Killybegs IFSA Master Angler Comp 2007

People:90ish

Duration:All day Sat and Sun

Weather:Blowing an absolute hooley to gale force on Saturday, calmer on Sunday

Bait:Mainly Rag, peeler, mackerel, sandeel.

Rigs:Various

Results:77, 76, 60 ( :oops: ), 70 29th place overall.

Report:

After all the waiting from qualifying last September, the MA had finally rolled around and it was with a large degree of hope and a lot of nerves that I made the journey north to Killybegs to take part in my first and SAIs first for that matter Boat MA. I'd had a look at the ground up here by competing in a 2 day open 2 weeks previously and had prepared on that basis. Rigs tied, bait gathered and organised, tackle sorted, it was with considerable excitement I arrived to Donegal on Fri evening in time for the boat draw.

Day 1 was going to be like a home away from home with 4 Cork lads on my boat, (Duanai Mara). Check in was a breeze and I was first to load my gear onboard, sit down, have a couple of ciggies to calm the nerves and get organised. The wind was howling, however, blowing N NW most of the time, there was going to be some shelter to be had along the North shoreline. I had decided, given the ground we were fishing and the size limits in play to operate each session with a relatively simple tactic. Pick up a Ballan and a Cuckoo for the species points alone and then concentrate on tapping away at pollack gilling ragworm and possibly pick up occasional wrasse at that too.

The boats steamed out and it was a fair sight, a convoy of charter vessels, decorated with day glo floatie suits hammering off leaving clouds of spray behind. The excitement and anticipation was palpable but there ws still time for a friendly word or two with those aboard. We reached the ground, set up the first drift and it was lines away.... That first session was tough going, trying to keep balanced in lumpy seas but the fish began to come. Hard though it was to get the wrasse to size all the same but I managed the 2 wrasse species and stuck to pollack after that. Jellies were being ignored but Rag was dinking up the odd fish and all too quickly it seemed the call for lines up and end of session. I had fared better than most in that session with a few pollack and several wrasse putting me in 2nd place and 2 fish behind the winner of the session on 77%. The fishing had been very scratchy with some of the lads failing to put more than one or two fish aboard. I had to put back 15 undersize pollack and wrasse in that session which was galling but I was pleased enough with the way things had gone.

Session 2 had Liam starting the way he left off, dinking out fish with increasing regularity. We had moved in very very tight (within a few feet) to the North shore at this stage to get some form of shelter from the howling winds. The downside of this was that pollack just werent playing ball in the slack water. Seriously snaggy ground too had me reaching into the tackle box on far too many occasions. Still, having managed the Ballan and the Cuckoo once again, an odd pollack was making a show to put together some form of an effort but it was a serious struggle. Pollack were frustrating me in the shallow water, on numerous occasions following a sandeel to the side of the boat before nipping its tail off and plunging back down. I was getting increasingly frustrated as I was seeing plenty of wrasse coming into the boat but having, at this stage exhausted day 1s supply of rag, I had to stick to tapping out occasional pollack (and they were very occasional....) Time passed and it was with some relief that lines up was called. I was pleasantly surprised, not being one bit happy with the way I had fished that session to manage 76%. Somewhat disappointingly, I had managed a dab that just missed out on the 25cm measure that had it counted would have won me the session....Such is life.... Still, Day 1 had come to a close and I was relieved to have held my own and still have something to fight for on day 2. Liam had taken session 2 as well with one or two fish seperating the rest of us once again.

I packed up, and headed away from Killybegs that night with a mountain of work to be done on the rig front as I had gone through a fortune of stuff over the day. Pints were not going to be an option, I would leave that till Sunday night in the interests of maintaining good health for the Sunday sessions.... :D Spent the night at a buddys place in Killygordon, the best part of 50 miles from Killybegs and arose on Sunday at around 8, thinking I had loads of time with boat leaving at 10am. I was in the jeep at 8.07 and happened to glance at the info sheet on the passenger seat beside me. You can only begin to imagine my horror when I saw, as if highlighted in neon lights the phrase "Will depart on Sunday at 9am".... 50 miles away, with bait to collect and check in to get through, not to mention finding parking and loading gear onto the boat and 53 minutes to do it in..... You do the maths... :shock:

