Pete Davis reports on the Munster Open Gold Shore, hosted by West Cork and District SAC on the Slob Bank, Youghal…
A hastily arranged but eagerly anticipated and well supported competition took place on the afternoon of Saturday 22 October with the return of the Munster Open Gold competition. There has been an awful lot happen in the world since the last time this match was run back in 2019 but it was great to see this competition back on the agenda.
The Slob Bank in Youghal was selected, Munster wouldn’t be known for daytime venues suitable for a large turnout but this one is a relatively safe bet on a reasonable tide.
Sitting at the mouth of the Blackwater, where it empties into Youghal bay, its an interesting venue that can throw up a surprising variety of species on its day. Best known for large flounder throughout the year, small roundfish with the possibility of decent codling in the winter and always the chance of a bass. Its not particularly affected weather wise and even with the Blackwater running at 3m over its normal summer level on the day the fishing was in general excellent. Given the weather we had in the lead up to this match it was a great choice of venue with the preceding storms having no effect.
Given the dire weather during the week, the short notice and another major open being held in Waterford the day after it was a great turnout with 38 anglers fishing on the day.
33 seniors and 5 juniors took part and there was a lively atmosphere in pleasant conditions as the clock hit 12.30 and the first cast were made. The weather through the middle part of the match turned nasty with an hour or so of monsoon like rain to contend with but whilst it may have made marking fish a little trickier it didn’t put a dampener on anything catch wise! There were good bags of fish from all along the bank, interesting as with the spacing we were spread out over a good half mile of it. Munster stalwarts Aidan O’Halloran and JP Molloy at differing ends were bagging up. JP with a wide variety of species… Gurnard, Coalfish, Weaver, Bass, Codling, Flounder and Whiting. Aidan O’Halloran was bagging up predominantly on small round fish. Jason Convery and Mark Gargan were in the hunt in Zone B along with Aidan with Jordan Muir giving chase to JP in Zone A.
There were some decent fish caught on the day with some lovely flounder to 39cm along with a bass of 54 cm for JP. The fish count for the day was 352 fish shared between 38 anglers. That’s great fishing for a daytime match in Munster! It did mean counting some of the waterlogged score cards took a while but that’s a happy problem to have!
Come the end of proceedings it was Aidan O’Halloran who took the gold medal with a fine bag of 27 fish for 716 points.
JP Molloy followed in second for Silver with 25 fish for 617 points and Jason Convery in the Bronze medal slot with 24 fish for 573 points. The junior section was equally hard fought with very little separating them, the top 3 all had 7 fish apiece with Kevin Roche nicking it with Max Roche and Mochara Fraher following in 2nd and 3rd respectively.
Zone winners (excluding Overall winner) were JP Molloy in Zone A and Jason Convery in zone B. The longest fish pools were substantial with €180 apiece for the longest flatfish and roundfish prizes. The longest flat was shared by Darren Ryan and Mark O’Sullivan with the longest roundfish won by JP Molloy with a bass of 54cm.
On the whole it was an excellent contest that ran seamlessly. Many thanks to all who participated to this, to all who travelled and hearty congratulations to all our winners, particularly Aidan and Kevin. The Munster closed gold medal will follow in a couple of weeks, if yesterday was anything to go by those Munster team places will be hard fought!
Overall Winner, Munster Open Champion 2022 Aidan O’Halloran.
Zone A
JP Molloy 1st
Jordan Muir 2nd
Joe Carley 3rd
Zone B
Jason Convery 1st
Mark Gargan 2nd
Jason Santry 3rd
Juniors
Kevin Roche 1st
Max Roche 2nd
Mochara Fraher 3rd
All about West 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
