Mid-Winter Bass Fishing

Cobh SAC anglers have been picking up a few bass on the outer marks and beaches towards Ballycotton during January. Certainly the mild winter is helping and fish have been falling to lug, razor, and crab baits.

Cobh SAC angler, Pat O' Shea, has been persevering on a different tack, though, and has stuck to lure fishing to tempt the fish. Despite blanking four times on the trot, he struck silver on his fifth attempt and landed a 65cm fish on a shallow diver. Pat reports that this is the earliest that he's ever had bass on a lure. In fact this is the first bass Pat has had on a lure in January and February is now the only month that Pat has not had a lure caught fish. That's the next goal. Well done Pat!!!

Bass Protection

Well done to Inland Fisheries Ireland!!! This picture was posted two weeks ago on the IFI facebook site of a successful haul of illegal nets in the East Cork area.

Poaching of bass has become a big problem in the East Cork area and Cork Harbour area over the last 12 months. In November there were reputed landings of over 40 boxes of bass on one occasion and 17 boxes on another in East Cork. In the Harbour there have several reported landings of between 4 and 6 boxes of bass at a time. This illegal activity has the potential to deplete the bass stocks and totally undermine the tourist angling industry in the area.

Members of the Cork Harbour Angling Hub have invested a lot of money in developing the tourist angling product and promoting this product both at home and abroad. Interest in bass angling in particular has grown dramatically as a result of this work. Unfortunately, the damage to stock levels caused by the illegal activity has the potential to undermine all this and seriously impact angling tourism in the area. This is why the work of IFI recently has been most welcome.

IFI are committed to tackling the problem and upholding their statutory obligation to protect stocks. As the problem of illegal fishing has reached alarming proportions IFI have now set up a dedicated bass protection unit for the East Cork & Harbour area. Lets hope their efforts reap further success and that this fishery now gets the protection it deserves. Well done to all involved!

January Light Lines Comp - The Results

Cobh SAC's second Light Line Comp of the winter season got under way last Sunday 22nd January. There was a high demand for places and we nearly got three boats out. However, we didn't get quite enough and some anglers, unfortunately, had to stay ashore (among them Cobh SAC Treasurer, Pat O' Shea, and vice-Chairman, Danny Kane). If you intend to fish a Light Line Comp its imperative that you contact either Mary Geary at 021-4812167 or Danny Kane on 086-8161946 by the Tuesday evening leading upto the Comp.

In any case 16 anglers got out and fished onboard the John Boy and the Naomh Cartha. Although, there was a strong NW breeze at first, conditions settled down and it turned out to be a fine day. The anglers soon got in the swing of things and, although, the fishing wasn't as good as before Christmas, there was still plenty of fish to keep all the anglers occupied.

In total there were 588 fish caught, making it an average of 37 fish per angler. The breakdown was: - 348 whiting; 234 dabs; 1 lsd, 3 poor cod; 1 plaice; and 1 scorpion fish. The scorpion fish was a bit of a monster measuring just over 32 cms and weighing over 1lb. We've sent it off to the Irish Specimen Fish Committee in the hope that they may set up a specimen category for this fish.

The full results for the comp were:-

1. Martin Perryman, 98 Fish, 1392 pts, 100%

2. John Dennehy, 38 fish, 566 pts, 100%

3. Sylwester Skowronski, 29 fish, 415 pts, 73.3%

4. Tomasz Kujawa, 26 fish, 388 pts, 68.6%

5. Pat Condon, 24 fish, 350 pts, 61.8%

6. Zdzislam Banas, 23 fish, 323 pts, 57.1%

7. Ger Brady, 53 fish, 766 pts, 55.0%

8. Piotr Nowakowski, 21 fish, 303 pts, 53.5%

9. Rob Kelly, 48 fish, 727 pts, 52.2%

10. Cian Ryan, 47 fish, 683 pts, 49.1%

11. Grzegorz Kmiecik, 19 fish, 277 pts, 48.9%

12. Sandra O'Shea, 44 fish, 644 pts, 46.3%

13. Noel Kavanagh, 46 fish, 640 pts, 46.0%

14. Donnacha O' Connell, 29 fish, 433 pts, 31.1%

15. Eric O' Neill, 31 fish, 429 pts, 30.8%

16. Ruud Boelhower, 12 fish, 188 pts, 13.5%

The next Comp is on Sunday 19th February 2012. Remember to book early by contacting Danny or Mary on the numbers listed above!!!

