Some Tralee Bay Club Anglers went on a specimen hunt recently and got some very good results, along with some very funny stories…

Troy “The dodge” Francis, Timmy “Bookies” Ward and Eugene “Lucky” Farrelly went to a secret location in north Kerry to target some rare species.

A Poetica rod, Penn reel, a tripod and another rod/reel took flight on an unexpected gust of wind and landed in the deep ocean. But thanks to Timmy Wards river angling skills, all was not lost. Timmy hooked the tripod on one snood and the Poetica on the other snood… …and  he reeled up everything!  You wouldn’t see it in the movies! I think Eugene owes Timmy a few pints after that.

Troy and his conger
Troy is happy with his catch… “You can’t bate luck”

The trio were hoping for a specimen of some sort but that didn’t come to pass. However, there some very good congers caught. Troy had one tipping the 20lb mark and a very nice grey gurnard was also caught.

Eugene and a dab
Eugene with another 30cm dab.

There were some fine dabs up to 30cm and loads of whiting and coalies.

Timmy and a grey gurnard
Timmy was happy with this catch

The grey grunard specimen is 1.5 lb but the lads never weighed this one.  At 37cm do you think it would have been an Irish specimen? (At 37cm a grey gurnard would normally weigh about 1lb – IFI)

All the anglers were were fishing catch and release.

John Tobin
Tralee Bay Sea Angling Club
Web: www.traleebaysac.org

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