A Dutchman’s perspective of one week in Kerry

[high low]

People: me, my dad, my dad’s mate Nico

Duration: from Friday the 6th of august until Friday the 13th

Tide: all states, we have been fishing all day long

Bait: Lures, flies, crab, limpets

Results: Bass, Salmon, sea trout, brown trout, wrasse and pollack.

Report:

Me and my dad are enthusiastic anglers from Holland. Last year, we went on our first ever fishing-trip to Ireland. We had a great week of fishing in Kerry.
The choice for this years fishing-trip was an easy one: back to Kerry! My dad’s mate Nico has been to Ireland many times, but never to Kerry. After hearing our stories, he decided to join us this year.

After arriving late in the afternoon we went to the river for a quick look. We were joined by Pete, an angler from the U.K.. The river had risen quite a bit, so we fished it for a couple of hours. My dad hooked a salmon, which he unfortunately lost.

The next morning, the conditions looked pretty good for the river, so we decided to fish the river once again. The boys all went fly-fishing, which is not my cup of tea, so I went spinning.
Fishing guide John Quinlan had shown me a nice pool. After a few casts he said: “this is the one” and started counting: “one, two, three”. Nothing happened, but at 4, 5 and a salmon took my spinner. After a nice scrap, I landed my first salmon ever. A nice fresh silver fish. I was over the moon and the salmon was released to fight another day. A few moments later, my dad had hooked a salmon as well and managed to keep it hooked. John had another one on the spinner and I lost one.
What a start to this holiday!


My first ever salmon


Released to fight another day

In the afternoon, we went out prospecting for bass, but they were very hard to find during the day-time. After a good bit of dog-walking with Sammy, I decided to get out of the water. All went well, until I slipped and fell, head first, on the reef. Not on my head fortunately, but the brunt of my fall had been broken by my knee, which banged upon a pointy reef rock. I stumbled out of the water and was surprised that my waders were still dry. Or were they? As we arrived on the next mark, I noticed, my leg was getting a bit wet. I pulled down my waders, to find the right leg of my trousers had turned clarot. Medic!
Fortunately, I had brought a first aid kit and could tend to the gaping big holes in my knee. Then I put on my waders again, which were still intact remarkable enough, and continued fishing, whilst giving my knee a “Ballingskelligs bay cold-pack”. The rest of my holiday, my knee slowed my down a bit, but I still managed to keep up with the elderly and it didn’t affect my fishing. By the way: the reef mark was renamed to “Wounded Knee”.


Wounded Knee

The next morning the plan was to meet up in the shed at 04.15 for an early morning bass-session. We arrived at the seaside in pitch black and started fishing. I caught 2 bass, including a 53cm one, which powered off in a big rip tide in an effort to strip my spinning reel. My dad, Nico and Pete all had a few bass. For all of them, this was a first on the fly.
The afternoon was spent pollack fishing from the cliffs. Here I managed to catch my first ever pollack. Nico had a spectacular gannet-bite. Luckily he didn’t hook the beautiful bird.


Bass

Monday morning, we were up again quite early for a bit of bass fishing. We found a few, but I lost one unfortunately.
The conditions didn’t look quite right for the river, but we decided to have another go at it. We all split up and by the end of the day, we all met up to find that it had been an extraordinary day. Between the five of us, we had caught 8 salmon, with fish for everyone. I had caught 2 salmon and a nice little sea trout. Nico had his first ever salmon on the fly.
What a remarkable day! We celebrated with a couple of drinks.


What a remarkable day!

Tuesday morning, we were in search of the illusive bass again. I had a few bites on the surface lures, but none of them took properly. John decided it was wrasse and pollack-time, so we gathered crabs and limpets and “mountaineerd” our way down one of the beautiful cliffs. The wrasse were there and we instantly hooked a few. They do give great sport on a light spin rod, as they try and power their way back in to the kelp.
I managed to catch a hard fighting pollack on a float and had a few more on softbait-lures.


A bit of mountaineering.


Hard fighting pollack

On Wednesday the river had dropped a bit, but we went to have a quick look. I’m glad we did because I managed to land another 2 salmon in an hour of fishing. No luck for the fly-boys, but I was well chuffed. Spinner-boy had struck again!
That afternoon we went out mullet-fishing. After a long walk we mad it down to the fishing spot. John did his thing and after a while there were a good few (big) mullet feeding. We tried to get one on the fly, but they stayed just out of range. I managed to hook a big one (6 lb-er), with a buldo and a maggot-fly, but unfortunately the line broke and the fish managed to slip away.


John holding my fish, spinner-boy has struck again!

