April Light Lines Competition....

Well the last of this season's light line competitions got underway last Sunday, 17th April, and once again, as has been the case with all the comps in the series, we were blessed with great weather. In fact by the time we got back in many were sporting a nice shade of lobster pink, such was the strength of the sun.

There was a great turn out with 17 anglers competing. We all boarded the John Boy and Noamh Cartha early in the morning and opted once more to fish the prolific grounds of 'Deep Hole' between the Forts. By 9:30 both boats were at anchor. We were fishing big tides and, boy, was the tide run strong at the start! With 10oz leads it was even a struggle to hold bottom. However, as the tide slackened a steady stream of fish came onboard. The usual species showed in number; codling, whiting, dabs, etc.,... A surprising number of doggies showed. This was a welcome surprise as in previous competitions these have been noted for their absence. One or two mackeral also showed as was the case in the March comp.

From the oft, Cobh SAC vice-chairman, Danny Kane, piled the pressure on and seemed to put himself in an unasailable lead. However, he put himself under pressure and was soon reeled in, if you pardon the pun, by some of the Club's more seasoned anglers....upstart!!! By the end of the day a total of 759 fish had been landed; this made it an average of 45 fish per angler. The species count was 415 whiting, 126 poor cod, 93 cod, 73 dab, 48 doggies, a coalfish, a pouting, a flounder, and a scorpion fish.

Soon enough we were back in and retiring to Tradewinds Restaurant for much needed refreshments. After being well watered and well fed it was time to give out the prizes. Vice-chair, Danny Kane, got proceedings underway and presented first prize to Anthony Austin, of Crosshaven SAC, who had 87 fish for a total of 1,216 points. Second was club treasurer, Pat O' Shea, with 60 fish for 889 points, and third was Martin Perryman with 63 fish for 888 points. Wow, one point between second and third!!!

Well done to our latest club member, Evan McGovern, who came in a creditable 5th place. Club treasurer, Pat O' Shea, also had the most species of fish with 7 species.

As these comps have proven so popular, vice-chair, Danny Kane, announced that a summer evening series will be run. These comps will be run from 6pm to 10pm in the evenings in June, July, and August. Watch this space for these dates and more details!!!

March Light Line Competition

On Sunday just gone, the 27th March, Cobh SAC held their third light line competition of 2011. As has been the case in every competition since this series started, the weather was ideal. All week the weather was more like early summer rather than spring and Sunday was no exception, albeit a bit hazy. Having said that it was chilly as the anglers gathered on the pier at 8:30am. However, as the clocks had changed the night before, it was really 7:30, so the early morning cold was to be expected.

Twelve anglers signed in and promptly boarded the two boats: the John Boy and the Naomh Cartha. Within twenty minutes of departure the boats were at the first designated fishing area between the forts in deep hole. Everyone was keen to get a good start and those aboard the John Boy, skippered by Donie Geary, weren't disappointed. Baits had hardly touched bottom when the first fish started coming onboard and Donie was soon kept busy marking scorecards as a steady stream of fish came over the gunwhales.

The competition was soon intense as Martin Perryman, Sandra O' Shea, and club treasurer, Pat O' Shea, led the way, with not much between them. Plenty of codling were showing and to a good size too, along with whiting, dabs, scorpion fish, lsd's, and coalfish.

The Noamh Cartha wasn't faring out aswell and made several moves to get amongst the fish. Nevertheless, good efforts were being made by Anthony Austin, James Brandon and Evan McGovern who put a bit of distance between themselves and the rest.

During the afternoon, on the top of the tide, many anglers were getting a few knocks on the way down. It was thought that there might be a big shoal of whiting at mid-water. Curiosity got the better of the club treasurer who left his baits at that depth. He was soon into fish, but not the expected quarry. A brace of mackeral were soon swung onboard.....the mackeral are in!!! The mackeral appeared plentiful and even at one stage were breaking at the aft of the boat. They didn't escape the attention of the resident pod of dolphins who were soon spotted coraling some of the bait fish for too far away.

