dingle and iveragh 2/10- 10/10

so 3 of us, me Bill and Colin headed for our annual trip to kerry....

day 1, fished a rock mark on the iveragh which produced in previous years and didnt disappoint this time, no big pollack but the highlight was my float rod almost lost due to the run of a 3lb pollack while i was trying to land a double figure conger, got both in just about, also managed dogfish mackeral and last cast on the conger rod produced an estimated double figure bull huss, it fought well but freed itself on the surface, i wasnt too bothered, i was just glad i saw it

day 2, tried early morning mullet in dingle harbour, no luck, pretty disastrous session for the following two reasons : firstly, managed to snap my friend Bill's spinning rod in half with the only cast i ever had with it then secondly, some of the crab we'd bought needed "bringing on", say 30 of em, so we have a method of putting them in a sack and leaving them in water for a few hours while we fish, it has worked a treat previously, however, i hadnt noticed there was a hole in the sacking material, you know the rest!! , so with most of our peelers liberated and minus a rod, we left the pier with just some fresh mackeral for bait and brekkie. the other two lads fished beenbane rocks on the rise into dusk and caught pollack to 4lb on jellies, Bill lost one on the surface estimated around 6 he said, i opted for the arsenal united match instead, come on the gooners!!

day 3,wanted to fish a new bass mark but the dreaded red tide was there, took it easy, just a couple of average hours at beenbane( after wasting our time for the mullet at milltown bridge),fished a mark near inch( keel) that is meant to produce bass on the first of the rise, but that was fruitless( small tides?) then it was out for dinner and too much alcohol(again)

day 4, headed round to the iveragh, got some more crab, but decided to give knightstown a rattle, so, after fine chowder and bowl of lamb stew, we set off in darkness to fish the rise, non stop action as usual, fish were running slightly smaler than in recent past, biggest huss was 8 1/2, majority around 4 or 5, we ended up with 15 huss and maybe half a dozen doggies

day 5, fished our favourite rock mark on the iveragh, i had a slow start while the other two were catching countless pollack in the 2 1/2 to 4lb range( this mark had not been so good in recent years so it was a nice surprise), i opted for bottom fishing as i know there are decent huss and conger here, but unlike the first day, i kept getting snagged after smallish bites/runs on the conger rod, couldnt work it out as ive fished the same hole for years with no problem, anyway, after losing my 4th set of gear i switched to jellies, the best of my pollack was 5 1/4, Colins best was 4 1/2 and Bill took the honours with a 7 1/2 pounder( p.b), me and Bill went back to the bottom fishing and managed a couple of conger, my 17lb being the highlight, Bill had a much better fish on, but after getting it into mid-water it managed to put enough pressure on his rod to gain a few feet and was solidly lodged down there, it never came out again , ballans to 2 1/2 made an appearance too, after that it was back round to dingle and a few beers in dick macs and foxy johns( i love them bars!!)

day 6, tried the bass mark near keel again on the rise in the morning but just a solitary flounder, maybe the tides were too small, or maybe thats just how bass fishing is, (local crab supplier said you could hit them one day out of three weeks fishing), went for a sleep in the afternoon then went round to the other bass mark nearing dusk (which had red tide earlier in the week), this time the whole area was completely covered in a foot or more of solid weed, ive never seen anything like it, so at that we decided to fish cappaclough at night on a rising tide, with crab and fresh mackeral hopes were high, however, 4 1/2 hours later and just one flounder to show for our troubles, big disappointment to be honest, got to bed at 2.30

day 7, i'd already decided i wasnt for doing much on our last full day, so, after showing Colin Brandon Creek and the slea head drive, Bill and him decided to give ventry pier a go in the afternoon around high for mullet, i thought i would give a fairly lumpy trabeg a couple of hours more in hope than expectation, how right i was lol, constant casting out and reeling in weed with baits un touched every 10 minutes, and i was back in the car after an hour, headed to the digs, got showered and packed up, then went for a walk round the town before starting the "last night ritual" of a session on the guinness, the other two turned up to meet me around 6 oclock with news of no mullet again, however, Colin had a 2 1/4lb plaice on a crab/mackeral coctail, i was over the moon for him

summing up, it was a great holiday, plenty of mackeral about, just the beach fishing as usual that was slow, i was chatting to a guy down there who fished only for rays the week he was there, and had only managed one thornback around dingle, and two stingers around 8lb from fenit pier. we never fished for rays apart from i suppose cappaclough, im gonna give the massive tides a go in september next year to see if it makes any difference to the bass.
il try to add photos but i never did it before, sorry if this report is bordering on biblical proportions

tried to add a picture but its say its too many pixels wide

It's either a feast or a famine sometimes down in Kerry. Ya did the right thing traveling between both peninsulas.
A lot of mileage but your report proves it worth, well done.

Great report mate, sorry that mark didnt work out for you. In 20 years I have never encountered red tide there and as for the foot of weed..? Really weird. Didnt think it has been that stormy lately. Could have been tides.

Kerry (Dingle really) for me is no longer worth the effort to get there. Love the place and people but the fishing has got worse and worse year by year.
Might just be a local thing to Brandon and the surrounding areas. Netting in particular around Brandon is beyond a joke with the offenders doing it in broad daylight on a sunny afternoon. We now drive half the distance and catch 4 times the fish. Its a no brainer.

i like wexford and waterford, but im not mad about night fishing, had some good days around bannow but generally these shore marks are better at night? i also like catching a variety of fish, i will be back down next spring hopefully and will try the bassing again with crab and lug

Hi bonnet great report and great perserverence with the fishing, I would normally be down iveragh every two months for a long weekend, I would alternate between fishing for pollock off a few deep water marks when it's suitable and for the bass invariable in darkness and do find it harder to find mr bass as time goes on, as eoghan said lotta illegal netting happening around dingle, it is probably happening on iveragh too.

[booner]

heres some pictures (hopefully)

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Last edited by booner on Mon Oct 19, 2015 11:22 am, edited 2 times in total.

and some more, ive cracked it at last, thanks John West

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That's just great. Looks like you had a really good week.

some fantastic fishing there
thanks for posting