Pete Davis of West Cork and District SAC put together this great report of their recent club match on Ballinwilling beach in East Cork:

Sunday evening, February 6th, saw the second outing of the year for West Cork and District SAC. Venue for proceedings was to be Ballinwilling beach in East Cork. East Cork in general and the Garryvoe and Youghal beaches in particular can on their day offer up shore angling on a par if not better than anywhere in Europe. Ballinwilling on its day can be a fantastic venue, especially in Autumn and Winter being most noted for Cod, Bass and Painted Ray catches amongst the usual suspects. In summer time it still throws up plenty of Dogfish and Flounder but it’s the dark evenings and churned up seas that bring out the best of it. Equally, it can be a venue that will drive you mad, pulling your hair out in frustration as in sub optimal conditions it’s a difficult venue to pull fish from to any particular pattern.

26 anglers fished on Sunday, 21 senior and 5 juniors. Arriving for check in, the weather was somewhat brisk to say the least with some squally horizontal rain along with a strong breeze sending a man scurrying to get into his waders, hiding under the boot lid! Curiously, it seemed that as soon as we had hit the beach and struggled to set up the beach shelters that the wind and rain virtually disappeared and it made for a pleasant enough evening on the weather front all things considered.

The strong winds that had blown all weekend had been blowing off the land and whilst it made for clean seas, easy to fish, it certainly didn’t help proceedings from a fish perspective. Ballinwilling in February was virtually flat calm with only a gentle roll coming in. Not ideal for here unfortunately but that’s been the story of the past few fixtures and there isn’t a thing a fella can do about that only get on with it. First casts were sent out at 5pm as daylight faded into dusk and the hunt began in earnest.

Several fish hit the cards as some of the resident flounder made an appearance on the first cast with Liam Davis on peg 10 managing a nice high 20s fish to get off to a flier. Things however in general were quiet. Ken Hogan on peg 12 managed a couple of flounder in quick succession mid comp as did I but they weren’t around in any huge numbers to keep the run going and there was no pattern as to where they were coming from either distance wise. Anglers were caught in something of a quandary, chase the scarce but high scoring dogfish or stay small and try and accumulate a number of smaller bits and pieces. In the end, there weren’t really enough fish around to strongly swing things in either direction. The end pegs fished reasonably well with 1st and second coming from alternate ends. The middle of the beach lived up to its (harsh but fair on this occasion!) nickname of “The Hungry Acre” and fish were hard to come by. Such is the way of match angling and we have all been there!

Come 9pm, lines were drawn and results were counted. Tom Collins on peg 26 took top spot on the night with Jamie Santry in second place from peg 1. Evan Collins with 2 of the 5 dogfish taken on the night and a good coalie won the Junior section and would have been second overall on the beach had he fished as a senior with Liam Davis in second place with a mixed bag of 5 comprising 2 flounder, 2 rockling and a whiting. Noah Tahran, another Junior Angler took the longest flatfish pool, a cool €130 with a fine painted ray of 78cm with Jamie Santry managing a strap conger of 49cm to take the longest roundfish pool. Well done to all!

Seniors:
  • 1st Tom Collins 6 fish
  • 2nd Jamie Santry 4 fish
  • 3rd Derek Kendrick 5 fish
Juniors:
  • 1st Evan Collins 3 fish
  • 2nd Liam Davis 5 fish
  • 3rd Noah Tahran 1 fish

Whilst the fishing hadn’t been electric with 47 fish shared between 26 anglers, its worth noting that this is not the best reflection on how good a venue this can be. On the night, 10 species were taken which is a better indicator as to the nature of this beach. We had Pollack, Plaice, Flounder, Rockling, Cod, Painted Ray, Dogfish, Pouting, Coalfish and Conger. It really is a beach that can throw up anything and well worth fishing.

Join the Club

WCADSAC are now taking a bit of a break with our next confirmed fixture coming up on May 7th at the Slob Bank in Youghal. We may end up slipping another one in during April if our fixture list gets a rejig. We are still open for members and despite having fished 2 comps already, we still have 7 matches remaining if you are interested in joining and having a crack at it. We are a friendly, progressive club with a healthy senior and junior contingent fishing matches in a great atmosphere. If you are interested in joining us, don’t hesitate to get in touch via our Facebook page. Until next time, tight lines to all, I’m off to try and hatch a plan as to how not to get beaten by 14 year olds….

Pete Davis
West Cork and District Sea Angling Club

All about WCest Cork and District SAC…

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/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pages/West-Cork-and-District-SAC/201776589958897