Jim Clohessy had an incredible trip out to the deep sea in search of Albacore Tuna…
Every now and then you get the chance to do something different in angling.

Ocean Ranger is a Safehaven Marine Wildcat. Twin Volvo Pentas. A superb craft.
Ocean Ranger is a Safehaven Marine Wildcat. Twin Volvo Pentas. A superb craft.

I’m just back from a blast of a couple of days fishing “the shelf”. Mixed results. The highlight was an unbelievable Albacore for Pat Mostyn. 62lb! A few pounds off the Irish record! We sailed from Kinsale aboard Mike Walsh’s Ocean Ranger. We stopped at Baltimore to top off the tanks and blasted our way to make the evening fishing on the edge of the continental shelf. It’s 2000 to 3000ft deep here.

We were soon into albacore.

Albacore
Jim’s first Albacore! I had one bigger but never took a pic as Pat had caught his monster and we were busy… 😀 Super colours on the fish. These soon fade.
albacore 26lb
Pat Mostyn’s huge specimen Albacore Tuna.
Considering a specimen is 26lbs! 62lb is a fair brute. Congrats Pat!

During the night Ian set up for the night shift – night dropping for swordfish. No sword on this occasion, just a solitary blue shark.

We fished the dawn shift before beginning the long steam home.

I was very much novice amongst these deep-water veterans. This sort of trip shows how this style of fishing is very much a team effort. Super stuff – Mike, Ian, Pat, Frank and Victor.

Savage craic. Epic trip

Jim

Dawn. Always “the time”
Dawn. Always “the time”