Winter chill fails to deter light line anglers....

On Sunday 5th December Cobh SAC held its second light line competition of the Winter season. Despite the absolute freezing conditions, 7 anglers were brave enough to venture out on the John Boy, skippered by Donie Geary.

These light line competitions have been blessed with good fishing and this one was to be no different. Over the 5 hours fishing 217 fish were landed giving each angler an average of over 30 fish. The mainstay of the catch were codling and they were of a good stamp too with many averaging 3 to 5lbs.

There were also plenty of whiting with many fish going to 2.5lbs and plenty of dabs also with fish going close to specimen size. Anthony Austin from Crosshaven SAC came in for a fierce slagging as he managed a conger on lugworm of all things!

Winner of the competition was Martin Perryman of both Cobh SAC & Crosshaven SAC. However, Sandra O' Shea of Cobh SAC ran him a close second, with Danny Kane coming in in third spot. All competitiors were glad of the soup when they got back to the Commodore Hotel. Mind you the constant action made sure that anglers didn't have a chance to get cold. Roll on the next light line comp in January!!!!

Cobh SAC Boat Master Angler

The fourth and last competition in this year's series to decide Cobh SAC's master angler was held on the last Sunday of November. This was the weekend that the first of this Winter's cold snaps blew in and boy was it cold! The heavy frost that morning prevented many from turning up but despite the conditions six hardy anglers braved the elements and boarded the John Boy at Kennedy Pier.

Skipper for the day was Mark O' Reilly as Donie had prior engagements. Mark brought the crew to one of Donie's marks on the Smiths to start with. Fishing was slow, but having said that the quality of fish brought to the net was good. In total there was 71 fish caught, the vast majority codling and whiting. Having said that most of the cod were from 5lbs up.

Although, conditions were good to start with, a freezing NE breeze blew up. With that extra wind chill the anglers had to no option but to head back to a more sheltered harbour mark. Everyone was well wrapped up, as can be seen from the photo above of that international man of mystery. They seek him here...they seek him there...but here's a Christmas quiz for all; can you identify that well known club member?

When everyone got back to base at the Commodore Hotel they were glad of that hot bowl of soup. The scores were totted up and the outright winner on the day was Danny Kane with 15 fish and 278 points. This was enough to secure the Master Angler title for the year. Well done Danny!!! Danny just managed to pip veteran Frankie Cronin at the last hurdle. Second on the day was Sandra O' Shea, also with 15 fish, and 229 points. Third was Noel Carey with 16 fish and 225 points.

What a year Danny Kane has had; Cobh SAC Boat Master Angler, winner of the Cobh International Deep Sea Angling Festival and......cover of Irish Angler!!!!!!

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.

The last of the summer wine....

Well Autumn actually....Richie Ryan was out at the end of last week with well known bass guide and renowned salt water fly fishing expert, Jim Hendrick. In fairness to Richie, he put Jim and another client onto bass despite the difficult conditions. Not only were the tides not right but there was a stiff north easterly all day, which usually conspires to kill off the fishing. Undaunted Richie brought his guests to a few of his favoured Harbour marks and came up trumps. Here's a picture of Jim with the best fish of the day, a fine well conditioned 7lber....a superb fly caught fish!

If you'd fancy a day out with Richie check out his website for contact details at http://www.corkbass.com/

Deora De - Specimen Blonde Ray

Jim Linehane, skipper of Deora De had a group from Wales out last week. He's given us the following report: "John Morgan form Port Talbot, Wales, had this fine specimen blonde ray while fishing onboard Deora De last Wednesday. This is the second time that this previously tagged blonde has been caught by an angler onboard Deora De. She was also caught on 18-9-09 by English angler, Andy King, when she weighed in at 20.25lbs.

One year later the fish weighed in at just over 26lbs. C.F.B. tag no: 32790, she was released in perfect condition to fight another day. Hope to see her soon."

The Welsh crew also had a specimen mackeral of 2lb 5oz. Looks like they had good fishing allround.

Checks out Jim's webpage at http://www.charterangling.com/

Skipper Diaries - Osprey II

Skipper Pat Condon of the Osprey II reports that fishing over the last few weeks has been up and down. However, on one trip he had a few blue shark and a number of specimen garfish. Here's a fine action shot of one of those blues going back!

