Cork Sea Angling Club report on their second competition of 2023 fished near Ballywilling…
East is least they say, I’m thinking this may be true.
Cork Sea Angling Club had their second competition of 2023 on Saturday night from 17:00 to 22:00 in Ballywilling with a sharp easterly breeze that would cut the nose off a brass monkey. We were meant to fish Garyvoe but we felt we would have been fishing off the boulders at the top of the beach as the tide came in.
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12 anglers showed up and first fish landed was an impressive 60cm bass by Pawel Kurowski, a beauty, and followed by another bass from Eric Gosnell 46 cm.
As the wind died down a few dogs showed up. Chris O’Connell had a 52 cm bullhuss and Pawel caught a 32cm whiting.
Well done to everyone that fished, at the end of the competition not knowing if I still had toes left from the cold the results were given out…
Results
1st place Christopher o connell with a huss and a dog
2nd place was Pawel Kurowski with a bass and a whiting
3rd was Eric Gosnell with a bass
Christopher o’Connell
Next competition 25th of march Ardmore
And congratulations to everyone that got into the fish offs for the master angler and to West Cork and District SAC for doing a fantastic job hosting the competition.
Go fishing…
Join the Club
Find out more about Cork Sea Angling Club and their upcoming events at Cork Sea Angling Club
Cork Sea Angling Club are now taking new members to join their great club for 2023. If you’re interested please contact Kevin McGowan on 0852493550
Munster Coarse Anglers fished the 8th match of their winter series in Portumna at the weekend…
Getting to the sharp end of the league with only two more matches left. The race to the end between Richard and Steve is nip and tuck. Their local knowledge came to the fore today with two twenty plus weights. In the end Richard came out on top with 24lb 7oz. While second placed Steve on 22lb was nearly 10lbs ahead of the next placed angler.
Munster Coarse Angling Club are affiliated to the National Coarse Fishing Federation of Ireland, NCFFI the National Governing body for coarse and predator fishing and casting. www.ncffi.ie
Galway Bay SAC held their first club master angler competition at Renvyle, Connemara, last Saturday evening, generously sponsored by Wildhunter Galway. A cold easterly made for very calm conditions, with clear skies and temperatures hovering above zero it turned out to be a lovely evening. Fishing was from 6-10pm, with bites slow until darkness fell. Gary Miskell had an early ray, but fishing was otherwise very slow with a couple of coalfish also hitting the beach. A small run of dogs around 8-9pm put a few scores on the board, but overall it was a slow evening. As the old saying goes “When the wind blows east, the fish bite least!”
A small thornback ray for Gary
At lines up, it turned out that Gary was the winner, with 4 dogs and ray. Remis took second place with 4 dogs, and there was a tie for 3rd place, with returning angler Kevin O’Hara getting the nod with the longest dog.
Brian Reidy presents Gary with his prize, a voucher from Wildhunter Galway
Next up is Carrowmore beach, Louisburgh this coming Sunday, with fishing from 1-5pm, check-in at 12. New members are always welcome!
Go Fishing
Galway Bay Sea Angling Club is a progressive club based in Galway, but fishing competitions along the west coast. New members are always welcome, and every level of experience is catered for, with social outings right up to competitions held throughout the year. If you’re looking to get into sea angling in the west, check them out here
Youth angler Sean Franey was out on the Barrow recently and managed to land a nice pike of 10lb measuring approx 32 inches. 16-year-old Sean is a very keen angler and was fishing close to Monasterevin using dace as deadbait. Nice to see a report coming from that part of the Barrow and hopefully, we’ll see another nice pike for Sean before too long.
In the words of a Canned Heat 60’s classic, going up the country can take you to a place where the water tastes like wine…. and members of the Limerick County Pike Anglers Association found the waters to be particularly sweet when they made a trip ‘up the country’ for the 3rd round of their club league.
Only eleven anglers made the trip, as numbers were reduced due to illness and holidays, but they were treated to a day full of action as the pike were definitely on the take. A total of 20 fish were caught on the day, but they had plenty of others that came off so there was plenty to keep them occupied.
