East Cork Shore league 1st Leg, Youghal Beach.

Dire! Dire! Dire! 30 anglers fished, the grand total of 5 anglers had cards to return with just 7/8 counting fish caught altogether. Nice surf running with heavily coloured water but the fish just didn't want to play ball. Managed 2 fish myself, a Shore rockling of 25 and a whiting of 23, neither of which counted (30CM limit roundfish) Well done to Phanover who scraped out a 27cm flounder which was good enough for 4th place.

Hope things improve for the Gold Medal next week.

Well done to all

Not to go over old ground but I feel many will agree, a 30cm limit (12") is ridiculous. Match fishing is about getting as many fish on the card as possible, not to see who can catch the biggest, no wonder only 7/8 returned cards.

Tom.

Tough fishing Pete.
I find it hart to understand why the smaller sizes are not being used in Cork. They were after all voted in at a Munster council meeting that was held in Cork and had a large Cork turn out..

On sessions like this they could make all the difference...

Have to agree with the lads. 30cm for roundfish is crazy at this time of the year. Tralee Bay sac this week reduced the size limit for roundfish from 25 down to 20 because there just were not enough fish over 25 been caught. Plenty of roundfish between 20 and 25 .

The 25cm size limit was having a negative effect for the club. People were catching good fish that didn't count.

With a 3.30 kick off meaning a substantial part of the comp was carried out in daylight I suppose 30cms was a little optimistic. Still, there was a nice surf and heavily coloured water so I thought it may have fished better. I don't think there were toomany undersize fish caught either to be honest. We all had to play by the same rules and well done to the lads who caught "counters" on the day, they did well. Don't like 30cm minimum myself but rules are rules.....

As all match anglers will tell you it takes just as much skill to catch a 20_25 cm fish as it does to get one over 30cm. This could mean an angler could catch 20 undersize another catch one of 30cm and win making it a lottery

when the size limit goes to 20cm you then find yourself constantly asking why the dozen fish you got that were 19cms dont count.

you will always end up with fish smaller than the size limit.

unless they abolish the size and restrict hook size (more importantly gape size as a size 2 can be different size in different brand hooks)

As all match anglers will tell you it takes just as much skill to catch a 20_25 cm fish as it does to get one over 30cm. This could mean an angler could catch 20 undersize another catch one of 30cm and win making it a lottery

Totally agree with you Fishless Frank.

As all match anglers will tell you it takes just as much skill to catch a 20_25 cm fish as it does to get one over 30cm. This could mean an angler could catch 20 undersize another catch one of 30cm and win making it a lottery

Dead right!! said many times by many match anglers, but who listens???

Tom.

Tight going Pete, we had the same problem at the club match on Wednesday(25cm size limit), had 6 fish and all over 20cm but of course none counted :x . Twenty centimetres across the board, round or flat....only way for a fair comp at this time of the year.

well lads the ECSAC were fishing courttown on wed and the winner had 32 fish and only 10 of these made the 20cm size limit, so it does show no matter how low the size limit you will still have undersize fish. the club does award 5 points per undersize fish though with no limit on how many you can have

If only ten made the 20cm how many would have made the 25cm or god forbid 30cm :!:

As all match anglers will tell you it takes just as much skill to catch a 20_25 cm fish as it does to get one over 30cm. This could mean an angler could catch 20 undersize another catch one of 30cm and win making it a lottery

i personally will buck the trend on this issue ,,it suits my style of shore match fishing to have a larger size limit of 30cm all to do with set up,approach and application ,, the location of the match is a big thing on deciding fish min size the east coast beaches yes 20cm but not the south coast munster beaches such as tramore or garrevoe
and there is another issue of the 20cm fish the return mortality rate ,targeting small fish in comps leads to a high mortality rate of returned fish fact and that not a good outlook for our sport

well cazbass your right smaller fish die sometimes but if your catching them any way they may as well count.as for talking about tramore comps have been poor of late and if 30cm had been used results would of been worse.fishing for quanty of fish takes a lot more skill,then putting out a big baits hoping for the few decent fish around to pick it up often a case of luck.the more fish been got means anglers have to work harder making match anglers better and the lads who make it to the top better.we would all like it if fish stocks where the same as times past when 30cm was alright as there were plenty of fish around times change and we must too.

well said barry

fished a six hour match at waterfoot co, antrim we had 12 members fishing we still as a club run 250mm flats and 300mm roundfish sizes all members caught fish no blanks species included codling , coalies including one of 46cm, flounders to 33cms sand dab, rockling, and whiting club size is 270mm winner of the session was bobby laughlin with 12 keepers i only had six all over 30cm we were catching three fish every cast during darkness and if it had of been 200mm size limits we would have ben into treble figure scores, it was speed fishing the best of which i can remember for a january session by the way i caught a strange looking flatty which had the body of a sand dab yet the markings and a head of a flounder our size for dab is 230mm and the fish was 240mm so no one new if it would have counted or not, one other point was that the larger fish survived by far better than the small whiting etc looking forward to next weeks east antrim surfcasters open sporadic fishing should occur during the last half hour

We use a length to weight conversion catch and release in our club. There are no size limits all fish count. like all matches you fish for what is there, this leads to fewer blanks and fewer drunk of anglers. We all want to land big fish but you have to take what is there. continental style angling is what is winning matches at certain venues.

Is that the SAMF length to weight conversion system. I don't really like that system. I will give you an example, during the Daiwa Irish pairs this year the angler to my right caught a flounder of 38cm which converted to 24 points plus 3 points per fish giving a total of 27 points. I caught 4 small flounder in the region of 20cm each and received a total of 24 points. So that 1 flounder of 38cm beat my four of 20cm.

If it was done on a measure and return as is done in Ireland I would have received 80 points plus say 10 points per fish giving a total of 120 points versus 48 points for the flounder of 38cm. It takes alot more effort to scratch out 4 20cm flounder that to catch 1 38cm flounder.

This would mean with the SAMF method I was beaten and the measure and return system I would of beaten that angler by 2.5 times. I don't agree with that system but it seems popular in parts. I suppose it stems from the weigh in system that sadly still seems to be popular in parts of the UK.

Is that the SAMF length to weight conversion system. I don't really like that system. I will give you an example, during the Daiwa Irish pairs this year the angler to my right caught a flounder of 38cm which converted to 24 points plus 3 points per fish giving a total of 27 points. I caught 4 small flounder in the region of 20cm each and received a total of 24 points. So that 1 flounder of 38cm beat my four of 20cm.

If it was done on a measure and return as is done in Ireland I would have received 80 points plus say 10 points per fish giving a total of 120 points versus 48 points for the flounder of 38cm. It takes alot more effort to scratch out 4 20cm flounder that to catch 1 38cm flounder.

This would mean with the SAMF method I was beaten and the measure and return system I would of beaten that angler by 2.5 times. I don't agree with that system but it seems popular in parts. I suppose it stems from the weigh in system that sadly still seems to be popular in parts of the UK.

john,,,
looking at both systems you have explained here there actually seems to be a problem with both , a single flounder of 38cm does not deserve to beat four 20cm flounder But on the other hand four 20cm flounder do not deserve to beat a 38cm flounder by 2.5 times i think its the10 fish points i have the problem with ,,where smaller fish are concerened

the system we use is the same as the one used in the Diawa Irish pairs but without the extra fish points. since using this method there is not so many matches where most of the field blank at certain times of the year. There is also no horrible sights of buckets of dead fish being thrown back into the sea. John It was nice to meet you and Eugene at the pairs last year hope to see you there again this year