Paul Whelan wins again on Wexford’s beaches

South Shore Sea Angling Club fished their first competition of the year at the weekend. Paul Mason reports…

05 February: Dodd’s Rock, just north of Courtown, was the venue for our first competition. The weather wasn’t looking good during the week with very low temperatures forecast over the weekend. However things changed overnight on Saturday and the wind blew us some warmer stuff.

40+ anglers had put their name in the hat to appear with rods at the ready. As always lads pull out for various reasons and 34 of South Shore finest wedged themself into the carpark.

With the small neap tide we were able to peg right down to the forest and cover beach rarely fished. Whiting and Dabs were expected and they duly obliged with fish being caught right from the off. The bigger casters were getting doubles and trebles with most casts and there were some good whiting in the mix. Scores were racking up for the first three hours in the higher pegs down at the forest. Then as if by magic, “puff” they disappeared. 

“Back Stop” Paul Whelan continued his remarkable run of good form after winning the recent Winter Beach festival with three zone wins. He blitzed everyone with 34 fish from peg 14, well done !!!
Young Sam Findley under the watchful eye of junior international coach Joe Byrne caught 16 fish to win the junior section. Some good whiting were caught with the best being 38cm with a lot of them in their mid 30s.

Newcomer Gerald West caught a nice coalie of 38cm in the gutter to win the longest round fish pool. Niall Carabini meanwhile was charming a 31cm Flounder from the coloured sea to claim the longest flatfish pool, about time you won something. 

Jammy John Bermingham had a late flurry nailing five fish in his last two casts to claim a win in zone B. “How do you do it jammy…”, some auld bearded git was heard bawling his eyes out on the walk back.