Thursday was our last effective day fishing, as we had a long journey ahead of us on Friday. We went to lough Currane in search of big sea trout. We did manage to land a couple of nice brown trout, the sea trout were not going to play ball.

Thus ended our magnificent trip to Kerry. We have fished hard and have caught 6 different species, including a lot of “firsts”. Many thanks to John and his lovely wife Lynn, who took great care a us and enabled us to have the holiday of a lifetime.
We will be back in Ireland! Consider yourselves blessed with so much good fishing.


May dad managed to keep one hooked.

There is one more thing on my mind. As we drove up tot the river, on many occasions, we saw people netting in a big pool. Apparently, these people are allowed to net and bring in 17 salmon this year. Fair enough, but they had been netting since march this year and had only caught 5 (?!) salmon up to now. This doesn’t explain why we saw them just about every day, sometimes 4 times a day, with 6 people, dragging their net. They must really enjoy their little “hobby”. As we stopped to have a closer look, as they were hauling with big containers, they moved a car in front, so we couldn’t see what they were pulling out of the net.

I don’t want to start a big discussion here and I do realize we were blessed to have landed an extraordinary number of salmon. But there is no point in introducing a tagging system and catch and release-measures, if there is no enforcement.

Please excuse the length of my report, but some things can not be described in a few words.

Slainthe,

Paul from Holland

Last edited by high low on Fri Aug 20, 2010 4:55 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Great report - sounds like you had an excellent time!!!!
I suggest to add up the total amount of money you all spent in Ireland on your fishing trip and write a letter outlining what you spent to our Fisheries Minister Sean Connick as part of our campaign to prevent the opening of Irish waters to commercial bass fishing:
Minister Sean Connick TD.
Dail Eireann,
Leinster House,
Dublin 2.

great report good photos to

great report and some great fish ,sometimes i think visitors appreciate this country of ours more than we do ,anglers from abroad spend large amounts of their hard earned cash on a trip here maybe the powers that be should take note!!
nice one hi low its great to see a plan come together hopefully their will be bass for your next trip and not just another speices wiped out of existence by shortsighted commercial interests

excellent report - great fishing and pictures - what an experience

did you get the cars registration number? its such a pity the netting is "allowed" - crazy

Hi Paul
Was the river you saw the lads pulling the nets across the River Inny? I thought I saw them below the bridge on the sea side early one morning about 3 weeks ago. I thought I was seeing things as I was half asleep and didnt have time to stop and investigate the matter.

Some lovely fish there,worth getting a hole in the knee must be good waders you have there.

Fine report Paul!

Brilliant report Man.

This should be printed in Irish Angler and please do, as Rockhunter suggests, send it to the fisheries minister

yes great report and wud be good to premote fishing here too.lovely salmon there

But there is no point in introducing a tagging system and catch and release-measures, if there is no enforcement.

Very good point Paul, this seems to be the major problem, all laws/bylaws are in place to protect fish stocks - but seemingly not enforced, for whatever reason I do not know and can't understand it either

I am glad you had a good week and enjoyed the hospitality and the great fishing Ireland has to offer. Long may it last

Last but not least, my congratulations to the brilliant fishing result and to an excellent report

sounds like the perfect holiday,well done
and great report...

what a brilliant report one of the best iv ever read on the site.excellent advertisment for angling.pity he dident get pictures of the netters

[Dave]

Excellent report Paul, it looks like you had some fantastic fishing and I really enjoyed reading all about your trip. It really shows just how good the fishing here can be and unfortunately highlights also how the short-sighted view of it by some threatens this fantastic resource.

Last edited by Dave on Fri Aug 20, 2010 12:55 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Great report man. Sorry to hear about the netters.

Thanks everyone for the great response!

@ Rockhunter: I have already sent a letter to mr. Connick in which I have summarized the amount of money we have spent on last year's fishing-trip.

@ Dangler, yes it was.

Regards, Paul

@ Rockhunter: I have already sent a letter to mr. Connick in which I have summarized the amount of money we have spent on last year's fishing-trip.

Well done - you might send him a second letter outline how much you spent on this years trip too - the more correspondence he receives on this the more difficult it will be for him to change the legislation.

Sounds like you had an amazing trip glad conditions where good for the Salmon, its not easy to get Rivers just right for salmon, esp. coming from Holland.

We need more reports just like this one, also with what RockHunter has suggested by sending info of the trip detailing cost, but i suppose you need to put things in plain English for simple politicians to understand

Excellent report and fishing, well done to you all

Great report. Fished with John before too. Had us catching Bass in conditions and tides you would think impossible. Great guide. Glad you enjoyed yourself.