On every other trip they've managed some fine codling. Here's a pic of one of those rock cod found on the eastern marks around Power Head. Pat later told me that the fish came in at over 16lbs. Its not bad fishing all the same!

Although, this is Pat's second season skippering the Osprey II he brings a wealth of experience to the table having represented Ireland at boat angling and captaining the team on several occasions. If you'd fancy a day out with Pat why not contact him through his website on http://www.atlantic-charters.net/

Skipper Diaries - Cork Harbour Boats

The Cork Harbour Boat fleet has been busy this last month. Cork Harbour Boats consist of the Cuan Ban and the Castlemaiden. These boats are skippered by the Barry family with John, Finbar, and Eoin sharing the honours. John & Finbar are definitely the most experienced skippers in the Harbour having operated Cork Harbour Boats now for over 40 years. As you can imagine they have a wealth of knowledge regarding the fishing inside and outside the harbour. Their notebook with fishing marks is worth its weight in gold!!! Have a look at their website at http://www.corkharbourboats.com/ for more information.

This knowledge was put to good use this September with the Barrys catering for groups from Holland, Denmark, aswell as several local groups. Indeed, it is worth saying that many of the Dutch groups have been returning year on year, with some coming since the 1970's.

Eoin reports that fishing has been very good with good conger, cod, ling, pollack, and whiting. The Danish group had excellent fishing, finishing up their week with over 24 species. That's some going!!!

There were many notable fish caught. The pic over is one of a fine specimen blonde ray. The previously tagged fish weighed in at 12.2kg and was caught by Peter Schaap of Holland.

Also caught that week was another fine blonde of 9kg. This was caught by Wim van der Zijden, also a member of that Dutch group.

There was also some fine fish caught on the outer harbour reefs. Two conger over the 14kg mark were boated. A fine ling of 9kg was caught by Arnold of the Donker group, pictured above, and also pictured above, is a 6kg ling, caught by Derek from the Amersfoot group.

The Irish lads weren't left out of the action either. Here's a picture of young Dylan Geary with a fine pollack of 10lbs. That's a fine pollack by any standards!!!

Just before going to press, rumour had it that the Barry's had boated a specimen pollack. Specimen pollack are few and far between. Well done lads!!!

Once more details emerge, we'll post an entry here. Watch this space!

If you'd fancy fishing Cork Harbour, the Cork Harbour Boat fleet is worth considering. Contact, John, Finbar, or Eoin through their website on http://www.corkharbourboats.com/

Skipper Diaries - Wreckhunter

Skipper Joe Lynch reports good fishing over the latter end of September aboard Wreckhunter. Two weekends ago he had a party down east on a favourite mark of his. The lads had a great day with good cod fishing. Best of these cod was this fine fish pictured over.

Last weekend he brought a party out to the Smith's. The gang had over 20 conger of the stamp of this fish over. One of the anglers, targeting a large conger, put on a whole mackeral flapper and was rewarded with this fine ling.

Joe is hoping that this calibre of fishing continues for the next few weeks. It'll be a fine way to wrap up the season.

If you'd fancy a day out fishing on the Wreckhunter, you can contact Joe through his website at http://www.wreckhunter.ie/

Skipper's Diaries - Bella Vista Self-Drive Fleet

Kevin Murphy of Bella Vista boats reports that he has had some very satisfied clients in September. Most days the fleet have been able to get out as the weather has been reasonably good. The fishing has been quite good aswell with many boats reporting good catches of blonde ray from the Turbot Bank, with many fine specimens amongst them. That's good news to hear, especially as it had been reported that the Bank had been trawled and that the skipper in question had landed several boxes of ray. The blonde ray are localised to this spot and are very susceptible to overfishing. Indeed, all small boat anglers have been encouraged to return their catch and most abide by this voluntary code of conduct. Kevin also reports that the bass fishing has been quite good aswell. All this has been good news for the Cork Small Boats Festival which was held at the end of the month. Indeed, fishing had held up for this week and a record number of species had been landed. Congratulations must go to regular contributor Jim Clohessy and his crew onboard Skua who won the event with 31 species. That is a record in itself. In all over 50 species of fish were landed. Jim will give a full account in due course. In the meantime, if you are interested in the results have a look here http://www.skuaangling.net/.

