Cobh SAC Boat Master Angler

The fourth and last competition in this year's series to decide Cobh SAC's master angler was held on the last Sunday in November. This was the weekend that the first of this Winter's cold snaps blew in and boy was it cold! The heavy frost that morning prevented many from turning up but despite the conditions six hardy anglers braved the elements and boarded the John Boy at Kennedy Pier.

Skipper for the day was Mark O' Reilly as Donie had prior engagements. Mark brought the crew to one of Donie's marks on the Smiths to start with. Fishing was slow, but having said that the quality of fish brought to the net was quite good. In total there was 71 fish caught, the vast majority codling and whiting. Having said that most of the cod were from 5lbs and up.

Although, conditions were good to start with, a freezing NE blew up. With that extra chill the anglers had no option but to head back to a more sheltered harbour mark. Everyone was well wrapped up, as can be seen from the photo above of that international man of mystery. They seek him here...they seek him there...but here's a Christmas quiz for all; can you identify that well known club member.

When everyone got back to base at the Commodore Hotel they were glad of that hot bowl of soup. The scores were totted up and the outright winner on the day was Danny Kane with 15 fish and 278 points. Well done Danny!!! Second on the day was Sandra O' Shea, also with 15 fish, and 229 points. Third was Noel Carey with 16 fish and 225 points.

What a year Danny Kane has had; Winner of the Cobh International Deep Sea Angling Festival and....cover of Irish Angler!!!!

World Sea Fishing winner!!!

Well done to Club Treasurer, Pat O' Shea, who was joint winner of the World Sea Fishing Lure Challenge for 2010.

Pat topped the competition with this fabulous bass of 71cm caught on a sub-surface lure in August. The competition ran all year upto the 10th December and was for the longest lure caught bass from the shore. Pat had stiff competition as he was up against lure anglers from Germany, the Channel Islands, England, Scotland, Wales, and Ireland. Many were well known lure specialists, including TV personality, Henry Gilbey, and Graham Hill.

Well done Pat!!!!

More details can be seen here http://www.worldseafishing.com/forums/showthread.php?t=237916

Danny is on top of the World.....

Fair play to Danny Kane, he's having a good year. Not only did he win the International Festival but he is also the Club's master angler for 2010. Danny recently finished 3rd in the last of the series of our master angler comps. This gave him enough points to pip veteran, Frankie Cronin. (A report on that comp will follow shortly).

Here's Danny also, appearing on the cover of the Christmas edition of Irish Angler. When you're having a good year, you're having a good year; well done Danny!!!

The calm before the storm....

Hurricane Thomas was due to lash the south coast last Sunday but forecasters were confident that it wouldn't come in until after dark. They were spot on! In fact the weather for our first light line competition of the Winter series was positively glorious....a true calm before the storm!
Eight competitors gathered on the pier early Sunday morning and were soon under way on the John Boy. By 9:30am Donie had the anchor down and positioned the boat on the northern edge of deep hole in line with No. 5. This spot had fished very well in the National fish-offs over the Oct long weekend and Donie was hopeful that similar fishing could be had this Sunday. How right he was!!! Over 600 fish were caught by the 8 anglers over the 5 hours of the competition. Wow, now that's good fishing.

Whiting dominated the catch with many of a good size; averaging between 2-3lbs. The final tally was 454 whiting, 101 dabs, 4 doggies, 8 codling, 45 poor cod, and 1 scad. That's an average of 77 fish per angler. That's a great start to the light line series!

Many of the dabs were a 1lb in weight, coming close to the new specimen size. Surprisingly there were very few cod, but the trawlers have been hammering them for weeks now! There were also plenty of mackeral about, keeping everyone's bait supplies topped up.

Winner of the competition was Sandra O' Shea, pictured above, who had an impressive haul of 112 fish. In second place was Anthony Austin, Crosshaven SAC, who had 109 fish, and in third was Sylvester Skowronski with 89 fish. Roll on the next light lines comp, which is on Sunday 5th December. If you want to fish this comp give Mary Geary a bell on 087-4812167 or drop her a line on seaangling@esatclear.ie .

Autumn Seatrout

What about this for a fine seatrout!!! This superb fish was caught recently by Cobh SAC member, Cmdr. Richie Ryan. This fish was picked up on a secret mark in the upper reaches of Cork Harbour. What makes it extra special was that it was a salt water fly caught fish. Well done Richie!!!

Richie wasn't the only one bagging the seatrout. Fellow Cobh SAC member, Tom Hoynes, picked up a few towards the back end of the season, again, at an upper harbour mark. These fish were caught on a Viva Maria Parade.

