to another reef which produced lots of fish but not to the quality of the previous day....

However, in pike and zander terms it was a busy day and one these anglers will never forget!!! Light gear, NO BAIT and CLEAN boats. A great way to start a season!!!

The next group will arrive Saturday. Watch this space....."

If you'd fancy taking out one of the Bellavista self-drive boats for a day's fishing have a look at the Bellavista website here for more details.

Skippers Diaries - Bellavista Fleet

Bellavista were host to a party of Dutch pike & zander anglers last weekend. At the moment the season for pike and zander is closed on the Continent so this group took the opportunity to travel to Ireland to try out their freshwater tactics in the sea!

They had heard of the cracking soft plastic fishing to be had off Cork Harbour and reckoned that their tactics were very similar. So with this in mind they brought all their freshwater tackle...rods, reels, braid, soft plastics, etc.,... and you know, its almost identical to what we'd use!!!

On their first day last Saturday they did struggle. Mind you last Saturday was a dirty day with a stiff easterly breeze and fishing couldn't be easy. However, to up the anti Kevin Murphy chose to call in the services of veteran angler, Jim Clohessy for Sunday's fishing. What a wise move!

Jim directed the fleet to a particular reef mark of his east of Power Head and set the boats up on a chosen drift. Almost immediately the anglers were into fish. A steady stream of pollack and cod fell to soft plastic baits. The cod in particular were of a good stamp and, fittingly, Jim landed the best fish, a beast of a cod over 90cm in length. The fish wasn't weighed but it was estimated at over 18lbs in weight. Wow, what a fish Jim, well done!!!

What sport the lads had; particularly when you consider the lure rods that were being used. For instance, Jim's 18lber was landed on an Illex Element Rider, a rod you'd be more likely to consider for bass fishing! There must have been some bend in that rod!!!

If you'd fancy booking one of the Bellavista self-drive boats for a days fishing off Cork Harbour have a look at their website here for contact details.

Skippers Diaries - Osprey

Last weekend, while most of the Cork Harbour charter fleet were working the grounds to the West, and particularly the Ling Rocks, skipper Pat Condon, on-board the Osprey, opted for the fishing grounds to the East. Pat had a gang out from the Sportsman Bar in Cork, led by veteran angler, Pat Duggan and he was anxious that they'd have good fish for the table. With this in mind Pat brought them to a favourite mark of his a few miles off Power Head.

This is a spot that Pat knew would produce good cod if they were on the feed and, as luck would have it, they certainly were. Straight from the off they were into fish and over the course of the day a steady flow of good cod came over the gunwales. Most of the fish were in the 6 to 8lb bracket but the best fish of the day fell to Pat Duggan himself who had a beauty of 9.5lbs. Well done Pat!!!



If you'd fancy a day out with skipper Pat Condon on the Osprey you can find his contact details on his website here. Pat is an experienced angler himself, having fished for the Irish international team on several occasions and also recording over 30 specimen fish.

Boat Angling Ireland Meet.....

Boat Angling Ireland organised a meet in Cork Harbour last weekend and had a great attendence. Over 20 anglers participating using their own boats and two of the Hub's charter boats, the Lee Star and Deora De.

The competition started on Saturday but was a bit of a struggle at first. The weather didn't help with a stiff easterly breeze making for difficult conditions outside the harbour. Many of the smaller boats opted to stay within the confines of Roches Point and concentrate on the Harbour species. Martin Rayner and Seirt Schultz of Screeming Reels opted for this tactic and it served them well as they bagged up over 15 species.

Sunday was a better day weatherwise and also on the fishing front. However, there were a few casulties to the festivities of the previous night as many of the crew had watched the two matches in the Commodore Hotel and then had moved onto Tradewinds Bar/Restaurant for further craic and banter. Nevertheless, for those who made it out it was a great day. Many of the boats were able to make the long trek out to the Ling Rocks in flat calm conditions. The journey was worth it.

