Fishing Report

[beara man]

Fishing report for 2012

The villain of 2012 was definitely the weather, with the rain in particular making both uncomfortable and unpredictable fishing especially for the ray family. No sooner it seemed would it be fishing well than along would come another storm and the resulting freshwater would push the fish out of range. Despite this however we had some notable catches.
While I enjoyed some fair cod sport through the winter it was in February our first guests arrived and we headed off to the cod marks expecting good sport. We caught cod but not on bait as I expected but in the calm, sunny weather (sun tan in February!!) it was soft plastics that got the results. A shoal of spawning mullet turned up and we had fun with these as they attacked our small Dexter Wedges with a ferociousness rarely seen in this species Next day on the deeper water rock marks things returned to normal with huss to 8lbs.
Shaun, Simon and Jason arrived in April and declared it was conger week and they duly landed plenty to over 16lbs and lost some bigger. In between they also took a full house of flatties plus good pollack and wrasse.
Bertin and Andries were on their first visit to Ireland and they came with a ‘shopping list’ of species from conger to ray which were hard to catch in their native Holland. Happily it all worked out for them and they are planning a longer return visit soon.
The difficult ray fishing was evident when the Shoreham Raiders, Jason, Mark, Paul and Gav arrived for their annual visit with 8 thornies for 2 anglers one day then a struggle to catch one the next.
Clive and son Liam from Wales managed 2 trips over in 2012 and despite the bad weather seemingly following them had huss to 12lbs and Pollack to nearly 9lbs. That double figure fish must be caught eventually.
Brothers Nick and Marcus also had two visits targeting the wrasse and Pollack which they had to nearly 5lbs and over 9lbs respectively.
A word of warning here. Harry Hursey was disappointed one of his wrasse did not make a PB near 5 pounder until we checked his scales and found they were weighing 12 ounces light. Check those scales is the moral.
Another word of warning this time about leaving your rod unattended. Greg Diaper cast out his mackerel baited rod then wandered off pollack fishing. Dad Greg seeing the rod rattling took control and landed a fabulous 16lb 10oz Bull Huss, for which he duly received a Specimen Fish Award.
The other notable fish were some double figure pollack landed by Mark Noble form Dublin. Fishing his favourite ‘drop shot’ technique he took fish to 14lbs in catches of 40 plus fish per session. Top class fishing by a top class angler.
No doubt about the mystery fish of 2012 as it was hooked not once but three times in early October by 3 different anglers. The venue was Dunboy and the hooked fish put up no real fight being reeled in, just a very heavy weight, but when under their feet, where it was still about 20 feet deep, all hell broke loose and the fish lost. Best guess so far was Monkfish but if you don’t land it who knows.
Solved the mystery big fish at DOD as several Commons have now been landed there but the ‘Dunboy Battler’ remains a question to be answered.
Must mention an excellent fishing lesson I received last year from that fine angler and journalist Jim O’Donnell. He took me out to show me the way of HRF for wrasse as I was somewhat sceptical about the effectiveness of lures against bait. He certainly showed me the error of my ways as we had a memorable session. Jim kindly said later that ‘we had about 40 wrasse’. Truth be told he had 38, I had 2. HRF rods are now in residence at Dromagowlane house for any guests who wish to try this exciting new aspect of our sport.
As ever there was many people I have missed in this report and many fish I have missed out. My apologies to them but it would take many pages to tell all the stories we have in a season.
For now may Anne and I take this opportunity to wish all a Happy and Prosperous 2103 and we look forward to welcoming old and new friends back to Dromagowlane and fishing on the Beara.
www.bearaseafishing.com www.dromagowlanehouse.com

[Bill Bodger]

Great to hear stories from across the water. Sounds like a fantastic place to fish.

Thanks for the report/s

BB

[ned]

Great report ,quality fishing alright.