Dungarvan Bass, Mullet & warning!

Hi

was over a shortened trip due to an unexpected death.

made it down to Dungarvan to have a short session at the Cunnigar. Didn't call in on Art as i was grabbing some time at short notice and when Arthur gets involved he causes trouble with the wife as he keeps me away for much longer than she's happy with as he always has somewhere to have another cast

Anyway i arrived at the mark slightly later than i would have liked due to tractor problems - in front and going slow

set up the rod and went through the painful process of choosing plugs which i thought would catch fish rather than the ones that caught me in the shop. i plumped for a saltiga surface popper (brianbru will be familiar with this model LOL)

Anyone who has fished here will know about the walk so i set of with the minmum of gear. about half way i started to cut towards the sea through the tressels of oysters which are grown here. about 2/3rds of the way there a tractor started approaching where upon a guy and a very angry Alsation dog got out. he was less than polite and the dog was going nuts. Eventually when he had started to calm down it transpired he was claiming this area was private property and i was to sling my hook , so to speak.
he then threatened the Garda and stated he was sick of anglers damaging his oysters, he also warned that the next set of tressels was owned by a Frenchman who had threatened anglers with a gun in the recent past.
we had a chat around the recklessness of others and all the while he was calming down. eventually he conceded he had watched me and had noted that i had walked around things rather than as others had done walked on the oysters. At this point he changed his mind and decided that he would let me proceed but asked that in future i walk all the way round rather than cut through. he also made a very valid point that i was not wearing a lifejacket and that would be a good idea, i agree and if anyone else sees this it is worth considering if your are going to fish this mark with or without the local expert. so if you head to this mark it may be a good idea to walk around rather than get us all banned or worse start a war between the oyster owners and anglers.

Anyway to the fishing. after about a dozen casts i beginning to think it was fishless when i had a huge splash at my lure not far from my feet. that perked me up and i continued on my way to hook up with a fiesty 3.5lb fish some half a dozen casts later. low tide came and went and i was about 45 mins into the flood when i hooked my 2nd fish which zipped about for a short while before throwing the lure.
that was it for the day fish wise at this mark. while out there i did see a number of mullet cruising around which was encouraging for the 2nd part of the day.
back at the car and rested for a while i changed gear and set of on the mullet hunt. i have fished for mullet here for a number of years and i reckon this is one of the best areas i have found and i was well rewarded for my efforts with 5 fish in 2 hours all between 4lb and just over 6lbs. all putting up a cracking fish on my coarse tackle and 5lb line.
i have a couple of pictures of the mullet but when lonesome fishing they don't co-operate unless in the net so they didn't turn out very well.

good trip despite the irate Irishman.

The guy in the tractor had no right to say that to you - the beaches of Ireland are property of the people of Ireland and he has no right to ban you from walking along the beach (even if there happens to be some misplaced oyster beds there).

surprised to hear that and hope it doesnt affect any future visits to the area , last time i fished it (last sunday) i was leaving the water and a tractor stopped, guy got out and proceeded to ask me what size was the fish i had, etc etc then offered me a lift back to the slip on the back of the trailor so alot of them guys are sound you probably just met the local onion

good man Dale....ye see that wouldn't of happened if Art was with ye he would of sent your man on his way or else used him for bait!! what ye think?

good to hear you got a couple on that lure. its still has produced more fish for me than any other and to be honest its nothing special and its not that expensive, sure you would agree but quite affective nonetheless.

well done on the mullet, i still haven't got me specimen and its coming near the end of the season down my way...... might give Davy a call soon!!

talk soon dale

brian

You can walk where you like below the tide line on a beach, estuary or river, its ownwed by the state. Perhaps if that gut was a little nicer you wouldn't mind walking around, if hes going to be a prat then to hell with him, state the law of the land an be on your way.

I always found lads there grand. Maybe he is a newbie. Give Art a description and he will sort him out!!

I dig lugs at Whiting Bay and take short cut through the fields. A number of years ago a looney bought some of the land and fenced it off. He attacked people walking through "his land". This was always a right of way and part of a local walk. For some reason he never tackled me. Maybe it was the fork that kept him at bay.

The Cunnigar belongs to all who use it and nobody should tell anybody that they can be there. I suggest a large rod stand for the dog, insert it from the rear end and bet you will not be able to catch up with his owner.

Iona,

well done on the fish and pity about the hassle.

sk

Well done on getting a few fish

This is always a bit of a sticky issue but as I understand it the notion of a private beach in Ireland is a bit misleading as the foreshore between the high and low watermarks is incapable of ownership, it belongs to the state and cannot be owned, or at least that is what we were always thought in our law lectures. You can only own land above the high spring tide line and everything below it is public property. There are Foreshore licences which allow people to build on or use the foreshore in some way but that's a separate issue. Anyway even though you cannot own the beach itself or more specifically the foreshore you can own the access to it and thereby prevent people from getting to it however in fact they have a right to be there should the succeed in getting to it without trespassing on private land. So to answer your question my understanding of the legal side to this is that if you access the beach from the water or even along the foreshore then you have a right to be there as it is public property. However I'm not a solicitor so I'm open to correction on that but from what I remember that's the general gist of it, anyway its all covered in the Foreshore Act anyway but it is a bit wordy.
That was advice from DAVE i think .....

good fishin dale,
they have a foreshore licence, and can stop ppl. from entering the area between the poles, and the marker bouys, what happens if ya fall over a tressel and say brake a leg/arm who do ya sue?.
on friday a guy from killage (cork) had a narrow escape got cut off on a sandbank, dumped waders,rod,ect and had to swim for the shore, in the meantime his wife had called the R.N.L.I. at helvic, by the time they arrived he had made it ashore, he had to be dragged out and was very badley shaken, the doctor wanted him to go to hosptial for check up, he decided after about 1.5hrs. that he was ok..................dont think he will be back out there again.