Duration:2-7
Tide:Over HW
Weather:Wet and miserable for the most part but brightened up nicely for last couple of hours
Bait:Mostly fish based things, sandeel, Blueys, Macks
Rigs:Various, 2 and 3 hook clipped for the most part
Results:33 thornies ranging from 25cm to 50cm, 27 LSDs, 2 Huss to 78cm and 1 flounder at 31cm.
Catch and Release:: Yes
Report:
This competition which shall forever be known as the "JP WellBoy Open" took place on a damp day in Connemara. 13 of the SAI faithful followed the snaking roads through the hills, some, no doubt lured by the prospects of a night on the tiles in Galway city later no doubt.... The journey out, which for the most part was carried out at an average speed of about 25mph was an ordeal all of its own with Tourists, Cyclists and suicidal sheep (!) to contend with but all were ready and able to make the short trip to the beach from O'Dowds with plenty of time to spare.
A beautiful little horseshoe bay with clear seas on a nicely shelving beach of floury white sand greeted us. The rain may have been coming down at that stage but it wasn't to dampen the spirits. Today, all thoughts of scratching flats in the suds as is traditional at a lot of our comps was to be forgotten, we were animal hunting today with Ray, Dogs and huss hopefully on the agenda. Having concentrated primarily on boat fishing for the past couple of months, it felt strange to have the beachcaster back in my hands again and I was looking forward to a decent days fishing.
We werent to be disappointed on the fish front, 6 minutes into the comp, Fintan (Croppyboy) hauled the first fish of the day onto the sand, a nice thornback. From then on, it was difficult to know where to look next with plenty of fish coming in around the place, mostly thornies. Once things settled down a little after the first hour and with a nice ray on the board myself, it was clear that this comp was taking a bit of a turn. Steve and JP were having a private battle between themselves as they traded fish after fish. Seanie, suffering somewhat from a heavy couple of days sampling the delights of Galway city was holding his own end up well too with a few fish. It had all the makings of a good scrap between these 3 with the rest of us making up the chasing pack but JP was to have other ideas....
Fish after fish after fish began hitting the decks, doubles, trebles galore with mostly dogs and the odd ray making his card. He had the rest of us staring in wonder at what was quickly becoming a one horse race. There was just no stopping the guy. Even when fishing slacked off a little over HW, there were still occasional fish coming for him. By the turn of the tide, he had 12/13 fish on his card with Steve and Seanie well back on 5 apiece. Once the tide started to move again on the ebb, he was to add another 11 fish to his card including a fine bull huss of 8lbs or so. The guy was in a different league on the day and was fully demonstrating his Irish international credentials.
Having been stuck on 2 ray myself for the majority of the day, all thoughts of winning the comp were out of my head and we turned our attention to the rest of the lads in the chasing pack for MA points for the 3rd slot for next years MA, notably Alby and Donal D. Alby was on 4 ray, I was on 2 and Donal D had a couple of doggies. 20 minutes to go and having switched to a single hook clip down and small sandeel bait to get an extra few yards, I dropped a bait in at 140 yards or so. With 6 or 7 minutes to go, I contrived to drop what felt like a doggie yards from the beach.... A swift rebait and a bait was dropped in the same spot... 5 minutes later with the call for lines up I managed to pull in the 2nd huss of the day, a small fella of 58cm. Too little too late....
Thinking it was a doggie at first, the little fecker nearly had my finger off when I reached in for the hook.... Toothy little critter. And so it ended, with JP finishing in 1st place with 23 fish and a mammoth score of 1074 points.
Seanie in second place with 8 fish and 375 points
Steve in 3rd with 5 ray for 286 points
Boycie 4th with 3 fish and 3 species for 227 points.
A fine days fishing with not a blank card to be seen made places like Clonea and Mullaghmore but distant memories... A lesson was had by all on the day by a sublime demonstration by JP, hats off to the guy.
A days fishing like that was going to be hard to follow but with the choice of venue being Galway City for the post comp partying, it was bound to be good.... A motley crew gathered in the Front Door and by all accounts a great night was had by all. Better not go into too much detail as I'm not wishing for anyone to get into any bother but well worth the trip for most who attended....
The less said about Seanie and JPs choice of shirt the better, we wont go into Myself and JP strictly come dancing, speaking of the wild head on Fintan by the end of the night is also banned, We wont delve too much into why Steve cant remember getting home that night, or why the Travelodge was missing a guest come checking out time that morning.... All these things are better left unsaid so I wont... 
A cracking comp and an absolute must for next years fixture list.... Roll on 2008 and maybe someone might sabotage JPs car for that one.... Well done again fella, its a reminder to the rest of us as to what we should be aspiring to...
not much of that going on any more 
Well done....
it may not be good enough for a top 3 finish.