Superb specimen pollack!!!

Renowned specimen hunter, Tony Tait, recently notched up a superb specimen to his tally. This one was a bit special. During a recent Rosies Angling Club competition Tony landed a super 13lb 10oz pollack! Reef pollack don't often come at that size any more so fair play Tony that was a superb catch!!!

Tony takes up the story himself with this recently filed report....

'Our recent club competition was on Sunday 10th June. It was a fall back date for 3rd June which was cancelled due to bad weather. This was an individual competition with a limit of 5 fish per species; this means only 5 x cod, 5 x lsd, etc.,... Its also a catch and release comp. Each angler can catch 5 of every species in size witnessed by another crew member, released, and then mark his/her individual score card. The only fish anglers have to bring back to the weigh-in are their biggest flat and heaviest round (conger and ray do not count). All rays caught are to be identified & witnessed by another competing boat then released.

The weather forecast was for easterly winds of force 2 in the morning, veering southerly, then south westerly, increasing to 8mph. The forecasters got the weather right; it was a real pleasure to be out at sea, with the sun warming your body. The fishing was patchy, but everyone managed to catch and record a respectable score.

My wife, Sue, and I headed to our usual marks around the Smiths but found the fishing very slow. We then proceeded to the Ling Rocks area where we managed to pick up a few fish and a specimen pollack weighing 6.2kg (13lb 10oz). Although, this wasn't good enough to get me among the placings, it did get me in the prizes.

The final results were:

1st   Ray Donnelly, 1075 points & 14 species.
2nd  Martyn Rayner, 870 points & 14 species.

Heaviest Flat        Megrim 0.50kg  Martyn Rayner
Heaviest Round    Pollack  6.20kg Tony Tait

Winning Junior      Abigail Donnelly with 340 points & 8 species.

Abigail also had a superb haddock which on a normal day might have won her the prize for the heaviest round, but it wasn't to be. Sorry, about that Abbie!

Martyn Rayner (aka Screeming Reels) managed to his species tally for the year and he is now on 21 species for 2012.

Check out what we do at Rosies Sea Angling Club and how we get on by visiting our website. Click on the link....

http://bit.ly/NyG8dB

Also, we hold the Martin O' Brien Memorial Festival over the August Bank Holiday weekend every year. This is an open 2 day small boat species fishing competition. Check out the following link for more details....

http://bit.ly/MrhRsg

We hope to see you all there.'

Soft Plastics Fishing - Cork June 2012 - Cod & Pollack

Jim Clohessy and the Bellavista crew are at again. With the bass close season still in force the lads target cod and pollack with soft plastics.

46th Cobh SAC International Deep Sea Angling Festival

The Results and Full Report on the 2012 Festival can be found at International Festival 2012.

We are now taking entries for this year's Festival.

We've retained the prize fund for this competition at €7,500. Of this €2,000 will be in cash, the breakdown of the cash element is as follows:

1st Prize €1000
2nd Prize €400
3rd Prize €200
Best Team of 4 €400

However, there are numerous other prizes. Each day is a competition in its own right and there are prizes for 1st, 2nd, 3rd, etc.,.... plus heaviest fish. For the whole week there are also category winners like heaviest conger, heaviest cod, ling, pollack, most species, most fish....the list goes on and on.

The competition will be run over four days from the 3rd to 7th September 2012 (Mon, Tues, Thurs, & Fri). This Festival is great craic and if you want a week away with your buddies with great craic and good fishing well this is the fishing break for you. Many of the anglers are coming back to this event year after year, after year!!!

This report from last year (2011 Report) will give you an idea of the quality of fishing (and craic) to be had over the week.

Charter Boats will be provided by Cork Harbour Angling Hub (http://www.corkharbouranglinghub.com) and accommodation packages are available from the Commodore Hotel (http://www.commodorehotel.ie or ring 00-353-21-4811277 and just ask for Mary, tell her you want the fishing package and she'll sort you out), and Bella Vista House Hotel (http://www.bellavistahotel.ie).

For more information contact Cobh SAC on 00-353-21-4812167 or thru the following email addresses:

cobhsac09@yahoo.com or seaangling@esatclear.ie

The IBAN No. above is incorrect; contact Cobh SAC for correct number.

Cobh SAC Inter-Pub Comp - The Results

The day was almost a complete carbon copy of last year's comp in terms of weather and fishing. On the weather front there had been a gale the previous day but winds were from the northern quadrant and it was hoped, with winds off the land, that this would flatten the seas a bit and so it transpired! The seas were virtually flat calm which allowed some of the boats to venture as far as the Ling Rocks. It actually turned out to be a beautiful summer's day with the sun coming out and many of the anglers, on return, sporting a bright red complexion!

On the fishing front those boats that ventured to the Ling Rocks fared a bit better, in general. Mind you the winner, Pat Condon, on-board his own boat, Osprey II, opted to stay in a bit closer and did quite well on the Smiths.