2010 Festival.....

Well it's all over for another year and what a great week we had!!! Everyone had been a bit apprehensive about the weather, especially as on the Sunday night, as we all registered, it was lashing rain and windy outside. We needn't have worried so much as it turned out mostly fine. In fact sunburn turned out to be more of an issue, especially on the first two days. Monday and Tuesday followed on the same as Sunday night with downpours....but that was over land. Out at sea there was nothing but clear blue skies. Looking back to land we could see the dark clouds hugging the coastline. However, as we gathered on the pier on Monday morning we weren't to know that as the forecast was for heavy showers and most people were kitted out in their all-weathers.

The anticipation was palpable as all 50 anglers (from over 6 nations) collected their scorecards and made their way towards their designated boat. On each boat one of the angling party was designated boat captain, to be responsible for collating the scores at the end of the day. That would be a relatively easy task as each charter boat skipper was well organised and had a steward to assist. The picture over is of Donie Geary, of the John Boy, giving boat skippers and stewards last minute instructions. By 9:45am all anglers were onboard and each boat slowly made their way from the quay and idled in the channel waiting for the go-ahead. Once it came, all five boats motored on their way together in a small floatilla. What a sight!

The designated fishing area for the day was to be the Smith's Reef, some number of miles south of Roches Point, and West. After a stop off for mackeral on the way, all boats were there well in advance of lines down time of 11am. This was to be the moment of truth. For all the anglers the level of anticipation (and probably nervousness) had been building to this point from the day before. There was no more rig tying; there was no more preparation; this was it! For some, things were going to work out; for others....oh, well.

As it turned out the fishing was a bit of a struggle....for every body. We were onboard the John Boy, skippered by Donie Geary. We had a mixture of conger to 7kg, ling, pollack, coalfish, pouting, cuckoo wrasse, and grey gurnard. Pictured over is Scottish angler, Dave Nielson, with one of those cuckoo's. Best onboard our boat was Cobh SAC angler, Pat O' Shea, with one conger and 13 pollack for a total of 245 points. He was followed by another Cobh SAC angler, Paul Tennant, with four conger and a pouting for 220 points.

The other boats more or less fared out the same, except for Sea Breeze. There's was the only boat to take the westerely option. Crosshaven SAC angler, Ger Richardson, had put them on one of his Daunt Rock marks and it paid off! Particularly for Ger, who had a great day. Ger had three conger to 9kg and 9 pollack to give him 350 points and put him into the overall lead after Day 1. He was closely followed by Dublin angler, Damien Wall, who had 18 pollack for 310 points. Here's Damien with a rockfish....one of the oddities he caught later in the week!

After that in auspicious start we all retired to Tradweinds Restaurant for a few pints of the black stuff and to chew the cud. Although, a few anglers were down in the mouth that was soon forgotten about. Sandra and Danny had booked a trad band and they soon got under way. As the craic and banter gathered pace, the spirits were certainly enlivened!

Tuesday morning heralded a fresh start....mind you a few of the anglers looked far from fresh as they made their way down to the pier. Nevertheless, all cobwebs were blown away as we motored out to "today's" fishing grounds. Fishing was to be from Power Head east. Most boats took the option of fishing the area close to the Pollack Rock buoy. We were onboard the Wreckhunter. Skipper Joe Lynch took us futher east than the rest. Joe was anxious to fish a favourite mark of his, an isolated seamount that rises 17 metres from the ocean floor. It certainly looked dramatic on Joe's onboard computer screen, which gave a 3D graphical depiction of the sea bed.

The fishing also got off to a dramatic start with Tom Johnson landing a fine ling of 5.5kg. This was followed by more ling and plenty of pouting; a sure sign that we were in good conger country. Indeed, Joe was hoping that we might get a conger over the 20kg mark as he has had them here before. At the start, though, it was all pouting and some were quite large. Phil Blakey, originally from the UK, had two around the 3lb mark. One of them, later weighed ashore, qualified as a specimen. Well done Phil!

With the turn of the tide the conger soon came on the feed. Joe had his hands full as he was running from port side to starboard to aft in between netting the congers as they came onboard at a fast and furious pace. All too soon it was all over and in that hectic spell we landed over 40 conger, many of good size. The biggest of the day fell to Cobh SAC angler, Paul Tennant, at 12.5kg. Indeed, Paul had a great day with the best score of 745 points. Making up Paul's tally were eleven conger, one pollack, and three ling. Three other anglers had scores of over 500 points; that's great crackin'.