The fishing on the Ling's was electric. The crew of Screeming Reels pushed their tally upto 23 species with Seirt bagging a bonus specimen red gurnard of 2.1lbs. The other boats faired out much better aswell with anglers getting stuck in good pollack, cod, and ling.

Thankfully, the fishing on Sunday redeemed the weekend and certainly made up for Saturday. Many of the gang returned home content and, hopefully, we'll see them all next year at the next BAI meet in Cork Harbour.

Skippers Diaries - the John Boy

The John Boy one of the many Charter boats from the Hub out last weekend making the best of this great spell of weather. Skipper Donie Geary brought his guests out to one of his favourite marks on the Ling Rocks and soon had them in amongst the fish. Donie filed this report:-

"I had a crew from Anglesea SAC of Cork with me on Sunday and we had a great day. The anglers boarded the John Boy at 10am at Crosshaven and we set off promptly on a very fine, calm & warm Sunday  morning.

As conditions were so favourably I decided to make directly for the Ling Rocks, a well known and frequented mark at this time of the year. I logged in the GPS co-ordinates of a particular spot I have and we headed off at full speed. The time passed quickly by as the banter on-board was great.

Shortly, after arriving we began our first drift. The lads were in high spirits and strange references were being made to window dressings - what that was about I don't know but it certainly made for great craic between the lads. However, they didn't have much time to make much more of it as they were off the mark fairly quickly with ling, cod, pollack and wrasse being boated at, pleasantly, regular intervals. The drift carried on producing, with a good mix of species coming on-board; some of the ling and cod were of a good size!

After a bite to eat, and with Big John getting his much revered rocket soup, we went to anchor in search of conger. Things were slow enough to start with but Big John eventually got us off the mark. A few congers followed, along with the odd ling, pollack, pouting, and cod.

After a move in the late afternoon the ling came on strong for a spell. We also had some more conger and few more species for good measure. By days end we had 35 ling on-board. Now that can be classed as a very good day's fishing. The Lagosta II was fishing close by, so I checked in with skipper Alan Kennedy to see how they had got on. They had 36 ling, one more than we did. My, my, my the fishing on the Ling Rocks was superb today....and what a fine day weather-wise it was too. That was a real bonus!

Winner of the boat in the Anglesea comp was Micheal (Conger) Healy with a very respectable 397 points. Not only did Michael have some conger, which was to be expected, but he also had a good mixture of species including ling, pollack, cod, pouting, gurnard & cuckoo wrasse. What a great day....more reports to follow, Donie."

If you'd fancy a day out in the John Boy check out Donie's website here for contact details. 

Cobh SAC - 1st Master Comp of the year

Vice-Chairman, Danny Kane, is a persuasive bugger. In the run up to Cobh SAC's first master angler comp of the year, Danny recruited two new members for Cobh SAC. Martin Kennedy and Dave Jolly are two of Ireland's most experienced anglers and have represented Ireland on many an occasion. Both anglers were signed up by Danny in time to fish the comp. Boy, was this certainly going to put the pressure on the rest of us!

....and so with two international anglers on-board we headed off last Sunday morning bright and early, confident in the knowledge we were going to have our backsides whipped...but, at least, we'd be on a steep learning curve. Danny, however, didn't look in the form to learn anything. He did look the worst for wear and, no wonder, as he was up all night entertaining the crew from Boat Angling Ireland on an all night session. Serves you right, Danny!

What a beautiful day it was! Hardly any breeze, blue skies, warm temps, almost like summer. Skipper Ger Keohane steered the Naomh Cartha to one of his favourite marks on the edge of the Smiths and anchored up. The fishing, though not hectic, was alright. The two ex-Irish team lads swept out ahead but auld salt, Frankie Cronin, kept pace with them, as did Sandra O' Shea. By the end of the day a good tally of fish had been brought on-board. In total there were 100 fish with the breakdown as follows: 3 coalfish, 5 cod, 15 conger, 3 doggies, 13 ling, 31 pollack, 1 grey gurnard, 3 poor cod, 21 cuckoo wrasse, and 5 ballan wrasse.

