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/