Feeling somewhat confident that we had had an exceptional day our bubble was somewhat burst when on the journey in we heard over the blower that Danny Kane had knocked up a great score in excess of 800 points. Donegal Danny, as he's otherwise known, was catching everything in sight! Danny was onboard the John Boy and they had had great fishing. Indeed, no less than five anglers onboard that boat had in excess of 500 points. Wow!!! In fact they had over 60 conger landed, many of which were approaching 10kg in weight. That's some fishing!

As it turned out the fishing on Tuesday was excellent all-round with 11 anglers returning a score in excess of 500 points. Bobby Crebor from Cork had a mighty fish in a 17kg conger; probably the biggest fish in a couple of years and not far off specimen. As we retired to Ryan's bar that evening the general consensus was that Tuesday was a good day. Everyone was in better spirits and it didn't take long for the craic and banter to start. Landlord, Paul O' Halloran, admonished Frank Burke for scoring more points than Martin Perryman. Now that's a first!

Wednesday was a rest day, so we were all eager to get going again Thursday morning. The previous night there had been yet another Trad session in the Commodore Hotel. What a night! Copious amounts of porter and crubeens. How does Frank Burke do it; but do it, he does and is the freshest one on the pier the following morning. Topic of discussion on the pier was that there was pigs' hair on the crubeens. All the better, reckons Frank!!! Well, anyway, off we went to Power Head, with the Pollack Rock and east being our destination. The fishing today wasn't as good as Tuesday. Yet Danny Kane had a great day! You couldn't stop that man; he was on fire. Danny was with us on the Lee Star and he was fishing well. It was all down to his lucky yellow pirk he reckoned. He had actually lost it twice on Tuesday only for it to be retrieved twice by another angler. Well if that's not luck what is! Danny ended up with 545 points, only 10 points behind the joint winners of the day, Richie Fortune, Cobh SAC, and Steve Williams, Wales. There were also some great fish caught. Hans Vermelis of Holland had a 16kg conger. Sandra O' Shea of Cobh SAC had one of 14kg. Two great fish!!


When we got back in the evening we all retired to Kelly's Bar, the sponsors of day 3. It was now clear that the top spot was gravitating towards a number of anglers and the topic of discussion was who was going to come out on top the following day. Danny Kane was in front but hot on his heels were Paul Tennant, a previous winner, Richie Fortune, and Frank Cronin, also a previous winner. Who would win out? The conversation was certainly lively and the slagging something else! However, as the night wore on we could see the weather deteriorating outside and soon enough the rain was dancing off the main window of Kelly's. Friday was going to be a tough one.


Arriving on the pier on Friday morning we were pleasantly surprised; the wind had abated and it was no longer raining. Better news was to follow; we had all expected to be confined to the harbour but it was decided that we could fish from Roches Point west to the Daunt. The journey out, though, was a bit hairy. Today's tide was one of the biggest of the year and as we approached Roches Point the ebb tide was at its height, pushing hard against the breeze that was left; it was quite dirty to say the least. The Lee Star took a wave that frightened the bejaysus out of everyone onboard. Aiden Kneeshaw, skippering for the day, reckoned the boat nearly submarined!!! All he could see as the boat dived into the trough, was green water; how the windscreen held he still doesn't know! Once all boats cleared the harbour mouth, though, it was fine and the sea soon levelled off. We were on the Cuan Ban, skippered by John Barry. John is one of the longest serving charter skippers in the harbour and he was taking us to one of his secret marks on the Daunt. The pressure was on though, as we had Danny Kane onboard.

The fishing for us kicked off fairly well. From the oft Pollack were coming onboard and a better stamp of fish than was apparent all week. A number of nice cod showed aswell, but then as the tide dropped to low the fishing tailed off. At this stage, everyone had a number of fish....except Danny!!! Was the pressure getting to him? The pressure soon mounted as news came in from the Lee Star that Paul Tennant had got off to a great start and had now chalked up over 200 points putting him now in overall lead.


Coming upto the changeover, skipper John Barry suggested a change to a mark closer to the Cork buoy. Here the fishing remained slow as the tide slackened but we managed a few bullhuss. Still Danny remained fishless. He was pulling his hair out at this stage. Then at last, Danny caught a fish....a doggie. Did he have his mojo back? This was to prove just the case as with the turn of the tide Danny started to pick up a few conger. However, he had only an hour left. Was it going to be enough?


