Dingle Peninsula 10th - 14th August

People:solo mission

Duration:3/4 hrs a session

Tide:usually top 4 hrs of flood

Weather:dirty northerly wind unfortunately

Bait:sandeel, hardback crab, all types of lures

Rigs:sliding float/light legering & spinning

Results:ballan wrasse, pollock, mackeral


Report:
Finally had a crack at the peninsula. Couldn't go all out fishing unfortunately as I had the other half with me but still caught plenty of decent fish in short sessions. Weather wasn't great for some of the places I had planned to fish over at Brandon on the north side of dingle (gale force northerly in my kisser) but had plenty of fish all the same, unfortunately no bass but plenty of pollack on plugs & spinners and couldn't get through the mackeral with a dexter wedge.

Friday
Got some sandeels from Bob Moss in Ballydavid and got his books on shore angling on the peninsula too, Bob gave me a few marks to try and they certainly didn't let down, really nice bloke and very helpful. First off tried behind Dunbeg Fort to the left of the small island, first spun with sandeels and jelly worms for about 45mins without a take, i think i may have even muttered to myself "this kip is way over-rated", god forgive me. I changed over to a leger with green hardback crab, the bait was on the bottom about 5 seconds when the spinning rod I was holding slammed over and after a great scrap (in which i was grounded 3 times) I netted my PB ballan of 4.75lbs. I had another ballan over 3lbs on my next cast and then changed over to a sliding float rig. For 90mins every time the float cocked it would dip under within seconds, I must of had over 20 wrasse, each fought superbly and all but a handful were over 3lb. I even had a nice 3lb pollack on a crab!

Saturday
Early (6am) next morning I fished the shallow snaggy ground to the right of Inch beach, when I got there saw a huge sea trout repeadedly jumping at the mouth of the river at the coastal erosion works. Alas no bass for me but I did see a couple hitting something on the surface, unfortunately they didn't fancy the yo zuri popper I offered them. Anyway, was a beautiful place to see the sun come up.

Sunday
Fished Brandon's rocky ground and coves, with various lures, mainly dexter wedges to try get some distance into a very strong northerly. Had a few decent pollock and as many mackeral as I wanted and saw the gannets dive bombing and having a fair bit of success with the mackeral too. Made it a little dangerous for the areas i wanted to try for bass though, but i will be back.

Monday
Went back to Dunbeg yesterday morning, had a few wrasse over 3.5lb in a small bay to the right of where I was fishing previously, again on small green hardbacks. Have a few photos and will stick them up soon.

Went out on one of those tourist boats to see Funghi at the mouth of dingle harbour and you can get various photos of him on the boat, one of which was "Funghi and his favourite snack", which has him with a 5lb plus bass in his mouth, I hope the little f*cker keeps to his 2 a day bag limit.

Anyway, I know the place a good bit better know and think I'll try it again in October when the surf beaches are fishing well and I'll leave the missus at home.

Hi alby

Glad it fished well for you, and that you had some of the better wrasse.

marks throughout the whole penninsula can be unreal for wrasse at times, we had eight over specimen size in a session last month. A five pounder gives a great scrap on spinning gear and 30lbs braid. but still trying to get a six!

like you we have had some godo pollock on float fished crab too, last year we had an eight and the year before i had a 9lbs 6oz in dingle when wrasse fishing.

good fishing
Adam

How are ya alby. Sounds like a cracking bit of fishing. Bet your glad to be back on the east coast now though!!