An Daingean, Co Chiarraí, October 3 - 9th

People:Boycie, Love the Cuckoo & Myself

Duration:A Week

Tide:all sorts

Weather:mainly dry and light winds

Bait:you name it

Rigs:everything

Results:wrasse, pollock, launce, mackeral, bass, thornback ray, sting ray, flounder, turbot, pouting, whiting, dogfish & weaver




Report:

Our now annual pilgrimage to Dingle for a week took place from Saturday 3rd – Friday 9th Oct, and while the fishing wasn’t always electric, we hit all our target species bar Painted Ray (Boycie had one in the masters on Saturday night though) & mullet (only fished for them once).

More importantly we hiked around a bit more than we did in previous years, and many thanks to the people on the site who I’d contacted before we left, some of the new marks we fished & found by accident had very productive fishing and some of the scenery was unlike anything i’d ever experienced. I’ll send you all PM’s to let you know how “your“marks fished.

One thing to note was the almost absolute lack of mackerel from the shore, amazing as previously Brandon pier was the easiest spot we’d ever had for picking up a dozen or so, to do as bait for a days fishing. We actually had more bass than mackerel for the week!

Sunday 4th Oct
First full day on the go, and boy did we go at it hard. Up at 6:15am to go plugging for bass, big swells hitting the Brandon side of the peninsula so we played it safe and moved into the cloghane estuary, the bass refused to play ball however! First real session, first blank, hopefully not an omen for things to come!

Next we headed for the castle at the mouth of Dingle harbour, (nothing like crossing the Conor Pass in sunshine!), there was a few groups of English lads fishing, but we found a spot and quickly had baits in the water, a small ray for me and a decent enough fish for Boycie got the trip off to a start. An English guy beside us caught a cracking 11lb thornie, and as the tide began to push we headed for a quick munch, and then out past Ventry to try our first rock mark.

Float fished hardbacks were the order of the day and it wasn’t long before the wrasse were worrying our little eight legged friends, no huge fish but plenty to 3.5lbs caught. We switched over to spinning gear and had some fun with Pollack, I’d a lovely fish of just over 4lb, which was great fun on the light tackle.

Back to the garage in miltown for a cup of tea and some “iced apples” (genius little pastry cakes with apple in em). Then we decided to hit trabeg in darkness to try for some painted ray & bass. We got to the beach and there was a lovely surf coming in, 4 tables washed up onto the beach and it looked fantastic. I’d blasted some sandeel baits out for the ray and then set up a 2 hook flapper with lug, lobbed that into the famous “third breaker” and I only had the rod in the tripod and it hooped over, struck and I was in, cracking fight rather than 1 tidy fish, I brought in a pair of average bass. Great start though!

Plenty more flats, dogs, whiting & 1 bass to boycie followed, then at 1:30am, after our 18 hour marathon session we headed back to base for a cup of tea and a beer, a brilliant day!

Monday 5th
Headed back to the castle again to fish for Thornies, they played ball right from the off, no huge fish but we had plenty in the 5lb bracket, nice easy relaxing sport!

We needed a little break from the fishing so we had lunch and a pint, made a few rigs and hit stradbally in a nice surf that night, There was a bit of week in the water which made fishing quite difficult, however after a couple of hours Boycie hit a decent fish which we hoped to be a big painted ray. The three of us waded out to try land the fish, and with 3 headlights on him we saw a big ray come into 2 foot of water, “a fcuking big painted ” Paul roared when we saw him, but it became clear, just when “the painted” turned and came right for the three of us at speed, it was a big Sting Ray! At this stage, I’d love to say I carefully slid him up the beach, but being a fan of Stevo Irwin, I said to the boys, “eh, sorry lads, i’m out, good luck with that”, I did my finest Usain Bolt impression up that beach onto dry land, and watched the lads try land the fish, tail & barb waving all over the shop. Unfortunately the fish made one last attempt to maim Boycie by running at him hard and this broke the tip of his Grauvell DH. They landed the fish, and not a huge fish by Sting Ray Standards, the scales weighed him at a tidy 23lbs

He went back strongly and we decided to call it a night!

Tuesday 6th
Very heavy rain & gale force winds put the mockers on the fishing on Tuesday. No rock marks were safe and we decided to fish in Cloghane, but we didn’t catch anything, a team meeting insued and the only way we could rescue the day was to go for a few pints of the blackstuff in Murphys, on Brandon pier. That stinger, gradually got bigger and bigger throughout the night as more and more locals were told of “The battle of Stradbally”. No clue what time we got to bed?

