Martin O'Brien small boats comp Cork

People:siert and myself, plus 11 other boats

Duration:2 days , 9 hours each

Tide:ebb to flood

Weather: great

Bait:rag, crab, squid, mack,

Rigs:all in the wallet

Results:21 species

Report:Hi.
Well this is a report on the inaugural running of the Martin O’Brien Small boat Festival organised and run by Tony Tait, and the Rosie’s Fishing Club
The festival was a two day species hunt fished out of Aghada in Cork Harbour and the local area.
SATURDAY weather initially light winds, but forecast to increase to 4/5 s/w to west, which it did on the change of tide, so a restriction was placed on the competitors, no further south than the daunt rock and a line across to power head.
With this in mind and a good forecast for Sunday, we decided to get as many “difficult “species as we could around the Harbour area. Initially we dropped into the channel at the oil terminal, and a great start was had, picking up a scad, mackerel, whiting, and a codling, four species in the first 10 mins !
Off we went to try and pick up a flounder and bass, unfortunately the tide had started to ebb strong by the time we got to the mark, and after a 30 mins we headed to a different spot to continue the bass hunt. Whilst using one rod for the bass, I decided to try for a ray, with some nice chunks of mackerel on a spreader bar, well , no ray, but as we decided to move ( no Bass) up comes a fine big flounder on a 4/0 and a big chunk of mack in its mouth! Happy days. ( It’s the only way to catch them!!)
Next was a stop on the bank for launce but they were scarce , and we had no luck, so we headed to a ray mark, and first drop, up comes a fine plaice, again on a spreader! An hour passed with no joy, so we then tried for a bull huss, but the wind had freshened and caused us to swing a good bit at anchor, so making fishing in rough ground very difficult. At this point we decided to venture a couple of miles offshore towards the smiths, and anchor . This we did in lumpy conditions with wind against tide. Soon we had the LSD’s coming to the boat, and also a nice grey gurnard, a surprise ling, and then I got a big pull, this fish did not want to come up, and I was hoping it was a nice ray, but soon could feel that it was a conger, but it was acting strange, and when we got it to the surface attached to the spreader bar was a thick piece of rope descending into the depths, the conger was boated and the rope pulled, it had been there a long time, and after a lot of grunting up came a fine 10kg bruce anchor in v good nick! Result.
We had another good conger at this mark, and as it was getting much lumpier we headed for shelter of the harbour, here we soon picked up a good ballen wrasse and a corkwing, and for the last hour we tried for a blond ray, but again no luck.
Back at the slip it became apparent we had done well with a total of 15 species for the day, 2nd was Willie in Dave jolly’s boat OHANA with 13 species, with the other boats around 8-10 species.
SUNDAY, weather , flat calm and a little rain, but good prospects for the day.
Well, as with all species hunts you have to start with a plan for the day, and as with nearly all species hunts that plan is usually out of the window in the first hour!! We had a plan to hit six more species to get to a total of 21, and there was a few bonus species that we might pick up on the way.
First target was a launce, but again it proved elusive, so off to number two a coalfish, this we managed to get in less than a minute so off to get the next five , red gurnard, haddock ( don’t mention the war) , garfish, pouting , cuckoo wrasse. The conditions offshore were fantastic, with lovely calm seas, it was also apparent how popular cork has become with small boat anglers, there were boats all around the horizon!!
First to hit the deck was a steady supply of LSD, with the slow drift they were destroying the rigs set for our target foe, on two occasions we boated spotted ray but both undersized, then we hit a whiting plague of biblical proportions, but we did get a pouting and cuckoo wrasse, and the good old garfish put in an appearance, so four out of five, BUT, there is always a species that doesn’t play to the rules and this time for us was a haddock, we boated a good few undersized ones, but could not get one in size, but , we did managed a megrim, so happy days we had hit the 6 with a couple of hours left.
So we elected to head back to the harbour and try for the blonde ray again, and we did get a run, but frustratingly it dropped the hook.
It seemed like we had only set out a couple of hours ago but it was time for return to slip for 5.30.
Back at the slip everybody was helping with the retrieve of the boats, as is the spirit of the comp, soon the questions were flying, how did you do, oh we had three more species but all undersized, etc, and it was apparent that it was going to be a close run thing, ( as it usually is!!)
Back at Rosie’s bar the crews began to gather for the prize giving, nearly E1500 was up for grabs, due to fantastic sponsorship from the local business in the area.
Donal D had a great comp, with some fantastic sized fish, and this enabled his crew to walk away with many of the nominated species prizes for the largest fish, he also picked up the biggest conger, a fine fish around 13 kgs, But the overall results were as follows,
3rd place Apollo 19 species
2nd place Wimps, ( over form uk ) 20 species ( who incidentally had 19 species on day two!!)
1st place Screeming reels 21 species
So we had done it, a well happy crew.
To summarize, a great weekend, with a well run and well sponsored event. The fishing was first class as always in cork, A total of 28 species were registered over the two days, not to mention a good few more that did not make the size limit. The comp will be an annual event, so if you fancy a try at the species hunting, keep an eye out for this one, a nice way to get into this kind of competitive fishing
Regards
Screeming
Ps sorry no pictures to busy fishing!!!!

