Duration:10-12 at the marina, 3 to 830ish at Hook Head
Tide:Ebb, Low, Flow.
Weather:Breezy, Dull, odd patch of sunshine
Bait:Rag, Sandeel, Mack, artificials, feathers
Rigs:Various
Results:A couple of different varieties of wrasse, coalfish, pollack, mackerel, whiting, poor cod
Report:
And so with high expectations, SAI members headed from various parts of the country to participate in the 2nd Boat comp aboard The Sailfish from Kilmore Quay. Memories of my recent stunning (
)victory in the final minute at the last boat comp were still fresh and after taking advice from a prominent boat angler who competed there recently (who also owns a tackle shop......) had invested the best part of €120 in bait, rigs and various items of terminal tackle. I had spent several hours the night before tying up all my new rigs and sorting out all my gear. With the early morning start necessary to travel to Kilmore from Cork I headed to bed early but the excitement was such that I couldnt sleep 
The 5.30 call came all too soon and I set off on a lovely sunny morning and arrived at Kilmore Quay for 9am.Fortunately, priorities being what they were, Breakfast that is, managed to find a little shop and walked out a happy man with a plate of dennys finest, wedges and beans. Esconced myself in the back of the jeep and tucked in. Unfortunately, this is around the point where the wheels began to come off with the news that Lesley was having a major problem with the steering set up on The Sailfish and it wouldnt be fixed until 1pm at the earliest.
We had a quick chat and myself, JD, Quarterflounder, Seaniebo and Don headed to the end of the pier and began some minibashing. The unfortunate turn of events had meant however that we were all trying to minibash with a combination of boat gear from 12-20lb class to 50lb class....HMMM fun
However, it wasnt long before we were all getting into small fish with a combination of ballan wrasse, what we reckon was a Corkwing or 2, whiting, poor cod and coalfish. None of which, it has to be said would have gone over 6 inches. The presence of a large, well fed looking seal which insisted on swimming around our lines on occasion didnt do too much for our confidence but in fairness, had he taken a bite at one of our tiddlers at least we would have stood a chance of getting it back on the wrecking gear! We had to watch uselessly while a shoal of large mullet came cruising by at intervals. A couple of hours of this was however plenty but sure it wasnt a bad way to while away an hour or two and the decision was taken to head off for lunch. A quick call to Lesley to check how things were going with the steering repairs however brought the news none of us wanted to hear, the boat was not going to be able to be fixed at any stage today and the trip was off. For those looking for a target, it was dubbed the Petekd boat curse strikes again....
Anyone having read any of my previous exploits aboard boats knows exactly where they were coming from! It was with a certain degree of annoyance and frustration that we retired to the pub for lunch and a chat about our options.Over a top class feed of sole, plaice and haddock (fish trilogy....superb!) it was decided after lengthy discussion to head for Hook Head to try a bit of rock fishing. One painfully slow journey later (due to some nut doing 20 mph in front of us) the SAI convoy pulled in in front of the lighthouse at the Hook. Seaniebo very kindly volunteered some of his shore gear for myself and Don as we had travelled with nothing but boat tackle. (Thanks again Sean
) We fished a ledge that was marked peg no96/97 I think. Sean and myself fished baits on the bottom at distance while JD and Don concentrated on spinning sandeels and float fished rag. The baits on the bottom were however a waste of time and after several break offs it was abandoned. Don and JD were having fun however pulling in pollack on the sandeel and some nice wrasse for JD on the rag. I changed to a float rig and had a very frustrating hour or so with bait robbing little wrasse doing there utmost to drive me insane! Nailed the little fecker however on around the 10th attempt! Fishing quietened down somewhat as afternoon began turning into evening.
Mac and Alby/Ally?(sorry) joined us and began to tackle up for a bit of spinning. We were heading into that golden period for pollack fishing with a combination of filling tide, fading light and a bit of a breeze to ruffle the surface all coming into play. I had actually stopped fishing at this point and was packing up ready for the wonderful drive back to Cork. I decided to hang on a few minutes to see how the lads got on. Spun sandeels were getting hit frequently to the extent that supplies were running low so I had a root in my box, pulled out a green and black storm sandeel and handed it to Mac purely in the interests of research to see how they would perform.
After 3 fish on it in successive casts I was cadging a rod off JD and tackling up to have a go myself. What followed was an hour or so of simply spectacular fishing. It was virtually a fish a cast on the artificials for everyone. Cast them out and they were getting whacked on the way down, off the bottom, halfway up, fast or slow retrieve, it didnt seem to matter! The quantity of fish in residence there was so great that you could hook a fish, get it halfway in, lose it and have another take straight after! Nothing huge mind you, but plenty of fish from 1.5 to 3lbs or so with some fantastic sport to be had with their ferocious takes and dives. Between us, we had to have pulled in the best part of 50 pollack in that period of time. It was funny to look down the rock and see 3 or 4 of us playing fish simultaneously. It was so good that I began experimenting with other different lures I had just out of interest. For the record, Red storm sandeels were useless, black firetail jelly worms were nearly as effective as the original green and black imitations, red and clear shads had a couple of fish, Berkely Gulp Sandworms didnt work in the slightest.
All this was great but the road home to Cork and thoughts of dinner and bed were calling and I left the lads at about half eight or so. Mac did you get your 5lber?! Not quite the day we expected but not wasted either. Good to meet up again with you all lads, nice to fish alongside without the pressure of the competition vibe going on for a change. Many thanks for the loan of tackle from both Seaniebo and JD, without which it would have been back home at lunchtime for me, appreciate it folks. A very enjoyable evenings fishing. Hoping that the rescheduled boat competition on the 14th of September goes to plan though.....
I cant see it happening but I hope the shore comp today went every bit as well and apologies for being unable to attend.
