Mark Gannon of Courtmacsherry tells us that the fishing has been excellent off Courtmacsherry the last few weeks with good numbers of blue sharks, plenty of ling on the wrecks to near specimen weight, great sport on pollack and poalfish with light tackle, congers on the reefs to 30lbs. Even closer inshore the Self Drives are getting stuck in with thornback ray, dabs, plenty of pollack and good sized Bass.
Belgian anglers were out with Mark last week. They are regular visitors to Courtmacsherry and targeted Common skate for two of the charter days. In all they boated 26 Common Skate, one near specimen and 14 of them Irish Specimens. The heaviest over the two days was 2.09 metres total length, with another four over the 2 metre mark. Also caught were Blond Ray to near specimen weight, thornback ray, and plenty of bullhuss.
A different group were out for an evening session after the Belgian anglers returned home and for two hours fishing another 6 Common Skate were landed. Two of the fish were recorded as Irish Specimens.
The following day a charter group from Bantry accompanied by Dr Dani Orrell, a marine biologist who’s conducting research called the Cetus project, boated 9 Common Skate and Dr Dani tagged them with satellite tags.
In all over a space of 3 weeks the Lady Louise skippered by Sean Maxwell has tagged an astonishing 49 Common Skate, recording 22 Irish Specimens and an incredible 7 recaptures.
Let’s hope the weather settles a bit so we can venture out south and try for some big ling and conger!
Go fishing…
Lady Patricia
Lady Louise
