This report on the Mick Kearney Open from the South Shore SAC:
79 senior’s and 6 juniors traveled to the glorious strands on the Wexford coast to fish the Michael Kearney Open. Check in was held at the famous Upton Court Hotel home of the match anglers check in venue for many years. It’s great to have such a facility so close to the fishing venues, it ticks all the boxes. With anglers traveling from all over the country its important to have suitable accommodation, bar and a restaurant under the one roof.
We were fishing 1-6 on three different beaches Ballinoulart, Morriscastle and Tinnaberna. Reports from some lads fishing the previous night that there was a load of weed strewn in the surf. The southerly winds of the past few days had dislodged the new weed growth from its grip and lodged on the normally pristine beaches.
First cast confirmed the reports for those casting over the bank. Thankfully, it was easily removed but none the less it made fishing difficult. I was fishing Morriscastle beach which was favorite to claim the winning bag of fish. It lived up to its favorite tag with with bags of double digit numbers along the stretch where the bank was out a little further. With a dropping tide and water flowing out of the channel it was imperative to get as many flounder as possible on the card.
Ballinoulart was hard work with fish hard to come by, Tinnabernna was a little better with some anglers having double digit bags.
Ian Knight had 19 flounders from under his nose on Morriscastle beach to win the 2022 Michael Kearney Open and claim first prize €1,000. It was a great win for Ian given that he’s recently returned to match fishing scene after a bit of a lay off through injury. No doubt that will sweeten things and he’ll be hungry again.
Winner in zone A was Jamie Santry with 7 fish who traveled up from Cork, Jamie claimed €500 for his zone win and went back south a happy chappie. Another traveler from Cork Pete Davis was the best angler in zone C Pete winkled out 15 fish to claim the zone win.
The winner of the junior Micheal Kearney trophy was Liam Davis, Liam had 4 fish in a hotly contested junior section. Liam is on a good run of form winning all before him, well done young lad. We had a monster Raffle with loads of prizes. These were all donated by the anglers for our charity Heart Children Ireland a worthy cause.
This year we raised €1,095 for the cause. The Kearney family would like to thank each and every angler for their support. South Shore would like to thank all the anglers for their continued support of our competitions, we endeavor to give out a fair return and spread of prizes for the anglers. We hope to make this a bigger and better Competition in 2023.