Alan Kennedy, skippering the Lagosta II, was one of those who opted for the Ling Rocks. He had a motley crew on-board that included Anthony Austin, Martin Perryman, Pat O'Shea, and Tina Kneeshaw. Competition here was going to be tight...and so it turned out to be. Fishing at times was hectic with Alan firstly fishing the northern peaks and later trying out the southern end. A great selection of reef fish came over the gunwhales with a good number of pollack to 7lbs. There were also a number of fine ling, ballan wrasse, cuckoo wrasse, pouting, poor cod, etc.,... For the last hour Alan brought the crew to the mixed ground north of the Lings were the species count was ratcheted up. Haddock, red gurnard, grey gurnard, whiting came on-board aswell as a superb megrim for Martin Perryman. We all reckoned it was a specimen but Martin opted to return the fish. The only species that wasn't caught, which was unusual, was cod!

On the other boats similar species were being clocked up. However, on the Camden Mist angler Ray Meaney, fishing for Ryan's Bar, went one better. Ray managed an Angler fish of 8kg! Now that's unusual. Well done Ray!!!

It had been a long day's fishing for the 32 anglers as four boats set out at 10am and lines-up wasn't until 5pm. Mind you for those that ran into fish the day seemed to fly. All retired to Tradewinds Bar & Restaurant were there was a local band playing and some superb finger food put up by Sandra O'Shea. As the scores were being totted up, stories were swapped, a few beverages were sunk, and a bit of aftersun applied!

Finally, Danny Kane delivered the results. Tradewinds Team had won once more. The team included Danny himself, Pat Condon, Martin Kennedy, & Rob Porter. Second were Crosshaven SAC and third The Commodore Hotel. On the individual scores Pat Condon (Cobh SAC) won by a close margin of 7pts with 443pts in total. Pat O'Shea (Cobh SAC) was in second with 436pts and Martin Kennedy (Cobh SAC) was in third. Martin Perryman won the most species prize with 9 species. All in all, another great comp...roll on next year!!!

Vermelis Gang strike gold....Dutch Gold!!!

The Vermelis Gang struck gold....Dutch Gold!!! Jan Vermelis, Martijn Duijts and Jos Duijts are regular visitors Cobh and the Commodore Hotel and have being coming to Cork Harbour at this time of the year for a number of years now. 

They also come again in early September to fish the Cobh SAC International Deep Sea Angling Festival. Indeed, Jan and Jos have being fishing this event for over 30 years. This time the gang were joined by 6 newcomers to fish almost a week with skipper Joe Lynch on the Wreckhunter. 

The Dutch party got off to slow start with the weather not playing its part but on the first day Martijn had an unusual catch. While he was gilling for pollack he hooked a 3lb seatrout. Now these can be caught up and down the coast but normally close to shore but this was caught on deep water mark east of Power Head that's known for pollack, conger and ling especially. Well done Martijn!!! I'm sure he'll be trying to repeat this feat when he fished the Festival later on in the year.

Things picked up from day two onwards with skipper Joe Lynch concentrating on the grounds East of Power Head. Cod were the quarry and the results were far from disappointing. Cod to 5kgs regularly came over the gunwhales and Martijn assures us that everyone of the party had at least one of that size. I reckon he may have been telling a fisherman's tale to avoid some of the newbies getting a slagging. However, there's no doubting there were one or two fish of this size as the photos attest to. 

Two of the ling also topped the 8kg mark which was a great return for the few days. No doubt the lads will be bursting to return in September and, hopefully, the new gang will come aswell!!!

..and the good fishing continues

18lb cod caught recently on the Lee Star

As we head into the weekend its encouraging that the fishing has been good of late. Last weekend was almost as good as the weekend before. Tina Kneeshaw got a round-up of all the fishing from the skippers and filed the following report....

 "...What a great weekend here in Cork Harbour! The weather was a bit hit and miss, but a lot of the Charter Boast were out with full crews. The anglers were a mixture of experienced lads and lads out for the craic. The first report I heard was from John Geary of the "Lee Star" who fished down off Power Head. He was mostly drifting and had some great cod. One of the recent lunkers is pictured above. The cod are of a good size in fairness but they just took home enough for a feed. Great news, though, was that they found some Mackeral....the first I have heard this season....


Alan Kennedy aboard "Lagosta II" went out on Saturday. He reported that it was quite enough. Saying that though, while everyone ashore was enjoying the sun, at sea the weather was not the best. They did get a great selection of cod, dogs, conger, and grey gurnard. Alan did tell me that Sunday was different. The wind died down, and there was a bit of a slow Southerly swell. On the fishing front they had plenty of pollack around 6-8lbs, a few good cod of around 4-8lbs, and the odd ling wrasse, pouting, dogs, and grey gurnards. They also had 1/2 a box of mackeral. That's great to hear. I KNOW WHERE TO FIND MY BAIT NOW!!!


Pat Condon, a great fishing mate of mine and now a skipper aboard "Osprey" Charter Boat, had a great time with a boat load of beginners. They fished 3 miles off Power Head. Pat felt it was patchy enough, but the novices felt otherwise. They had a great day and ended up with cod, grey gurnard, pollack, ling and they also had mackeral. I can't wait to get out next weekend!!!


What a harbour we have got in fairness; the selection of species is something else. Now that the mackeral are back it is looking like we will have loads of bait and, ummmm, a feed for Brekkie.


Happy fishing lads and lassies."

Great report Tina!!! We hope you do get out this weekend and keep those reports coming!!!