If you would like to avail of a day's angling onboard one of the boats of the Bella Vista fleet why not contact Kevin at http://www.bassfishingireland.com/

Bella Vista - Tight Lines Bass Challenge 2010

Jim Clohessy, organiser of the Cork Small Boats Festival, reports on a unique bass angling festival which was organised through the Bella Vista House Hotel recently: "I got involved with the administration of this Festival, which was held from the 6th to the 11th of September. This was the inaugural event of what is planned to be a bigger event next year. It is organised by the Bella Vista Hotel and Tight Lines (a Dutch angling travel company). Basically twelve Dutch anglers arrived on the Saturday beforehand for seven nights and would have a bass fishing competition over four days. Twelve anglers is the max that can be accommodated comfortably in the self-drive fleet."

"The competition was fished on a catch, photo, and release basis. The winner would be determined by the best six fish in length over four days for each angler. Simple but effective!"

"The guys chilled out on arrival on Saturday evening and were chomping at the bit to get out Sunday. The plan was that some of us locals would go out for a few hours with the competitors to give them some pointers as to where they might catch some bass. We took a spin around and managed to catch some fine fish so things looked bright for the week ahead."

"The competitors decided they would book a charter for one of the non-competition days of the week. Looking at the forecast it was clear that Monday would be one of the poorer days in small boat terms so they took a charter and fished for a variety of species on Monday."

"The competition proper started proper on Tuesday and there was a good return of fish almost all succumbed to hard and soft plastics. Wednesday was a tough day in bass terms, strange considering the huge spring tides. The anglers had a superb day on Thursday. Friday tested the best with some inclement weather but the competition was on a knife edge. The competition was won by George de Bruyker with a fine total of 3480mm of bass, his best fish was a lovely bass of 660mm. the best fish of the week was a sturdy 730mm."

"The winner took home an all expenses paid trip back to Cobh next year with the others getting rods and reels and some splendid trophies. It is planned to run the event next year over a series of weekends to accommodate demand."

If you'd fancy fishing on one of the boats of the Bella Vista self drive fleet why not contact Kevin at http://www.bassfishingireland.com/

Congratulations must also go to Jim Clohessy and his crew aboard Skua who this week won the prestigious Small Boats Festival (http://www.skuaangling.net/). Hopefully Jim will give us a full report in the near future.

Skipper's Diaries - The John-Boy

The John-Boy was once again the top boat in the 2010 Cobh International Deep Sea Angling Festival. Skipper Donal Geary sent us on this report:

"The Cobh four day Festival once again proved a fantastic success. Eventhough, the entries were down in the low fifties, competition was very tense with anglers from Holland, Germany, Wales, England, Scotland and all parts of Ireland taking part.

On Monday morning the boats departed Kennedy Pier at 10am in excellent conditions to fish the Smiths area. Fishing was very slow with boats moving about in search of fish. Best of the day was Gerard Richardson with a hard earned 350 pts. Best on the John-Boy was 250 pts.

On Tuesday the fishing area was changed to east of Power Head. This proved to be the best move of the week for the John-Boy. Having dropped anchor at 11am we were fishing the last hour of the ebb. The fishing in that hour was slow with only 4 conger landed. We awaited anxiously for the tide to turn and an improvement in the fishing.

Suddenly, as if turning on a light, the conger came on the feed and all hell broke loose. The fish were coming over the gunwhales 3 and 4 at a time. With all fish needing to be netted, weighed onboard, and recorded yours truly was a spent force by the time the lines up call came at 4:45pm. We ended up with 67 conger to 12kg, a number of pollack, ling, cod, and dogs. The best on the boat and winner for the day was Danny Kane with 835 pts, followed closely by Frank Cronin with 800 pts, also onboard.

On Wednesday we had a well earned rest.

On Thursday morning we again headed east in search of the same stamp of fishing as Tuesday. Alas, as anybody in fishing will tell you, no two days are the same. Again after a slow start things improved by early afternoon. We managed to boat 42 conger with the most falling to local angler, Richie Fortune. This helped Richie to finish joint winner of the day with 555 pts.

