Duration:1pm to 6pm
Tide: Rising and falling
Weather:Mixed, beautiful to start off, breezy with a hint of rain later
Bait:All sorts, for me it was primarily Maddies, Whites, Lug, Mack and a couple of sandeels.
Rigs:flapping 3s for the most part
Results:Flounder.... Lots, bass....Lots (for some...
) and an occasional Tea Bag Turbot.Report:
Tinnabearna on a peach of a morning to be driving down was the venue for the second leg of the SAI MA. 13 of the SAI faithful eventually made their way onto the beach from as far as Galway, Cork and Sligo which was a slightly disappointing turnout with a couple of late dropouts. Interesting to note that despite a small enough showing, there were 4 members of current Irish teams plus one post Irish team member having a go, competition was going to be tough and a win here was going to be hard earned.
2 strokes of luck for myself good or bad at the finish depending on how you looked at it, I managed to draw an end peg for the second time in less than a week, peg 1 with peg 2 beside me blank and JD on 3. Also, the beach had been pegged back to front giving me only a small stroll down to the peg instead of the 3-400 yard hump along the soft sand I was expecting. 1pm rolled around and we all made our first offerings. Maddies had been key to success in Lettergesh last week and a writhing pot of same mixed with about 50 whites were to be my primary bait. First cast came back blank as I watched JD reel in a counter before I found the fishies and got on with a flounder bash of sorts myself. The first 90 minutes to 2 hours had me fill my quota of 5x10 point undersize fish and a couple of small counters at 18 and 19. Rest of the beach was struggling and the mid section of the comp was fairly quiet as I tweaked and adjusted baits and hook sizes in a vain bid for the most part to keep the little fellas off. With about 90 mins or so to go, Eric was pushing hard with Kevin Barber at the far end fighting hard himself to keep in the mix before sneaking up within about 20 points or so of myself with a lovely bass of 44cms.
Having popped down to himself to satisfy my curiousity whether or not the rumours were true I returned suitably chastened to pull in another counter or two myself. With 30 minutes to go, I threw some big lug baits onto the sand bar but hedged my bets with a sandeel on the bootom snood hoping for a rogue bottie. Sitting there with 15 mins or so left and given the scratchy nature of the fishing down the beach, I could be forgiven for thinking I was sitting pretty as a counting turbot did indeed grace me with its presence. I had 16 fish in total, 5 counters, my quota of 5 undersize and another 6 undersize flats that unfortunately were to count for nought, surely that was enough.....
Er No. It wasn't as it transpired. Not by a long chalk. The lads at the other end of the beach had the good fortune to witness an influx of plague proportions of school bass that for some inexplicable reason had decided for the last few minutes of the comp to set up camp in front of them. Donal Domeney and Conor Mountaine played their get out of Jail free cards to avoid blanks andfinish strongly before Kevin Barber, the git,
, decided to pull in a treble shot of bass on his last cast.I was somewhat disbelieving at the news coming off the beach, putting it down to the usual rumour and messing that seem to go hand in hand with match fishing. EVentually however, it was indeed confirmed, I had contrived to snatch defeat from the Jaws of victory with that late run of fish putting Kevin in top slot by a country mile of 100 points.
I'm not a bitter man (the double pitstop for fast food on the way home helped...
)so it has to be said, a massive well done to Kevin, a super angler who whilst new to the match scene is certain to make a few waves over the next while, watch this space. He fished his proverbials off through the hardest part of the day to poke out a fish or two here and there that would stand him in good stead if something did go his way and when the fish turned up he was better equipped than those around him to take advantage. Well done buddy.Final results were
1) Kevin Barber (Beelo)
2) Myself
3) Donal Domeney
4) JP Molloy
Well done to all who made the effort to come, it was a hard day at the office for most but enjoyable all the same. Good to meet a few new faces too.
