SAI MA Comp No. 2 Dunree, Co. Donegal 24/03/2007

People:Deep breath now...... Myself, Mac, Alastair, Seaniebo, JD, Teacher, Alby, Rampant Wreckfish, Ferg, Marco, Mickthepainter, Stevecrow74, Nige, Love to fish, MC, Croppyboy, Colin Keogh. Roadrunner and Jonboy joined us also.

Duration:4pm to 9pm

Tide:Rising

Weather:Peachy.... Shirt sleeves until darkness.

Bait:Various, Maddies, Whites, Lug, Sandeel, mack for me.

Rigs:Various

Results: 15 Flounder and 33 Coalies to size, numerous undersize fish and a nice sea trout for Alby.

Catch and Release:: Yes



Report:

Heading for the hills can be deemed as a bad thing, when those there hills are in Donegal however, thats an entirely different story.... It was time once again for the locals to prepare the hotels, peel the spuds and bulk buy the booze. The beaches, the B and Bs, the barmen and the Weemin were in for a surprise, the SAI posse were rolling into town.......

Buncrana was the base and Dunree the venue. Not your usual competition venue it has to be said but a nice change all the same. A beautiful little spot flanked either side by hills and with the imposing Fort Dunree sternly surveying all before it, its guns long since silent but still pointing menacingly out to sea to repel any would be invaders.

The beach was selected, at a time when, if someone suggested that 20ish people would travel to the most northerly county for an MA comp it would have been greeted with considerable surprise. It was a relief then that thanks to some judicious pegging by Sean and JP we managed to comfortably accomodate everyone on the mark. The venue had fished well considering the time of year in a couple of visits made by SAI members in the very recent past so hopes were high of a decent number of fish showing.

Nursing the traditional pre-comp hangover (training of course for the main event that night you see...) I drew peg 13. It was comforting at check in that there was more than myself in that state not to mention any names of course (JP and Seanie....)

With the number of features present on the beach, including 2 streams and some gullys, the venue was going to be very peggy in daylight. This indeed proved to be the case. Fishing was disappointingly very slow for the first few hours. Allistair however got off to a flier, pegged on(/in....) one of the streams, pulling out a nice flounder fairly sharpish. This was to follow soon after by a nice fish of 36cm. 2 fish in successive casts witht he rest of the beach yet to score. It wasnt long however before Mac added a flounder of his own, to be followed by one for myself and another to Allistair. Pegs 13, 14 and 15 had the fish and there was nothing happening elsewhere. Alby had a nice sea trout of 32cm which unfortunately didnt count.

However, as darkness was falling, from around 250-300 yards away it was plain to see that Steve was making a charge himself when after an inordinately long walk up and down the beach on his as he winched in a lovely double shot of flounder from his peg at the far eastern end of the beach. Was all that abuse I gave Steve over my 1cm victory in Lettergesh over him going to come back to haunt me....??? Indeed it was as 2 flatties over the 30cm hit his card.....

With the onset of darkness, the fishing for the most part really switched on. The pushing tide and fading light brought in the matchmans saviours, good old coalies. Kev and Allistair to my left and Mick to my right really began getting stuck in. I managed another flounder and reached for the 3 hook flappers and the grip lead to go after the coalies.

It is at this point, with fish being thrust in front of me to measure from all angles that for my case, the wheels came off. I couldnt buy a coalie. A read through my blog will reveal that I am indeed King coalie. Not on Saturday I wasnt. Memories of racking up 20-30 in an hour on various beaches over the past couple of months were sadly to remain that way. The fish were flying in and with chopping and changing tactics in sheer desperation to try and get amongst them, any chance I had of competing went out the window.... Naivety indeed. Should have just stuck with the 3 hooks in close and left it at that. Hindsight is a wonderful thing.... :roll: It was with considerable disappointment and annoyance I made the walk at the end back to the car to gather up the cards.

The flurry of coalies in the final hour meant that trying to keep track of how things were going on the scoring front was nigh on impossible. It could have gone anywhere. At the end it was indeed a damn close fight at the top.

The final results after counting were as follows.

