1st of the Winter season.....

Mick Barry with a superb Plaice

The Cork Harbour Light Lines series of competitions got off to a great start this Sunday. In the first competition of the season over 30 anglers, from as far away as Dublin, Wicklow, and Ulster, competed and what a great day they had!!! The weather was superb and the fishing was great!

On a crisp, bright and sunny morning the 30 anglers congregated on Cobh's Kennedy Pier for the oft. Four of the Angling Hub's charter boats were used for the day:- the John Boy, Lagosta II, Lee Star, and Naomh Cartha.

This year the boats had the option of fishing outside the harbour, albeit within a limit of one nautical mile of Roches Point. However, none of the skippers opted for this. Instead, all opted to fish Deep Hole once more. This spot has always been the favourite over the years holding hoards of whiting, dabs, and codling at times. 

Martin O'Leary with a Tub Gurnard

All manner of rigs and traces were dropped to the depths in search of fish; three hook pats, 2 ups 1 down, 3 hook legers, herme bay spreaders, and boomed traces. The variety of baits were also mind boggling...crab, razor, mussel, rag, lug, wraps and mack. However, it was lug and mack that were most successful, with frozen mack having the edge; plenty of fresh mack were caught but when used as bait were not producing to the same extent of the frozen stuff!

From the start fish were landed but not all boats were having the same success. The John Boy, Naomh Cartha, and Lee Star were in about 70 feet of water and catching good whiting and in numbers. The Lagosta was in shallower territory and not having the same luck. Onboard, was Cobh SAC angler, Pat O'Shea, '....we were getting whiting from the minute the anchor went down but not many were making the new minimum size of 20cm; what was frustrating was looking over at the anglers on the John Boy, which was just outside us, and we could see that they were getting good size whiting and they were all keepers.'

An unexpected catch - a Brill!!!

For the last hour before the 1/2 time changeover, skipper Alan Kennedy decided to try a new mark. He brought the Lagosta to a channel mark just off the Turbot Bank. It was an inspired move! As soon as the boat settled the anglers starting landing whiting in good numbers and of good size. Most fish were in excess of 30cm, with some clonkers over 2lbs....and they were coming in two's and three's!!!

Competition within the boat itself soon heated up but over the course of the day two international anglers, Mick Barry and Davy McCormick, slugged it out against each other for the top spot. Mick landed a superb plaice late in the afternoon of 46cm and this was to be the deciding fish between the two. 

On all the other boats it was the international anglers who were leading the pack. On John Boy, ex-Irish captain, Pat Condon won out with 160 fish; on Lee Star seasoned international, Dave Jolly led with 128 fish; and on Naomh Cartha, latest recruit to the Irish team, Pat Swan, triumphed with 186 fish. However, they didn't have it all their own way and many of the local anglers kept the pressure on right up to the end.

The full results are as follows:-

  1. Pat Swan,                 186 fish,    2557 pts, 100.0%

  2. Pat Condon,             160 fish,    2193 pts, 100.0%

  3. Mick Barry,              141 fish,    1895 pts, 100.0%

  4. Dave Jolly,                128 fish,   1711 pts, 100.0%

  5. Dave McCormick,     140 fish,  1878 pts,    99.1%

  6. Pat O'Shea,                119 fish,  1636 pts,    86.3%

  7. Dave Rylands,            123 fish, 1743 pts,    79.5%

  8. John Dennehy,           124 fish,  1696 pts,   77.3%

  9. Martin Perryman,       135 fish,  1884 pts,   73.7%

10. Joe Gough,                   89 fish,  1223 pts,   71.5%

11. Sean Og McShane,    110 fish,  1536 pts,   70.0%

12. Joe Byrne,                    84 fish,  1150 pts,   67.2%

13. Owen O'Brien,           122 fish,  1712pts,    67.0%

14. Sylwester Skowronski, 89 fish,  1242 pts,  65.5%

15. John Cronin,                 82 fish,  1111 pts,  64.9%

16. Tomasz Kujawa,        111 fish,  1559 pts,   61.0%

17. Sandra O'Shea,           109 fish,  1512 pts,  59.1%

18. Roy Kearney,             107 fish,  1493 pts,  58.4%

19. Brendan O'Dwyer,       79 fish,  1084 pts,  57.2%

20. Gavin O'Connor,          77 fish,  1063 pts,  56.1%

21. Conor Purcell,              75 fish,   1021 pts,  53.9%

22. Danny Kane,                65 fish,    875 pts,  51.1%

23. John Fitz,                      94 fish,  1290 pts,  50.4%

24. Bob Crebor,                  69 fish,   940 pts,  49.6%

25. Robert Fraczek,            78 fish,  1077 pts,  49.1%

26. Brian O'Neill,               59 fish,   816 pts,   47.7%

27. Dave Quirke,                74 fish,  1066 pts,  41.7%

28. Pat Tobin,                     48 fish,    684 pts,  31.2%

29. Frank Burke,                46 fish,    645 pts,  29.4%

30. Martin O'Leary,            42 fish,   420 pts,  24.5%

The total number of fish caught were 2965, giving an average of 99 fish per angler. These were made up of 2375 whiting, 504 dabs, 4 grey gurnard, 2 tub gurnard, 1 cod, 1 pouting, 18 poor cod, 6 plaice, 8 flounder,  and 46 scad.

What a great start! Roll on the next competition in the series. This will take place on Sunday 15th December. If you fancy giving this a shot then give Danny Kane a ring on 086 - 8161946.

For any anglers planning on staying overnight on either the Sat or Sun night we've worked out a great deal with the Commodore Hotel. Overnight B&B for €29pps. Now that's a great deal - contact Mary on 021 - 4811277 or by email on commodorehotel@eircom.net.