SAI MA 4, Glassilaun, Connemara Co. Galway 29/03/08

People:Myself, Stevecrow, JP, Alby, Seanie, Jack01986, Ferg, Marco, Fintan, Boycie, Dbrock, Eric, Love the male chicken.....

Duration:1pm-6pm

Tide:No Idea, think we fished over Low

Weather:Windy, sunny, rainy, golf ball sized hailstones.....Usual SAI comp fare...:-)

Bait:All manner of worm and fish baits

Rigs:Flappers, fliers, clip downs

Results:35 fish altogether, 4 Turbot to 26cms, 4 ray to 50cms, 1 Doggie & 26 flounder to 40cm.

With the prospect of high winds and nasty weather for the afternoon, the decision was taken after inspecting Lettergesh to move the comp to Glassilaun beside little Killary. Whilst it may not have offered any more shelter from the elements, at least the sea was calm enough to enable some easy fishing. Following a pit stop at the Statoil in Moycullen 13 of the travel hardened faithful made their way through passport control and sallied forth into deepest darkest Connemara for the 4th leg of the series. Spirits, considering the weather were high as we made our way onto the beach.

With a rock effectively splitting the beach into 2 zones, we assembled and rigs, more in hope than expectation were dispatched into the sea. Quite a few opted for a clip down + flier approach, a sure sign we hadn't really a clue what to be doing on the day in question! We didn't have too long to wait for the first fish or two to come aground with Dennis Brock and Boycie, pegged at the near end of the beach getting off to a flier with 4 fish for Dennis and 2 for Boycie in the first half hour. Flounder were around in unmercifully close quarters and were feeding hard at the time. With my flier being ignored, I switched to a flapper, fished in no more than 10 inches of water which began my own campaign with a double shot and a single in fairly quick succession.

The Ivory fella had left defending his title a little later this year but proved to be in top form as he swiftly obliterated DBrocks lead and began putting together a fine card with plenty of flounder, a lovely Ray of 50cms and a Turbot. Fishing, after the flounder onslaught early on had gone a bit patchy and it was some time before I managed another fish myself with a nice 28cm Turbot coming to sandeel at range... :shock: The lads on the far side of the rock however struggled throughout with only 6 fish coming in and 2 blanks from 5 anglers.

As time progressed, Dennis Brock managed a nice ray of 46 cms to hit second place, a couple more flounder for myself including a beauty of 40cms had things very nip and tuck between the pair of us in the battle for second. JP and Fintan were having their own private battle for 6th place with reputations counting for nothing in scratchy conditions. Alby, pegged in no mans land above the rock who had struggled throughout the day mounted a last gasp charge to finish on 3 fish including a nice ray. With noone able to live with Seanie on the day, it was the placings below that attracted the most interest and it was going to take a while to sort out. Thankful, after getting blown asunder for the best part of 6 hours, we made our way off the beach and back to the car park.

Results were as follows:

1st Sean Ivory, 379 pts
2nd Dennis Brock 236 pts
3rd PeteKd 223 pts
4th Alby 197pts
5th Eric 115pts
6th JP 102pts
6th Fintan 102pts
8th Boycie 101pts
9th SteveCrow 79pts
10th Ferg 66pts

Blanks for Marco, Jack and Paul Doyle.

Well done Seanie and Dennis, great fishing on a tough day.

A smaller than usual group made our way back into Galway City for the Post comp analysis (p*ss Up.... :D ) with some of the others opting to fish the rocks at little killary for a while prior to returning home. Myself, Bradan, JP, Seanie, Steve, Marco and a mate of Marcos had a damn good go at exhausting the vodka and red bull reserves in the Front Door as the traditional excesses were imbibed.... :D A good night had by all I think with, surprisingly enough, very little scandalous activities to report! You do have to spare a thought however for the 2 poor ladies who thought it might be a good idea to try and hijack our mini bus taxi and ended up heading off on a mystery tour with half a dozen lads eventually back to JPs house for a partayyyyyyyy :D :D !

