Mid-Winter Bass Fishing

Cobh SAC anglers have been picking up a few bass on the outer marks and beaches towards Ballycotton during January. Certainly the mild winter is helping and fish have been falling to lug, razor, and crab baits.

Cobh SAC angler, Pat O' Shea, has been persevering on a different tack, though, and has stuck to lure fishing to tempt the fish. Despite blanking four times on the trot, he struck silver on his fifth attempt and landed a 65cm fish on a shallow diver. Pat reports that this is the earliest that he's ever had bass on a lure. In fact this is the first bass Pat has had on a lure in January and February is now the only month that Pat has not had a lure caught fish. That's the next goal. Well done Pat!!!

Bass Protection

Well done to Inland Fisheries Ireland!!! This picture was posted two weeks ago on the IFI facebook site of a successful haul of illegal nets in the East Cork area.

Poaching of bass has become a big problem in the East Cork area and Cork Harbour area over the last 12 months. In November there were reputed landings of over 40 boxes of bass on one occasion and 17 boxes on another in East Cork. In the Harbour there have several reported landings of between 4 and 6 boxes of bass at a time. This illegal activity has the potential to deplete the bass stocks and totally undermine the tourist angling industry in the area.

Members of the Cork Harbour Angling Hub have invested a lot of money in developing the tourist angling product and promoting this product both at home and abroad. Interest in bass angling in particular has grown dramatically as a result of this work. Unfortunately, the damage to stock levels caused by the illegal activity has the potential to undermine all this and seriously impact angling tourism in the area. This is why the work of IFI recently has been most welcome.

IFI are committed to tackling the problem and upholding their statutory obligation to protect stocks. As the problem of illegal fishing has reached alarming proportions IFI have now set up a dedicated bass protection unit for the East Cork & Harbour area. Lets hope their efforts reap further success and that this fishery now gets the protection it deserves. Well done to all involved!

January Light Lines Comp - The Results

Cobh SAC's second Light Line Comp of the winter season got under way last Sunday 22nd January. There was a high demand for places and we nearly got three boats out. However, we didn't get quite enough and some anglers, unfortunately, had to stay ashore (among them Cobh SAC Treasurer, Pat O' Shea, and vice-Chairman, Danny Kane). If you intend to fish a Light Line Comp its imperative that you contact either Mary Geary at 021-4812167 or Danny Kane on 086-8161946 by the Tuesday evening leading upto the Comp.

In any case 16 anglers got out and fished onboard the John Boy and the Naomh Cartha. Although, there was a strong NW breeze at first, conditions settled down and it turned out to be a fine day. The anglers soon got in the swing of things and, although, the fishing wasn't as good as before Christmas, there was still plenty of fish to keep all the anglers occupied.

In total there were 588 fish caught, making it an average of 37 fish per angler. The breakdown was: - 348 whiting; 234 dabs; 1 lsd, 3 poor cod; 1 plaice; and 1 scorpion fish. The scorpion fish was a bit of a monster measuring just over 32 cms and weighing over 1lb. We've sent it off to the Irish Specimen Fish Committee in the hope that they may set up a specimen category for this fish.

The full results for the comp were:-

1. Martin Perryman, 98 Fish, 1392 pts, 100%

2. John Dennehy, 38 fish, 566 pts, 100%

3. Sylwester Skowronski, 29 fish, 415 pts, 73.3%

4. Tomasz Kujawa, 26 fish, 388 pts, 68.6%

5. Pat Condon, 24 fish, 350 pts, 61.8%

6. Zdzislam Banas, 23 fish, 323 pts, 57.1%

7. Ger Brady, 53 fish, 766 pts, 55.0%

8. Piotr Nowakowski, 21 fish, 303 pts, 53.5%

9. Rob Kelly, 48 fish, 727 pts, 52.2%

10. Cian Ryan, 47 fish, 683 pts, 49.1%

11. Grzegorz Kmiecik, 19 fish, 277 pts, 48.9%

12. Sandra O'Shea, 44 fish, 644 pts, 46.3%

13. Noel Kavanagh, 46 fish, 640 pts, 46.0%

14. Donnacha O' Connell, 29 fish, 433 pts, 31.1%

15. Eric O' Neill, 31 fish, 429 pts, 30.8%

16. Ruud Boelhower, 12 fish, 188 pts, 13.5%

The next Comp is on Sunday 19th February 2012. Remember to book early by contacting Danny or Mary on the numbers listed above!!!