Tralee Bay Sea Angling Club reports on their summer competition fished near Glin on the Shannon Estuary at the weekend…
Yet another great turn out for the summer comp saw us line the Shannon on the Tralee side of Glin unfortunately it coincided with one of tbe hottest days of the year and though there was a nice breeze on the road it was a pure sun trap by the water. This was one of our 3 bonus fish comps where the club added 50euro to each pool to boost them up nicely for any anglers that prefer to aim for the pools this would plump them up nicely.
The massive warm weather wouldn’t of been too bad except for Kerry putting on a masterclass on Saturday and some people staying out a bit longer than strictly wise. Start time was 1030 and Alan Horgan was nearly the first into the water when a dodgy bit of rock/weed tried to take him out. It was the start of a tough day for Alan having drawn one of the snaggiest pegs in memory.
Chris was struggling after pegging the beach and celebrating too much. He almost followed Alan into the water and was certainly regretting wearing waders. First off the mark was David O’Sullivan with a fine Shannon Thornback followed closely by Brahim Lucid and Figgs Cronin. Shane McMahon got snagged up on a big ledge with a fine fish on and was unfortunately broken off but Paddy McMahon made no mistake and landed a fine ray early. Not to be deterred Shane soon had a beautiful ray on the shore of 93cm and well into double figures and as the tide dropped off the original snagged fish was unhooked and released unharmed.
Figgs was hot on his tail with an 87cm ray while Chris landed a very welcome little strap conger on the lower numbers. Paddy raced ahead with another fine ray and this proved to be the last fish for a while as the snags became prominent and fairly stressful. Jason Ryan was being tortured on peg 1 and although he was getting gear back it wasn’t much fun. However he persevered and landed a nice thornie for his troubles. Wabs resorted to stripping off to attract a few fish and was rewarded with a strap conger while Chris landed a fine heavy Thornback during walks to beg for water having come poorly prepared. Brahim bagged another cracker of a ray to stay in contention.
By now Alison had given up on the rays and using her experience picked off 3 small fish while dropping a couple of eels. Finn followed suit dropping a few evasive eels but also catching a rare Shannon Corkwing Wrasse. Paddy added a 3rd to go into a commanding lead but there was late drama first when Finn took a bad spill but triumphantly saved his rod and reel at the expense of his ribs. Meanwhile Chris added a last cast conger to make things interesting.
Though there was some nice fish caught the numbers were away down on previous trips here and there was a number of blanks. All fish were returned and we implore any visiting anglers to return the rays.
Congratulations to Paddy McMahon on a fine win and his first as a senior angler. Once again its a pity he’s such a fine soccer player or he would have plenty more wins under his belt.
Results
- 1st Paddy McMahon 4 fish 318pts
- 2nd Chris O’Sullivan 3 fish 221
- 3rd Shane McMahon 2 fish 182
Longest fish: Shane McMahon 93cm Thornback ray
2nd longest: David O’Sullivan & Brahim Lucid 87cm Thornback ray
Tralee Bay Sea Angling Club
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Tralee Bay SAC is a thriving community of enthusiastic anglers – young and old, experienced and newcomers – with new members joining all of the time. We have a busy schedule of shore and boat competitions and lots of social events planned throughout the year. Tralee Bay is a family friendly, welcoming club with a reputation for promoting angling and encouraging newcomers to the sport.
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