1st Allistair Leong (alistair) 262
2nd JP Molloy (Rampent Wreckfish) 260
3rd Kevin McClean (Mac) 211
4th Jonathan Dukes (teacher) 207

Longest Flat Allistair 36cm Flounder
Longest Round Marco 25cm Coalie.

At this point, I must publicly apologise for missing out Kevs card when counting up and prior to the presentations. A total accident and daft considering I fished next to him all day too. Very sorry mate and thanks for taking it as well as you did. :oops: :oops: :oops: :cry:

That was the way it ended, and only 2 blanks on the beach for the day which made a nice change too. With the formalities (and apologies... :oops: ) out of the way it was time to really get down to business. The Lake of Shadows hotel was abandoned as the majority of us headed for the bright lights of Buncrana Main street. Its always interesting and gladdening to see how well a large bunch of blokes who have either never met or barely know each other can get on. Beer, Fishing and talking to Weemin have bonding powers which know no bounds! The craic was ninety and it took a JP special (ooer...) to clear the bar (anyone there knows what I mean!) and get the posse on the move and down to the local Night Club for the next phase.

Much educated conversation and discussion then took place. Mostly it has to be said about the chassis and build quality of the passing throngs of weemin. Mostly it has to be said complimentary :D . All this was well and good but no weekend with SAI would be complete without at least some semblance of fossil hunting..... Looking at the young and beautiful was becoming boring so down to the Lake of Shadows it was for a small group of us and the discussion and debate began with the doorman. After getting past him we then had to bypass the bouncers and it was with a large amount of joy we made it past the lot and into the nightclub. Its a brave or foolhardy man indeed who stands between SAI members and a nightclub door.....

The craic continued with copious amounts of Vodka and Red Bull replacing unwieldy pints before all too soon it was over and the residents bar beckoned. A hardcore half dozen or so of us wound the evening down with another pint or two. As the big hand hit 12 and the little hand hit 6 it was time to call it a night and hit the hay.

Rudely awakened by an astonishingly cheerful (and loud) phonecall from JP the day, it was decided, was to be spent fishing at a mark a few miles up the coast at Leenan pier. As the bags were being loaded in the carpark, white faces and red eyes appeared at regular intervals as other suffering members put in an appearance. Some people had been brave enough to try that extreme activity known locally as Chip Van Diving. This is where, with considerable alcohol consumed you fight your way through large numbers of suitably inebriated individuals for the right to get food poisoning..... Not a sport for the faint hearted of weak stomached and the pain was evident on one or two faces.

Leenan pier is where myself, JP and Seanie spent the day. 2 flounder to JP, a fish which looked like a thornie but was way too small :D for Seanie and a big fat blank for me was the order of the day. The crack was good however and I may have blanked but without a doubt took the Top Farter title :wink: .

And so it ended and with a long drive home with the Orkney on tow we parted company. A cracking weekend it has to be said. Great to see the turnout and great to see everyone enjoying themselves afterwards too. I hope we make it back to Donegal next year, it was well worth the visit.

nice reading pete...glad ye all had the craic and produced the fish!!! fair play

Peg Number20

Weather:absolutely cracking..

Bait:mackerel, squid, sandeel, lugworm, rag worm

Rigs:two hook clipped down, one up one down and a three hook flapper

Results: two flounder 32cm and 35cm and two coalie 21cm and 23cm

Catch and Release: Yes


as petekd mentioned i was the far end of the beach :( which meant a very long walk for me... i had the last/furthest peg of the comp.. with roadrunner fishing beside me (but not fishing the comp)..

after about a 5min walk i got set up and got talking to roadrunner.. totally losing track of time while giving him a few casting tips with multi's..

the day started off very slow.. and it looked like alistair was the only one catching fish.. so i cast two whole sandeel out as far as i could (in hope for anything) and set off for a trek down the beach.. ended up around peg 7 and finally met MC down that end... i thought he'd be a bit taller.. but apparently not...

after chatting for a considerable time i decided to rescue my rod from the incoming tide.. wile walking i passed Alby as he was measuring his nice seatrout.. i made a quick remark as i trundled passed..
upom reaching my rod i released the clutch on the reel and walked back up the sand.. engaged the clutch, baited up another rig and reeled in a very nice double shot of flounder... by this stage i reckon i was in second place behind Alistair.. but this soon changed as soon as it got dark and coalies were the target.. i got my first one early on but their was a few times when the fish wern't playing ball.. at about two minutes to nine i picked up another coalie..

