Big Winter Cod

There have been a few reports of some fine cod being caught lately. Here's a pic of a 14lber caught on Joe Lynch's Wreckhunter.

The second pic is of an 11lber caught at the mouth of the Harbour on a soft plastic. This was landed by one of guide James McSweeney's clients.

National Boat Team Fundraiser

Over the Christmas Holidays, Cork Harbour Angling Hub hosted a fundraising competition for the National Boat Team. What a great turn out, with over 60 anglers taking part! Fishing was excellent, with some fine cod caught, and many other winter species, such as whiting, dab, etc.,... Again many of the dab were of specimen size....here's a pic of one of those belters!!! .....more details to follow.

January Mullet....on the fly!!!

When the bass are scarce bass angling guide, Richie Ryan, and local bass angling legend, Andy Davies, target the mullet. Andy and Richie "hook" up every year for a few sessions fly fishing for these elusive fish. Richie reckons, though, that they can be a bit easier to catch in the early part of the year, and so despite sometimes frosty weather the lads can have great January sport targeting the Irish equivalent of tropical bonefish.  Andy and Richie use small unweighted Czech nymphs and 8lb flourocarbon on a very long trace.

Richie reckons that '...mullet are very difficult to hook due to their hard mounths but often fight harder than bass when hooked. Many fish are lost during frenetic runs and tear line off the reel at a tremendous rate. Great sport if you can get to a beach where they start to shoal at this time of year. If.....'

If you fancy a trip out with Richie give him a buzz on 086 - 1940744 or check out his website Eire Bass for more details.

January Light Line Comp

The next light lines comp is on next Sunday, the 13th January. Again this is great value at €40 and a good entry is once more expected. If you'd like to fish this then contact Danny Kane on 086-8161946 and book your place. Boats will be leaving Kennedy Pier at 10am with fishing from 10:30am till 3:30pm. Rules are very simple with the only stipulation of difference from normal comps being that the mainline be of 15lb bs or less. See yo there; you know its good for ya!!!

Fundraiser for the National Boat Team

Following hot on the heels of the latest Light Line competition is this fundraising competition for the Irish National Boat Angling Team. If you tend to go stir crazy or get a bit of cabin fever during the Xmas holidays then this is the chance to clear the head and gain back a bit of sanity.

This is normally a great day out. Its a fun competition and there are many different prizes for differing categories, so everyone's got a chance. Hopefully, the weather will play ball and the boats will be able to get outside the Harbour. If not, however, conditions are not right then fishing will be restricted to inside. This shouldn't be a worry, though, as recent competitions within the confines of the Harbour have produced huge numbers of fish. Shoals of codling have also put in an appearance, so if codling pull your strings make sure you bring your best cod trace.

If you'd fancy fishing this comp then contact Pat Condon on 086 - 3622044, Myles Howell on 087 - 2525162, or Padraic Clear on 087 - 9807685.

Christmas Light Line Comp - the results.....

The second of this winter's light line competitions got under way this Sunday just gone, early in the morning. For this one twenty one anglers gathered at Kennedy Pier at Cobh at 9:30am. By 10am the two boats, the Lagosta II and the Wreckhunter, got underway. The weather for this one wasn't as kind as previous outings. We normally seem to be blessed with good weather but not on this occasion. Having said that it wasn't too bad either, but it was very much a mixed bag. All week the south coast had been plagued by winter storms. By Sunday the wind was still blustery and squally at times. Heavy showers occasionally drenched the anglers during the day but towards the evening it calmed down completely and it became almost balmy.

The weather obviously had an impact on the fishing, which was tough enough going at times. This was in complete contrast to the previous week when Crosshaven SAC had some great fishing in their own light line competition. Numbers caught in that comp were similar to the last light line comp in Nov (The calm before the storm).

In total 793 fish were caught, giving an average of 38 fish per angler. The one positive, though, was that the general size of fish was bigger. Codling also made a welcome appearance. The breakdown of fish caught was 405 whiting, 194 dab, 84 doggies, 2 coalfish, 38 codling, 30 pouting, and 40 poor cod. Indeed, many anglers managed to bag six different species.

On the Lagosta there was tremendous competition as no less than five current and ex-internationals fought it out. Nevertheless, all eyes were on Martin Perryman and John Dennehy who last year jointly topped the league only for Martin to win out on a fish count back. The eyes were on the wrong boat, though, as it was on the Wreckhunter that the better fishing was had. Here Irish Home Nation Team International, Pat Wright, topped the score; well done Pat!!!

The full results are as follows:

 1. Pat Wright,                   55 fish,  810 pts,  100%

 2. Martin Kennedy,          49 fish,  739 pts,  100%

 3. Pat O'Shea,                   54 fish,  797 pts,  98.4%

 4. Sandra O'Shea,             49 fish,  736 pts,  90.9%

 5. Myles Howell,              43 fish,  649 pts,  87.8%

 6. John Dennehy,              41 fish,  604 pts,  81.7%

 7. Dave Ryland,                38 fish,  599 pts,  81.1%

 8. Martin Perryman,          38 fish,  597 pts,  80.8%

 9. John Fitz,                      43 fish,  651 pts,  80.4%

10. Dave Jolly,                   38 fish,  570 pts,  77.1%

11. Slywester Skowronski, 41 fish, 606 pts,  74.8%

12. Donnacha O'Connell,  38 fish,  576 pts,  71.1%

13. Tomasz Thrione,         40 fish,  572 pts,  70.6%

14. Dave Clancy,              35 fish,  543 pts,  67.0%

15. Pat Swan,                    32 fish,  492 pts,  66.6%

16. Pio Enright,                 30 fish,  476 pts,  64.4%

17. Danny Kane,              29 fish,  458 pts,  62.0%

18. Robert Fraczek,          33 fish,  496 pts,  61.2%

19. Cian Ryan,                 28 fish,  423 pts,  52.2%

20. Martin O'Leary,          21 fish,  316 pts,  39.0%

21. Marcin Kavankozski, 18 fish,  281 pts,  34.7%

If you'd like to look at the detailed scoresheets have a look here.

The Light Line league is now starting to take shape. As you'd probably guess, Martin Perryman and John Dennehy are up in the top spots....can they keep the momentum up? You can have a look at the league table here.

The next Light Line Competition is on Sunday 13th January. If you'd fancy fishing this then contact Danny Kane on 086-8161946 or Mary Geary on 021-4812167.

The next big competition in the Harbour is the fundraiser for the Irish Boat team. This competition is on next Saturday week 29th December. To enter contact Pat Condon on 086-3622044, Myles Howell on 087-2525162, or Padraic Clear on 087-9807685.

Winter Light Line comp No. 2

Well the second competition of this winter's light line series is almost upon us. This competition will be fished next Sunday 16th December. If you'd like to fish this one, then contact Danny Kane on 086-8161946 or Mary Geary on 021-4812167 without delay.

As per usual, this comp will be fished using the scorecard from the IFSA National Fish-Offs. Fishing will be from 10:30am till 3:30pm. The boats will leave Kennedy Pier, Cobh at 10am and registration will be on the pier from 9:30am.

The usual rules apply and are kept to a minimum as it is a fun competition. The only stipulation is that your mainline would be a maximum of 15lb b.s. Have a look at our report of the last competition 'The calm before the storm....again!' to give you an idea of what the fishing was like. The cost for the day's fishing is €40....its great value!!!

We'll see you there, hopefully!!!