The final results were:

1st Martin Kennedy, 25 fish, 408 pts
2nd Dave Jolly, 25 fish, 361 pts
3rd Sandra O' Shea, 16 fish, 268 pts
4th Frank Cronin, 8 fish, 223 pts
5th Danny Kane, 11 fish, 183 pts
6th Noel Kavanagh, 7 fish, 139 pts
7th Donnacha O' Connell, 3 fish, 87 pts
8th Eric O' Neill, 5 fish, 81 pts

Not a bad start to the Summer, roll on the next comp next month (keep an eye here for details)

If you fancy a day out on the Naomh Cartha have a look at the website (here) for Skipper Ger Keohane's contact details.

Cobh SAC Light Line Comps - Overall Results 2012

Having just completed the April Light Line competition we were in a position to collate the results of all 5 light line competitions of the winter 2011/12 season to determine who was the overall winner. What a close run series it turned out to be!!!

Anglers were awarded points for their placings in each individual competition. If they finished 1st they were awarded 1 point; if second, then 2 points; third, 3 points; and so on down the line. If an angler missed a competition then they were automatically given 35 points. The best results from 4 comps out of 5 counted so that meant the worst result could be dropped. After all the points were posted, the calculations done, and the placings organised a clear picture emerged. There was still no separating the top two anglers. Martin Perryman and John Dennehy were both level at the top with 8 points apiece. 

To determine the winner the committee decided to refer back to numbers of fish caught in the four competitions that gave the anglers qualifying points. When this was done Martin Perryman emerged the clear winner with 362 fish as compared to John with 278 fish. Well done Martin!!! Well done to John aswell!!! It couldn't been any closer. What a great competition!

Many thanks to all the anglers who took part! We hope to see you all again for next winter's series.


Many thanks also to all the skippers, particularly Donie Geary of the John Boy and Ger Keohane of the Naomh Cartha. Fair play to you lads you kept us on the fish!

The full results of the series were as follows:

1. Martin Perryman 8pts

2. John Dennehy 8pts

3. Slyvester Skowronski 12pts

4. Anthony Austin 25pts

5. Sandra O'Shea 36pts

6. James Brandon 39pts

7. Ger Brady 39pts

8. Danny Kane 45pts

9. Noel Kavanagh 47pts

10. Pat Condon 55pts

11. Rob Kelly 69pts

12. Eddie Deasy 70pts

13. Donnacha O'Connell 75pts

14. Pat Wright 75pts

15. Tomasz Kujawa 78pts

16. Stephen O'Neill 79pts

17. Frank Burke 80pts

18. Piotr Nowakowski 81pts

19. John Fitz 83pts

20. Pat O'Shea 90pts

21. Eric O'Neill 90pts

22. Conor Purcell 90pts

23. George Stockley 100pts

24. Bobby Crebor 102pts

25. Cian Ryan 106pts

26. Zdislam Banas 107pts

27. Zoltan Kowacs 108pts

28. Eoin O'Brien 112pts

29. Grzegorz Kmiecik 113pts

30. Barry Murphy 113pts

31. Colm Daly 115pts

32. Denis Morley 117pts

33. Ronan Coakley 119pts

34. Sean Og McShane 119pts

35. Timmy Leahy 120pts

36. Martin O'Leary 120pts

37. Ruud Boelhower 121pts

38. Ted Slattery 123pts

39. Steve Bry 124pts

40. John O'Reilly 124pts

41. Brian O'Neill 126 pts

42. Martin Breecher 126pts

43. Eddie Hayes 127pts

44. Deirdre Murphy 128pts

45. Stuart Power 134pts

46. Mike Slattery 135pts

47. Andrew Dwohig 139pts

Next year's series of Light Line Competitions will be starting in November again. Keep an eye on this space later in the year for more details.