Mark Gannon reports on an all night session that turned up some monster fish…

Thursday evening we set off at 1900 hrs and steamed over 2 hours to a wreck that  had fished well for several species over the years. The Ling record was broken fishing on this wreck in 2000 after 34 years and also the Coalfish record was smashed twice. But the conger record – that elusive prize of 72lbs is still to be broken. It nearly reached at 67 lbs by Seamus Guerin (RIP) on this wreck and on the same day we boated 114 congers nearly all over 30 lbs including several specimens!

So the plan was a few drifts to set us up for anchoring, then anchor in a position that as the tide changed direction we would still be on the wreck. We also had a few chum blocks out from Screaming Reels to entice the sharks. We had seen several devouring the carcass of a whale enroute that got everyone excited!

Conger eel
Specimen conger (180cm) on the measuring mat

In the end we boated over 50 congers. The heaviest for Mark John Gannon and Seán Maxwell measured at 1.8 metres, both Irish Specimens. We also had 10 Blue sharks and a few Ling. The ling were starting to come on the feed but we had to head for home. They’ll be bigger next time we venture south.

Inshore Fishing:

The bay is still producing good catches of Common skate and thornback ray, and there’s good pollack fishing on light tackle. The Selfdrive fleet targeting bass are doing well with fish to 48 cm. Anglers from the shore are getting Giltheads. There was one of 6.5 lbs for Jeremy Smith another Irish Specimen,

Mark Gannon 
Courtmacsherry Angling

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Courtmacsherry Sea Angling Centre is one of Irelands Premier Angling Centres based in the picturesque village of Courtmacsherry located only 30miles from Cork International Airport on the West Cork coast between the Old head of Kinsale and the Seven Heads peninsula.

Our purpose built Sea angling and selfdrive boats offer the sea angler the ultimate in safety and comfort.

Sea Angling in Courtmacsherry produces good results both for the offshore charter angler, the selfdrive angler for inshore fishing or the wreck enthusiast.
Address: Woodpoint Guest House, Courtmacsherry, Co. Cork.
Telephone: +353 (0)23 8846427 or +353 (0)86 8250905
Email: [email protected] Web: www.courtmacsherryangling.ie