Back to the hotel.. thank god for GPS.. would have never found it otherwise..

i just had a quick wash and it was down to the bar for me
:lol: :lol: :lol:

i think me and Jp were the last two to leave the residents bar..
but i must remember that trick jp has...
order a round and then dissapear :shock: :shock: :shock:

and lets say the rest is history...

:oops: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:

fair play lads. nice reports for those of us that couldn't make it!

[jd]

Peg Number3

Weather:great..

Bait:mackerel, squid, sandeel, lugworm, rag worm

Rigs: three hook flappers

Results: Coalie 21+22 , non counters 1 coalie and 2 flounder..

Catch and Release: Yes

Very quiet at our end of the beach, and I only caught my first fish when dark. All caught to lug tipped with mack, close in.
I managed to organise having my lunch delivered, pity I couldn't organise more fish!
Good to meet everybody again, and good fun in the hotel and bar.

More photos[url=http://www.sea-angling-ireland.org/buncrana2007/index.html]here[/url].

Thanks to [url=http://www.henrystackleshop.com/oscommerce/]Henrys Tackle[/url]for sponsoring the competition

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Last edited by jd on Mon Mar 26, 2007 8:21 pm, edited 3 times in total.

well done Ali. what a nice day yee lads got too hah?!? lucky devils.... :cry:

Nice one lads.Sounds like a great weekend.

Peg: 10

Bait: Rag, lug, mackerel, sandeel

Rigs: Three hook flappers, 2 up 1 down

Results: 3 coalies and 2 flounder

Catch and Release:: Yes



Report: Didn't see as much as a twitch until the sun went down. With barely an hour to go I landed a double - 1 flounder and 1 coalie. The next 45 minutes was hectic with barely enough time to bait up rigs. I learnt a lesson for the next compo: 2 rigs isn't enough when things go mad, you need three when the fish are biting.

I'm not sure if it made any difference, but I was using luminous floating beads on the top two snoods of my flappers. A large one on the top snood and a medium one on the middle snood. This seemed to make a difference. All fish were taken on rag tipped with mackerel.

I think I came 9th with three counters 2 coalies and 1 flat but was sick I had 4 undersized as well. The couple of hours of darkness was brillant.

colin

lumi beads can be the bizz but sometimes just fishin ur hooks up in the water sees them get more movement and can be good for a lot of species at times. beads prob help enhance this. having 3 rigs on the go can be a worthwhile ploy but if you have all your bait ready in advance- mackeral pieces precut and the like it can make a difference. havin a 3rd rig ready is good in the event of a mishap such as a snood tangle of a trebble within seconds of casting in!! if only haha!? comps have been one in the last half hour...

very picturesque mark - great pics :!:

Great reading Pete. And thank you and JD (and who ever I'm forgetting) for making it possible for the rest of us to have mighty craic.

had to laugh at Petekd complainin about coalies in his blog!! n then strugglin to find em in the comp....haha!!!

Karma..... :evil:

Karma..... :evil:

tough love :lol:

but i must remember that trick jp has...
order a round and then dissapear :shock: :shock: :shock:

Hmm, reminds me of the disappearing to toilet when its your round and losing your money trick........... :wink: :wink: :lol: :lol: :lol:

I wonder who that was :!:

.....
........
.........
...........pot.......kettle ?? :lol:

lads is that all the photo's??? :?

u'd swear yee where catchin fish or somethin....


:lol: :lol: :lol:

great reading pete it was great to put names to faces i had peg 1 and was 1 of the blanks had 1 under size coalie cheers 4 all the tips hope to put them in to action at the next comp

Hmm, reminds me of the disappearing to toilet when its your round and losing your money trick...........

getting 50quid lifted from your pocket and losing it are two totally different things :cry: :cry: :cry:

The couple of hours of darkness was brillant.

which couple of hours was that :lol: :lol: :wink:

Well done to all the lads who made it. Got bogged down at a Central Council meeting in Athlone, someone has to run the show.
Put the bait to good use Sunday in the boat and Monday in East Cork (bass city). Looking Forward to the next one.