Winner on the day was Darragh Williams with 5 fish for just under 20lbs. Full results were as follows:
Northerly and easterly winds usually put a curse on all things fishing so when South Shore SAC were faced with a North-easterly blow for the second round of their Leinster League, it’s fair to say that expectations were not too high. 59 anglers turned out on a cool day as the competition was split over two zones, one in Ballinouart, and one in Morriscastle.
Fishing at this time of the year can be tough, and when faced with a nasty wind, it can be tougher still, and fish were very hard got on the day. In some sections, baits were coming back without having been touched at all.
Of the two zones, Morriscastle proved the better on the day, and Noel Fogarty managed to bag a creditable 11 fish to come top of the standings. Over on Ballinouart, it only took three fish for Des Farelly to win the zone and continue his good run of form. Full report and results are posted on the South Shore SAC Facebook page.
Anthony Weir from Tulla and District Anglers reports that the club had a super day out on Sunday, fishing for pike at Lough Brigit. The members were competing for the O’Holloran Cup with over 45 pike netted.
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Results were as follows
Marcin came in first with 12 fish totalling 623cm
2nd was Grzegorz Balicki (New Member) with 10 fish totalling 549cm
3rd was Martin Brennan with 5 fish totalling 286 cm
The pools was won by Brendan Wood with a pike of 86 cm.
Also worth a look below is a perch netted today by Grzegorz.
The next competition is on Clonlea where we will compete for the Bushmills cup on March 12th from 11:30 to 16:00.
Coarse angling
Best of luck to the Tulla coarse angling team fishing the Munster 4s: Donna, Padraig, JJ, PJ, Anthony, and Sean. And well done for last week in Inniscarra! They will travel to New Ross next Sunday March 5th for their 2nd outing.
Note that the first Tulla DAC coarse match will take place at Cloondorney where we will compete for the Quealy cup. We will draw for pegs at 09:00
Join the Club
Tulla District Angling Club is a Pike and Coarse fishing club founded over 50 years ago. They are based in East Clare, Munster, Ireland.
Brian Cooke, National Youth Shore Development Officer with the Irish Federation of Sea Anglers tells us that last Saturday, the IFSA Cast coaching programme was launched in Roney Point beach in County Wexford.
Ava Marshall with a flounder
The Cast coaching is an angling pathway with six levels that starts from novice up to International World team status.
Cameron Gilbert with a fine flounder
35 young anglers from all over the country participated in an inter active coaching day, with trained IFSA coaches and International anglers going to each angler and coaching them on tips, techniques and all aspects of sea angling from the shore.
Chris Sanbak lands a double whiting
The young anglers had a great day, learning valuable angling tips and interacting with their peers. Species caught were whiting, flounders, dabs, coalfish and smelt.
Happy anglers with their Cast certificates
All participants were awarded Cast certificates based on their skill levels.
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Liam Davis with a coalfish
Evan Mason with the longest flounder of 33 cm
Go fishing…
The next event is scheduled for March, details on the IFSA website and Facebook.
Details and photos of the event are on IFSA Website and Facebook page .
IFSA
The Irish Federation of Sea Anglers, a voluntary body and member of the Angling Council of Ireland is the National Governing Body for sea angling recognised by Sport Ireland and SportNI.
The Federation, founded in 1953, provides support for affiliated clubs and members, runs national competitions and presents International teams for Boat & Shore, Senior, Ladies and Juniors on the world stage.
We aim to develop, foster and control the sport of sea angling in Ireland.
The IFSA consists of four Provincial Councils: Ulster, Munster, Leinster and Connaught. These are governed by the Central Council made up of elected National Officers and Officers from each Province. Subject to AGM.
