Crew: Myself and Kev (& Sean)
Duration: 2 Days
Tide: All Stages
Weather: North Westerlies on Thursday turning Southerly on Friday force 4 – 5 easing to force 2-3
Bait: Macko, Squid, Sandeel
Rigs: Everything
Results: Very Good! – fine selection of species as to be expected from Brandon
Report: Myself and Kev had been tormented for the past few weeks trying to get a window to shoot off to either Cork or Kerry. We had a few close calls but none of them made sense at the last minute as it may have only meant a half days fishing or possibly none at all! On Wednesday we made the call to go. Gear packed, boat hitched up and a call into Sean to inform him that we were finally on the way!
It took a mere 4 hours to get to Sean’s impressive and spacious holiday home in Firies. It was clear Sean had Anglers in mind when he selected this house. Located within 20-25 minutes of numerous launching marks such as Anascul, Dingle, Scraganne & Brandon it certainly offers the small boat angler numerous options when making the call where to go each morning, not to mention the big driveway and garden that is big enough for all small sized boats. After a quick meeting in the morning at Sean’s house we headed off over to Scraganne to launch at the new slip there. Launching at Brandon can be a pain at times as usually the slip is littered with old Curragh’s and peoples unwanted trailers, let alone the number of tourists parked everywhere and anywhere. The new slip at Scraganne is sheltered and spacious and there is ample parking, unlike Brandon!
We decided to get straight into it some Rod bending action and no better place to bash big Pollock in numbers than the reefs off Brandon bay. Instantly we were into double and treble shots of good Pollock. Our arms quickly tired and we decided to anchor up for a couple of Spurs, thinking that we could relax for a while… what a stupid idea that was. Within two minutes of the first bait going down we were into them. For 90 minutes we had non stop action with a number of the fish breaking the double figure mark
It was amazing to see 3 or 4 other Spurs following the hooked Spur to the boat. It was though they were attacking the line to free their mate! Big or small none of the fish had a problem cutting through 150lb mono
This time we needed a real break as we were genuinely exhausted from 4 hours of non stop action. We followed Sean in under the head and got into plenty of species as is to be expected from Brandon head. It’s a spot you could never get bored of.
Day 2 followed a similar pattern to day one, however we venture further up around Brandon head to try some new marks, all of which proved worthwhile.
After the two days Kev and I wondered what hurt more, our stomach muscles from the non stop slaging and crack or our arms from the couple of mayhem Spur and Pollock sessions.
Sitting in the pub later that night with Colm and Sean it was clear to see why Sean had settled in the idyllic setting of Firies, Killarney. To have that class of fishing on your doorstop is something special and the lads know it! All in all a fabulous stint to the glorious Kingdom, albeit brief, but bloody worthwhile.
Thanks again to Sean for the hospitality and crack. For all fellow small boat anglers I would highly recommend it.
Gigabyte and Thresher head off from Scraganne.
Not 10 minutes into the Spur bashing and a sizeable double figure Spur comes aboard
Kev has a fish a double shot on but as you can make out their mates are attempting to rescue them!
Show off!
Ahh the Kingdom
Sean shoots off to another mark
And for good reason….
Finishing off the day under Brandon head – it still amazes me how many species reside there – however Sean seemed to prefer Macko bashing
