Duration: 5-9pm
Tide: rising
Weather: not to bad
Bait: nominated baits consisting of shellfish (excluding crab) fish baits and lug
Rigs: flappers
Results: dogs, codling, whiting, dabs
Report:
today was the last night of the leinster youth league and it was held on 5 mile point co wicklow. in the under 21's nly paul whelan had garanteed qaulification for the team and the other 4 places where still up for grabs. a chocolate coloured sea greeted the competitors as we set out to do battle and a good swell was lapping up as a result of last night's gale, luckily it didnt appear to be to weedy.
a 5pm sharp we all lobbed our baits into the sea with high hopes of a fish or two. i decided to opt with the tactic of letting a pyrimid lead jutter down the tide as i had a spare peg either side. i wasnt long before the gentle pull of the tide was rudley interuppeted by the rattle of a whiting. i resumed the task of baiting up my spare trace and then reeled in. 'this whiting appeared to have a bit of weight to it' i muttered to myself, it was long until the whiting was joined by a rather small dog as it came through the surf. happy days, the whiting was just out at 19cm but the dog added a welcome 50pts to the card. the next cast shot downtide again receiving a good few rattles on the way. reeling in reveiled not one, not two but three whiting, however only the one made the 20cm mark, but still i was optimistic of a good and quick nights fishing. baiting my trace eagerly for the third time i looked up to notice once again the rod tip was bouncing away. it wasn't long until i added another dog to my card and looking around it was clear that boycie was the only other angler catching, it would seem i had taken a narrow lead.
a small dry spell ensued which was a real come down from the first three casts. a sudden jolt of the rod tip which was followed by the rod stand going over caught my attention, i was now playing a good mound of weed, which in fairness is synomynous with these beaches. the weed was now taking line, i counld'nt help laughing to myslef, as this weed had the attitude of a tope. with each breaking wave the weed took line and after 5 good minutes of retrieving a cast which was put no more than 40 yards out i managed to land the leviathon. i weighed a good 12-15lb, and was bound together by multiple traces and two leads, not forgetting the stones that where attached to the kelp. i was actually quite pleased with my self for landing. to top it off on the trace lay a 27cm whiting. it took another good 5 mins to get back in the water, but i still maintained a narrow lead, 'phew' !
everyone had a fish or two now, so i was kept on my feet, boycie was doing his damndest to beat me only behind by a few points. the weed now had become slightly problematic and any slack line was instantly getting fulded by the evil stuff. a nicely formed 26cm whiting did enough to keep me going however boycie had also added another fish to his card, we where still toe to toe, for the life of me i couldnt get a healthy lead to ease the nerves.
it was the last two hours now, and the fishing had slowed somewhat, i made a decesion to target the dogs as they seemed to be more abundant and most importantly they where worth two 20cm whiting. sandeel didnt seem to be doing the trick so instead i went for size 1 kamasans m's popped two small lug on each hook and suplimented them with a healthy strip of mackerel. my tactics paid off and i was duely rewarded with anther dog, bocyie managed to join me on 6 fish with a whiting.
i was working bloody hard at this point and when your not catchin its important to keep motivated, a good bite raised the spirits and what seemed like a dog was unfortunaltey dumped off the traces by a b*****d of a breaker. the end of a the comp neared a small flurry of fish left me with a further 3 dogs, boycie had two more fish than me in his total but not as many dogs so i just edged it in the end by a mere two points i think.
the comp was over and the teams where now confirmed. and unlucky for boycie he just missed out, hard luck mate.heres the teams not sure if their in the right order so correct me if im wrong.
under 16's
1st gavin fogarty
2nd alan turner
3rdnjake forsyth
4th anthony bulger
5th dave armstrong
under 21's
1st paul whelan
2nd eric gasparro
3rd ger doran
4th danny mcdevit
5th dean quiqly
so they're the teams that will compete in connacht in march at the interprvincials for a shot at the youth and junior home international teams, see you all there.
