Duration:9:30am - 2:30pm
Tide:LT 12:08pm
Weather:Glorious, blue skies with light NW breeze
Bait:All sorts
Rigs:All types
Results:Whiting, Dabs, Coalfish, Cod, Pouting, Poor Cod, Flounder (683 fish in total)
Report:What a fabulous day out
! Great weather , great craic , and great fishing !!!It was absolutely freezing when we started off. 22 hardy souls gathered at the Pier Head in Cobh at 8:45am in the morning. The cold was bitter after a heavy nights frost. Cold hands and red ears
were the order of the day but we were all well wrapped up. We all headed off in the three boats booked for the day (the John Boy, the Naomh Carta, and the Lee Star) and were soon at anchor on the edge of Curlane Bank behind Spike Island.Straight away a steady stream of fish started to come over the gunwhales. The fish were small though with the codling averaging 30cm, with many below, and the whiting averaging 25cm. It was great to be out here, though, with flat calm seas and blue skies. As the morning progressed it got warmer aswell and pretty soon people were starting to strip off
. Would you believe some people even got sunburnt. A gannet was spotted diving nearby....is this Feb 
???? Then someone on the Lee Star started catching mackeral ! If you closed your eyes for a minute it could have been summer.As the tide slackened towards low water, the fishing slowed down. The Naomh Carta moved off to another mark between the forts. Ourselves and the Lee Star persevered where we were. By low water things had become very quiet. We contemplated a move. Martin Perryman, on our boat, gave Anthony Austin on the Naomh Carta a bell. Seems they had run into fish and were pulling them in three at a time
. Were they having us on? We decided to see for oursleves and headed out. Soon enough we were anchored about 50 yds downstream of them on the northern edge of the Turbot Bank as it drops into Deep Hole. Within minutes of anchoring we were into fish. Codling started coming aboard at a rate of 2 or 3 at a time. These were a better stamp of fish. The codling here were averaging 40cm with many going to 50cm. These were keepers and some of them were destined for the pot . Soon enough it was time to go as Donie called for lines up. There were smiles all round, though, as everyone on our boat had a fine bag of codling to take home.On the way in we totted up the scorecards. Some of the lads onboard had some fine scores with many recording nearly 30 fish. I had topped the boat with 36 fish and 569 points
. I was followed closely by Frankie Cronin, Cobh SAC, and Barry Murphy, who had travelled all the way up from Waterford.Our scores were nothing compared to the lads on the Naomh Carta. Their early move had paid off. While we had struggled over low water they had ran into fish. They had at least one and half hours fishing before we moved out and joined them and boy did their scorecards reflect that. Steven O' Neill, Guileen SAC, had topped the boat and won the competition outright with 81 fish and 1208 points! That's 1208 points
. That's Steven's 2cnd win in a row and shows you what a class angler Steven is 
. Steven was followed closely by Anthony Austin, Crosshaven SAC, with 67 fish and 1018 points. George Ruxton, Youghal also had a good score with 48 fish and 718 points, as did Frank Burke, Crosshaven, with 47 fish and 710 points. Eric O' Neill, Ballincolling also put in a good score. In all, the lads on the Naomh Carta had landed 359 fish. That was nearly as much as the other two boats put together .On the Lee Star, Michael Quirke had topped the boat with 37 fish and 584 points, followed closely by Noel Carey with 34 fish and 501 points.
Well done to all the competitiors. I think I can safely say that they enjoyed their days fishing. Roll on Comp No. 3, which is on the 14th March
.I've attached an excel file which shows the final placings and the breakdown of fish caught. I'll add the pics later.
.ishing was really good too esp on light line had one snood snaped could of been a good cod.surprized no dogs showed up there maybe at the next one be a bit later in the year.
but a big thanks to pat and donie and mary and all from cobh who organised especially the sandwiches after that just kept coming not to mention the very impressive prizes a well organised day out
