Duration:1pm-6pm
Tide:No Idea, think we fished over Low
Weather:Windy, sunny, rainy, golf ball sized hailstones.....Usual SAI comp fare...
Bait:All manner of worm and fish baits
Rigs:Flappers, fliers, clip downs
Results:35 fish altogether, 4 Turbot to 26cms, 4 ray to 50cms, 1 Doggie & 26 flounder to 40cm.
With the prospect of high winds and nasty weather for the afternoon, the decision was taken after inspecting Lettergesh to move the comp to Glassilaun beside little Killary. Whilst it may not have offered any more shelter from the elements, at least the sea was calm enough to enable some easy fishing. Following a pit stop at the Statoil in Moycullen 13 of the travel hardened faithful made their way through passport control and sallied forth into deepest darkest Connemara for the 4th leg of the series. Spirits, considering the weather were high as we made our way onto the beach.
With a rock effectively splitting the beach into 2 zones, we assembled and rigs, more in hope than expectation were dispatched into the sea. Quite a few opted for a clip down + flier approach, a sure sign we hadn't really a clue what to be doing on the day in question! We didn't have too long to wait for the first fish or two to come aground with Dennis Brock and Boycie, pegged at the near end of the beach getting off to a flier with 4 fish for Dennis and 2 for Boycie in the first half hour. Flounder were around in unmercifully close quarters and were feeding hard at the time. With my flier being ignored, I switched to a flapper, fished in no more than 10 inches of water which began my own campaign with a double shot and a single in fairly quick succession.
The Ivory fella had left defending his title a little later this year but proved to be in top form as he swiftly obliterated DBrocks lead and began putting together a fine card with plenty of flounder, a lovely Ray of 50cms and a Turbot. Fishing, after the flounder onslaught early on had gone a bit patchy and it was some time before I managed another fish myself with a nice 28cm Turbot coming to sandeel at range...
The lads on the far side of the rock however struggled throughout with only 6 fish coming in and 2 blanks from 5 anglers.As time progressed, Dennis Brock managed a nice ray of 46 cms to hit second place, a couple more flounder for myself including a beauty of 40cms had things very nip and tuck between the pair of us in the battle for second. JP and Fintan were having their own private battle for 6th place with reputations counting for nothing in scratchy conditions. Alby, pegged in no mans land above the rock who had struggled throughout the day mounted a last gasp charge to finish on 3 fish including a nice ray. With noone able to live with Seanie on the day, it was the placings below that attracted the most interest and it was going to take a while to sort out. Thankful, after getting blown asunder for the best part of 6 hours, we made our way off the beach and back to the car park.
Results were as follows:
1st Sean Ivory, 379 pts
2nd Dennis Brock 236 pts
3rd PeteKd 223 pts
4th Alby 197pts
5th Eric 115pts
6th JP 102pts
6th Fintan 102pts
8th Boycie 101pts
9th SteveCrow 79pts
10th Ferg 66pts
Blanks for Marco, Jack and Paul Doyle.
Well done Seanie and Dennis, great fishing on a tough day.
A smaller than usual group made our way back into Galway City for the Post comp analysis (p*ss Up....
) with some of the others opting to fish the rocks at little killary for a while prior to returning home. Myself, Bradan, JP, Seanie, Steve, Marco and a mate of Marcos had a damn good go at exhausting the vodka and red bull reserves in the Front Door as the traditional excesses were imbibed.... A good night had by all I think with, surprisingly enough, very little scandalous activities to report! You do have to spare a thought however for the 2 poor ladies who thought it might be a good idea to try and hijack our mini bus taxi and ended up heading off on a mystery tour with half a dozen lads eventually back to JPs house for a partayyyyyyyy !It all seemed like a bad dream however, awakening the following morning (early afternoon....) with the kind of hangover that has you contemplating abstinence and sobriety! Following a top notch brekkie prepared by my host for the weekend, Bradan, the chuckle brothers (JP and Seanie) arrived at the house fresh from their own breakfast of, wait for it, Supermacs Snack boxes..... Someone discovered a copy of IA and an interesting and lively debate followed about the merits of frozen prawn and 3 hook pennel rigs. Poor old Pete McG made the mistake of ringing in the midst of this and getting roundly abused and accused of all manner of things by the 4 drunken gobsheens in the living room (sorry Pete....
)3 of us, with Kev taking the sensible approach to spend the afternoon at home on his throne headed back into Connemara again to attempt to fish Gurteen. That was a complete waste of time it seemed with none of us managing a fish. Yet another onslaught on Supermacs in Oughterard took place with the chuckle brothers left floundering in my wake as I took on the traditional half the menu once again
.And so the weekend came to a close with a 2 1/2 hour spin back to Cork, another memorable and enjoyable couple of days although if I never see another Supermacs sign....... Well done again to Seanie on winning, a big thanks too to Bradan(Kev) for the accomodation, brekkie and bait providing services, much appreciated.
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