On Saturday morning, 5th October 2013 a party of anglers from the Tubbercurry area gathered to head out for a days fishing in Killala Bay. The party comprised of a gathering of friends who had just returned from distance lands after the summer. As they set out the day was a little dull with some outbreaks of sunshine. The only concern was the stiff south easterly breeze, which made for a fast drift, and on the change of tide, choppy seas.
In the initial drifts the group came upon a good shoal of mackerel, ensuring a ready supply of fresh bait. A variety of feathers and baited traces were deployed, and soon the group was into pollock, the best up to 5lbs with pouting also featuring. The surprise came when one of the anglers using mackerel feathers hooked into a large fish only to have it break free. A second angler then hooked a fine fish still using feathers and managed to bring it to the side of the boat and identified it as a large spurdog, only to have it break the line. The next few hours there was good sport around the boat, with many spurdogs being caught and released.
The next fish hooked was by Lorcan O’Connor and seeing the rod bend double, they knew it was a good one. After a strenuous fight the fish was landed, a fine spurdog, a potential specimen fish contender. The fish was taken back to the quay and weighed in, on registered scales at 7.135kgs / 15.6 lbs a cracking fish. Details of the capture are being forwarded to the Irish Specimen Fish Committee for ratification, well done to Lorcan for his catch.
