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Had a wee run down the coast (500 miles) on Tuesday 18th. My mate John and I, headed down to Bantray Bay area right on the SW tip of Ireland. We had done quite a bit of research and to the best of our knowledge had every bit of info available - which is not much!!!
We stayed with Paul & Anne Harris, Paul was featured in Sea Angler mag - fishing with Henry Gilbey and co. Paul & Anne run a first class guest house - their service, hospitality and food were second to none - a big thanks to them for making us so welcome and really going the extra mile for us.
Unfortunately the fishing was not great to say the least. The Irish tourist board has made an effort to try and attract anglers to the area by publishing maps and marking sea angling sites with huge picture boards with the \"available species\". Just to note, with regards to the maps, sea angling sites, reports etc - read between the lines as we should have done. Lots of bold statements on the reports - \"bass available to lures\", \"lots of Pollock\", \"usual bottom feeding species\", \"no reports as yet but usual bottom fishing methods should produce huss, conger, wrasse, pollock.....\". Has anyone ever made the effort to fish the so called marks or was it made from the comfort of an office from assumptions and hopes????
We gambled on the Bantray Bay area over the Shannon due to the very attractive description of the marks and the promise of virgin waters that had never seen a rod. I have real issues with the tourist board regarding the publication of their sea fishing map.....to be honest all they have done is marked an area as a fishing site as it has a place to park your car - which is rare. I very much doubt if any research has ever been done and most of the information is way off. The roads are a nightmare single track and very bumpy - I must have shaved a good bit off the underside of my passat, access to marks is the single biggest problem - just no where to stop.
However..........we did manage a few fish mostly on the first day. We had
Conger, Huss, Pollock, Mackerel, doggies, Pout and Wrasse. We did catch every day of the 5 days we fished, just not in the numbers we expected. Some pics of our hard work below:
A nice Pollock I took on a jelly worm.
A nice huss for my mate John.
A conger that did not ever register a bite for John.
A pollock that took a huss bait.
A nice first cuckoo wrasse for me.
We did have a few fish but we fished all day into early evening and covered a lot of ground - which also explains the lack of photos as we often split up trying to find some fish.....not what we expected. Even doggies were thin on the ground, the only species that could be relied upon was the humble mackerel. So if I never catch another mackerel ever again - at least they were there to keep us entertained through the long periods on inactivity.
Should have went to SW Scotland me thinks........at least my reversing is vastly improved due to the time I spent backing up to try and find a passing place. So a fortune spent, halfed the life of my car, totaly knackered and all for a few fish...
Was it all worth it? Draw your own conclusions...........
Don\'t think I will be back in a hurry, sometimes the grass is not greener. I now have a much higher appreciation for the fantastic fishing available in my own country.
[Edited on 25/7/2006 by fifer]
[Edited on 25/7/2006 by fifer]
We stayed with Paul & Anne Harris, Paul was featured in Sea Angler mag - fishing with Henry Gilbey and co. Paul & Anne run a first class guest house - their service, hospitality and food were second to none - a big thanks to them for making us so welcome and really going the extra mile for us.
Unfortunately the fishing was not great to say the least. The Irish tourist board has made an effort to try and attract anglers to the area by publishing maps and marking sea angling sites with huge picture boards with the \"available species\". Just to note, with regards to the maps, sea angling sites, reports etc - read between the lines as we should have done. Lots of bold statements on the reports - \"bass available to lures\", \"lots of Pollock\", \"usual bottom feeding species\", \"no reports as yet but usual bottom fishing methods should produce huss, conger, wrasse, pollock.....\". Has anyone ever made the effort to fish the so called marks or was it made from the comfort of an office from assumptions and hopes????
We gambled on the Bantray Bay area over the Shannon due to the very attractive description of the marks and the promise of virgin waters that had never seen a rod. I have real issues with the tourist board regarding the publication of their sea fishing map.....to be honest all they have done is marked an area as a fishing site as it has a place to park your car - which is rare. I very much doubt if any research has ever been done and most of the information is way off. The roads are a nightmare single track and very bumpy - I must have shaved a good bit off the underside of my passat, access to marks is the single biggest problem - just no where to stop.
However..........we did manage a few fish mostly on the first day. We had
Conger, Huss, Pollock, Mackerel, doggies, Pout and Wrasse. We did catch every day of the 5 days we fished, just not in the numbers we expected. Some pics of our hard work below:
A nice Pollock I took on a jelly worm.
A nice huss for my mate John.
A conger that did not ever register a bite for John.
A pollock that took a huss bait.
A nice first cuckoo wrasse for me.
We did have a few fish but we fished all day into early evening and covered a lot of ground - which also explains the lack of photos as we often split up trying to find some fish.....not what we expected. Even doggies were thin on the ground, the only species that could be relied upon was the humble mackerel. So if I never catch another mackerel ever again - at least they were there to keep us entertained through the long periods on inactivity.
Should have went to SW Scotland me thinks........at least my reversing is vastly improved due to the time I spent backing up to try and find a passing place. So a fortune spent, halfed the life of my car, totaly knackered and all for a few fish...
Was it all worth it? Draw your own conclusions...........
Don\'t think I will be back in a hurry, sometimes the grass is not greener. I now have a much higher appreciation for the fantastic fishing available in my own country.
[Edited on 25/7/2006 by fifer]
[Edited on 25/7/2006 by fifer]
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