Golden Grey Magic....

An early start was rewarded yesterday with blue skies and flat calm water within the harbour.... just the conditions that turn the golden grey on. Although, I was heading out in hope rather than certainty as my last two outings were fruitless. Today my luck was in. I could see plenty of activity on the surface, but that could have been normal mullet. However, as I cast my float rig baited with ragworm over the side, my expectations were heightened.



Within minutes my float shot under the surface and I had a fish on. The fight, though, wasn't as aggressive as a mullet's and I instinctively knew I had another species on. Shortly later I was netting a baby bass of 33cm. These certainly weren't the target species, especially as there is currently a ban against bass fishing in place upto and including the 15th of June. I quickly returned him and got back fishing. The next two casts resulted in yet two more bass. Bloody hell, I'm going to get in trouble here if I don't watch it! I decided to put a bit of bling on. This most likely would put off the bass, but golden greys are a bit partial to this. Besides I could see plenty of fish jumping clear of the surface and they most definitely weren't bass. My persistance was rewarded as when my float zinged off the next time I knew I had a different fish...and so it was, my first golden grey of the year. These are feisty buggers when they are hooked and I even knew before I saw him that he was a golden grey. Sure enough, as he came into view, that distinct golden spot on its cheek was instantly recognisable. Fabulous!

I was lucky enough to catch another but did catch a few 'normal' mullet in between. I have a sneaking suspicion that these are actually thin-lipped mullet rather than thick lipped mullet. I'll have to refer to the 'experts.' All in all it was a great morning's fishing. I'll have to get out again shortly and give it another go before I revert to the bass fishing with a vengence!

The Bass are back....

The bass are back in the Harbour at last. On the last day before the season closed the Treasurer tried his hand at a bit of lure fishing in the Harbour and struck gold; three fine fish over a short session.

Here's a report back directly from the man himself; "I find normally that just before the bass ban kicks in I just try and squeeze in as many sessions as possible...and so it was the case again this year. On Wednesday and Thursday morning a 3am start saw me down at a favoured mark by 4am. Both were bait sessions, though, and in the two short two hour sessions I managed one fish of 65cm. I was determined to fit in a few lure sessions. Mind you lure sessions haven't been fruitful so far; I have only one fish to show for over two dozen outings.

So, another early morning on the 14th of May saw me once again at my favourite shore mark. In the pre-dawn light I was fishing upto high tide and this state of tide on this mark normally dictates that plugs are the weapon of choice. Two hours of flogging the sea to a foam over a 1/4 mile stretch of shoreline with a variety of baby feed shallows, maria chases, thundersticks and, eventually, out of desparation, a toby, saw once again a nil return. Back again I returned at low water; this time armed with a battery of soft plastics. Again, another blank. Mind you I did see fish. I had been fishing a rocky ledge, a considerable distance back from the edge. As the tide flooded over it a fish passed right in front of me only 10ft away, as casual as you like; the bugger! The water at this stage was only above my ankles.

Two hours into the flood I headed off and opted instead to try a boat outing. For the afternoon I ventured out into Cork Harbour in my boat. Again I headed to a favoured mark, and again I armed myself with a few SP's. First drift, and as my plastic sank to the bottom it was snaffled. I'd forgotten what it was like to fight a feisty bass on light gear and, oh it was a joy. A nice sized bass was soon netted and onboard for a few obligatory pics.

This was a great start but as is always the case with great starts, it was a false dawn. I persisted for another hour but that was it. Was it a solitary first fish into the harbour? A move was in order and so as the tide slowed I covered new ground. I was rewarded; shortly after I landed a better fish of 61cms.

Now the auld confidence was up; could I squeeze a third one out in what little was left of the tide? I did!!! Within a few minutes of returning the previous fish I was into another. This bugger was really feisty and he was the smaller of the three!

Now, completely on a high, I ignored my usual wisdom and carried on. Experience has taught me that on these marks slack water doesn't fish. What the hell, I was fired up, and so I carried on for another, fruitless, hour. What harm; I can retire the rods for the month now less anxious. Roll on the 16th!!!'

Danny can catch them....

Well here is proof in the pudding that Danny can catch them. Next time make sure it is fish you catch Danny. Joking aside Danny, Sandra, and Pete Davis headed out for a spot of fishing on the last day in April. They borrowed a boat from the Bellavista fleet and, as Pete is a journalist from Irish Angler, Kevin gave them the Irish Angler boat to try out. This is a new addition to Kevin's fleet after Kevin successfully convinced the IA team's that it would be better off having the boat operate out of Cork Harbour for the season rather than lying idle elsewhere. Well done Kevin.

