Duration:3.00-8.00
Tide:Right to the top and half an hour of the drop.
Weather:Wonderfully Windy as is the tradition with most SAI comps
Bait:Fresh Lug, Crab, All manner of frozen stuff.
Rigs:Various
Results:Coalies, Cod, A bass.
Catch and Release:: Yes
Report:
And so, It was a smaller group than originally expected that gathered to fish the final leg of the SAI master angler series. This left Mac and Seaniebo to fight it out with things going to be way too close to call. It seems to be a tradition in recent history that every SAI comp/meet has to be accompanied by a howling gale and today was no different! We were fishing at the very far end of Tramore beach which entailed a long walk for most and a trip cross country in the 4x4 laden with about 4 batches of tackle. Having left my tripod at home, a disaster was narrowly averted following a quick phonecall by Coaster to the local tackle shop.
Sea conditions looked perfect, fishing a flooding tide with a beautiful surf running, 5/6 tables of it. The area we were fishing looked fairly interesting too with some small gulleys and trenches in front of us which were to prove important later on.
After having a bait crisis with the local tackle shop letting me down despite ordering a week ago.....
I had stocked up with a range of frozen lug, razor, mack and sandeel. Mac also managed to obtain some fresh lug and a half dozen peelers for me too so I was all set. Fresh in my memory from the recent Munster open however was that the 2 fish I caught hit frozen mack strip with the best of fresh bait being ignored.......again, this was to prove important... 
We tackled up, in the teeth of a howling SW wind that swung from right to left to full in your face on occasion. The Triplex was going to remain in the rod bag and I instead opted for the shorter more powerful Sidewinder. I opted to begin with single large crab or razor baits horsed out as far as I could into the wind on a single hook clip down in the hope of a rogue marauding bass. Poor old Mac had a nightmare of a start with his phone hopping, his tripod falling over, hitting a snag and breaking out and worst of all, a dog pissing over his tackle box not once but twice......
Poor lad, all within the first 20 mins or so.....! Seaniebo wasn't having it all his own way either with the wind spreading the majority of his bait across a large expanse of the beach on occasion. Oh how I chuckled... 
Mac in particular being pegged beside me also had to contend with me constantly in his ear...he he Colin AKA Kleeneze was the first into a fish, a counting coalie of 34cm I think it was after about an hour or so. Some time later he followed it up with another. It was time for a change of tactics.....
Memories of the Munster open had me tying up some serious rigs, 2up 1 down, I was using 40lb fluoro body, with 2-3 foot snoods of 10lb fluoro culminating in a very fine wire blue size 4 Owner crab hook. I had tied these with the intention of tackling small stuff in the suds during daylight. The rigs themselves were 10 foot long. I baited these with an inch of black lug and a small fine thin strip of sandeel fillet or mackerel belly strip. We were retreating off the beach at this stage and onto the shingle bank. Directly in front of me was a trench about 3 feet wide and maybe 8 inches deep that ran along the edge of the shingle bank. I had earmarked this on arrival and once we were on the bank, I popped my rig across the gully and retreated to the top of the bank and noted how much line it took. I was using a tapered shock of 43ft and it needed about the same again to be in the trench.
First cast out and lo I was into a fish, a small non counting coalie of 19 cm. Not much I know but a start anyway. Next 2 casts with the "Super rig" and 2 coalies were on the board....
Time to start putting Colin under pressure....! Next into a fish was Colin who was never going to lie down with another coalie. Mac put himself in pole position for the master angler with maybe 2 hours left with one himself....the gloves were off and the fight was on..... It was with about 2 hours or so to go with the sea well into the little trench I had earmarked that I began hitting into fish. I was just lobbing the baits out and as soon as the shockleader knot was off the spool was starting to slowly brake it into the water dropping it (hopefully) across the gulley. In the space of an hour I had a further 3 counting coalies with a major surprise.....
Fishing at my feet I had a cracking bite that nearly pulled the tripod over! It was screaming Bass at me, with a decent scrap following with the fish hammering up and down the edge of the shingle bank and doing its level best in the surf to get away..... It was with considerable surprise that I landed a 46cm Cod with my tiny size 4 nicely tucked into the scissors! It promptly vomited up a 15cm 3 bearded rockling....Super stuff indeed!Now, spare a thought for poor old Kev who was fishing his socks off in pursuit of the Master angler. Not enough to have me running across the shingle to him waving fish after fish at him but Seaniebo fishing the other side had a coalie himself, 1cm bigger than Macs..... There was 30 minutes to go in the master angler series and they were seperated by a single cm
Having built up a considerable lead and with most peoples attention looking towards the biggest fish pool, I ditched the scratching rig and horsed out a large bait in the hope of a bigger cod or bass. With less than a half hour to go Seanie pulled out a Cod. 10-15 minutes later he had me scrambling again for my scratching rig with a double shot of a codling and the only bass of the day, a nice little fella of 39cm or so bristling with indignation. With 20 points per species and with 3 to my 2, Seanie was eating well into my lead and wasn't going to let me have things my own way. It was a somewhat nervy last 15 minutes for myself as I couldnt land another counter, I had a small codling of 20cm but that was it for us all on the fish front.
I was delighted, with on totting up cards to have won with 315 points to Seanies 267, closer than anticipated at the finish. With his second place Seanie took the club master angler title and will fish the masters next year. Well done Seanie. Hard lines Kev, it was not your day unfortunately but a good close fight to the finish all the same, well done on your second place.
As with every trip, I learned something. Dont be afraid of really scaling your tackle down, dont be afraid of fishing at your feet, if you see a feature you think may hold fish mark it and hit it and finally, dont be afraid or turn your nose up at frozen baits.
It is of course traditional on weekends away such as this to round things off with a few(ahem...
) Pints. We met up in the Sands and were joined by Crab gatherer extraordinaire Donal Domeney who had been fishing the Munster Closed..... SteveCrow and Nige also joined us. Numerous pints and much putting the world to rights was done into the early hours A damn good nights craic as ever We met up with similar pounding heads the following morning and headed to a nearby mark to fish for cod. Many thanks to Donal for the bait BTW, greatly appreciated. Myself, Seanie, Nige, Mac and Steve had a fish on the muddy banks of the river. When I left them at maybe 2.30 there were 4 fish caught, 2 for me and 1 apiece for Seanie and Mac. I could have done with a good hose down on the way back such was the amount of mud!
And thats the end of that for another year, thoroughly enjoyed them all (well apart from Poulnasherry that is...) Its been good craic and its good to see 2 lads fighting it out on the final day too. Fair play to the lads who have turned up at these comps as associates and guests, the likes of Kleeneze and Mick, Steve and Nige too. Some good fishing, some good craic and I'm looking forward to doing it all again next year.