All too soon it was time to head in. Once ashore we all headed for Tradewinds Restaurant, who had sponsored the day and prizes. A fine spread was laid on with some welcome soup, sandwiches, and goujons of freshly caught cod. With that vital refreshments under our belt, the prize giving could get under way. Newly elected vice-chairman, Danny Kane, did his bit as master of ceremonies. First up was the overall winner, Martin Perryman. Martin had caught 121 fish for an overall points total of 1729. 2cnd was Ozzy Austin, who had won his boat onboard the Naomh Cartha. Ozzy had 50 fish for a total of 745 points.

Third was Evan McGovern, also onboard the Naomh Cartha, with 45 fish and 696 points.

The fishing had been exceptional. There were 670 fish caught, making it an average of 56 fish per angler. A total of 283 cod were caught, along with 243 whiting, 131 dabs, 9 lsd, 1 coalfish, 2 scorpion fish, and 1 herring. Club treasurer had to console himself that at least he had caught the most cod with 70 codling.

Roll on the next light lines comp on Sunday 17th April....make sure you're there!

Specimen Ling....

Members of Cobh SAC took advantage of the recent settled weather and what a day they had!!! Skipper, Donie Geary, takes up the story....'on Friday last, a group of local anglers hired the John-Boy to fish an offshore wreck. The weather had been settled for the best part of a week and the tides were suitable with a midday low water. We left Cobh at 9:30am with 7 very eager anglers, to fish a wreck about 20 miles from Roches Point. We started our first drift in 250 feet of water shortly after 11 o'clock. Things were very slow at first, only picking up several cod, but to 6lb nonetheless. We also had some fine whiting and a couple of nice ling in the first half dozen drifts. As the tide turned I decided to anchor in the hope of better fishing. Almost immediately, Ruud Boulhower (our local Dutchman) struck into a fine fish. However, he also got caught on the dreaded net that has been lost on the wreck. After about 10 minutes trying to coax it clear, the net eventually won and Ruud lost everything. Almost at the same time, Tony Maguire struck and landed a fine ling to 17lb despite having a major struggle with his reel. Tony also landed the next two ling of about 12lb. However, at that stage his reel had had enough. Fishing was steady with everyone landing some nice ling, conger and whiting. Gerard Richardson had at this stage the best with a hefty ling of 20lb. Ruud, though, wasn't to be outdone and struck into a good fish. We first thought it was a conger. Ruud had to gingerally reel the fish in as he was wary that the relatively light line on his hokkai rig would part. Eventually, he landed a fine ling weighing in at 25lb 2oz....a specimen, and Ruud's first at that!!! This is also the first specimen aboard John-Boy for 2011. Well done Ruud! We left for home at 4:30pm, with everyone in good form after an enjoyable day's fishing. With 10 miles left for port, Martin Perryman called out that he had seen a spout of water about 50 yards astern. I immediately swung around and headed for the disturbance on the surface. As I did this giant of a fin whale breached the surface 20 meters away. From the boat everybody just looked on in amazement at this monster, estimated at about 60 feet. It was the size of a small island and just as quick as it appeared it disappeared under the water again. We waited with cameras at the ready but that was the last we saw of him. On arrival back at Cobh and with Ruud's specimen ling confirmed, all the talk was about our encounter with this monster. How lucky we were to have the pleasure of being so close to such a creature as he swam in the open sea. In nearly 50 years of charter angling, I have never, or doubt I will ever again, witness such a fantastic sight.'

Light Line Comp Part Deux....Dab hunt.

After such a good day on Monday, and with the weather staying relatively calm, a plan was hatched to have a follow up. This time, though, the light line comp was to be a dab hunt.

Two boats headed out this time. First out was Dasher Doyle with Martin Perryman, Arthur Kavanagh, and George Stockley onboard, followed later by Sandra Anne with Danny Kane, Pat O' Shea, & Sandra Murphy onboard.

The plan was to target the numerous dabs that have shown up over the last few months. There have been many quality dabs showing up of late and it was hoped that we might be lucky and get a specimen.

