Bellavista blues
Overall a super week with fantastic conditions for sea fishing. All the Bellavista fleet were out with both Dutch and English anglers aboard and also two journalists Joop Folkers and Arthur Van Tier (who also stayed at Bellavista Hotel) to do reports on both blue shark fishing and bass fishing for the German Market.
3 Boats went shark fishing on 06.09.2012 and landed over 20 blue shark up to 90lbs. The bass were less obliging but we still managed to land some nice fish (all of which were released back to the sea) .
The Bellavista self drive boats, guided fishing and accommodation are available from:
Kevin Murphy.
Bella Vista
Cobh, Co. Cork
www.bellavistahotel.ie
www.bassfishingireland.com
Tel: +353 21 481 2450
BAI shark hunt
Matt Corrigan and Damain Dennehy of www.boat-angling-ireland.com travelled to Cobh last week to go shark fishing outside Cork Harbour. The pair towed their small boat from Louth which they moored at Marlogue Marina. They started early on Friday morning (07/09) and steamed 12 miles off Roches Point.
Once at their mark they deployed the rubby-dubby bag, set up the rods and began to wait. In the meantime the garfish were there in large numbers and provided some great sport on ultra light gear.
Before long before Damain was into the first shark. The fish fought well and eventually a fine blue of about 50lb was boated.
Soon after it was Matt’s turn. As he watched the line peel off the reel, waiting to strike, his second rod also got a run. Damain took the rod and the double hook up resulted in a pair of blues of about 55lb and 35lb on the deck.
During the lull that followed Matt switched from the gars to bottom fishing but had no luck there.
Then the pair had a few dropped runs. Suspicions grew that there might be a few pups about and Damian’s next run turned out to be a young blue of around 15lb, followed by another around 20lb.
There were more missed runs and the baits kept getting bitten off below the hook but no matter how they changed the bait size or the hook placement the problem persisted.
Nonetheless Damain managed to catch 2 more sharks to conclude the days proceedings.
On Saturday morning Damain and Matt were back on the water early. By 7.00am they already had mackerel, herring, grey gurnards and pollack in the boat. With enough hook baits for the day they headed back to the sharking grounds, this time a little closer to shore to allow for more fishing time (they would have to leave Cobh at 2.30pm) and better bottom fishing. Once over their mark the rubby-dubby was deployed, still in abundance and nice and oily.
Again it didn’t take long before Damain was was back in the sharks. He started the morning with a nice blue of about 65lb and not 15 minutes later he was in again. But the shark dropped the bait and again the pair were pestered by small sharks.
All the while they were fishing off the bottom, catching whiting of about 1lb, dogfish, small ling and codling. With about an hour to go Matt got a strong pull on the bottom rod and immediately knew he was into a good fish, as it stripped line at an alarming rate. After a short battle a cracking ling broke the surface – Matt’s PB for this species at 12.5lb
His shark rod then burst into life and soon a pup of about 15lb was also on board to keep the ling company.
With the clock counting down the last hour the pair had another double hook up. Soon the two sharks were landed, one of 45lb the other 50lb.
Over the day and a half the anglers had 11 blue sharks and some nice fish off the bottom including that decent ling.
Report courtesy of www.boat-angling-ireland.com
More Cork Harbour blues
A second small boat, the Lady Liberty from Cobh, was also shark fishing on Saturday morning in the same area. Declan Collins and Myles Kelly both had blue sharks and Paul Morey fishing on the bottom had loads of 1lb whiting and cod to 7lb. Garfish were also present in abundance and over a dozen were caught to 1.5lb.
