Duration:4pm to 9pm
Tide:Rising
Weather:Peachy.... Shirt sleeves until darkness.
Bait:Various, Maddies, Whites, Lug, Sandeel, mack for me.
Rigs:Various
Results: 15 Flounder and 33 Coalies to size, numerous undersize fish and a nice sea trout for Alby.
Catch and Release:: Yes
Report:
Heading for the hills can be deemed as a bad thing, when those there hills are in Donegal however, thats an entirely different story.... It was time once again for the locals to prepare the hotels, peel the spuds and bulk buy the booze. The beaches, the B and Bs, the barmen and the Weemin were in for a surprise, the SAI posse were rolling into town.......
Buncrana was the base and Dunree the venue. Not your usual competition venue it has to be said but a nice change all the same. A beautiful little spot flanked either side by hills and with the imposing Fort Dunree sternly surveying all before it, its guns long since silent but still pointing menacingly out to sea to repel any would be invaders.
The beach was selected, at a time when, if someone suggested that 20ish people would travel to the most northerly county for an MA comp it would have been greeted with considerable surprise. It was a relief then that thanks to some judicious pegging by Sean and JP we managed to comfortably accomodate everyone on the mark. The venue had fished well considering the time of year in a couple of visits made by SAI members in the very recent past so hopes were high of a decent number of fish showing.
Nursing the traditional pre-comp hangover (training of course for the main event that night you see...) I drew peg 13. It was comforting at check in that there was more than myself in that state not to mention any names of course (JP and Seanie....)
With the number of features present on the beach, including 2 streams and some gullys, the venue was going to be very peggy in daylight. This indeed proved to be the case. Fishing was disappointingly very slow for the first few hours. Allistair however got off to a flier, pegged on(/in....) one of the streams, pulling out a nice flounder fairly sharpish. This was to follow soon after by a nice fish of 36cm. 2 fish in successive casts witht he rest of the beach yet to score. It wasnt long however before Mac added a flounder of his own, to be followed by one for myself and another to Allistair. Pegs 13, 14 and 15 had the fish and there was nothing happening elsewhere. Alby had a nice sea trout of 32cm which unfortunately didnt count.
However, as darkness was falling, from around 250-300 yards away it was plain to see that Steve was making a charge himself when after an inordinately long walk up and down the beach on his as he winched in a lovely double shot of flounder from his peg at the far eastern end of the beach. Was all that abuse I gave Steve over my 1cm victory in Lettergesh over him going to come back to haunt me....??? Indeed it was as 2 flatties over the 30cm hit his card.....
With the onset of darkness, the fishing for the most part really switched on. The pushing tide and fading light brought in the matchmans saviours, good old coalies. Kev and Allistair to my left and Mick to my right really began getting stuck in. I managed another flounder and reached for the 3 hook flappers and the grip lead to go after the coalies.
It is at this point, with fish being thrust in front of me to measure from all angles that for my case, the wheels came off. I couldnt buy a coalie. A read through my blog will reveal that I am indeed King coalie. Not on Saturday I wasnt. Memories of racking up 20-30 in an hour on various beaches over the past couple of months were sadly to remain that way. The fish were flying in and with chopping and changing tactics in sheer desperation to try and get amongst them, any chance I had of competing went out the window.... Naivety indeed. Should have just stuck with the 3 hooks in close and left it at that. Hindsight is a wonderful thing....
It was with considerable disappointment and annoyance I made the walk at the end back to the car to gather up the cards.The flurry of coalies in the final hour meant that trying to keep track of how things were going on the scoring front was nigh on impossible. It could have gone anywhere. At the end it was indeed a damn close fight at the top.
The final results after counting were as follows.
1st Allistair Leong (alistair) 262
2nd JP Molloy (Rampent Wreckfish) 260
3rd Kevin McClean (Mac) 211
4th Jonathan Dukes (teacher) 207
Longest Flat Allistair 36cm Flounder
Longest Round Marco 25cm Coalie.
At this point, I must publicly apologise for missing out Kevs card when counting up and prior to the presentations. A total accident and daft considering I fished next to him all day too. Very sorry mate and thanks for taking it as well as you did.
That was the way it ended, and only 2 blanks on the beach for the day which made a nice change too. With the formalities (and apologies...
) out of the way it was time to really get down to business. The Lake of Shadows hotel was abandoned as the majority of us headed for the bright lights of Buncrana Main street. Its always interesting and gladdening to see how well a large bunch of blokes who have either never met or barely know each other can get on. Beer, Fishing and talking to Weemin have bonding powers which know no bounds! The craic was ninety and it took a JP special (ooer...) to clear the bar (anyone there knows what I mean!) and get the posse on the move and down to the local Night Club for the next phase.Much educated conversation and discussion then took place. Mostly it has to be said about the chassis and build quality of the passing throngs of weemin. Mostly it has to be said complimentary
. All this was well and good but no weekend with SAI would be complete without at least some semblance of fossil hunting..... Looking at the young and beautiful was becoming boring so down to the Lake of Shadows it was for a small group of us and the discussion and debate began with the doorman. After getting past him we then had to bypass the bouncers and it was with a large amount of joy we made it past the lot and into the nightclub. Its a brave or foolhardy man indeed who stands between SAI members and a nightclub door..... The craic continued with copious amounts of Vodka and Red Bull replacing unwieldy pints before all too soon it was over and the residents bar beckoned. A hardcore half dozen or so of us wound the evening down with another pint or two. As the big hand hit 12 and the little hand hit 6 it was time to call it a night and hit the hay.
Rudely awakened by an astonishingly cheerful (and loud) phonecall from JP the day, it was decided, was to be spent fishing at a mark a few miles up the coast at Leenan pier. As the bags were being loaded in the carpark, white faces and red eyes appeared at regular intervals as other suffering members put in an appearance. Some people had been brave enough to try that extreme activity known locally as Chip Van Diving. This is where, with considerable alcohol consumed you fight your way through large numbers of suitably inebriated individuals for the right to get food poisoning..... Not a sport for the faint hearted of weak stomached and the pain was evident on one or two faces.
Leenan pier is where myself, JP and Seanie spent the day. 2 flounder to JP, a fish which looked like a thornie but was way too small
for Seanie and a big fat blank for me was the order of the day. The crack was good however and I may have blanked but without a doubt took the Top Farter title 
.And so it ended and with a long drive home with the Orkney on tow we parted company. A cracking weekend it has to be said. Great to see the turnout and great to see everyone enjoying themselves afterwards too. I hope we make it back to Donegal next year, it was well worth the visit.
which meant a very long walk for me... i had the last/furthest peg of the comp.. with roadrunner fishing beside me (but not fishing the comp)..
