Introduction
- Co. Mayo (10 boats)
The county of Mayo
is vast and Ireland's least populated county. It offers a
massive coastline, and three excellent centres for deep sea angling -
Clew Bay, Killala Bay and Belmullet. Access is by road, rail or bus
and by air into Knock Airport, via charter or scheduled flights.
This county's vast sheltered bays will let you fish in all but the
worst conditions, and it is also famous for the coarse and game
fishing. Mayo's waters offers you a truly remarkable variety of
species, particularly from May or June to November.
The current Irish
record Blue Shark and Porbeagle Shark records were both taken in the
ocean off Achill Island. Clew Bay's fame
as a common skate ground is slowly recovering given the introduction
of mandatory catch & release (bar a new record). The deep
waters around Clare Island offer superb fishing. I have had two
octopus and a John Dory from eighteen species in a day out
there! Good pollack are always available on the drift from the
reefs around Deace's Rock and further out the Bills Rocks offer superb
reef fishing.
Further north the
vast sheltered and shallow water bays of Blacksod and Broadhaven,
either side of Belmullet offer superb and
safe fishing in even poor weather conditions. They are reknowned
as excellent locations for gurnard, flatfish of all varieties, and
most types of fish. Even haddock is possible around the Erris
Race, even off the shore, and the vast expanses of storm beach offers
specimen bass (if you can avoid the surfers!).
Finally we come to
Killala Bay, now home to an international two
day deep sea angling competition of world reknown. It routinely
produces remarkable catches of fish, in terms of both quantity and
variety. It also has the distinction of having recorded a
massive catch of hake in the past, possibly due to the proximity of
the continental shelf and very deep water. Lying to the south of
Donegal bay, the local charter skippers are keeping a keen eye on the
blue fin tuna exploits up in Donegal Bay and may well enter the fray!
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