It all seemed like a bad dream however, awakening the following morning (early afternoon....) with the kind of hangover that has you contemplating abstinence and sobriety! Following a top notch brekkie prepared by my host for the weekend, Bradan, the chuckle brothers (JP and Seanie) arrived at the house fresh from their own breakfast of, wait for it, Supermacs Snack boxes..... Someone discovered a copy of IA and an interesting and lively debate followed about the merits of frozen prawn and 3 hook pennel rigs. Poor old Pete McG made the mistake of ringing in the midst of this and getting roundly abused and accused of all manner of things by the 4 drunken gobsheens in the living room (sorry Pete.... :D )

3 of us, with Kev taking the sensible approach to spend the afternoon at home on his throne headed back into Connemara again to attempt to fish Gurteen. That was a complete waste of time it seemed with none of us managing a fish. Yet another onslaught on Supermacs in Oughterard took place with the chuckle brothers left floundering in my wake as I took on the traditional half the menu once again :D .

And so the weekend came to a close with a 2 1/2 hour spin back to Cork, another memorable and enjoyable couple of days although if I never see another Supermacs sign....... Well done again to Seanie on winning, a big thanks too to Bradan(Kev) for the accomodation, brekkie and bait providing services, much appreciated.

excellent report pete.

well done to all that took part :wink:

Well done to all. Fair play lads. Was laid low with a chest and throat infection and enough antibiotics to kill a small horse. Still struggling a little today.... hopefully I will make the next one.

Prizes will be vouchers for Henrys Tackle, and I'll pop them in the post tomorrow.

Well done agin lads, great fishing in tough conditions.

Kev

Great report as always Pete, super reading. Sounds like it was tough going, 2 women and all those men!! :D

small offerings usually work in those situations, surprised none of ye got a take!! :D

Weldone to all who took part!

6th JP 102pts
6th Fintan 102pts

Sorry, but if I may interject here -

6th Fintan 102pts
6.5th JP 102pts

Go Team Bootsy :D

well done lads tough fishing, especially alby who brought a flounder,turbot and ray in 4 casts towards the end :shock: just goes to show don't give up

had a bad casting day myself, just couldn't hit any real distance

highlight of the session for me was watching pauls beach buddy getting dangerously close to the stream as it eroded what once was at least a 10 yards gap :lol: :lol:

had a bad casting day myself, just couldn't hit any real distance

I'll say nothing there... :lol: :lol:

good to meet a few new faces... i nearly went home depressed it was going so bad, but managed to lift out a thornie in the last hour, and strangely enough alby's next cast pulled out a ray too.. strange that :wink:

i just kept hitting distance, tried close once but the beach was a bit steeper down my end so no suds to be fished..

and what you didnt hear about was the ones that didnt get measured :shock: i.e. the fella that walked across eric's line :lol: :lol: and an old fella that some how managed to get himself hooked on one of alby's rigs (hook through a tip of a glove :oops: ) :roll:

forgot to mention... i wasnt the scruffy pup at the after's session for a change, someone else needed to buy a packet of razors (and i'm not talking about bait either)

There were two actually, forgot about that.... We christened them George Michael and Freddy Mercury..... :D One with a tache and one with retro 80s designer stubble.... No wonder we got no interest from ladies.... :D

No wonder we got no interest from ladies.... :D

speak for yourselves :wink: can i get fries with that :lol: :lol: :lol:

Lads can anyone fish these comps..? Is it open invite to all on the board.?

They're SAI SAC comps so you would need to be a member of SAI SAC to fish these ones. The SAC is associated with the forum but is a seperate entity and is an IFSA affiliated club.

http://www.sea-angling-ireland.org/bull ... hp?t=13402

If you're a member of another IFSA club, you could fish our Open in Wexford on June 21st:

http://www.sea-angling-ireland.org/bull ... hp?t=15473

Did you get a bite in the Chippy Steve??? :D Amazing the powers of attraction of a large queue and a steaming curry chip isn't it.... :lol:

Did you get a bite in the Chippy Steve??? :D Amazing the powers of attraction of a large queue and a steaming curry chip isn't it.... :lol:

i've brought on a whole new meaning to vegetarianism.... mmmmMMmm tastes like chicken :shock: :shock: :twisted: :lol: