Danny Wyse, secretary of the of West Cork and District SAC reports on the Rossbeigh match:
Looking for a change of scenery we decided to leave Cork and hold one of our competitions in the kingdom of Kerry. Rossbeigh strand was the chosen venue fishing two hours up to high and two back down again, 8 pm – midnight.
On arrival everyone was delighted as the conditions looked perfect with a moderate onshore breeze putting up a nice surf to go with the overcast sky and the waves were pretty much weed-free. Big bags of flounders and bass were sure to follow.
With traces cast out at varying distances we stood back and watched along the beach to see who would get the ball rolling. Right on queue Joe Ganley’s rod and tri-pod went crashing onto the sand as something headed west? After a short battle a fine mullet of nearly 6lb was landed measured and released.
What a great start for Joe I was thinking,…. And just then my rod hooped over in a very satisfying manner. After coming off night-shift before the match and feeling completely wrecked I lazily played the fish where I stood instead of walking down to the waters edge , boy was I about to be taught a harsh lesson!
As the bass or mullet? hit the sand it threw the hook and the sprint was on . I took out the trace hanging off my tri-pod as I passed, snapping snoods and getting hooks stuck in me as the fish flipped its way back towards the water . A wave came in and put an inch of water under its belly as I approached and that is all it needed, it could see me coming towards it and put that tail into overdrive ……. All I wanted to do was put it on the measure and it would have gone back in anyway, instead I had to watch agonisingly as it powered off a yard in front of me.
Of course the other anglers had watched this unfold and I could hear them laughing as I kicked out in frustration, I won’t repeat what I said.
Most match anglers have dropped vital fish at some point or other , I now know how bad that feels.
Back at the match the early bit of excitement nosed dived as traces came back ashore empty and we settled in to what turned out to be a quiet enough scratching match.
A few small flats turned up and the middle pegs found some surprisingly welcome weever fish . In-size fish were at a premium, but Joe Ganley seemed to be finding a steady supply of them? For most others though the fishing was desperately poor with plenty of people blanking by the half way stage, even the end pegs were struggling.
As darkness crept in a few sizable fish started showing to lift spirits, but it still wasn’t setting the world on fire , and just at the end a few bass turned up changing the look of the results table .
It didn’t live up to early expectations and was in fact the poorest competition we’ve held this year, maybe we just got our timing wrong? The 15 lads who made the journey were still in good form laughing away at the check-in and up in the chipper afterwards so we still enjoyed our Kerry outing, especially Joe.
Final Results,
1st Joe Ganley 7 fish,
2nd Paudie O’Driscoll,
3rd Mike Carlton,
4th James Kiniry,
5th Denis Morley,
6th Danny Wyse,
7th Shane O’Donovan,
8th James O’Donoghue ,
9th Derek Kenrick,
10 Terry O’Donovan.
Fish Count; Flonders 25, Weevers 19, Bass 6, Plaice 3 , Mullet 1.
See you all at Bantry on July 14th.
Danny Wyse
Sectretary
West Cork and District Sea Angling Club
Join the club…
The club was formed on march 19th 2009, in the small picturesque harbour town of Kinsale County Cork. We’re an inclusive club, this can be seen in our membership profile; from anglers who are new to match fishing all the way up to members of the Irish World Shore Team 2010, two of which are in the club! The club holds circa 10 competitions per year, members are encouraged to practice a catch and release policy in the interests of conservation. Anybody wishing to join our club is always welcome, just use the contact us page and we will give prospective members full details.
Web: http://westcorkanddistrict.webs.com/
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