Munster Qualifiers

The past few months I have faced alot of challenges with my health and as a result my fishing has suffered. I had been out a few times but haven't caught very much . Im glad that I am well again and can get back to normal. 

The final leg of the Munster qualifiers was aproaching and I was looking forward to it as I was feeling much better. The day arrived it was a mild October day and I was running around frantically in search of some of my gear and I had set about  making some rigs in preparation for the weekend ahead.

We went up the day before on the Saturday,  this was  the day we had arranged to meet up with a good friend of ours. We had booked a B&B and had planned on fishing a nearby venue  the night before the comp. When we arrived at our destination we went straight to the beach where we had planned to meet another angling buddy.

We talked for about 5 minutes then decided to get set up. Our friend Mike was already fishing, he  had brought his son's one was 10 the other 7. We were about to start when Mike's oldest reeled in a small flounder.  It was great fishing and we were all catching fish. In 3 hours between 7 of us we had roughly 50 fish which was great craic.

I had a good night's sleep. Prepared for the next day. I woke early Sunday morning and me and Joe  snuck off to the local shop to get a coffee. We then drove down to take a look at the estuary. We agreed we should do a bit of fishing before the comp. We were just about to about to take the small trek through the field when the owner told us there were some dangerous bulls in there. After driving around for about an hour we said we'd go to the cafè at the promenade. While Mom Dad and our friend Joe had a coffee and a scone I had a club orange and a gluten free brownie.

We signed up for the fishing at 12 o clock and started fishing at half past 1. For the first hour I caught nothing, I was worried as the points were so close and I needed a good score to make the under 16's Munster team. I stuck at it and eventually I found the fish. I started to catch with every cast. With 8 fish to my name I threw out a bigger bait and it paid off  and I caught a small bass, with ten fish in total I knew I had done my best . Now it was time for the results , My heart was pounding and in my mind I was hoping I had done enough. It was time for the U 16's to be called out.They started calling out the names, Sean Clifford name was called and he is in my fishing club Tralee Bay so I was pleased he also made the team. I was so pleased when my name was called,  I was smiling from ear to ear.  

1. Ciaran O Neill
2. Connor
3. Sean Clifford
4. Josh Ryan 
5. Eoin Foley 

Tight

Lines

Eoin Angler

Co Kerry

Ireland

Fishing up a storm

The Summer is what many anglers look forward too..... and there is only one reason for this THE FISHING.

Sadly this Summer has been very bad weather. We've had lots of rain and wind. I've got out fishing as much as I could but it has been poor. 

 Yesterday myself and Mom went up the country,  Mom had to deliver quilts to someone in Galway so we took some rods with us as well. We didn't want to miss an opportunity to find a few more species.  It was a very windy day in Galway and a bit wet however it was not cold.

After a safe delivery we took the Wild Atlantic Way towards the Cliffs Of Moher. We drove round the Coast Road for about an hour getting out to check if it was ok to fish every once in a while. We did attempt one nice spot that we liked the look of, so we set up our gear but it was clear after the first cast it was too weedy. 

Eventually we made a decision on going to Doolin (A small Tourist Village). 

When we arrived it was nearly impossible to get out of the van because of the wind.

 Mom and I had a discussion  over whether we should fish or not. We had a little look around and fortunately there was a sheltered area just down the rocks. 

 We said we would fish for 30 minutes and we ended up fishing for 3 hours. 

Despite the wind howling over our heads we were happy to have found a safe little place. 

The fish started to take the bait straight away and ended up with nearly 20 fish between us, with a good few species. 

My first fish was a 20cm Corkwing wrasse. That followed with another Corkwing I then had a big Ballen wrasse.

 Suddenly something big took the bait and I fought it until it hit the surface. It looked to be a specimen wrasse at first. Sadly it wasn't but  it was definitely close. 

We continued to fish after that I had a few nice blenny's and some more wrasse plus a nice little Pollock. The weather deteriorated and the swelll of the water made it unsafe to continue so we called it a day and headed home. 

Tight lines
  Eoinangler 

Co Kerry 

   Ireland       

    

Species of Ireland

There are many different species of fish in Ireland here a some of the my favourite  ones. 

Bass: This hard fighting predator is a slimline fish. It is identified by its spiky pectoral fin and silvery colour. A beautiful fish and often refeered to as a bar of Silver. When you cath one you will undrstand why. I caught this beauty last December. 

Cod: This tasty fish is both a phenomenal predator and a very popular fish. It is identified by its brownish colour, big mouth and white spots. You can also get a summer cod, as in the picture here. Generally they live in Kelp, here is my Dad who caught this a couple of weeks ago 

Flounder: This fish is found almost everywhere in Ireland except for far up rivers. However this fish does travel far up estuaries where not many people wouldn't think. This year im hoping to try some new venues that I have spotted over the winter, I hope I can get a specimen. This was my first flounder of the year on Inch Beach in January 

Stingray: Being one of the biggest species of ray this fish grows to a enormous size. It is identified by its long whip like tail and is armed with a sharp barb full of deadly poison. Here is a picture of a great angler from Kerry --- Chris Osullivan with a StingRay from last year. 