fantastic report martyn i felt as if i was with you all the way
a big well done on the win fair play to you

Brilliant report i could picture it in my head and congrats on winning 28 species is top class angling

Well done Martyn - another good result for you. You surely have to follow through and win the Cork Small Boats festival in September now

Sounds like the event went well and its great to have another one for the diary next year. Will definitely throw my hat in the ring next year for it.

A small edit done to the report martyn. Apollo finished 3 on weight (29.4kg ?)
This little 3lb place helped

You do not have the required permissions to view the files attached to this post.

Well done Donal - word has it you are upgrading the boat with your winnings from the comp!! the phrase "he cleaned up" has been said!

[Tony Fella]

Enjoyed this well run comp i fished with willie in Dave jolly’s boat OHANA.
Day one we done well totting up 13 species on our list .
Plan for day two was to go and take a chance wreaking for big ling and pollock only a few pollock showed there faces with four hours gone we decided to head back willie picked up an undersized megrim. we tryed for haddok but instead got plagued by doggies we didnt complain got a fine dog that ended up winning the RNLl pool. With 30 mins left we decided to try for a conger 15 min my rod bent over Tony Tait was anchored across from us and was into a conger at the same time i pulled up a fine conger 17lbish which took 2nd on the conger weight (donal had a fine conger 30lb on the first day) with 15 mins left we tryed for flatties for the first time in two days with no joy we headed back.

Have to thanks to Donal for the scones they went down a treat enjoyed sitting on the toilet all night Sunday . we came fifth overall with 17 species winning six cash prizes which isn't bad with no chart plotter and wasting 4 hours.

Last edited by Tony Fella on Wed Aug 04, 2010 12:58 am, edited 2 times in total.

excellent fishing lads and great report . that was a powerfull ammount of fish and species caught what more could you ask for

just to add a bit to screemings report me being boatless for the comp dave jolly kindly offer the use of ohana for the weekend a big thanks to dave .my fishing buddy was on hols so i had a stand in tony fella friday night i arrived with ohana on tow few phone calls to my fishing buddy he was up in donagal fishing for porgies on a charter his buddy got a hook up 10 mins before finishing time 80 min later 120 lb blue shark landed he left there after 8 pm back to dublin and down to me for 4 in the morning imet him on the road quick chatr then he slept for 3 hours we started to put a plan in action we launched around 8.50 sorted out rods and rigs few more boats in the water quick radio check we were restriced to the smiths with weather we picked up a few species quickly headed to a reef picked up decent ballen wrasse and a pouting few charter boats on the smiths had a drift between them as i seen a slick going got a cheeky garfish and a cookoo wrasse picked a few others not in size we had 11 got the 3 types of gurnards in size back in we need a dog both rods down mac on one and crab on nother tony has rag and mac on i got a few gentle taps lifted into a lsd not so bad my other rod got a decent bend i taught it was another lsd till i started reeling in thornback broke the surface net out first one down there left us on 13 second on day one

sunday was different after first drop we has launce and macs i planned to hit a wreck for a decent ling and pollock but it was the wrong nothing on them 4 hours wasted back out hit a few spots picked up more gurnards picked up a decent lsd had a megrim but not in size back on the reefs we could not get a haddock we had 3 new ones time running out we went for conger were tony got a decent on just over 7 kg i got a poorcod in size quick run landed on the bank but picked nothing new with time up i was a bit annoyed with my plan but if you make them you must stick by them as we did not get any of the smaller flats but we did not try for them we did have 4 or 5 species under size but thats fishing we picked up 6 prizes so were happy with and 5 over all that the event was run perfect a big thanks to all that made it work im looking forward to next year we have picked up a few things and marks and tony and sue tait had a lot of work done a big thanks to them and all who helped but on a sad note the reason we were there martins parents were there and it took a lot for them to be there the made everyone feel welcome and there sons memory will carry on i remember tony tait saying martin loved a pint and his fishing not to much more you could say about a person looking forward to next years comp

well done martyn and serit on your win,sounds like a very good comp run by tony,a bit of practice for the cork small boats,sorry i missed it but maybe next year,eddie..............................

