Today the sun shone on Donegal Bay but not, it seems, on Ireland’s fortunes in the World Boat Fishing Championships being fished from Bundan and Mullughmore. Dave Roe fished hard to win his boat but his points are not enough to help Ireland up the rankings.

In general there was a good deal of change across the rankings and the English anglers did particularly well taking first place on 3 boats. Italy managed to maintain their momentum with some strong performances including one first place. Croatia are proving to the the surprise of the competition with another strong performance that saw them take 2nd place. Meanwhile hotly tipped Spain produced a top 5 finish but overall have yet to perform to their capabilities.

By then end of Day 2 the scores were counted and for the day the new overall ranking looked like this:

1. England
2. Italy
3. Slovenia
4. Croatia
5. France

Ireland are in 6th place overall, but it will be hard for the Boys in Green to get a top 5 finish let alone a place on the podium at this stage.

Going into the last day both England and Italy will have three anglers each in the Top 10 individual rankings!

Full results and more are available on the IFSA FAcebook page: https://www.facebook.com/seaanglingIFSA/

Team Rankings, Day 2

Individual Rankings, Day 2

Welcome back to Rookie Bass Angler Steven Neely who has returned to Ireland. With fish and weather like ours it’s hard to stay away !  Steve was out in Donegal and reports:

So some of you will know that I am now back in Ireland after spending 6 months in the Channel Islands. I was dying to get back out over some of my old marks to see what was lurking as September always start to throw up the odd decent fish or two. However, I was very quickly reminded of the joyful weather on the West coast!

I think it was fair to say I experienced all four season in the space of three days! I had rain, blue skis, sunshine, a decent bit of heat and then cutting winds … but hey, that is Donegal for you!

Over the course of my few days away I spent a little bit on my old stomping ground targeting wrasse on my usual lure set ups and I must say despite not being massive they were in prime condition and fighting like steam trains!

After having some cracking wrasse sessions I decided it was time to roll the dice and go in pursuit of some new ground which was partly due to some detailed scrutiny of the OS maps and some useful info I had been given by a local friend.

My plan was to target some big pollack but despite the location and conditions looking perfect the fish simply didn’t want to play ball … we managed some smaller fish but not quite what we had been after. In saying that pollack always give a pretty good account of themselves especially when fishing over kelpy bottoms as they try to retreat to cover! Most of the fish took the 90 mm Illex Nitro Shad on a 20g jig head.

The exploration proved successful – we found new access to parts of the coast, we nailed some fish and the potential looks good so I can’t wait to get back and see what else we can muster from the depths!

Unfortunately the wind and rain put to rest some of our others plans and we had to batten down the hatches for a day but as we watched the weather front pass we started to hatch another plan …. weather depending of course.

We woke up the next morning to find the wind had dropped right out and the sea had flattened off …. it was time for action. We dug out the tandem kayak and got ourselves kitted out for a session a float.

It wasn’t particularly pleasant as it was still a bit damp and drizzly but it was the best we could get.

We launched mid afternoon and paddled our way round to a sheltered bay where I had always wanted to try fishing the reefs for wrasse. Again, this was unknown to us but surely it was worth a go!?

It was slow with only a few wrasse and some pollack but it proved a theory which I had for a long time if nothing else it was worth it just to nail this awesome coloured wrasse which had a cracking orange glow to the belly. It nailed a craw style lure in about 5 feet of water of some very heavy boulders!

To top it all off we were paid a little visit by some dolphins which were making their way up the coast as we paddled back to the car. There is something about these creatures which simply puts a smile to your face … awesome!

So there you go – a rather brief blog post on some of the action over the last weekend or so but don’t worry there will be plenty more to come as I have some pretty cool trips lined up and loads of fishing adventures planned so stay tuned!

Tight Lines!

Steve

Check out Steven’s online shop….Fish on Lures

With A – Z in brand names, Fish on Lures caters for all anglers. It specializes in lure fishing equipment giving quality at a reasonable price.

Tel: +44 (0)7729614986

Email: [email protected]

Web: www.fishonlures.co.uk