On Friday the weather took a change for the worst. All boats were forced to fish nearer to Roches Point. Fishing was very slow all day with the best falling to another local angler, Paul Tennant, with 335 pts. Best on John-Boy was Paul Evans of Wales with 285 pts which was enough to give him 3rd place on the day.

A great evening was had by all in the Commodore Hotel later on with the presentation of prizes and dinner going well into Saturday morning. Worthy winner of the event was Danny Kane with 1830 pts. Best boat went to the John-Boy for the second successive year." (Pictured above left is Skipper Donie Geary with the prize).

If you'd fancy a day's fishing on the John-Boy why not contact Donie. Details are on his website here http://www.sea-fishing-ireland.com/

Cobh International Deep Sea Angling Festival

In the week just gone Cobh SAC hosted a very successful deep sea angling festival out of Cork Harbour. This was the 44th year that this event has been run and, as per its usual format, the fishing was over four days. 50 anglers from Ireland, England, Scotland, Wales, Holland, and Germany participated.


This year the fishing was excellent. Over 1,000 fish were landed over the 4 days. These included 468 conger, 312 pollack, 76 lesser spotted dogfish, 51 ling, 46 pouting, 35 cod, 22 grey gurnard, 11 cuckoo wrasse, 6 coalfish, 3 bullhuss, and 1 garfish. Biggest fish of the week was a 17kg conger, caught by Cork angler, Bob Crebor.

As per usual, the craic and banter during the week was excellent. Each evening the anglers retired to a suitable watering hole to chew the cud over the day's events. This proved especially popular with the foreign anglers!

The event was won by Danny Kane, from Donegal, with over 150kgs of fish. Points are awarded per kg of fish weighed. As well as the usual battery of trophies and crystal prizes, Danny also won €1,000 for first place. In second place was Paul Tennant of Cobh SAC, who won €400, and in third was Richie Fortune, also of Cobh SAC, who won €200. The Ireland B team won the team event and collected a cheque for €400.

A number of the boats from the Cork Harbour Angling Hub were used for the fishing and these included:


The John Boy, skippered by Donal Geary http://www.sea-fishing-ireland.com/

Wreckhunter, skippered by Joe Lynch http://www.wreckhunter.ie/

Cuan Ban, skippered by John Barry http://www.corkharbourboats.com/

Lee Star, skippered by Aiden Kneeshaw http://www.anglingcharters.eu/

Entries are now been taken for the 2011 Festival. If you would like more information, contact Cobh SAC club secretary, Mary Geary, at seaangling@esatclear.ie


FOR A FULL REPORT HAVE A LOOK HERE http://cobhsac.blogspot.com/2010/09/2010-festival.html

Boat Angling Ireland Meet

Boat-Angling-Ireland held their annual shark meet out of Cobh this weekend . This is the second year on the trot that Cobh has been used as a base and by all accounts this year's meet was just as successful as last year's.

9 boats fished this meet, a combination of own boats and charters, and had great weather for the weekend. On the Saturday all boats headed out to that blue shark belt between 10 and 14 miles offshore and weren't disappointed. By all accounts the blues were in aggressive feeding mode. All boats had plenty of blues with an average of 5 per boat landed. Several of the blues were in excess of the 'ton' with the biggest going to 160lbs. That's some fish!

Celebrations went long into the night back on land. The lads had made the Commodore Hotel their base for the weekend and were not alone. There was another group of 24 lads there from the Dublin based Sheridan group fishing a competition for the weekend out of Cork Harbour. There were also a group of 8 Dutch lads over for the week fishing. As you imagine the craic and banter over fishing was mightly. As one local hack remarked '....you'd need a lifejacket and fishing rod just to get into the bar.'

To see the full reports on the weekend's fishing have a look here http://www.boat-angling-ireland.com/phpbb/viewtopic.php?f=32&t=5583.

If you are interested in using the Commodore Hotel for a base you can check out rates here http://www.avvio.com/hotels/Commodore_Hotel/bookings/client.php?action=redo&form=hotel_home&SID=b542a1c132904493c95291c909fea246&ul=2