June 16th: The day was almost a complete carbon copy of last year’s comp in terms of weather and fishing. On the weather front there had been a gale the previous day but winds were from the northern quadrant and it was hoped, with winds off the land, that this would flatten the seas a bit and so it transpired! The seas were virtually flat calm which allowed some of the boats to venture as far as the Ling Rocks. It actually turned out to be a beautiful summer’s day with the sun coming out and many of the anglers, on return, sporting a bright red complexion!

On the fishing front those boats that ventured to the Ling Rocks fared a bit better, in general. Mind you the winner, Pat Condon, on-board his own boat, Osprey II, opted to stay in a bit closer and did quite well on the Smiths.

Alan Kennedy, skippering the Lagosta II, was one of those who opted for the Ling Rocks. He had a motley crew on-board that included Anthony Austin, Martin Perryman, Pat O’Shea, and Tina Kneeshaw. Competition here was going to be tight…and so it turned out to be. Fishing at times was hectic with Alan firstly fishing the northern peaks and later trying out the southern end. A great selection of reef fish came over the gunwhales with a good number of pollack to 7lbs. There were also a number of fine ling, ballan wrasse, cuckoo wrasse, pouting, poor cod, etc.,… For the last hour Alan brought the crew to the mixed ground north of the Lings were the species count was ratcheted up. Haddock, red gurnard, grey gurnard, whiting came on-board aswell as a superb megrim for Martin Perryman. We all reckoned it was a specimen but Martin opted to return the fish. The only species that wasn’t caught, which was unusual, was cod !

On the other boats similar species were being clocked up. However, on the Camden Mist angler Ray Meaney, fishing for Ryan’s Bar, went one better. Ray managed an Angler fish of 8kg! Now that’s unusual. Well done Ray!!!

It had been a long day’s fishing for the 32 anglers as four boats set out at 10am and lines-up wasn’t until 5pm. Mind you for those that ran into fish the day seemed to fly. All retired to Tradewinds Bar & Restaurant were there was a local band playing and some superb finger food put up by Sandra O’Shea. As the scores were being totted up, stories were swapped, a few beverages were sunk, and a bit of aftersun applied!

Finally, Danny Kane delivered the results. Tradewinds Team had won once more. The team included Danny himself, Pat Condon, Martin Kennedy, & Rob Porter. Second were Crosshaven SAC and third The Commodore Hotel. On the individual scores Pat Condon (Cobh SAC) won by a close margin of 7pts with 443pts in total. Pat O’Shea (Cobh SAC) was in second with 436pts and Martin Kennedy (Cobh SAC) was in third. Martin Perryman won the most species prize with 9 species. All in all, another great comp…roll on next year!!!

46th Cobh SAC International Deep Sea Angling Festival

We are now taking entries for this year’s Festival.

We’ve retained the prize fund for this competition at €7,500. Of this €2,000 will be in cash, the breakdown of the cash element is as follows:

1st Prize €1000
2nd Prize €400
3rd Prize €200
Best Team of 4 €400

However, there are numerous other prizes. Each day is a competition in its own right and there are prizes for 1st, 2nd, 3rd, etc.,…. plus heaviest fish. For the whole week there are also category winners like heaviest conger, heaviest cod, ling, pollack, most species, most fish….the list goes on and on.

The competition will be run over four days from the 3rd to 7th September 2012 (Mon, Tues, Thurs, & Fri). This Festival is great craic and if you want a week away with your buddies with great craic and good fishing well this is the fishing break for you. Many of the anglers are coming back to this event year after year, after year!!!

This report from last year (2011 Report) will give you an idea of the quality of fishing (and craic) to be had over the week.

Charter Boats will be provided by Cork Harbour Angling Hub (http://www.corkharbouranglinghub.com) and accommodation packages are available from the Commodore Hotel (http://www.commodorehotel.ie or ring 00-353-21-4811277 and just ask for Mary, tell her you want the fishing package and she’ll sort you out), and Bella Vista House Hotel (http://www.bellavistahotel.ie).

For more information contact Cobh SAC on 00-353-21-4812167 or thru the following email addresses:

cobhsac09@yahoo.com or seaangling@esatclear.ie

Cork Harbour Angling Hub

http://corkharbouranglinghub.blogspot.ie/