Well, thanks be to god it was a Sunday morning with virtually no traffic around as the Hyundai Hotel hit top gear.... A panicked phone call to Pete McGroary (who had my bait in his fridge) had him hopping out of bed and racing to meet me on the road outside Donegal Town. Barnesmore Gap passed in a flash as the speedometer crept around to areas it had never seen before. A super fast stop that the McClaren f1 Team would be proud of had the bait loaded and me back on the road from Donegal town at 8.28. 17 minutes from Donegal Town to Killybegs is the feat from the weekend of which I should probably be most proud and it was with an almighty amount of relief I pulled into Killybegs at 8.45 straight into a conveniently vacant parking spot and legged it to check in. Gear was grabbed and I was on my boat with 5 minutes to spare, talk about close.... I knew I would never have lived it down had I failed to make it... :D The drive had taken its toll somewhat however as I had no time to stock up on provisions or get settled down. A bottle of lucozade rolling around the back of the jeep was to be the sustenance for the day and I wasn't one bit settled at all as we headed away from port, back into battle again.

The first session of the day was one I would rather forget to be honest. Bait supplies were running low as half my allocated rag for the day was semi liquefied and I had to keep some for session 2. 1 tray of rag a session was never going to be near enough and I was cursing myself for not bringing a hell of a lot more. The tactic of ballan, Cuckoo, then pollack was not working too well as rig after rig was consigned to the reef below. I managed a couple of ballans and a few pollack but to great expense, no cuckoo. The draw on the day was a tough one too with being drawn alongside Liam again and 4 others on over 185% from day 1. I was up against it and for the first time in the competition, I felt out of my depth. Thoughts of making an unholy charge for the top slots were long gone and it was a matter of damage limitation as the class of the others began to show. Fish were flying in around the boat and there was no place to hide as I struggled to put together a card. It was with some relief once again that time was called on session 3 and I wasn't a bit surprised to have only managed 60% with Liam (yet again) winning his session.

The 15 minute break between sessions did me good as I had a couple of minutes to sit down, have a cigarette and compose myself a bit more. My rag supplies were down to about a half dozen decent worms and a tray of liquefied crap. The mackerel I had brought were in poor order too, the peeler crab was gone and the Sandeel were sitting nicely in McGroarys freezer..... It wasn't going to be my day..... :D I'd settled down however, the dream as such was over and with it the pressure had somewhat lifted too. I knew I couldn't keep pace with the boat leaders as they were in a different league but I wasn't going to let my head drop either. The ballan and the Cuckoo came quickly enough this time and with all usable bait exhausted, it was back to the jellies. They hadnt worked to any major effect the day before but it was pretty much the only viable option left. Pollack however began to come with some nice fish taken. The boat leaders were involved in a fair old fight on the far side and it was nice to witness how to tackle these comps properly. Time was eventually called and with a final session score of 70%, my debut at the masters was over with a total of 283 from the 4 days.

Enough for 29th place out of the 90 or so so and I'm happy enough with that. I hadn't been too sure as to what to expect from the competition and fears of making a complete twonk of myself were running high at stages. Glad to have been able to hold my own anyway and another step on the learning curve. Running short of bait was a foolish mistake to make and it cost me dearly. I learnt bucketloads over the 2 days and I'm looking forward to putting some of the tactics and rigs I saw being used into practice in the near future. Theres a big step up in class to be made to compete with these lads and it was a pleasure to witness how the top guys operate and learn from them.

Well done to all who managed to achieve what they set out to do and congratulations to forum lads Dave and Mick who performed so well over the 2 days. Thanks once again to the people who provided as much advice as I could have ever wanted, to the lads on the boards for the messages of support, to Pete McG for his hospitality and for making an effort over and above the call of duty by hopping out of bed at that ungodly hour to bring my bait. I wouldnt have made the boat otherwise.

Thoroughly enjoyed it and I am looking forward already to next years competition in Cork.

Epic report Pete :wink: As long as you learn/pick up something from each comp it aint so bad. Must use your sandeel this week, forgot completely that they were in there :lol:

Great report Pete, get a real feel for what its like to fish the comp from your description. Well done anyway, top third finish is excellent.

Did I really read that you fished all day on a boat with no grub?

Respectable result though Pete. I put down the poor second day to starvation. It can really affect the concentration :lol:

Kev

Very respectable finishing position Pete for your first Master participation. Don't forget to share all the tips you learned.

Donal

Great report Pete... Like Don, I look forward to those tips :roll: :wink:

It's funny talking about a step up in class when is comes to angling..... gets you thinking........ I suppose we all like to think we can hold our own agains't anyone, but time after time these guys can winkle out fish where you would be convinced there was none.

Plenty of food for though.

Talk to you soon,

Kev

Great report Pete, and glad to hear that you enjoyed the weekend.
Until you actually compete in the Masters most people have no Idea of the level some guys are competing at, but it's the days that you are out with these guys that you can learn the most.