Kerry, help needed

my summer tour of the west coast continues, having fished inch of the sea in west cork last summer (with mixed results but good craic) next week sees me and missus in Kerry.

Starting in Glenbeigh (which looks like a good spot) and then travelling the ring of kerry, probably do a skellig truip, maybe valentia island and then wherever the mood takes us.

i believe tralee bay holds a few of those elusive rays i spent so much time and money chasing around the shannon with fvck all success :-(

so, any advice on marks and better still on where to buy / dig bait: lug / rag in particular would be much apprecited

cheers

ive just completed three days down round tralee, the kerry ray is alive and well - in the stories

the gift of the gab is alive and healthy down there litterally jumping onto your hooks for want of something to do!!!

but none were showing up on the hooks

good luck down there

there are still plenty of thornback showing at dingle light house with the odd trigger and a few painted and thornies from the trench behind castlegregory hope this helps, good luck :D :D :D :D

yeah i would second that, the dingle harbour ray are usually easy to tempt. find the deeper water, big mackerel baits (change em regularly with all the crabs). fish the top half of the flood and usually they show readily enough.

there are plenty there to double figures.

tralee bay can be more hit and miss then dingle, you can never guarantee fish there really.

if catching a ray is an itch you have to scratch then try dingle

have a look here

http://www.dinglefishing.com/sub_page_g ... hannon.php

WOW

cheers Adam , fantastic site with great info, thats me off to dingle then !

I was there last summer for a weekend / stag but the weather was so bad we had to cancel any thought of fishing for the weekend, the closest i got to a fish was the aquarium (was sorely tempted to stick a ray under me arm :-) )

Sorry for jumping in on your thread Shambobala but am going to the Valentia Island Portmagee Caherdaniel region in September and was wondering if you have any advice for that area Adam. I will be only using lures.

i believe tralee bay holds a few of those elusive rays i spent so much time and money chasing around the shannon with fvck all success :-(

cheers

I wont have you bad mouthing the shannon on here!! :lol:

let me know if you are up this way again...

I might just do that Gearoid, I've had 4 sessions since april down around poulnasherry and other than feeding the crabs have had only one decent bite , but I like to believe that i'm getting wiser on how to fish the mark.. or at least that's what i keep telling myself.

sorry richie, have never got down that way, theres enough on the dingle penninsula to keep me exploring for a lifetime.

in general that way tough find deep water rock marks with reefs or kelp and you should find pollock

for bass look for shallow gulleys running out over sand or shingle, or mixed ground.

check out the tide times and feeding triggers to give yourself the best chance

I might just do that Gearoid, I've had 4 sessions since april down around poulnasherry and other than feeding the crabs have had only one decent bite , but I like to believe that i'm getting wiser on how to fish the mark.. or at least that's what i keep telling myself.

well i wouldnt be the wisest as regards the clare marks im a south sider!

theres a few lads over that side whom you probably met already and they know as much as you need to know...

Just had a 3 week trip to dingle and picked up over 20 ray at the lighthouse in 4 sessions, best session 10 ray. Also fished Reenbeg (out near the harbour mouth so a long walk) and had some nice ray there also but found dogfish more of a nuisance. Don't want to contradict Adam who has a wealth of knowledge of the area but i found the fishing best, particualrly at the harbour mouth, over low tide with the fishing easing after half flood. Over low tide you are also not faced with as many snags.

Francis

Adam i meant to say thats a really nice piece on Dingle bay

Hi

just have to convince the missus that there are particularly good views near the lighthouse then , or drop her off to look at the beehive huts :-)


any suggestions regarding bait? I've tended to use a couple on sandeel on a pulley when feeding the shannon crabs .. but am open to suggestion

10 ray in a session , very nice !

Best bait for me by far was plain frozen mack you can buy in Landers in Tralee or Garveys the sportswear shop in Dingle. Outfished the fresh mack and sandeels. The mark can be fished on big tides but is much easier on the weaker tides.

As for the wife, on a nice day lots of people sunbathe or picnic out around the old tower near the mouth of the bay. Lots of nice grassy spots to relax on.

I am in Glenbeigh in 2 weeks time. Let me know how you get on. If any lads fancy a session between 11-22nd Aug PM me - would be great to meet up with someone who has local knowledge as I could get lost in a paper bag!!!!! Thanks for all the info lads. A great site.

Steve :D

hi

FMCN i dont think you would be contradicting me at all, they way i fish, time of year, baits and exact location and most importantly the size of the tide could easily see me finding things very different to your self with reagrds to feeding spells.

I havent fished low tide much, but do fish the flood a lot and tend to find the last 3 hours or so best, with the fish often feeding well into two hours into the flood in my own experience.

like you i find mack best, often better frozen but i do use big baits like a big tail cone or half a side or even half a joey. the crabs can strip smaller baits in no time and the bigger ray seem to like a decent size bait. i often add extra oil and have caugth, well at times, on squid wraps, launce and even prawns.


shambobala if fungie is on show then its a good spot for the wife to sit and look at him, bring a picnic and she can sit on the grass behind you and that should see you with enough time to get a ray.

if anyone needs specifics then send me a pm and i will give you my mobile number.

Yep everyones personal experience is different. Agree with the big baits, although i have yet to get a double figure fish, it certainly helps with the crabs. I usually use a side on a pennell rig.

Francis

just to throw my hat into the ring, my best session at the l.house was 8 ray in 9 casts, best 12.5 lbs, fished for 3 hours from half ebb down to low water, on a very small neap, from high down to low had a differential of about 5 foot cheers booner ps my mate fished beside me that day and blanked..... whats that about :shock: :shock: :shock: :shock: :shock:

well the weather was generally hopeless, great timing :( , managed a few sessions in Kerry, fished Ventry, Inch, Derrynane, Smerwick Harrbour / Pier (i think) and a short session on Banna strand (never know what might show up on that beach I thought :-) )

but nada, Ventry and Inch had so much weed it made life very difficult, it poured rain during my stint in Dingle so never made it to the lighthouse, moved north to Clare after 5 days but gave up on the ray fishing given the amount of rainwater coming down the shannon, had a few mackeral off the pier at Tarbert while waiting for the ferry which was a surprise to me ! In a last gasp attempt to get a few "real" fish I went out to Quilty in clare and had an interesting afternoon session, with 4 turbot, a plaice, 2 flounder, a bass and 3 wrasse in the space of 2 1/2 hours so the week wasn't a total write off and I had a smile on my face !

thanks for all the advice and pointers re Kerry , very helpful, informative and gratefully received. Will have to head back to Dingle again, Smerwick and Brandon Creek / Harbour looked very interesting marks , and the pubs and food down there were great although the accomodation can be expensive: found a bit of shopping around to be very worthwhile when looking for a hotel.

Dave