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.