The Kingdom, September, Days 5, 6 & 7

[alby]

People:Bootsy, Dave (From Wexford), John, Martin & Eugene


Report:
Day 5
We had spotted a potential rock mark out towards Ventry earlier in the week so we thought we would give this a look over high water. Easy access, 3 gulleys, game on! We obviously didn’t know what the fishing would be like but you can’t beat the anticipation of a new venue. I was first in the water with a float fished ragworm, about 3 seconds later the float disappeared like a plummeting stone to the tune of a good 4lb wrasse. The sport was solid after that but the fish were mostly in the 2lb bracket but fought very well under our feet. Not a sniff of a Pollock though!

This was Dave’s last day before heading off home, he likes his bass fishing, so let’s go bassing. We weren’t as confident as we arrived without the guiding hand of the lads in daylight, so we arrived at a beach with a decent enough surf on, cast our lug baits in and crossed out fingers. We needn’t have worried, straight away the 2 & 3 pounders began slacking us all around, I don’t know how many fish we had in total but Fintan had 7 bass in 6 casts including a double of 3lb’ers. Dave tipped off on the low road back to Dublin town having beaten his PB Bass 3 or 4 times over the course of a few days...”happy enough like” was all we got out of him!

Ticked off another ambition then of having a few pints in Tom Crean’s “The South Pole Inn”. A Legend of a man, numerous antarctic adventures, saved the lives of his team through incredible heroism & generally being a tough b*stard, and he eventually succumbed to a burst appendix back home. He never spoke of any of his expeditions when he returned to Anauscaul for fear of retribution for helping The British & Shakleton, but the man was a legend. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_Crean_(explorer)

The pints in his boozer are also savage. Funny story actually, two Americans walked up to the bar where we were sitting and ordered a drink, I said to them Big Tom wasn’t in today, he’d gone out hiking, “wait, but isn’t he....oh my god, wow”

Not bad for a 135 year old!

Day 6
With Dave gone, he was substituted with the one called De Cock. Friday morning saw Flat calm conditions and bright sunshine taking away our perfect conditions for bassing. While waiting for Cocker to arrive, we decided we would pop up onto a rock mark for the morning to enjoy the fine weather. Specimen wrasse, cherry popping garfish & double figure Pollock were the order of the day, amazing rock session that will stay with me for a long time. It’s already been documented.

Anyway, when telling the other fella of the bass fishing we’d experienced earlier in the week he was mad to give it a shot, we had dug some scarce lug in horrible conditions the night before so headed off to find a beach mark we had been recommended by the lads, so getting lost out past ballyferriter I proceeded to drive down a farmers track, lost my headlight from the bumper into a foot of cow sh*t, had to pop it back in knee deep in said cow sh*t and subsequently arrived at a different beach (unbeknownst to us at this stage) to fish flat calm conditions for a few half decent flounder. If anyone can tell me the beach out past ballyferriter that is a narrow cove with “Danger, No swimming signs” pls let me know.

We headed back for a coffee before heading out for a nights ray fishing when cocker said he felt rough, so he proceeded to puke his guts up for the night, the curse was continuing.

Next day he was still feeling the pinch a bit, food poisoning from a chipper in Sligo was doing it’s best to destroy the trip for the cocker, but fair play to him, he was keen on getting out and catching a few fish. We went lure fishing for bass and despite some tidy Pollock pretending to be bass we drew a blank on the silver lads. We had follows from silver submarines to our rod tip, garfish take the lures acrobatically and I lost a bass late on. This lad was proving a curse to our fishing exploits!

Day 7
Final day: A chance at redemption for the cock maybe? Well we headed back to where we had the big Pollock & wrasse on the Friday, while we did have plenty of fish, some very nice wrasse too, the mark was a little quieter but very nice to pluck a few decent fish under yer feet in sunshine. We tipped back onto our new mark on the way back and had a few decent fish again, although the woe continued for cocker as he broke his spinning rod lifting a very nice wrasse from the water.

We had caught a few mackerel the day before when lure fishing so we kept them for a go at the harbour thornbacks we hadn’t yet targeted. First cast I connected with a grand fish and enjoyed the arcing on the rod all the way in as only ray can. Another couple for meself and a couple for Fintan later, it wasn’t looking good for de c*ck as we wanted to be on the road for 6. Then his rod slowly pulled over and slacked, here we go and at last he leaned into a grand fish of about 7/8lbs....redemption, absolutely!

It was a terrific week’s fishing, there are so many varieties of fishing to do all within 20 minutes of Dingle Harbour, and the same goes for Tralee also. It all goes into a blur when down there due to lack of sleep & proliferation of Guinness, but it’s good to finally record it for posterity. But as Sea Anglers with Christmas coming up – treat yourselves to a trip to the Kingdom in the next 12 months!

[alby]

A few thornies

[alby]

Old news!

[thelegend]

cracking reports alby, all 3 of them, sounds like a ball with pints and fish dinners,you workin for the tourist board down there or a real estate firm? but well done to you all and thanks for the great read i shall be visiting next year for sure!!

[fishy1987]

Outstanding Weeks fishing Great read! catches and Pictures! it is after all the kingdom. im sure you,ll remember the week for a very long time
ferg

[croppyboy]

memories lol roll on next yr

[eyesreilly]

Great reports Alby,and badly needed here,,,,i've been saving this one for the weekend well done to all concerned There sure is a great variety of fishing down there ,,,had to cancel my trip in Sept due to unforeseen circumstances,,,,defo next year . Tom Crean would be a hero of mine ,,,must make that pilgrimage myself

[antokildare]

nice weeks fishin lads and the weather seemed to hold off too.great report alby

[lucky13]

cracker sessions...nice read too.well done lads