Recommendations, please!

Hey!

My name is Tim and I am writing from Sweden. Me and a mate are planning a fishing trip to Ireland in late April or early May. As we are trying to find out where to go to, and what skipper to hire, we have come to realize it is pretty much impossible to find these things over the net. Some of the websites that look super cheesy might hide fantastic set ups and vice versa..!

We are mainly interested in:

- conger
- ray
- shark
- ling

Skippers who practise catch and release are of course more interesting than others, but maybe all do!

For travel reasons, we are sort of limited to the surrondings of Cork or Shannon, but hey, if someone comes up with something fantastic in another county that'd be nice too!

Please, if anyone here has the time for a few tips in these regions and even some contact info I'd be absolutely delighted!

Thanks a million in advance, and if you need some tips on fishing in Sweden I'll be happy to help out!

Thanks!
/Tim

west cork and kerry is probly your best bet

yup i'd stick to the south west but forget shark unless you're going to be there aug/sept

Nick dent from baltimore is a brilliant skipper you can find him on http://www.wreckfish.com ,we,ve fished with him for the last 6 years with no complaints .

Great! Thanks for quick replies! Had a feeling it would be early for shark then. But then again, this first trip is somewhat of a recon before "the proper" trip in september.

Please, if you come up with other things I should think of, or other tips that'd be great.

Take care!
Tim

Ah, one more thing. What is the general status of the gear you find at the charter boats? Is the most common thing as in the Canaries, a 60lb broom stick, a sixties underserved Penn reel packed with old and crusty mono? If so, please also recommend skippers who have decent gear (more sensible rods, braided line as standard and so on..)

It would be nice not having to criss cross Europe with Ryan Air with all my own gear, losing some at airports in Germany, some in Bulgaria and some in the UK..!

Thanks!

Hi Tim

Best to bring your own kit with you - the better skippers like Nick Dent will have decent kit - but it is available to all anglers who walk on board so...

Shark - too early as you indicate, although you might have a chance at a porbeagle, as much by accident as anything else, for example when you are fishing rough ground or a wreck looking for the ling.

As for the rays, if the weather is bad, (and you can be unlucky in April or May) then look to fish the Shannon Estuary. Lots of big rays in there , mostly thornbacks but with big blondes possible too... of course being Swedish, your probably bored with blondes! :wink: :mrgreen: jk

Lots of conger in the Shannon too albeit not to any massive size, but decent on occassion. You will pick them up on rough ground too.

Look at any of the charters based in Clare or William O'Sullivan in Tarbert in Kerry, as they will all fish the area... The shark and ling could also be tackled around the Loop Head area - check out the shore fishing reports on the "bridges of ross" and that gives you some idea of the grounds... there are also some useful small boat reports that will help your tactics.

HTH...

Tim,
Firstly if you can delay your trip the better for you. Fishing will be better June onwards. There are some good choices in Cork. As already said Nick Dent is a fine skipper. Closer to Cork you have Mark Gannon in Courtmacsherry. Mark is fishing great ground and his results are second to none. Brian Byrne of the East Cork Angling Centre is based out of Cork Harbour and would be a good man for Blonde rays and wrecking. Brian has accomodation and Mark will arrange. Further west, John Angles in Castletownbere runs a great operation and has accomodation. All have good quality gear but I would bring my own if only to bring your own reels. I doubt any charters would be using braid on rental rods. I'm sure they will tell you what types/classes of rod they can provide.

http://angling.erin.ie/de/news/news.asp
http://www.loughcarrig.com/
http://www.irelandseaangling.com

Enjoy,
Jim.

Just to give you an alternative, try Pat Robinson and The Cricket out of PortNaBlagh, Co Donegal. One of the skippers most highly rated by us more Northerly board members.

http://homepage.eircom.net/~angling/

One of the skippers most highly rated by us more Northerly board members.

......And one or two from the south!