Mark Gannon reports from Courtmacsherry Angling Centre where they are about half way through their charter boat season…
The fishing so far this season has produced good catches of pollack, Coalfish, conger, ling, bullhuss, dogfish, pouting and a few good sized cod from the inshore reefs, while further offshore plenty of Ling from the wrecks. Blue Shark are around in good numbers with several Specimens tagged and released. Mackerel, while patchy early on, were easy enough to catch for bait.
The Skate fishing which was slow early on in the season inshore, picked up when trying the offshore grounds which produced fish mostly of specimen size. The best week dedicated to skate fishing was led by Dr Danielle Orrell with her team of scientists and top class anglers skippered by Sean Maxwell. Quoting Dr Danielle
…it was an incredibly productive week for the Cetus and Flapper Skate projects with 23 fish brought to the boat in 5 days. The research team deployed electronic tags, including ten satellite tags and 13 acoustic tags, and collected measurements and samples from each animal. The satellite tags will pop off in 6 months time transmitting depth, temp and light data.
The majority of the fish were also Irish length based Specimens and several claims were made to the Irish Specimen fish committee.
We are delighted to be assisting Dr Danielle in this research and tagging programme. We tagged our first fish back in 1976 a Blue Shark as part of the Inland Fisheries Trust tagging programme.
The inshore fishing with the self drives have had good catches of pollack, mackerel, and at anchor thornback ray, dabs and plaice. Bass have been plentiful but mostly schoolies.
Go fishing…
The difficulty of anglers managing to get groups together for chartering is still an issue and we can offer dates for small groups or individual anglers to Domestic, UK or continental clients. Accommodation packages and transfer from Cork Airport also available.
Preferred dates are:
- 20th, 21st, 25th,29th,30th July,
- 11th to the 16th August
- and the 9th to the 13th September.
Why not check out our website www.Courtmacsherryangling.ie to reserve individual places or full charter.
Lady Patricia
Lady Louise