Wednesday 7th

Up early, dug a bit of bait, and we headed for a rock mark given to us by Adam S! (cheers mate). We left the gear in the car and first Hiked along high cliffs just praying we could find a safe way down onto a decent fishing platform, we hiked about a mile without any gear until we found a likely spot we could descend. Back to the car all the essentials packed, we got down onto a fantastic looking spot, 40 foot of water under out feet and I’ve never seen gear put together so quick in my life!

Unfortunately the spot didn’t produce like we thought it would, plenty of average sized pollack on spinning gear and one good wrasse for boycie was it, Very disappointing for dingle and a mark that looked so promising. We wondered after had the Daiwa pairs put a lot of fish down? or even unintentionally killed them due to the swim bladders busting on the wrasse from such a depth so quickly? We’ll never know, but I’ll definitely be back to try this mark again, thanks Adam!

That night we went back to stradbally to see if we could tempt another stinger, but a big surf only was me catch a nice flounder followed by a turbot and not much else, were we now suffering for our early successes?

Thursday 8th

Last real day fishing because Boycie and myself had to dig bait the following day and head to Cork for the Masters. An early morning start saw us head to Ventry to plug for bass (Coutesey of Pete aka Bovienip). Amazing spot and although we caught no fish ,we could occasionally spot a bass cruising around from the cliffs above, we’ll be back!! We had also brought the wrasse gear with us and after a really sweaty 2 mile hike across the fields, we by chance found a spot we could “safely” get down to fish from.

This was more like it, the wrasse were queuing up to hit our hardbacks and it would only be seconds before you’d have a bite and a succession of 3 – 4lb fish were brought in. This was Dingle fishing as it should be!

Back to miltown for tea and more iced apples, then to Trabeg for our last session, again ray baits were sent long and bass rigs into the small surf, but alas it was whiting at distance and then a shoal of pouting, now not tiny little things but fine fat 30cm pout taking our baits as soon as they hit the water. We headed back across the Conor Pass one last time, sad the trip was at an end!

Incredible week with some decent fishing, the banter as always, was flying and the 3 of us had a ball. We stayed in Lynes cottages in Brandon (http://www.lynescottages.com/), where we stay every year, the houses are top quality, the place is geared up towards anglers and I can’t recommend the place highly enough. Eugene will even supply bait for you & put you onto decent fishing too. There is also self drive boats available to take out, you can’t ask for alot more than that!

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More pics

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Brilliant report Alby a bit vague in the detail but a super read!

Great report alby. Not surprised that ventry turned out better for the wrasse, like i was saying to Boycie the smerwick rocks were very poor for us this year for some reason. Some years at that mark its a fish a chuck but not this year. Dont know why but it was like that all year, whereas ventry was solid sport this year

Well done

Adam

Nice report Alby and some super fishing. I was down the week before and had something pretty similar (except for the stinger). For me the fishing was poor but i put it down to a week of flat calms (no wind for a week in Dingle, hard to believe i know) and very weak tides.

Jesus lads a whole week fishing! Like a wet dream!!!!!! Well done on some great fish and thanks for the report Alby.

Fair play lads

Holding the Stinger for a photo..your braver men than me

Excellent Report Alby, Pity you didn't manage a nice Specimen Wrasse. Maybe next year. Cracking fishing all the same and a very well done on the list of Species, especially the Sting Ray.

Kev

Great session lads, yis should have a camera crew with yis next year, sounds like great craic and brilliant fishing

thumper of a report there alby and nice pic's, sounds like you's all had a great time and a good mix of species, nice one guys. and well done on the sting ray

Fair play on the Sting Ray!!!! Savage photo and an excellent report...

cracking trip lads, that's what's it all about

Well done lads, brilliant report and pics,really whets the appetite

cheers for all the positive comments lads , am delighted with the stinger as its my first

Great report lads, brilliant read, no bother to ya boycie, i'd say that stinger got some fright when it seen you

Hey Alby, Boycie looks like your brother....any connection?

excellent report and pics alby and well done on the stinger boycie. a really stunning part of the country to be fishing in

no pat fortunatly we are not brothers but he should consider himself lucky to look like the fine specimen they call boycie

Hey Alby, Boycie looks like your brother....any connection?

Yeah, i'm his da.....