Duration: 5 days
Tide: end of spring
Weather:dd mostly storm force 10 gales and torrential rain
Bait: all sorts
dd
Rigs: all sorts
Results: bass, thornbacks, flounder and conger
Report: Report is a few weeks old as i had lost the cable to my camera and only found it again this week. I had the cottage booked and was looking forward to the trip so it was with some trepidation that i watched the weather deteriorate towards the date of the planned trip. By the Friday night of departure it was pretty much certain that the following week in the SW was to be pretty terrible. As it turned out i had gales for pretty much the whole time reaching storm force 10 and torrential rain with some local towns under water. I think Kenmare was the worst hit.
I had planned to base myself at Inch but to fish up into Limerick and down ito Cork but the weather changed most of the plans.
First fishing was the Sunday and one of the worst days with SW storm force 10 so headed up onto the Shannon in search of some shelter, fished several hours over low water for 3 ray at 8, 7 and 6.5 lb and a small conger of about 8-10 so not a bad start. All fish fell to frozen mack.
Monday SW gales. 1 hour down and 3 up. Wind has eased slightly so tried a beach mark up in Tralee bay in the hope of a painted ray. No painted but a couple of schoolies and a few flounder to near 2 lb all on king rag.
Tuesday SW gales. 2 hours down and 2 up. Everytime i'm down here i plan a trip out to the end of inch strand so with the SW gales persisting and heavy showers decided today was as good as any. So i walked to the end and fished several marks around the point and just round the back which was sheltered. I then fished several spots on the walk back and didn't get a bite all day. After a quick bite i finished the day of with a night session on a mark up in Tralee bay and again nothing. So a fishless day.
Wednesday: SW gales 4 hours up. Back to Tralee bay in search of a painted but only fish today was a single flounder which managed to take a double sandeel. Nice spotted fish.
Thursday: SW gales. This was to be my last day as although i had planned to stay to Sunday the weather for the weekend was to get much worse (back to force 10) so saved a few brownie points and headed home early. As it was it turned into a disaster. Drove 50 odd miles to a mark i had wanted to try to find with all the bag changing i had managed to leave my reels in the cottage. You can imaginge how happy i was when i discovered this on the beach. Disappointing last day but i love fishing the area and next trip is planned for January.
Heres a few photos and the last is the beach without reels. It looked perfect.
