Brandon Beaches

Headed to Kerry on Good Friday for the day.

To cut a long story short, I blanked. Conditions were very poor, bright sunshine and little or no surf. It's the first time I have ever seen Stradbally beach this way - it looked like a pond! Travelled around all the beaches looking for some surf, but all were flat calm.

Ended up fishing into Tralee bay looking for an early Ray, but got fed up and headed home.

I was also in the Cloghane area over Easter - really disappointing not to get a chance to fish the Brandon beaches. Headed over to Inch on the Thursday for a look and surprisingly there was a fine surf running. Couldn't get into the chesties quick enough! The sun was shining for a change and it felt quite warm despite the breeze. The water was cold, though, and unfortunately the fishing wasn't great. Only a few schoolies to show for around 8 hours fishing. Loved every minute of it! Bob Moss joined us for a few hours in the afternoon, and blanked, which made me feel a whole lot better! We fished Inch again on Friday and Saturday with the same result, but by that stage the wind had gone due East, so we were probably flogging a dead horse. Maybe I'll manage another trip next month, when the water's a bit warmer, and hopefully a bit of surf on Kilcummin.

hi guys my friends and i aslo headed down from fri to mon,,we were lucky to have a boat with us but we had a sucessfull weekend fishing from the boat and beach,,fri and sat were lovely and calm for the boat in brandon and sunday was rough so we shore fished,,,we also shore fished at night our catch was as follows..pollack to dubble figures ,coalies,whiting,ling,pouting,thornback ray,ballan wrase,cuckoo wrase male and female(i still never get used to the beautiful colours) and i think thats about covers the species not bad considering the spring tides,,a short trip conger fishing produced some good takes but 3 were lost to the rocks ah well you cant win them all..it was good fishing but experience did pay off ,1 hour after a stage in the tide we planed to fish for example the ray stoped biting we just could not cast to them even with casts in excess of 130 yards,,spider crabs were also a problem with countless snoods being bitten off,and some spiders being landed,,,this does not help your confidence as you could be standing in the surf expecting a nice ray but all you get is a big old spider...some pics to follow... :shock:

Hi Phil,
Wow you did have a good weekend! we had a go in the boat at the back of Inch on Saturday hoping that there would be some Ray there, no luck at all unfortunatley, basically just a small Sea-Trout and a Flounder, we had trouble with bait robbing crabs as well. Where do you launch from to get in at Brandon, would i manage with a rear wheel drive transit van, or is it a 4wd job? no signs of any Mackeral round there yet then?
Cheers Sean,

hi sean,,we lanch from brandon slip ,it can be blocked up by local boats but these can be moved to the side after that its all about good driving,,im lucky enough to have a landcruser 4x4 and this would pull you out of bed no prob,,,but their was a small incident involving a cluch and bad driving and a smell of burning but after a bit of stern advise and full 4 weel drive gear slected the boat was up and dry..this is a steap slip witch can get slippy at low tide but good driving without burning out the clutch should see you lanch and retreve without a problem,,i prob used the slip over 20 times in the last year or so and ther was never a prob,,but there is a better slip at the magharees if need be,,the only word of warning i would give to any boat anglers fishing the area is watch out for the pot- ropes and buoys...i know these lads have to make a living but on a high spring tide why there is several yards of slack rope floating around is beyond me and is an accident waiting to happen as these ropes are like magnets to an engine prop..... :shock:

Cheers Phil, thanks for the advice, will watch out for those if we venture over that side, will have to take a look round there first, the other slip i've used is at Dingle, spoiled rotton with that one :D
Sean,

hi sean we were going to use the dingle slip to boat fish the channel at the mouth of the harbour but decided not too as the fungus boats as we call them were full on and the weves they were making would have made it a difficult day out,,,but how did you get onto the slip did you approach the harbour master to get the code for the barrier etc,,,,cheers :shock:

lads - have you ever tried the slip at Scraggane Pier? Don't have a boat, so don't know whats involved, but it's a working slip and looks in very good nick. It would only be a short steam from there into Brandon bay.

Scraggane Pier is found by heading out from Castlegregory towards Fahamore. Go straight until you can go no further, and turn left.

Phil, i've only been out from Dingle about 4 times, some great pollock up and down the coastline from there, and just out of the entrance on the right is Crow rock that comes to the surface in 25m about 1/2m out, the harbour master is called Johny, you cant miss him - big white beard in a white van, he gave me the number for the gate (2528) said no problem to use the slip anytime, i just pushed the trailer under the barrier where the other trailers are stored and paid to park the van in the public car park, even managed to drum up some trade from Dingle having the van parked there all day - even more reason to go fishing there now!

Sean,

Steve, yes i did take a look round at Scraggane pier last summer, probably would just manage there, it was a busy summer day maybe a bank holiday as well, a lot of cars about, it's quite steep, i would get in no prob, just coming out if i had to use the rope it could be awkward with the slip being square on to the road, cracking spot though round there and like you say handy enough for the bay. Cheers Sean,