There’s been a feel of Spring in the air this week, Daffodils are everywhere, birds are already foraging for nesting materials, and the first buds are appearing on bushes and trees. Temperatures have been mild enough, although if the tabloids are to be believed another Beast from the East is just around the corner! We’ll stick to the official forecasts ourselves…
Predator
The milder weather has seen plenty of pike angling, and we have several reports of pike and perch action. Steve Gilbey was over in Longford for another visit from the UK, and he landed some lovely fish to 23.5lbs!
Newbridge & District Anglers, and one angler in particular, had a red letter day on a midlands lake venue. Danny McEvoy managed to double his previous PB with a cracking fish of 27.05lbs. That was only the start, however, as he went on to break that new PB with a fish of 29.02lbs, our Catch of the Week! Two fish for 56lbs in a short time, the kind of fishing one can only dream of. The other members also had great sport, with a number of other 20s and doubles landed.
Catch of the Week
Dan O’Neill and his son Anthony had great sport with perch on the Barrow, young Anthony catching a number of pike as well.
Salmon angling is still slow on many rivers, with anglers biding their time, but Mike O’Shea landed the first salmon off the Upper Caragh fishery, a tide-fresh 8lbs fish. Well done Mike!
Elsewhere fishing guide Dominic McGillicuddy landed his first of the year from Lough Currane.
Trout anglers are enjoying good early sport on Corrib, with fish taking flies in the shallows readily according to reports. Guide Tomi Kurman invested in a new boat over the winter, and christened it on Sunday with the first ferox trout of the year for one of his clients.
An innovative Transition Year group at Ballinrobe have been learning to tie flies over the last few weeks to sell for a business project, and they put their flies to the test when they visited Laois Angling Centre last week. Great sport was had, all caught fish, and they have been asking for a return visit since apparently!
“I love it when a plan comes together”. Well, that certainly worked out for Cian Moriarty and his friends, who had a solid day fishing on Sunday in Wexford. The target was spur dogs and between Cian and his four pals they had over 20 spurs between them! Great fishing!
In Youghal, a host of senior anglers competed for the coveted Master Angler trophy. All had qualified through their club master angler competitions, and fished 3 sessions in Youghal over 2 days. Fishing was tough, but that often separates the wheat from the chaff! At the end of 3 sessions, it was well-known coarse angler JP Molloy who was triumphant, with two zone wins and a second place sealing the win, and not for the first time taking home the MA trophy. Congratulations also to the women’s winner Clóda Ni Cheócháin from Tralee. Clodagh and JP will captain the senior teams at next year’s World Championships in Spain, where we wish them the best of luck.
Coarse angling reports are sparse, but the Munster Teams league kicked off with the first leg this week on Coachford Greenway, Inniscarra Lake with 8 teams taking part. Oakland took the honours and a nice lead with 9 points, ahead of Polish Angling Team on 13.
Overview: High pressure will be positioned near Ireland bringing mostly dry weather. Rather cold at times with the chance of some night time frost.
Cool over the weekend, with an easterly airflow bringing cool east/northeast winds, but staying mostly dry. Night time temperatures of -2 to 4C, and daytime highs of 5 to 8C, feeling cold in that east wind. Turning cloudier on Monday, but the outlook is for mostly dry if cold weather over the next few days.
Steve Gilbey from Manchester was over once again for one of his two annual trips to Melview Fishing Lodge in Longford, it was straight to business for Steve on the first day, catching a few nice Pike using various dead baits. As the week went on, the Pike kept getting bigger, Steve decided to fish a couple of static days from the bank. This paid off for Steve when three of the Pike caught went to the scales at 15lb 8oz, 17lb 5oz and a cracking 23lb 7oz. Host Kevin said, well done Steve and already looking forward to seeing you again in November.
Steve’s second pike on his first day out.What a cracking end to the holiday 23lb 7oz.
Kevin has over 30 years experience of fishing in Ireland and is happy to offer a guided tour on your arrival, and to advise where the on-form waters in the area are. We can arrange your bait order so it’s here when you arrive. Melview offers free use of 17ft lake boats with engines to our guests (pay fuel only) and Kevin is happy to assist with any pre-baiting requests. Maps and other information regarding fishing are also available.