In that last hour the pace of the fishing picked up. Richie Fortune, Cobh SAC, and Steve Williams of Wales, both pegged at the aft position really did well. By lines up we hadn't done too bad at all, with over 30 conger, numerous pollack, cod, ling, grey gurnard, bullhuss and lsd's. Fishing in the other boats had picked up aswell with most anglers returning a decent score. As we made our way in, we wondered had Danny done enough to secure victory.

Later that evening we all gathered in the Nightclub in the Commodore Hotel for the prize giving presentation. As per usual, the spread of prizes, trophies, and crystal was indeed impressive. Once all the necessary speeches were over prizes were given out in order of merit from 15th place up....and soon enough it became clear; Danny Kane had indeed won the Festival outright. Well done Danny!!! Along with the main trophy Danny won €1000 in cash. In second place was Paul Tennant who won €400, and in a very creditable third place was Richie Fortune, who won €200. The Ireland B team won the team event and collected a cheque for €400. The team was made up of Danny Kane, Milo Burke, Frank Cronin, and Sandra O' Shea.

The full results are as follows:


1st Danny Kane, Cobh SAC, 1820 pts
2cnd Paul Tennant, Cobh SAC, 1735 pts
3rd Richie Fortune, Cobh SAC, 1480 pts
4th Frank Cronin, Cobh SAC, 1385 pts

5th Pat O' Shea, Cobh SAC, 1300 pts
6th Mick Hade, Ireland, 1245 pts
7th Milo Burke, Cobh SAC, 1150 pts
8th Paul Evans, Wales, 1115 pts
9th Gerard Richardson, Crosshaven SAC, 1065 pts
10th Steve Williams, Wales, 1045 pts
11th Gerard Gersjes, Holland, 995 pts
12th Damien Wall, Dublin, 990 pts
13th Mike Stelling, Wales, 980 pts
14th Tom Johnson, Cork, 965 pts
15th Steve Tyler, Wales, 910 pts

Best Lady Angler: Tina Kneeshaw, Crosshaven SAC, 815 pts


Best Out of State Angler (with free entry to next year's Festival): Paul Evans, Wales, 1115 pts


Heaviest Fish of the Week: 17kg Conger, Bob Crebor, Cork


Heaviest Cod of the Week: 3.5kg, Steve Williams, Wales


Heaviest Conger of the Week: 17kg, Bob Crebor, Cork


Heaviest Ling of the Week: 5.5kg, Tom Johnson, Cork


Heaviest Pollack of the Week: 4.0kg, Sandra O' Shea, Cobh SAC

Most Fish of the Week: 55 Fish, Pat O' Shea, Cobh SAC


Most Species of the Week: 9 Species, Pat O' Shea, Cobh SAC


Winner Monday: Gerard Richardson, Crosshaven SAC, 350 pts
Second Monday: Ruud Boelhouwer, Cobh SAC, 310 pts

Third Monday: Damien Wall, Dublin, 255 pts

Heaviest Fish Monday: 9kg Conger, Gerard Richardson


Winner Tuesday: Danny Kane, Cobh SAC, 835 pts

Second Tuesday: Frank Cronin, Cobh SAC, 800 pts
Third Tuesday: Paul Tennant, Cobh SAC, 745 pts
Heaviest Fish Tuesday: 17kg Conger, Bob Crebor


Winner Thursday: Steve Williams, Wales, 555 pts
Second Thursday: Richie Fortune, Cobh SAC, 555 pts
Third Thursday: Danny Kane, Cobh SAC, 545 pts
Heaviest Fish Thursday: 16kg Conger, Hans Vermelis, Holland


Winner Friday: Paul Tennant, Cobh SAC, 335 pts
Second Friday: Paul Evans, Wales, 330 pts
Third Friday: Pat O' Shea, Cobh SAC, 295 pts
Heaviest Fish Friday: 12.5kg Conger, Mick Hade, Ireland


All in all it was a great week, with great weather, great craic, and above all, great fishing. There were over 1000 fish caught and the breakdown is as follows:

468 Conger
312 Pollack
76 Lesser spotted dogfish
51 Ling
46 Pouting
35 Cod
22 Grey Gurnard
11 Cuckoo Wrasse

6 Coalfish
3 Bullhuss
1 Garfish


Next year's Festival (2011) will be a bit special as it will the 45th year of running the event. It will be run from Monday 5th September to Friday 9th September. Again there will be a cash element to the prizes with €1000 for 1st place, €400 for 2cnd, and €200 for 3rd. The winning team of four will also win €400. If you would like to enter, contact Club Secretary, Mary Geary on 00 353 21 412167 or by email on seaangling@esatclear.ie

Many thanks to club member, Martin O' Leary, for the photography.