Xmas Light Line Comp - the result!

Well done to Sylvester Skowronski, Cobh SAC who won the first of this winter's light line competitions. Sylvester is pictured over with one of the many trebles he landed during the day's fishing.

Fishing was excellent with over a 1000 fish landed between the 15 anglers, making it an average of 70 fish per angler.

The main species caught were whiting and dab with a good percentage of whiting over the 2lb mark and a good proportion of dabs over the 1lb mark, with one or two touching specimen.

Most effective baits on the day were mackeral and lug. Amazingly, crab didn't have much of an impact.

The final placings were: - 1st Sylvester Sko

wronski Cobh SAC 111 fish 100% 1662pts; 2nd Martin Perryman Cobh SAC 103 fish 100% 1420 pts; & 3rd Danny Kane Cobh SAC 109 fish 95.5% 1588pts.

The final tally of fish were 690 whiting; 342 dabs; 3 lsd; 1 cod; 14 poor cod; & 1 scad.

If you'd like to fish the upcoming light lines contact Mary Geary Cobh SAC on 021 -4812167 (email: seaangling@esatclear.ie) or Danny Kane, Cobh SAC, on 086 - 8161946 (email: danny.kane@

hotmail.com).

The remaining competitions are on:

Sunday 22nd January 2012

Sunday 19th February 2012

Sunday 25th March 2012

Sunday 22nd April 2012

Winter light line series....

Cobh SAC has successfully run light line competitions in Cork Harbour over the last two Winter seasons. Once again Cobh SAC will be running a series of these competitions over the next few Winter months. The first of these will be on next Sunday week, the 13th of November.

These competitions are open to all comers and are not restricted to just Cobh SAC members, nor do you have to be a member of another club. They are intended to be fun competitions and

appeal to all levels of anglers, whether you are a novice or a seasoned campaigner. Indeed, there has been a diverse mix of experience between the anglers who have fished these comps so far and all have had good fishing. The average number of fish caught per angler per day over the 12 competitions so far has been 38 fish. Now that's a good return and ensures that even the raw beginners have something to shout about!!!

In a few of the comps some of the anglers have had over 120 fish...that's some fishing! Species to expect within the Harbour over these months would include Cod, Whiting, Dabs, Lsd's, Poor Cod, Pouting, Coalfish, Flounder, & Plaice. At the moment Dabs will feature highly and some of these will be to specimen size. As the Winter progresses Cod will feature more and more in the catches. In previous March and April comps it wasn't unusual for anglers to average over 50+ codling in their catch. To give you some idea of the fishing have a look at some of the reports of previous events here, here, and here. Best baits to use in the comps will be crab, lug, mack, and rag.

The scorecard used for the competitions is the same as that used for the National Fish-Offs. Indeed, the set-up of the comp is identical almost to the National Fish-Offs competition. As a result the light lines are ideal events for the more seasoned anglers to get in practice for these

comps. For the less seasoned angler it's a chance to see how they measure up to the high standards of the top anglers in the country. In any event there is a lot that all anglers can learn.

To make the light lines easier this season there has been a slight change of rule. Instead, of all lines (ie. mainline, rig bodies, & snood) meeting the 15lb b.s. or lower criteria the only stipulation now is that the mainline should be 15lb b.s. or less. This means that you can use a shockleader of any strength and your rig bodies and snoods can also be of any strength.

The competitions will be run on the following dates over the Winter months:

Sunday 13th November 2011

Sunday 11th December 2011

Sunday 22nd January 2012

Sunday 19th Febuary 2012

Sunday 25th March 2012

Sunday 22th April 2012

Fishing will be from 9:30am till 2:30pm each day with boats departing from Kennedy Pier, Cobh at 9am. Boats used will be from the Cork Harbour Angling Hub charter fleet. The cost of entry is €40 per angler. Now that's great value!!!

To book your place for Sunday 13th November contact Cobh SAC club secretary, Mary Geary, on 021-4812167 or by email on seaangling@esatclear.ie. Come on now....you know its good for ya!!!

Ps. To add an extra element this year, we are accumulating the results over the series of comps on a league basis, similar to a master angler series. So who's going to be the top light line angler in Cork Harbour for 2011/12? Will it be you?