Danny wasn't sticking to the plan, though. He wanted another cut off Ger Keohane's ling mark for just one hour! One hour turned into three. However, we couldn't complain as the fishing was alright. We had ling to 7lbs, cod to 5lbs, whiting to 3lbs, pouting to 2lbs, and numerous cuckoo wrasse. With an hour and a half of light remaining we headed back into a harbour mark.

Dasher Doyle had a great lead on us at this stage. They had fished Deep Hole at the start and then moved to mark outside the Harbour Rock. This proved fruitful with plenty of dabs, whiting to 2lbs, small codling (with a solitary 5lber), poor cod, and lsd's. Not to be outdone we headed to Deep Hole and in the last hour managed 32 whiting, 7 dabs, 7 codling, 7 poor cod, & 7 lsd.

Again, not a bad return for a couple of hours fishing in January!

Impromptu light line comp....

Over the New Year weekend a plan was hatched to have an impromptu Light Line Comp....and so, on the first Monday of January 2011, eleven brave souls from both Cobh SAC and Crosshaven SAC departed early in the morning (....well, actually not so early after all).

Three boats set off from East Ferry Marina; Dasher Doyle, Sandra Anne, and Eva. Sandra Anne, with Cobh SAC Master Angler, Danny Kane, Club Treasurer, Pat O' Shea, and Ger Keohane headed straight for the Ling Rocks. The other two boats, Dasher Doyle and Eva, with Martin Perryman, Frank Burke, Martin's brother, Arthur Kavanagh, Ruud Boelhouwer, Gerard Richardson, Greg Manning, and Tony Maguire, opted for the Smiths instead. It was bittingly cold with temperatures hardly getting above 4 degrees, but with very little wind it didn't feel that bad at all. In fact it was almost calm, which made the trip out to the Lings fairly comfortable compared to normal.

As our expected quarry was expected to be bigger than the normal stamp of fish encountered in the light lines a concession was made; main line was to be no more than 15lb but rigs and snoods could be heavier. On our boat, Sandra Anne, Ger Keohane got off to a great start. On a cliff-face mark north of the Lings themselves Ger started clocking up the species, bringing in pollack, whiting, and pouting in quick order. To put a stop to his gallop we moved onto the Lings proper!!!

Here we were into a better stamp of fish; Ger and Danny fishing bottom rigs started bringing in ling. Both landed fish to 9lbs. Pat stuck at the gilling alternating between shads and jellyworms. On both set-ups he was landing pollack on every second or third drop. The better fish seemed to fall for shads, though, and most were around the 6lb mark. To try for variety (and clock up species points) Danny dropped his hook and bait size. Soon enough, a number of ballan wrasse and cuckoo's were swung onboard.

With the number of ling coming onboard Ger Keohane was convinced that a mark of his, east of the Smiths, would produce bigger fish. With an hour of daylight left we decided to give it a shot. It produced bigger fish alright, but not the expected ling; Pat managed a fine pollack of 9 1/2lbs...the biggest fish of the day. A few ling were landed, but they were smaller than outside. We also had whiting, cod, haddock and lsd's. One of the haddock, a nice fish of 3 1/2lbs, had savage bites taken out of it....probably an attack from a big ling. Maybe there are big ling on Ger's mark after all! Pat really did well on this spot. This didn't go down well with Ger who soon took a knife to his line. Too late Ger, it was lines up anyway! A call to the other boats soon confirmed that they had had similar fishing with plenty of whiting and haddock in particular. Many of the whiting were upto 3lbs with Frank Burke managed a fine one of specimen size. Heaviest fish between the other two boats was a fine 8lb cod for Arthur Kavanagh.

What a great day, especially for January. Between the three boats we had managed to catch lsd's, pollack, cod, ling, haddock, ballan wrasse, cuckoo wrasse, whiting, and pouting; a total of 9 species. We had been restricted to mackeral and squid for bait; if we had rag and crab maybe we'd have had more. What harm it was great fishing anyway!

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