The calm before the storm....again!

We always seem to have a knack of doing it! I mean of course of getting good weather for the light line competitions, and so it was last Saturday. What a glorious day! Beautiful sunny, blue skies and light breezes, who could ask for more. We were lucky, though, for on Sunday a humdinger of a storm moved in and continued for two or three days. In fact, the weather since could be classified as positively manky and typical of winter fare!

Well enough about the weather and onto the fishing! The fishing was spectacular! We were hoping for something similar to the National Fish-Offs, which were held in mid-Oct; what we got was better. In the fish-offs there were 11,300 fish caught between 31 anglers over 12 hours of fishing. That equates to 30 fish per angler per hour. In last weekend's light line comp 3,378 fish were caught between 20 anglers over 5 hours. That's an average of 34 fish per angler per hour. Wow!!!

The breakdown of fish caught were as follow: 3,162 whiting, 185 dabs, 10 doggies, 17 codling, 3 dragonets, and 1 tub gurnard.

Once more the craic, banter, and slagging was mighty. Three boats from the hub were used; the John Boy, the Lee Star, and Lagosta II. All three boats opted to fish more or less the same ground; the drop-off into the channel from Curlane Bank, and were within a couple of hundred yards of each other. Having said that Lagosta II, which was the furthest south seemed to have the best of the fishing. Onboard Lagosta 1,465 fish were landed between 6 anglers. On the Lee Star 1,391 fish were landed between 8 anglers, and on the John Boy 522 fish were landed between 6 anglers. The Lee Star did opt to fish the eastern side of the channel, under Carlisle, for the last hour, but other than that the boats remained put for the whole day.

Martin Perryman, overall light line champion of 2011/12, was going to be under pressure this time round. Not only was he up against John Dennehy, captain of the Irish Home Nations team, who he had pipped by the narrowest margins for the crown, but he had also Irish Internationals Davy McCormick and Gordon Darker to contend with....and all on the same boat! It didn't end there. On the Lagosta there was also Heiko Drier and Pat Swan. Martin was upto the challenge, though, and won his boat, the Lee Star, to put himself in second spot and a creditable finish against the overall winner, Heiko Drier. Well done Martin and well done Heiko!!! The full results are as follows:

  1st  Heiko Drier,                350 fish,  4616 pts,  100.0%
  2nd Martin Perryman,        270 fish,  3582 pts,  100.0%
  3rd  David Clancy,             115 fish,  1576 pts,  100.0%
  4th  Silwester Skowronski, 107 fish,  1462 pts,    92.8%
  5th  Pat Swan,                    311 fish,  4104 pts,   88.9%
  6th  John Dennehy,             237 fish,  3137 pts,   87.6%
  7th  Gordon Darker,          236 fish,   3112 pts,   86.9%
  8th  Pat O'Shea,                229 fish,   3011 pts,   84.1%
  9th  Bobby Crebor,             96 fish,   1290 pts,   81.9%
10th  Sandra O'Shea,          221 fish,   2928 pts,   81.7%
11th  John Fitz,                    89 fish,    1257 pts,   79.8%

12th  Donnacha O'Connell,  84 fish,    1168 pts,   74.1%
13th  Danny Kane,             254 fish,    3328 pts,   72.1%
14th  Rob Miland,              219 fish,   2890 pts,   62.6%
15th  Fergal Madden,         177 fish,   2350 pts,   50.9%
16th  Evan McGovern,       154 fish,   2028 pts,   43.9%
17th  Timmy Leahy,            119 fish,  1573 pts,   43.9%
18th  Paul Maloney,             31 fish,    440 pts,   27.9%
19th  Martin Foy,                74 fish,     992 pts,   27.7%
20th  Davy McCormick,        5 fish,     76 pts,       2.1%


With such good fishing the next competition is eagerly awaited. If you fancy fishing this one its on in three weeks time, on Sunday 16th December. To book in give Danny Kane a buzz on 086-8161946 or Mary Geary on 021-4812167. C'mon you know its good for you!!!