Re: the strangely ill-informed criticisms of the Baltimore angling festival expressed by JW.jw wrote:sean,
i have been to the baltimore angling festival, they get about 60 anglers to show up, pay
top price for a charter, stay in their accomodation, eat and drink there, also lots of sponsorship.
on their shark day for 60 anglers (late august) they do not supply even one mackeral for rubby dubby,
there is nothing as tight on the planet as a cork charter skipper!!
between 60 anglers they caught one blue shark, what a joke
i would recommend carrigaholt sea angling, the shark trip comes with a box of rubby dubby,
ive done a lot of trips with them and never blanked, blue sharks are very easy to catch
if you do the basics ( rubby dubby ), a lot of operators are in the stone age though
jw
1. Fish for rubby dubby is supplied at the competition (although JW should feel free to catch his own).
2. None of the skippers or organisers owns any accommodation, restaurant or bar so are not responsible for what they charge (though I would have thought a typical B+B price of €35 can hardly be described as ‘top dollar’).
3. There might have been a day in the past when only one shark was caught but, of course, nowhere on earth can guarantee shark every day. Six were caught in this year’s competition but the following weekend a single boat caught 25+. That’s just fishing.
4. The Baltimore festival receives very little financial sponsorship. As a matter of fact last year the event made a loss of more than 1,000 euro. The ‘top price for a charter’ presumably refers to the entry fee which was 60 euro (or less) a head, a large slice of which goes into the cash prize pool.
5. The main beneficiaries of competitions like Baltimore's are the anglers and the local community. The costs of owning and running a licensed charter boat are high and the financial rewards are slim. At competition time the workload is greater and the rewards are even slimmer as skippers provide their services at a discount. They could hardly be less ‘tight’.
6. JW states there were 60 anglers out shark fishing that day. There has never been a shark fishing competition at Baltimore with anything remotely like 60 anglers taking part.
One has to wonder about the motive for this bizarre attack.