The results

You do not have the required permissions to view the files attached to this post.

thanks donal good job with the report ps them scones were grand

A report on Comp from Andy on Wimps (Copied and pasted from Cork Small Boats forum http://www.skuaangling.net)

Yes a good win for Screeming Reels at the weekend, well done lads, looks like the favourites tag is well deserved

The Wimps boys had been planning a trip over for a practice for some time and when we found out about the comp (see Jims link above) we decided to arrange our trip to coincide with the comp & kill two birds with one stone ie a bit of practice and some match fishing. We flew over on the Thursday evening from Liverpool airport and stayed at the Bellavista in Cobh. Joining us for the trip was John Grundy aka the Silver Fox who fished with Kevin from the Bellavista.

I can not recommend the Bellavista enough, it is a fantastic hotel. Kevin did us a great deal for 4 nights B&B which included free use of a Warrior 175. We stayed in the hotel itself and the room we had was the size of a house and the ensuite was as big a most hotel rooms. There are a number of self catering suites available which we had a look at before we left which are superb. The hotel and self catering suites are modern, stylish and the staff are friendly and work hard to make sure your stay is enjoyable. Kevin has set up a room with fridge, freezer, and all the tackle you could need from rods, reels, end rigs, lures, leads and waterproofs in fact everything a visiting angler needs is available. The views from the balcony outside the bar are fantastic, stretching from Aghada right round to the harbour entrance. It was so relaxing to sit down with a beer after a days fishing and take in the views. The breakfasts were superb and there is a chinese restaurant open in the evenings which we tried on the friday night and the food was fantastic. Each day we were supplied with fresh packed lunches which were more than enough for our needs.

The boats are all warrior 175's with 100hp Mariner 4 strokes on the back fully kitted out and armed with Lowrance sounders and GPS. John and Kevin kindly let us use the boat that they normally use and I had a great time looking at all the marks they had left on the GPS

As I said before we flew in thursday from Liverpool via Ryanair 8:30pm flight which saw us sitting on the balcony at the Bellavista beer in hand by 10:30pm . Friday morning after breakfast we were driven down to the pontoon and taken out to the boat on Kevins rib. We spent the day getting used to the boat and trying out a few new spots . Friday evening after a fantastic chinese meal we relaxed on the balcony and Tony and Sue Tait (predator 2) and a couple of the local lads who were fishing the comp joined us and a great night was had.

Saturday morning, breakfast, out to the boat and then motored over to Aghada. Radio checks done 9:30am all off. Forecast wasn't great so limited to the Smiths/Power Head. We stayed inside the harbour and had a frustrating day spending too much time swinging around in the wind for a flounder which we didn't get . 5:30pm back at the Aghada slip and then we moored up by the pier and a got a lift ashore by a young lad in a small rib whose boating abilities would put most of us to shame. Over to the weigh in after which Screeming Reels were leading with 15 we were well back on 9 ( A couple of pints in Rosies Bar and then we made our way back to Cobh. Saturday night and the old Silver Fox dragged us kicking and screaming down into Cobh for a bit of a pub crawl

Sunday morning we woke up with a thick heads , Down to the pontoon, out to the boat and over to Aghada ready for the all off. The sea was as flat as a witches tit and as we prefer fishing to motoring we only went as far as the Smiths which fished really well: we spent less than an hour on the rocks before we had what we needed On the day we added another 11 to the list which put us up to 20 species which put us into 2nd place overall Screeming Reels 21 species gave them the top spot. A couple of pints in Rosies and then we made our way back to Cobh, a quick spruce up then back over to Rosies Bar for the presentation. The owner of Rosies actually drove round from Aghada to Cobh to pick us up and then kindly took us back to the hotel at 2:30am where we got poured out of the car. A Bit of a lie in, sort out the gear and all too soon we were in the taxi and off to the airport.

On the fishing front there were Cod everywhere we could have filled three boxes, the harbour was alive with mackerel, we had a nice Blonde around the 20lb mark and we even managed to break our duck with a Plaice caught with about 10 minutes of the comp left. There were only a couple of Bass weighed in and the Pouting were scarce on the Smiths.

All in all a great weekend away, great craic and it has whetted our appetite even more for the Cork Festival in September.