Also, for those anglers travelling, we've negotiated a special deal with the Commodore Hotel if overnight accommodation is required (Oct - March). Bed & breakfast will be available at €29 per person!!!

2011 IFSA Boat Fish-Offs

Cobh SAC hosted the IFSA Boat Fish-Offs over the October bank holiday weekend. The best anglers in the country were pitting their wits against each other in an attempt to make the national team for the World Championships in South Africa in 2012.

This year, the competing 32 anglers sure had their work cut out for them. The weather on Saturday, the first day, was appalling with gale force winds, driving rain, and heavy seas making for very difficult conditions. The fishing as you would expect was very slow. This was further compounded by the storm of the previous Sunday which not only dumped a lot of rain on the South coast, but also kicked up a considerable swell, which hadn't abated by the time the competition started. As a result the water was extremely coloured and there was a lot of 'fresh' coming down the river. This was reflected in the fishing on Saturday which was slow. Despite this anglers averaged approx 40 fish per man over the two sessions. That's the beauty of Cork Harbour...despite nearly storm conditions it is still fishable, and fish will be caught!!!

On Sunday conditions were much improved and with it the fishing improved dramatically also. Most anglers averaged 60 - 80 fish, with the top rods recording over 100 fish. The four charter boats from the Cork Harbour Angling Hub fleet this time stayed put on the western edges of the channel dropping into 'deep hole.' The day before most had started here but opted to anchor on the eastern side for the flood to target the hordes of whiting, which didn't materialise. Nobody was going to take the chance on the Sunday. Despite this whiting did feature in the catches and some fine sized fish amongst them. Dabs were also plentiful with many touching specimen size. Other fish to feature included lsd's, codling, pouting, poor cod, and plaice. By competition's end over 2000 fish had been recorded.

Congratulations to the top five finishers; Kit Dunne, Mick Barry, Gordon Darker, Dave Jolly, and Tony Santry who join Captain Myles Howell, who had qualified from the Masters, on the Irish Team. For the full results have a look here.

Many thanks to the skippers Donie Geary (John Boy), Gerry Keohane (Naomh Cartha), John Geary (Lee Star), and Alan Kennedy (Lagosta II) who, despite the conditions, kept the lads on the fish!

Winter Cod fishing....

The winter cod season has kicked off in earnest here in Cork Harbour with some encouraging reports of good cod catches at some of the Harbour's prolific inner marks such as De Wall at Monkstown, the Station Master's hole and the Halfpenny hole at Cobh.

Donie Geary, skipper of the John Boy, is targeting these winter cod and is offering special discounted rates this Winter for groups of anglers keen to get in on the cod action. Geary Angling Services, in conjunction with the Commodore Hotel, are offering a special rate of €69 to cover one days fishing onboard the John Boy plus one night's bed & breakfast at the Commodore Hotel. You can further upgrade that package to include an evening meal of Haddock in batter and chips and a pint of Guinness (or a beer/lager of your choice), all for the sum of €85 in total. Now that's great value!!! This offer is valid for winter cod fishing trips from Oct 2011 thru to March 2012 and is limited to groups of eight or more.

If the last two winter seasons are anything to go by then the cod fishing should get hectic. Cobh Sea Angling Club have held light line competitions during this winter period and in many cases anglers were catching 50+ codling a trip. Have a look at these reports to give you an idea: March 2011 Light Lines April 2010 Light Lines

Admittedly, many of the codling have been in the 1 - 2lb range. However, a good proportion of the catch have also been in the 3-4lb range. This year we expect many of the fish to be bigger again as there has been superb fishing on the offshore reefs for large cod over the summer. In fact, if weather permits Donie may opt to try the outer reefs for larger fish. However, the beauty of Cork Harbour is that it can be fished in all weathers and many of the marks that have been producing over the last two winters have been in the Harbour itself.

Best baits for the fishing is undoubtedly peeler crab and lugworm. Mussel can also be effective. If the outer reefs are fished then mackeral baited hokkai's are the best option.

If you and your group would be interested in targeting the cod then Mary Geary of Geary Angling Services would only be too happy to give you as much information as possible. Give Mary a buzz on 021 - 4812167 or email on

seaanglingclear@esat.ie, or alternatively you can contact Mary O' Mahony at reservations at the Commodore Hotel on 021-4811277 or by email on commodorehotel@eircom.net. Don't delay, book today!!!