Some unfortunate weather conditions and unavailability of members meant a smaller crowd than usual made the trip North (or south from the Carn/Clonmany contingent) 14 of us gathered at the beach, somewhat thankful that weather conditions appeared to have improved. The mockers were put on it of course with the statement "turned out nice...."
That unfortunately was as good as the weather got and from thereon it was pretty much all downhill with plummeting temperatures, rising winds and rain threatening to blow us all to kingdom come by the end of the day.
Bait buckets flying up the beach, tripods blowing over...... It was a good job McGrory had a big heavy camera with him as the light fella may have sailed over the horizon otherwise
!Fishing was slow at our end of the beach (RHS) with only a few flounder between us until darkness brought on the coalie bash with a lot of fish caught in the last hour.
Well done to Denis Brock on his victory and to Fintan Kavanagh just pipped to 2nd by JP, whose card resembled something you might find floating on Dollymount by the end of the day. I'm not joking, putting Fintan(Uri) s card back together into something readable was like an episode off the Krypton Factor....
Leaving the beach was a nightmare with Rod bags and boxes acting like sails in the wind, note to self, next time its like that, reach for the contact lenses.......blinded with rain and sand I got lost coming off the beach and spent a horrible 15 minutes clambering over sand dunes through rivers and falling over on a regular basis.
Enough of all that as I'm sure that Pete McGrory wants to keep some powder dry for the article shortly to be published in TSF on the comp. You dont want to hear about 20cm flounders and mini coalies do you? You'd much rather hear about how the nights festivities proceeded....
Well, firstly, a big thanks to the "Drift Inn" who expressed no disgust at the cavalcade of damp, smelly anglers who appeared at their door on a saturday night demanding food and drink. Top marks to the Bar Manager who handed Denis Brock a bottle of Brandy to go along with his prize from Henrys for his victory.
Showers and changes of clothes all round had a half dozen or so of us setting forth into the night to sample some of Buncranas finest. Drinks and slagging a plenty were the order of the day with JP apparently mounting a one man crusade to improve Deise/Donegal relations with as many of the locals as possible..... It was comical, a year down the road having the bar staff recognise the sight(smell...) of the SAI lads on tour up North once again. "You're that bunch of strange blokes who meet on the internet......"
An enjoyable evening ensued, details of which are somewhat sketchy due to copious amounts of amber nectar. Some details still remain however.....
On arriving back to the hotel with a certain member of the party behaving like a dog having to p1ss at every lamppost with every unsuspecting female we happened across on the walk home, we were disappointed (read gutted) to discover the residents bar was closed. This did not stop the aforementioned member of the party brushing night porters aside to gain entry and plonking himself in the middle of some poor souls 50th birthday party. She couldnt have been more accomodating, even offering to go to her room and fetch down a bottle of baileys so us poor souls could have a drink!
With this party consisting of 6/7 blokes, mammy whose birthday it was and 1 female, we decided the odds of getting another drink or anything else for that matter were slightly too high and 2 out of the 3 of us who had gained entry saw sense and headed upstairs. Note, I said 2 out of the 3........ 1 still remained.....
We are going to rename this persistent chap Ethan Hunt as what he achieved at that late stage was nothing short of Mission Impossible. I cant go into any further details on this, family site etc, but you have to trust me. I know. I was sharing a room with him. Tremendous stuff. We shall not name him, there is no need, there is only one member of our club with the balls, the brass neck and the self belief who could have carried out this operation and we all know who he is. (crap angler though.... ) A spot of angling was mentioned the following day but after a pig of a feed in the Town Clock and with strong winds howling down the lough it was decided not to bother so home we went.
Good fun, shame about the weather and the daylight fishing. Maybe hit Culdaff next year for a wee change. Nice to put some more faces to names too, 3 Donegal lads joined our club on the day and its most welcome you are.
great report Pete...
