Dingle, Kerry 01/07/2007 - 13/07/2007

People: Myself, Eoin Daly & Macartan McQuaid

Duration: 01/07/2007 - 13/07/2007

Results: Sea Trout, Bass, Ray, Pollock, Wrasse, Mackerel

Catch and Release:: Yes (Except for keeping mackerel for bait)

Report: The weather for the 2 weeks was mainly wet with strong westerly winds so a lot of the rock marks that we wanted to fish were out of bounds (and friends were down for the only calm days so we were stuck playing pitch & putt, on the beach etc) but we managed a few good days fishing including one session at Dingle Lighthouse which resulted in 13 thornbacks up to 9lb for myself and another pollock session in Dun An Oir which ended with over 30 pollock to 9lb with over half of them over the 5lb mark. We also had a good few bass in Ventry, but none over 4lb and Wrasse to 4lb at Beenbane

[img]http://www.dinglefishing.com/SARay.jpg[/img]
[img]http://www.dinglefishing.com/SAPollock.jpg[/img]
[img]http://www.dinglefishing.com/SAMac.jpg[/img]
[img]http://www.dinglefishing.com/SABass.jpg[/img]

stunning fish. wat tatics did you use?

For the pollock we were using metal lures, but the diving fish were just snagging the free hooks up in the kelp so we changed to rubber worms on 5/0 hooks to try to eliminate the amount of lost fish (it only worked to a degree). I'm sure there are mid-teen fish here - we lost so many fish that would just put their heads down and we wouldn't be able to stop them. I'm tempted to try really heavy tactics for a while next time to see how big they really are... I don't know what draws them to this spot - at low tide you're fishing into only about 10 feet of water and the fish are still there.

The bass were taken on metal lures and plugs. The favoured ones were definately sandeel shaped metal lures in the 20g range

The ray were all taken on 4/0 pulley pennel rigs using a half fillet of mackerel (big baits are a must because the crabs here are a disaster)

great fishing and nice pics too :D

wow im envious, why cant i go in kerry :(

oh yeah, when a pollock goes for a dive an gets stuck, give them a bit of slack line. they should free themselves.

thats serious fishing, well done!! kerry sounds like fishing heaven.

well done peter good fishin

glad to see you had some of the ray, seems like you got a good day and got it spot on.

some great pollock too, we had some biggies bury us too. even on heavy braid and heavy rods, tough fish to land

Cheers Adam, Despite the one great day with 13 ray, we had 3 other days where you had to work hard to catch them resulting in 2 or 3 fish in really long sessions, so it looks like I got lucky that day... That particular day the boats weren't out chasing Fungi and the tide wasn't very heavy, so I think it was a combination of a few things.

hi there lads, met you just before dark on night at Ventry. The guy harassed by his kids! looks like you caught that nice bass just after i left? Didnt have too much joy myself but time was limited. Thornbacks were showing at the stream at Ventry Strand. NO BASS. all the best

Yeah Nick j - we caught our first bass on the third or fourth cast that night and ended up with 5 between us! You looked so dejected heading off that night! We really had no confidence heading down after talking to yourself and the English guy that was fishing the area, but I suppose the darkness gave the fish a bit more confidence...

We had 3 or 4 more sessions down there and caught around 10 bass in all and about the same amount of sea trout. It gives me a bit more confidence in the area again!