Tag A Ray In Tralee Bay

Every year for the past 2 years in Tralee Bay we have had a boat and shore competition called Tag A Ray. The anglers of Tralee Bay have a feeling that Tralee has their own species of Ray. So they decided to do a competition to tag as many ray as possible. If Tralee have their own species it will be the one of rarest species in the World.

It took place on what was meant to be an horrific weekend od stormy wet weather.  We arrived at Fenit pier ready to go. Without hesitation we boarded the boat. It was lovely and calm in the marina. It was also suprisingly calm at the spot, nothing like the forcast. The start of the comp was at 11:30 and we were all geared up in time for the start. Within ten minutes of dropping our lines one of our top guys (Mark) was into a fish. But nothing prepared us for what came next.

Since he was using a 3 hook rig he could land more than one fish, and guess what he had a double.
Dad managed to get them in the net.

Next to get a fish was my cousin it was her first ever Ray. We tagged it and took a sample. She dropped her line down again and within five minutes she had another one in the boat.

 Next thing I knew my friend had hooked into a fish, we tagged both Rays that were on the boat at the same time. Both fish were released. Mark who had got the first 2 fish was now into another fish and it was landed, tagged and realesed. Natsha (my cousin) was in to her third fish and by now was ecstatic on how well she had done.

 Dad then landed 4 fish to finish off the day.

The second day I was determined to catch a Ray. I had tried just about everything the first day and had missed some good bites.

The second day came and I was ready to catch a ray but after only landing four ray on the boat  and none of them mine we decided to move spots. It was calmer in the second spot and within seconds I had a bite. I missed the first 2 bites but got the fish the third time. We took a picture and realesed him. My friend got a fish straight after mIne swam away. His was slightly bigger.

Before it ended somone had landed a stinger , but I was happy it was smaller than mine  The timer was up and before I knew it we were heading back in.

The Results:       Overall Junior boat winners was as wrote
                            1st: Natasha
                            2nd:Sean
                            3rd:Me                (Outfished by a girl :o!!!!!! ) (Im used to it)

Tight lines 

Eoinangler

Co. Kerry 

Ireland

A good weekend fishing........

Have you ever imagined what it would be like to catch big, strong fish on small light rods and small hooks???  Well that's what we did at the weekend.

It was a cold, breezy day not great weather for May. We wanted to go fishing when Mom came home from work but Dad wanted to dig bait for Sundays competition so we went to our local spot for a half an hour to dig some lug worms. We got about a hundred and twenty.
 We arrived home and Mom was already getting her gear together so we started getting  ours too.
 Armed with small LRF rods and small hooks we set off.

We landed at the chosen venue and walked down the walkway. At first it seemed quiet until Dad's little reel started spinning he landed it and it was a nice wrasse.

Oisin was next to get in on the fish.

 I finally got one it was a pouting. The one that got away as it jumped out of my hands before I had cahnce to get a photo of him.

Pretty hard to catch in Kerry. But before I could photograph the fish he flopped out my hand so I dropped my line down again. We ended up being there for 2 hours and all we caught was small fish. Oisin had 6 species of fish. Dad had 4. Mom had 3 and I had 2, but we all caught plenty of fish within those species.

Oisin caught that big fish on his light gear 

 Tompot Blenny 

 Red mouthed goby, quite an unusual fish to catch 

. We went home delighted.

Sundays weather was ment to be monsoon rain and there was a Tralee bay competition. I didn't want to go  and get soaked again but mom said it would be good practice.  So I went and it was actually good  fun and I was very happy when  I came first  with 162 points beating 2nd by 20 points.

Tight lines

Eoinangler

Co Kerry

Ireland