Once Danny became aware of the availability of this boat he had Kevin badgered to give him a shot with it. Poor Kevin finally relented and handed over the keys of the Warrior 170. Having collected his crew Danny was soon putting the boat through its paces. Danny reports back that she is a fine vessel and the fishing was very comfortable with the three of them in it. As for the fishing....well that's a different story.

Well actually it wasn't too bad. Danny had a fine seagul!!! He did have a few fish, though. They started off on the Daunt Rock, where they picked up some fine pollack. They then worked the ground between the Daunt Buoy and the Cork Buoy where they had a mixed bag of codling, small ling, ballan and cuckoo wrasse, whiting and more pollack. For the afternoon they headed into the Harbour Mouth where they picked some more codling, with some fine fish around 4lbs coming aboard. Here's Sandra with a fine ballan wrasse around the 4lb mark. All in all they had a good day's fishing. Danny is itching to get the IA boat again soon, so Kevin be warned!

The Treasurer is at it again....

The Treasurer reports that bass fishing finally kicked off in April, much later than normal due to the cold weather and temperatures. Towards the end of April he had a number of really great sessions. Most were from secret rock marks using crab baits. Two or three bass were caught per outing but all were of a good size. The best of these was this 76cm beauty. This weighed just over 9lbs. There is no doubt that if this fish had been caught at the back end of the year it would have been a double. Indeed, the B.A.S.S. tape shows that a 76cm fish should normally weigh about 10lbs. What harm...the fish was quickly returned and will no doubt put on weight over the coming months.

Here's a pic of a another good bass, this time caught on a night time beach session. This fish fell to lug and measured 67cm. If you look carefully you'll see a flounder on the right hand side of the pic, which was part of a double shot landed at the same time.

Cork Harbour Cod Feist - Part Deux!

Yesterday we fished the last in our current series of light line competitions. This one was the fourth one this year and, similar to the last one in March, the cod were about in abundance. Unfortunately, we didn't have as large a turnout as in previous outings but we still had 9 anglers turning out bright and early at the pier bursting with enthusiasm. All that were due to fish were present and on time. Now that was a first as in all other comps we were kept waiting by Danny and Sandra who are always leggedy last. Fair play to the two of them this time. The only trouble was there was no sign of the 'John Boy.' A quick call and we soon established that Donie couldn't start the engine this morning; the battery was flat. However, Johnny Geary soon sorted him out with a new battery. Within no time at all he was under steam again and on his way to the pier head.

We were soon on our way and the boat draw was made. Starting on the starboard side with position number 1 and working all the way around the boat to position 9 on the opposite side, while placing angler no. 5 in the middle of the stern, we had Martin O' Leary, Eric O' Neill, Piotr Nowakowski, Danny Kane, Sandra O' Shea, Sylwester Skowronski, Denis Murphy, Noel Carey, and Frank Burke. We steamed directly for the Harbour mouth. Rather than fish 'Deep Hole' as we had done the last day, we decided to fish a different spot. Donie had heard that the ground around the dividing buoy was fishing well. However, I convinced him to try and old mark just at the harbour mouth. We could always work our way back in.

We anchored just off the southern edge of the harbour rock where the rock gives way to sand and mixed ground. This had always been good codling ground in the past. It was a bit dirty here as the last of the ebb was still pushing against the SSW breeze. No place for those with weak stomachs but we knew we had a hardened crew of veteran anglers onboard. In any case the oncoming flood would flatten it out.

We hadn't settled in at anchor long when the first of the fish came aboard; beautiful golden codling. The ones close to the rock here have a very vivid colouration on their flanks. Within short order everyone started catching. Nothing like the numbers apparent in the last competition but everyone was landing a few! Martin O' Leary joked that he had never had more than two fish in a competition before. That record was soon broken!!! He was so taken by the fish that he had 'a Rex Hunt' moment. He should just be fishing with Cobh SAC more often!

As the tide turned and started to flood the quality of the fish started to improve, with some of the codling nudging the 4lb mark. The variety of the species also started to increase with pollack, pouting, poor cod, and dabs coming onboard. Denis Murphy picked up a 'Johnny Cobbler' or scorpion fish; that was unusual in a competition. Sylwester let his lead go way in with the flooding tide and as his gear was now closer to the rock itself he managed to winkle out one of the resident ballan wrasse. It was a beautiful coloured fish aswell but before I could take a snap, Sylwester had already returned him to the deep.

