Sea Angling Ireland SAC

This was a trip I’d looked forward to for quite a while. After getting some bait and the prizes from Henry’s Tackle , digging some lug in Sutton and then picking up Jay, I typed Fenit into my phone. Estimate Time 4hours 40 minutes   . As I turned on to the N7 it became obvious why it would take so long, the traffic was just inching along. Anyway eventually we arrived at our HQ for the weekend, the West End in Fenit.

Thanks to them for giving me a bowl of soup though the kitchen had closed. Most of the SAISAC crowd had arrived and Eugene and Martin from Ullcatch were also around too  Good night was had catching up with everyone 

Day 1 Banna Strand

People: Keith Murphy , Donal O’Neill , JP Molloy , Kevin McClean , Sean Ivory , John Diamond , Al McGrane , Donal Domeney , Ian Bonney , Mick Flynn , Jay Fowler , Gordon Hardman , Dave Costello , Dan Prunty , Kevin Barber , Gareth Flynn , Ruairi Coleman

Duration: NoonISH – 5pm

Tide: In at 2ish

Weather: Squally Showers 

Bait: Lug,Crab, Maddies etc

Rigs: Flappers and Clip Downs

Results: 30 Fish, mainly Bass, Flounder, a Turbot

Report:

We all met up in the West End the next morning, 16 of us plus MAC who had got a pass at short notice . After the draw was made we all headed off to Banna. Conditions looked great with a nice surf rolling in, even if it was blustery with plenty of squalls

We quickly realised that things were against us yet again, as the water in front of us was full of small sea weed. Nothing to do but keep the head down and fish through it. Some of the lads were fishing straight through without a shock, but I hadn’t come equipped with a suitable spare spool  I heard reports of some fish coming in , and Keith Murphy had scored a few fish fairly quickly. After about 2 hours or so, I looked at my rod and figured it wasn’t the sea weed bouncing the tip around.  I managed to reel in until I could see a Bass swimming around in the surf, with a huge clump of weed around the leader knot. No way I was going to risk the blank, so I rather gingerly hand-lined it in with each wash of the tide until it was beached. Relief…
40 cm and back he went. 2 casts later I followed that with a 22cm flounder. That was it for me …

Place	Peg	Name		Fish	Total	MA Points
1	15	Keith Murphy	8	218	30
2	3	Donal O'Neill	4	156	29
3	14	JP Molloy	4	100	28
4	17	Kevin McClean	3	92	27
5	8	Sean Ivory	3	84	26
6	6	John Diamond	2	72	25
7	12	Al McGrane	2	54	24
8	10	Donal Domeney	1	45	23
9	9	Ian Bonney	1	40	22
10	16	Mick Flynn	1	38	21
11	5	Jay Fowler	1	31	20
12	1	Gordon Hardman	0	0	10
12	2	Dave Costello	0	0	10
12	4	Dan Prunty	0	0	10
12	7	Kevin Barber	0	0	10
12	11	Gareth Flynn	0	0	10
12	13	Ruairi Coleman	0	0	10
					
Biggest Round: Donal O'Neill Bass 45					
Biggest Flat: Kevin McClean Flounder 39

We all met up again in the West End to hand in the match cards, have something to eat and a few drinks. I must also thank Eugene Farrelly for making us all feel welcome. And for managing to stay upright while walking around in heels   

Day 2 The SPA

People: Keith Murphy , Donal O’Neill , JP Molloy , Kevin McClean , Sean Ivory , John Diamond , Al McGrane , Donal Domeney , Ian Bonney , Mick Flynn , Jay Fowler , Gordon Hardman , Dave Costello , Dan Prunty , Kevin Barber , Gareth Flynn , Ruairi Coleman

Duration: Noon – 4pm

Tide: In at 3ish

Weather: Overcast some showers

Bait: Mainly Crab, some lug

Rigs: Clip Downs and Flappers

Results: 15 Fish: Bass, Flounder, a whiting (!) and a Dragonet (!!)

Report: Most of us (!) met up at the West End again at the appointed time for check in. The stragglers caught up with us down in the SPA itself. I wasn’t sure what to do myself, conditions didn’t look too promising for Stingers, or any ray really. Nevertheless I decided to try a clip down with 2 crab and 1 sand eel. Off I went for my first cast. Crack-Off.. Feck. Nothing else ready. 5 minutes or so wasted before I had any bait in the water.

20120701_153818.jpg [ 79.14 KiB | Viewed 158 times ]

Things were rather slow, I kept with the clip downs. Then Gordy had a double of flounder. Maybe time to rethink my tactics, I had lost a few rigs at this stage. Out with the flappers. Anyway a few more fish were coming in, Gordy had another flat, while Al felt pity for a poor lost little whiting, took him in a for a few minutes, and then pointed him in the direction of home. I wasn’t having much luck, and decided to pack up at about 20 minutes before lines up so as to be ready to get the scoring etc done as quickly as possible. On the way to the car I saw JP hook into a Bass, but he was snagged up as he brought him in. Like Xavi to Alba later on that night, I passed him my bucket and the Bass was scooped out of the water. At least I had an assist  Back in the car with the paper work, word filtered though that JP had followed that with a 35 cm flounder. And that was enough for him to snatch the day’s top spot from Al. And we can’t forget Mick who managed to catch a 6cm dragonet. He must be keeping his bait neat and tidy.

