Richard Dodd is back with another entertaining report on Borough SAC’s latest competition…

South Beach, Arklow – Saturday 7th March
Where Is Everyone?

South Beach, Arklow one of the most fished venues on the east coast. A place where, on any given weekend, you’d expect more tripods than tourists and more headlamps than stars.

So imagine the shock when the Borough SAC crew arrived and found Absolutely nobody. Not a sinner. Not a rod. Not even a dog walker pretending to be interested.

The whispers began immediately: “This isn’t a good sign. If no one else is fishing it, what do they know that we don’t? Is the beach closed? Cursed? Haunted by undersized whiting?”

But anglers are eternal optimists or stubborn so with the beach pegged, 11 brave souls took their places, muttering things like “Sure look, you never know” and “It can’t be that bad can it?”

At 6pm, lines were cast seaward with more hope than conviction. The weather was dry, a bit cloudy, and the easterly breeze added a bite that made everyone question their life choices. The tide was dropping and due to rise again, with full tide around 11pm perfect on paper, but paper doesn’t catch fish.

The first hour was slow. Painfully slow. Watching paint dry but the paint is also ignoring you. Eventually, a few tiny whiting appeared, all undersized, all smug about it. Anglers began to suspect the empty beach was no coincidence.

As night settled in, the fishing continued in the same heroic-but-hopeless fashion .More small fish. More undersized whiting. More muttering about how “the other clubs definitely knew something.”

But then in the last two hours the sea finally woke up. Whiting got bigger (well less small).The biggest of the night hit a mighty 25cm, which technically counts as “bigger” if you squint. And suddenly the beach came alive: Whiting, Flounder, Dabs, Rockling, Dogfish, Small spurdog and, yes, smooth hound. In March.  Because why not? The sea likes to keep things interesting.

By the end, rods were bending, anglers were busy, and the earlier doom-and-gloom was replaced with the sweet sound of fish being measured and released .Against all expectations, the night turned into a cracker: Total fish caught & released: 133. Not bad for a session that started like a funeral for optimism.

The Moral of the Story – Never trust an empty beach. Never underestimate undersized whiting. And never, ever assume a quiet venue means a quiet night.

South Beach delivered in the end and the Borough SAC anglers proved once again that hope, persistence, and a bit of madness are all part of the sport.