This great report was sent in by Simon McLarnon who fished the Sean McGettigan Memorial Cup on July 26th:
A group of us took part in the Séan McGettigan Memorial Cup sea angling tournament from Portsalon, Co. Donegal on Saturday, 26th July. Séan was a well known charter skipper who passed away on May 26th, 2024, and his family had organised this fishing competition in his memory, with brother Dessie as the main organiser. Hopefully it will become an annual event. There were ten boats taking part and forty five anglers.
We were aboard the Miss Daisy, skippered by Chris Wilson. Conditions were challenging to say the least with strong winds, a heavy swell, nasty showers and unseasonable cold! However, our spirits were buoyed along by the craic on our boat and we persevered with the fishing conditions.
The competition started at 10am and on the first drop of the feathers, Dean Boardman hit a fish that he knew was not a mackerel Dean reeled in an impressive and rare John Dory, which weighed 2 pounds. That was a welcome catch as this is a species hunting competition and all other species were quite thin on the ground! Certainly our most impressive catch of the day as a crew, and helping us secure 4th overall in the competition.
It was not enough to win best crew member on our boat though, which went to Seamus Martin who caught scad, whiting, coal fish, pollack, small spotted cat shark and tub gurnard to pip Dean for top rod on our boat and 3rd overall for individual angler in the competition!
The top three at the end of the day were:
- Mark Cassidy
- Mark Orsi
- Seamus Martin
The top two Junior Anglers who took part were:
- Charlie Doherty
- ‘Junior’ Johnston
A great day out for all, hopefully it will be run again at the same time next year! Anyone interested in taking part can contact Dessie on 0861796917.