Mackeral for the Festival.....

Last Thursday a group were dispatched with instructions to catch enough mackeral for bait for the upcoming Deep Sea Angling Festival (http://cobhsac.blogspot.com/2010/07/less-than-2-months-to-go.html). An order was given for 1,000 mackeral!!! That would give each competing angler a bag of 5 mackeral for each day's fishing.

However, Cobh SAC member, Timmy Leahy, just wasn't paying heed to the task at hand. He just kept catching cod....and good ones at that!

All joking aside, cod turned up in great numbers. All were of the stamp shown in the photo. As you can see from Timmy' smile, he wasn't complaining.

There was as many cod caught as there were mackeral and, although, our quota wasn't reached there were a couple of fine boxes of fish allround. We can always top up on mackeral the next day!

US Outing

Richie Ryan does it again. Last week Richie had a group from the USA out. They were under a tight schedule as they had to be back for midday. Nevertheless, Richie made sure thay had fish.




Fishing at first at the Harbour mouth, the group had plenty of mackeral and codling. The Yanks would have been content at that but Richie brought them to one his favourite bass marks and despite the neap tides and less than favourable conditions he managed to winkle out a nice plump 3lber for one of the group.


Later during the week, Richie came up trumps again. This time he had renowned bass angling guru, Jim Hendrick, and French bass specialist, Jean Louis Max, in his company. Details of the catch, methods, and marks have been kept secret. There may be an angling magazine article to come from this one? Well done, Richie!

If you'd fancy a trip out with Richie, why not contact him through his website at http://www.corkbass.com/

2010 Master Angler - Competition No. 2

Well we held the second of our master angler series on Sunday 25th July in conjunction with the Harbour Championships held out of Crosshaven and hosted by Monkstown SAC. Thirteen Cobh SAC club members entered and fished aboard the John Boy and the Naomh Cartha.


Conditions on the day were superb. Some great scores were handed in aswell. In the overall competition 66 anglers fished. There were over 1,121 fish caught with 14 species landed. That gave an average of 17 fish per angler. Cobh SAC member Ruud Boelhouwer came 2cnd but was representing Crosshaven SAC on the day and wasn't part of our competition.


As regards our own competition Milo Burke was outright winner with 37 fish and 525 points. Milo had a nice selection of fish with 8 species, including haddock! In second place was Frank Cronin with 19 fish for 373 points and third was Danny Kane also with 19 fish and 280 points. This now puts Frankie in the lead in the overall masters series. Well done Frankie!!!

Our next competition in the Master Angler series is on Sunday 22cnd August. Please book your place now with Mary on 021 - 4812167.

Don't forget the Festival aswell. That's starting on Monday 6th September. Mary is still taking entries; give her a buzz on 021 - 4812167. For more information, look here http://cobhsac.blogspot.com/2010/07/less-than-2-months-to-go.html.

There is a full report on the Harbour Championships on our sister blog. Have a gander here http://corkharbouranglinghub.blogspot.com/2010/08/cork-harbour-deep-sea-angling.html

Richie Ryan bags some big Bass....

Club member, Richie Ryan, has been getting some superb bass lately. Across is a picture of a magnificent 12lb bass caught on an angel kiss plug recently. Unfortunately, Richie did not have a certified scales with him at the time so he will not be claiming an official specimen fish as he was anxious to return the fish as quickly as possible. Well done Richie!

Cian Ryan, Richie's son, is one of the people who is benefiting from Richie's expert tuition. Cian is no mean angler himself having clinched the Munster Juvenile Deep Sea Angling Championship in 2009. However, this was a milestone for Cian as it was his first salt water fly caught fish. Hence, the broad grin.

Another group of anglers who benefited from Richie's guiding and fly fishing expertise were from Sky Sports Italy. They were recently filming a clip to be aired on Sky Sports on fly fishing within Cork Harbour. Richie brought them to one of his favourite marks that produces excellent pollack fishing on the fly. In Richie's own words they 'murdered' the fish. I'm sure it will make for interesting TV viewing when we get to see it!!!

A few good fish caught in the last few weeks

Here's a few photos of some good fish caught over the last few weeks on lures. The pic on the left is of a 69cm bass caught on a gataride from the shore.





To the right, a 69cm fish on a gunfish, again from the shore.





Here's a boat caught fish of 68cm caught on a soft plastic.....











....and last but not least, a 71cm shore caught beauty on a tide minnow....




So far its been a great season, and I hope it continues along the same lines!!!