Place	Peg	Name		Fish	Total	MA Points
1	3	JP Molloy	3	122	30
2	12	Al McGrane	4	96	29
3	5	Gordon Hardman	3	77	29
4	10	Keith Murphy	2	71	27
5	8	Sean Ivory	1	33	26
6	6	Ruairi Coleman	1	28	25
7	17	Mick Flynn	1	10	24
8	1	Donal O'Neill	0	0	12
9	2	Ian Bonney	0	0 	12
10	4	Kevin Barber	0	0	12
11	7	John Diamond	0	0	12
12	9	Donal Domeney	0	0	12
13	11	Kevin McClean	0	0	12
14	13	Dave Costello	0	0	12
15	14	Gareth Flynn	0	0	12
16	15	Dan Prunty	0	0	12
17	16	Jay Fowler	0	0	12
					
					
Biggest Round: JP Molloy Bass 39					
Biggest Flat: JP Molloy Flounder 35					
					
					
Mini Pools					
					
Overall 2 day: JP Molloy					
Team: Al McGrane & Keith Murphy					
Biggest Bass: Donal O'Neill					
Most Species: Keith Murphy					
Smallest Fish: Mick Flynn (6cm Dragonet)

Thanks again to Henry’s Tackle for sponsoring our competitions

People: Don, Dominator, David, Gar, Mick, Al, Seaniebo, Keith, Jayball, Gordy and JP.

Duration: 5 hours 17.00 to 22.00

Tide: High water 19.30

Weather: Cool south easterly wind. Dry

Bait: Various

Rigs: Various

Results:
1st, JP Molloy, 5 fish, peg 2, 172pts longest fish 42cm Bass
2nd, Sean Ivory, 5 fish, peg 5, 172pts longest fish 22cm coalie
3rd, Gordon Hardman, 4 fish, peg 1, 149pts
4th, Gar Flynn, 3 fish, peg 10, 91pts
5th, Keith Murphy, 2 fish, Peg 4, 81pts
6th, Al Mc’Grane, 2 fish, Peg 6, 67pts
7th, Jay Fowler, 1 fish, Peg 3, 42pts
8th, Donal Domeny, 1 fish, Peg 11, 36pts
9th, David Costello, 1 fish, Peg 7, 26pts

Donal O’Neill peg 9, no fish
Mick Flynn peg 8, no fish

Report:

We landed at ballyhealy to be greeted by a biting south easterly wind blowing in from the sea. There was a nice surf running with it and conditions looked pretty good with no real sign of weed in the water. However looks can be deceiving and aside from the first cast, the next 2.5 hours was a weed fest.

A lot of lads were losing gear in it. Al to my right went through a horrible hour where I think he lost 4 or 5 rigs in a row. The fishing wasnt exactly setting the world alight either and by 7 pm only gordy on peg 1 had a fish on the beach with a nice Bass in the fourties. At this stage the weed eased off somewhat and people started to pick up a few fish.

I got a coalie just before darkness set in and word up the beach was that gordy had two more Bass and jp beside him was hitting a few flounders. Jayball beside jp got a fine flounder too of 37cm to pretty much guarantee him the flat pool. The fishing was still quiet enough to be honest and it was hard to know what to try.

Just as I was contemplating putting Al out of his misery with a lethal injection, I noticed a sharp pull down on my rod tip followed by a slack liner. Reeled it in and was delighted to see a doggie had taken the top hook. Lug tipped with black wrap had done the trick! Looked to my left and keith was after getting one too on wrap maddies and mac. Didnt have a doggie trace baited up so I cast out three hooks of lug and maddies and went about getting some sandeels on hooks. Just as I finished baiting those up i noticed another slack liner and duely reeled in a double of a dog and a flounder on the lug and maddies.

I spent the next 45 minutes fishing for dogs “properly” with fish baits landing only one with this method. Should have stuck to the lug and maddies! By the time 10 o clock rolled around we were all delighted to be getting off the beach. It had been a tough night at the office. Chatting to the lads in the carpark it looked tight between myself and jp for top spot. We both had 5 fish and the same points with 172 each. in the end the winner was decided by longest individual fish, for which doggies dont count so jp who had a Bass won overall. I was second and gordy got third.

Longest round fish went to gordy with a Bass and jay got the longest flat pool.

As always the craic and banter was great with the lads. Have been out of action for too long and cant wait for the two day down in Kerry in the summer.
Sean Ivory