Tralee Bay SAC report on the competition at Glin, 12 October, 2014
With a gap in proceedings on the competition front, Tralee Bay hosted an open competition last Sunday in a venue not regularly fished. The Shannon estuary sometimes provides us with venues such as Beale but Glin was an unusual one. With snaggy ground and big currents all our thought’s were on ray, ray and bigger ray. The actual competition turned out to be a stinker but we can’t have incredible fishing at every single venue. The big tides, calm weather and sunny conditions didn’t help also, I would think. Again with no designated person to peg the venue, again it was left up to Eugene to peg and this for me is ridiculous. This issue has to be sorted out in the club AGM next month and we hope when the date is sorted after the Master’s & Munster’s, all club members will attend…
Anyway on to the fishing, the bare bit we had, almost straight away there was a vision in the distance. A man known as the Heron who quite literally never, ever leaves his peg, he stands at a 45 degree angle to his rod stand and never takes his eyes off the rod tip. Phil “The Heron” Ord was reeling one in, the first ray of the comp and it was about a half an hour in. All heads did drop because, we said here we go again, Phil is the club master angler and Waterville club master angler and at the moment is on fire within the club scene in Kerry. To my right a young up and coming master angler, Mr Paddy McMahon, was putting us to shame, a flounder and a Silver Eel in the first hour and a bit. To my left, well known top angler, Aidan O Halloran, reeled in a nice strap conger and also a ray not long after. Things were sporadic but there was fish being caught….
All this time was passing by and I was not getting a touch, there was chat and banter, and talk of the pairs and the national comps coming up. Also heads were being scratched as too were our usual club anglers were, Martin Mcgowan, John Sheehan, Aidan Sullivan, Connie, Colm McDaid??? We would have to send out an SOS!!!
Two and a bit hours had gone and still things were quiet. Aidan Halloran was well in the lead and anglers were starting to panic. Scratching traces were sent out to try and find some small fish and still very few could be found. I had lost a ray in the mean time and to be honest, I had given up hope. With the pairs just finished and my racing mind trying to achieve 100 things a day, I had just not put one ounce of preparation into this comp. Then as I was sitting down with Aidan Halloran immersed in talk of hunting, David Sullivan approached and said “Dan is your rod meant to be bent over like that”? I said will you go away outta that and continued with talk of hunting. Then Aidan turned around and said “Dan, thats a Ray” so in reeled a 71cm thorny, which I have David Sullivan to thank for, as I was only using 15 pound line which was suicide but life is too busy at the moment to be thinking about line..!
Local angler James Allman had already put one up on the board and with an hour to go it was still wide open. It turned out to be a glorious day and the sunset alone was worth the journey out. There is something about these autumn nights when the weather is calm and there is a crisp sting in the air. The sunset was a beaming light and as it descended in the horizon, we all just kept biting our lips in hope of a fish. Thats the thing with comps like this, although not many fish, everyone is in with a shot and one fish can make a difference. With five minutes to go, I could see another past Master angler, Allen Griffin and James Allman looking in anticipation at James Allman Century BB rod tip. If James has another fish, he beats me into second place was all that was going through my mind but that was not to be….
Days like this keep me fishing, even though to be honest, I have never met a bunch of lads that could fall out over a 10cm whiting, you got to see past that and holding grudges over past results or incidents is something Tralee Bay does not do. As a club we have to congratulate a past club member on his absolutely magnificent, Dawia Pairs result. Second in the overall individual standings on his first time taking part, is to me like wining silver in the commonwealth games. In the Daiwa Pairs, you basically fish against the best anglers in Ireland, Wales, Scotland, England and beyond. So I believe it is my duty, to congratulate, Mr Stephen O Sullivan on his result in the pairs and as far as I know its the best local placing ever for the pairs. Also all the other anglers who fished the full on week long competition deserve a pat on the back, well done…
With the Masters next week and then the Munsters Blennerville will be postponed another little bit but it will 100% be fished before December. With Inch, Blennerville and the Fenit Pier to be fished places on the master angler table are up for grabs…
Tight Lines…
Daniel Brosnan (PRO) Tralee Bay SAC
Results
Seniors
1st, Aidan Halloran
2nd, Daniel Brosnan
3rd, James Allman
Juniors
1st, Paddy McMahon
2nd, N/A
3rc, N/A
Pools
Biggest Round
Daniel Brosnan, 71cm Ray
Biggest Flat
Paddy McMahon, 19cm Flounder
Daniel Brosnan (PRO)
Tralee Bay Sea Angling Club
Web: www.traleebaysac.org
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