February Light Lines Comp - The Results

Well what a turn out for this comp - the third in Cobh SAC's winter series of light line competitions. Thirty four anglers in total set out from Kennedy Pier, Cobh onboard four of the Hub's charter fleet; the John Boy, Naomh Cartha, Lagosta II, and Deora De. As has almost become the norm for these competitions the weather was exceptional; calm conditions with little wind, no rain, and quite mild to boot!!!

It was chilly when we first left the pier. However, all anglers were supplied with Jagermeister wooly hats kindly sponsored by Barry & Fitzwilliam. The quick witted and more awake anglers did quip that the bottles were missing!!!

Despite the initial chill most anglers quickly got into the swing. All four boats were anchored up within 20 minutes of leaving the pier and anglers were quickly into fish. The more successful rigs appeared to be three hook pats as the whiting shoals were just that bit up from the bottom. Indeed, those seasoned salts who were skill-fully up-tiding were achieving the better results.

For those of you who are not familiar with these competitions the rules are quite simple. Its meant to be a fun competition so the rules are kept to a minimum. The most important rule relates to line strength. Main line is restricted to 15lb b.s. or less. Shockleader, rig bodies, and snoods can be of any strength. The scorecard used is exactly the same as that used for the National Fish Off and minimum size is 18cm.

Fishing this time around was similar to the last competition in January. On average there were 35 fish caught per angler. Having said that anglers onboard the John Boy and the Naomh Cartha fared much better. That's probably because these boats have fished this competition consistently for the last three years. In total 1200 fish were caught. There were 741 whiting, 419 dabs, 2 grey gurnard, 1 tub gurnard, 8 poor cod, 13 plaice, 7 flounder, 6 scorpion fish, and 2 herring. Each boat also ran into shoals of mackeral and there were at least two dozen mackeral caught per boat. Amazing!!! This happened aswell last February!

Many of the dab were once again cracking fish and there were a good few coming close to the new specimen size. The most successful baits were mackeral and lug, with cocktails of the two doing well. Indeed, black lug tipped with mack was a killing combination!

Well done to John Dennehy of Cork, who is the current captain of the Ireland Home Nations team. John had a total of 111 fish. The full results are as follows:

1. John Dennehy, 111 fish, 1557 pts, 100.0%

2. Danny Kane, 83 fish, 1173 pts, 100.0%

3. Piotr Nowakowski, 40 fish, 598 pts, 100.0%

4. Stephen O' Neill, 27 fish, 423 pts, 100.0%

5. Martin Perryman, 107 fish, 1467 pts, 94.2%

6. Sylvester Skowronski, 26 fish, 384 pts, 90.8%

7. Noel Kavanagh, 69 fish, 1003 pts, 85.5%

8. Barry Murphy, 68 fish, 996 pts, 84.9%

9. Pat Condon, 29 fish, 445 pts, 74.4%

10. Anthony Austin, 21 fish, 307 pts, 72.6%

11. Conor Purcell, 52 fish, 757 pts, 64.5%

12. Denis Morley, 66 fish, 975 pts, 62.6%

13. Sandra O'Shea, 22 fish, 359 pts, 60.0%

14. Sean Og McShane, 15 fish, 242 pts, 57.2%

15. James Brandon, 46 fish, 667 pts, 56.9%

16. Frank Burke, 22 fish, 338 pts, 56.5%

17. John Fitz, 42 fish, 647 pts, 55.2%
18. Ted Slattery, 15 fish, 223 pts, 52.7%

19. Ger Brady, 19 fish, 303 pts, 50.7%

20. George Stockley, 53 fish, 732 pts, 47.0%

21. Brian O' Neill, 18 fish, 281 pts, 47.0%

22. Eddie Hayes, 35 fish, 510 pts, 43.5%

23. Zoltan Kowacs, 11 fish, 173 pts, 40.9%

24. Rob Kelly, 31 fish, 474 pts, 40.4%

25. Donnacha O' Connell, 42 fish, 622 pts, 39.9%

26. Tomasz Kujawa, 16 fish, 236 pts, 39.5%

27. Eric O' Neill, 9 fish, 128 pts, 30.3%

28. Eddie Deasy, 9 fish, 128 pts, 30.3%

29. Stuart Power, 28 fish, 408 pts, 26.2%

30. Mike Slattery, 10 fish, 154 pts, 25.8%

31. Zdzislam Banas, 23 fish, 345 pts, 22.2%

32. Steve Bry, 6 fish , 89 Pts, 21.0%

33. Grzegorz Kmiecik, 24 fish, 323 pts, 20.7%

34. Andrew Dwohig, 5 fish, 76 pts, 12.7%

The next light line competition is on Sunday 25th March. If you'd fancy fishing this then give Danny Kane a buzz on 086 - 8161946 or Mary Geary on 021 - 4812167 or on email at seaangling@esatclear.ie.

The Angling Hub is also hosting the Fundraiser for the Irish Boat Angling Team. This friendly competition is on on Saturday 10th March. If you'd fancy fishing this then contact Kit Dunne on 087-6832179.

Plastic Fantastique....

In the last two years there has been a bit of a soft plastic revolution in Cork Harbour. One of the number of local anglers spearheading this is Kevin Murphy, owner of the Bella Vista Self Drive Fleet.

Kevin has taken full advantage of the recent settled spell. On Sunday he was guiding a Dutch couple targeting a myriad of species on soft plastics. They didn't have to go out too far for at the Harbour mouth they had great success with plenty of wrasse and codling to 4lbs....given the light gear they were using they had great sport!!!

Here's Kevin pictured with one of the better wrasse. Hey, Kevin you need to change the date settings on your camera....people will think it was last year you were fishing!

Fishing in Feb - Soft plastics in Cork

Jim Clohessy was out and about Cork Harbour again this weekend trying out some new gear. Although, Jim was targeting bass with some soft plastics he did manage some nice cod. Have a look at his video to see the results!

Soft Plastics Fishing - Cork harbour

Jim Clohessy was out and about this Sunday before the Ireland vs Wales Rugby match. The fishing was good and Jim should have stayed out. Jim's patriotism got the better of him, but given the result maybe the fishing was a better option afterall!!!

Winter wrecking - Lagosta II

A motley crew of anglers from Cobh SAC, Crosshaven SAC, Guileen SAC, & Aghada SAC recently headed out on a wrecking trip. Taking full advantage of the recent settled conditions a trip was organised by Stephen O' Neill with Alan Kennedy onboard Lagosta II.

Alan brought the lads to a selection of wrecks off Cork Harbour. Although, there were no real big fish landed there were no complaints as everyone onboard had at least 4 or 5 fish. Mostly ling were landed but there were a few cod with the biggest going to about 9lbs. Martin Perryman had the biggest fish of the day with a 13lb ling. Stephen O' Neill had the most fish and ran Martin very close for the prize of the biggest fish.

Fair play to Alan Kennedy who worked hard all day to make sure the lads were still catching and by day's end there was almost two boxes of fish onboard. Now that's not bad for this time of year.

If you'd fancy a day out in the Lagosta II why not give Alan a call on 087 - 6792796 or email Alan at alank167@gmail.com.

Winter session onboard Naomh Cartha

With the recent spell of settled weather Ger Keohane, skipper of the Naomh Cartha, took advantage and headed for the Ling Rocks.

Fishing started off slow but then Ger switched to a secret spot he has and sure enough it came up trumps. Nothing major but nonetheless the lads had a few ling to 14lbs and one or two cod. Not bad at all considering the time of year.

If you'd fancy a day out on the Naomh Cartha this year why not contact Ger on 087 - 2589448 or check out his website for more details: Naomh Cartha.