David Edwards, Skipper of the Silver Dawn, was catching and releasing all kinds of everything over the last few days…
We managed a few days out at shark and other species over the last few days. There were some nice fish all round but the highlight has to be the 2 specimen Hake that we brought up. One came on Friday for Conor Ward and yesterday we got a second for Laurance. Bert McGregor had a specimen Blue Whiting and we all helped with a Gannett rescue!
We spotted the juvenile Gannet as it was clearly distressed. It had what appeared to be fishing net tightly wrapped around its lower beak, making it impossible for him to feed. It was heart breaking to watch it attempting to eat fish from our trail without success.
We realised the only hope we had of helping it, was to get it onboard. The Gannet wasn’t over the moon about it but past experience has taught me to wear thick gloves and glasses while handling them.
Laurence Hughes held its wings while Niall Hogan carefully cut away the net that was very tightly bound onto it’s beak. It took several minutes to remove it all and us being able to let the youngster fly off. Amazingly, within minutes it was back in our bait trail and feeding well.
Maybe Karma paid a visit as a short while after, Laurence brought on-board an Irish Specimen Hake of 70cm. Bert had a Specimen Blue Whiting while Niall had the biggest Blue Shark. Plenty of other species too so maybe Karma is a thing
Lending aid to Gannet in need was quite the achievement, but two specimen hake on Silver Dawn in a matter of days is no mean feat, considering that there was only one reported in Ireland in the whole of 2025.
Go fishing…
Silver Dawn