We were sooned joined by the resident pod of dolphins, who looked as if they were hearding a shoal of fish into a baitball. More than likely herring, as several dense shoals had shown up on the fishfinder on the way out. They came very close to the boat aswell and as I had the camera out I tried to get a picture. Unfortunately, they were just too fast for me.

As we neared the third hour of the flood Donie reckoned a move was in order. Although, we were picking up fish it wasn't as prolific as the fishing in at Deep Hole the last day. So off to Deep Hole we went. Here the tide was running at a fierce pace. Nevertheless, everyone was into fish within short order. The fish, though, were smaller here. Frank even managed a few herring. We weren't here long when the heavens opened. It was typical of these heavy April showers...although, it lasted longer than a shower! Donie and myself retreated to the shelter of the cabin to leave the competitors to brave the elements. Funny enough, the showers seemed to be coming in a line across our position. Outside the Harbour, where we had been, was bathed in sunshine. Inside the Harbour, inside us, was also bathed in sunshine, and here we were drenched by a constant procession of showers. Weird! It did seem to dampen the spirits somewhat for only Sandra, Danny, Denis, and Noel seemed to be still catching. Danny and Sandra in particular seemed to motor ahead.

For the final hour Donie suggested another move. This time we anchored up channel side of No. 8. This had also produced during our series of light line comps. Unfortunately, this time it didn't. Sandra did manage a stonker of a dab here, though. It measured 37cm. Surely, it must have been nudging the specimen weight. Denis Murphy was the only one here that was steadily catching away. He still had some lug left and this seemed to be doing the trick. The others were using crab and this was just not getting any interest at this spot. Strange, as it was working at the other two marks. That's fishing for you!

At 3pm Donie called lines up and it was time to tally up the scores. It was going to be a close run thing. Danny Kane and Denis Murphy were leading the field with 41 fish each. However, by virtue of the fact that he had more species, Denis was the outright winner. Only 14 points separated the top two. Its just aswell Danny didn't win, as we'd have never heard the end of it. In third spot was Sandra O' Shea with 37 fish and in fourth was Noel Carey with 34 fish. In all 248 fish were landed which made it an average of 28 fish per angler. Of these there were 207 codling making it another Cork Harbour cod feist.

Once again the slagging back at the prize giving was rife. Many thanks to Colin Downey of Barry & Fitzwilliam who sponsored the prizes. Colin has been threatening to fish the light line comps for awhile but couldn't make any so far. May be next winter Colin!

That now concludes the light line competition series until next winter. Overall winner of the series was Steven O' Neill of Guileen SAC, who, despite not being able to make Sunday's competition, won with 26 points. In second place with 27 points, and overall winner of the best placed Cobh SAC angler prize, was Noel Carey. Both anglers won prizes of fishing reels sponsored by Jim Clohessy of Cork Small Boats Festival and Irish Angler. Well done to both!!!

The series will kick off again next October and go right through the winter until the following April. Your best six scores out of seven competitions will be taken for the final shake-up, so watch this space!!!

Dasher Doyle avails of the good weather

Cobh SAC Club members Martin Perryman, George Stockley, Sandra O' Shea and Danny Kane availed of this lovely weather we're having of late and headed out in Martin's boat, 'Dasher Doyle,' last Sunday. They tried several of George's secret marks first, south of Guileen, before concentrating on a mark of Martin's on the eastern side of the Smith's reef. Fishing was on the drift all day and they varied their tactics between baited hokkai's, sabiki's, mini shrimp rigs and gilling. George is fond of gilling and stuck to this for most of the day. Indeed George is one of the few people with a large stock of the auld original redgills in his tackle box. A favourite of his is a yellow one with a blueish head and this seemed to work well on the day. Overall they had great fishing with ling to 10lb, pollack to 6lb, cod to 8lb, and a mixed bag of other fish. George tells me that Sandra and himself did particularly well on one drift with over 20 ling between the two of them, putting real pressure on the other two lads!!! Not to be outdone, Martin bounced back with an impressive run of fish on the very next drift. How did Danny do I hear you ask....well that's a different story; maybe for another day! Here's a pic of Danny....doing his best.