Little Killary SAC Competition - August 2005

Well, I figured I'd cover all bases and booked into a hotel in Galway for the Friday night and a hotel in Westport for the Saturday night.

Saw an interesting article in the latest edition of Irish Angler about mullet in Galway Docks. Had seen them there before but never considered trying for them. Their time may have come.....

Any luck deciding which venue we'll be fishing? I know theres little point fishing a mark that is'nt producing but its just that i need to know for booking accomodation. If its Little Kilary Ill book Galway and if its Rossanrubble Ill book Westport. Thanks.

Hi

I am planning to fish rossanrubble this week (thursday evening possibly, depends on the tides and weather) to see if it has recovered from the red tide and spray in the numbers for the competition.

I will post the results then - is that okay? Irrespective of whether it will be there or Little Kilary Westport is a good base as Little Kilary is only an hour away down through Louisburgh and Leenane... or we might try a few new marks I have found on Big Kilary that no-one has ever fished before - threw up a very decent ray and bull huss, both getting close to 10 lbs within yards of the shore. Either way book yourself in to Westport accommodation.

Fair enough?

Thanks

Hi Kieran
Landing fish from the shore in Big-Kilary can be a nightmare. I fished it with a friend using lead lifts, a couple of years ago and out of ten fish we landed only one. Theres all sorts of shelves and snags that are almost unavoidable when your trying to lift fish up from depth along the side of the fjord. There are plenty of fish there it's just it might'nt be the sort of ground to fish a comp in. HTH

Hi Seaniebo

Yep, I can well believe that from the soundings we got on the boat.

Anyhow fished R'rubble for an hour or so today from HT down in brilliant sunshine and had one hit at the end, probably a doggie as the rig came in tied in a knot.

Left two Dutch lads there fishing so I will see what they have to say for themselves tomorrow. Will try it next week before deciding on a venue, but if it is anything like today, we will be heading off somewhere else.... albeit maybe not Big Kilary!

FWIW

haha!! lettin the dutch lads do the hard work!!

Hi

They blanked, and tried spinning as well, reporting lots of sandeels in the water. from HW down for 4 hours to 9 pm. I will fish it again weather permitting, with mackerel and lugworm for bait and see before making a decision on whether to move the competition somewhere else...

You can still use Westport as the base and I will report back as.a.p.

Thanks

Kieran,
Not going to able to make it down so please accept my apologies. Best of luck with the day itself.

Pete

HI guys ,fished for most evenings last week from island near rosmoney ,nothing but crabs ,tried fresh mackerel ,peeler crab, shelled hard backs ,nothing but crabs !! the only fish caught were mackerel and that was the missus fishing :roll:
went snorkelling a few times round the channels ,looks a good spot for fish ,but all i seen were dragonets and small pollack and the offending crabs :evil:

Hi weather forecast is .... GOOD!

16-18 C, winds dropping to 13 knots, SSW to SW, odd shower.

Based on the feedback from Ronald, myself and other anglers, we will definitely be fishing Little Kilary as Rossanrubble appears to be barren - I can only guess that all the main food items were destroyed by the red tide and as a consequence the place has yet to be repopulated...

Recommend that we meet in the first car park (north side, coming from Westport) in Leenane at 10:30 am as the road down to the mark is very poor in places. Competition will run from 12:00 (around HW) to 16:00.

Can we have a show of hands now please on who will be coming down?

Thanks

BTW, sandeel is a good bait there as is razor and fresh mackerel (doh!)
Main target species are flatfish (mostly dabs, odd plaice), mackerel, small pollack and wrasse close in, congers in the margins, thornback rays (other species will begin to show now including cuckoo and spotted) and bull huss. A big bag o' doggies will probably win the competition, mark!

:wink:

I'll be there. I'll be driving from Galway side so is that the carpark in the middle of the road outside the "Field" pub?

i'll be there! gonna start walkin now so i should be hitting Leenane at about 10.15! as for a big bag of dogs, i'd watch that Seanibo fella!! he's fished here a few times and won a comp here too! tell him nothin!!!! lookin forward to it lads- proper fishin on the west coast!!!! wahooo!!!!!!!!!

Dont listen to a word that Mark fella says! Ive never even been west of the Shannon. Havent even fished before! This is my first time on this forum! I cant even read.

I thought I would make it but work has me snookered
dingbat

Seaniebo wins with his last fish making the difference

1. Seaniebo
2. M.b3
3. Kieran Hanrahan
4. Jd
5. Des Hanrahan

Great day out. Thanks to Kieran and jd for organising it. Thanks to Mark too for not catching any more fish towards the end!

thanks a lot lads had a great day! lovely spot. i want to go back already!!?

no problem Seaniebo! don't get used too used to it though :wink: !

Were there many fish caught lads? What kind of species? Was it a close run thing??!!

Hi

guess it falls to me to list what happened...

fished from 12:15 to 4:15 in light SSW breeze, warm, dry conditions.
HW at 3.5 metres was at 12:00

Mark and Sean made all the early running with Sean taking a nice thornback (39 cms across the wings) on sandeel early on. Some light weed encountered and small mackerel were available for bait beforehand.

Mark headed into the lead with dogfish and flounder and a dab, one or two not big enough to score but most of a decen size. In all three or four flounder were taken, all around the 25-30 cms mark - it is an unusual species for the area. JD took in a superb dab, around 30 cms, fat and in prime conditions and put it back...

Having found the top ring on my beachcaster cracked and fraying the braid (why did I switch from mono!) I ended up using a spinning rod and took to fishing ragworm close in on the margin having blanked in the first two hours. With the drop in the water level, the fishing dropped away. Started with a small polllack (29 cms) in the weed and switched to a deadbait looking for a conger. Sean had done the same having landed more flounder and dogfish, one of the latter close to specimen size.

Had the bait down only 5 minutes and got a run - eventualy landed the beast (forgotten how slippery they are!) and it was a nice fish for the area, somewhere above 10 lbs in old money, and worth 65 points to me!

The lads persisted with the long range fishing on the sand, a mackerel falling to Mark. I took two small wrasse (23 and 21 cms) in the weedy margin and another that I put back (too small). This put me in touching distance of Mark and Sean, but Sean took 1st prize with a nice pollack arond 45 cms on practically the last cast of the session.

In all seven species, around 18 scoring fish between the five rods.

What I now realise is that the quality of the bait is absolutely essential - the rag Sean had dug was far superior to the stuff Des had brought down from the tackle shops in Dublin and sandeel was again proved to be an excellent bait for this mark... I do not have the final scores but one or two fish would have covered the top three positions.

Hope I have not left anything important out - Bruce Vaughan and Colin Brett attended and will supply the pictures in due course, and you might even see coverage of the event in the Irish Angler!

Many thanks for an enjoyable day out to all concerned: we will post up details of the next competition here shortly, hopefully it will be held in late September or early October.

BTW, Mark and Sean were heading for Keem Bay in Achill on the Sunday!

I have the sheets at home
From what I remember it was
Seaniebo 281
M.B3 227
Kieran 209
and Jd 62

That last pollack making the difference (worth 75 points to seaniebo)

I'd concur with the bait- the rag i had was pretty scrappy (caught dab on rag tipped with mac) , and wrt sandeels ammo is yer man- not stuff in platic cartons..
jd