Bull Huss- This has to be my new favourite and this one was almost a specimen. Im going to re visit this one - my Dad caught a specimen the same night. So watch this space..........

Tight lines

Eoin Angler

Co Kerry

Ireland

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

Sunny Tralee Bay Fishing

We started of the day by going back to Derrymore strand on this glorious spring day. We had no idea where to go when we got down there as we had never been there before. We ended up just a couple hundred yards from the first entrance. On my first cast I mounted half a crab on a size 1-0 hook. As I cast into the dark deep murky waters immediately I could feel the fish were on the way to my bait. And within 5 minutes I had a bite. It had the characteristics of a flounder. I left it for a minute before reeling it in. It was a flounder and it had swallowed the hook.

 As dad unhooked the fish I recast using the same bait. We put the fish back and I went to my rod I noticed another bite I knew what it was strait way it couldn't be mistaken. It was a bass and it put up a good fight. In the end up it turned out to be 45cm. Not my biggest but not my smallest either, he went back safe and sound.

We got nothing for about another hour after that. I set up my shimano vengeance estuary rod and cast it out. My ragworm bait tempted my first ever plaice. It was 20 cm long and fought hard on my little estuary rod. Sometimes its hard to identify small plaice from founder. A good tip is looking at the underside. if there is a herrinbone effect then its a plaice. A flounders underside is plain white

 Nothing was caught after that so we decided to pack up and go to the pier in Fenit.

We arrived and I decided to bait up for wrasse.The hot weather we've been having has drawn in plenty of different species. One of which is the wrasse this hard fighting little species is a must do on light tackle. I dropped down my gear and within minutes I had a bite and it was a perfect Corkwing Wrasse.

 We just hit the right spot and  it went on like this for about 2 hours,  non stop fish after fish. We left and went for chips and that ended our day in tralee bay.

You can now find me on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/eoinangler?ref=hl

Tight lines 

Eoin Angler

Co. Kerry 

Ireland

When the wind blows East the fish bite the least !!!!!

They say  February is the worst month for fishing. That my be so!!!! But we always hope March brings sunshine after the cold stormy winter and also many fish. 

It was the 7th of March and while Dad was off fishing The Jimmy Smith in Wexford, Mom was in charge(always a lot of fun) 

 We had planned a full weekend of fishing. On Saturday we decided Dingle would be the venue of choice. I was hoping to catch a Thornback Ray, a spectacular fish . We arrived excited and looking forward to getting on to the pier it was a good 10 minute walk down to the pier and to top it all off when we got there it was to windy to fish. We took the 10 minute walk back to the van, disappointing to say the least.

We had a drive around for a while but it was no good, the weather was against us. so we headed home, just to finish off the day we decided to go to a local unfished venue to see if we could get a couple of casts in. By now it calmed down a small bit and we decided to have just one cast. I baited my small 3 hook rig. I could barely cast out as it was still very windy but I still managed too. When it was out I decided to pull the line to give the bait a bit more action. Mom spotted the rod moving and asked if it was me messing with the line, but I had a bit of fun and said 'no it wasn't me'. Mom said 'you should bring it in'  so still messing around that is exactly what I did when I was half way through bringing it in I saw  something small and silver come to the surface. When I got it in my hand I realized it was what I think was the smallest bass ever. Measuring in at only 12 centimeters it really was my smallest bass ever. After we took some pictures we put it back.

We came home and put the bait away. 

The next Morning we made the decision of chancing another day fishing and today the weather was looking better. We ended up going to Fenit pier. The weather was sunny and there was a slight breeze I knew that today we would catch fish  after catching 1 or 2 fish I decided I'll try for a conger. With a big bait and rig set up I dropped my line in to what I thought would be where a conger would lurk, suddenly I saw my rod bend went I lifted the rod the line was stuck in a ledge, the fish had took the bait and bolted, luckily Mom got it free. We soon found out that it was a huge rockling.

As it was such a nice day we stayed on the pier for a long time, we had chance to try some rigs that we had been given by Shamrock tackle. Mum had put on a 3 hook clip down with size 2 hooks on and was pulling out rockling, so we put one on Oisins rod and he started catching too,he even got a double. In the end we all caught fantastic rockling on those rigs and we put them away safely for another day. Thanks Shamrock tackle for the rigs, we had fun using them. 

Here are some of the fish we caught including Oisin's double 

The week flew by with only dreaming of fishing and at last the weekend arrived. We got one day fishing in this weekend on Sunday we decided to fished the pier again. It wasn't to pleasant with strong easterly winds.  There is a saying when the wind blows east the fish bite the least!!!! Everyone always says it, even when we got to the pier we met a friend who said we might get one fish!!! But with a conger and a nearly 30 fish under our belt we were pretty happy with our couple of hours fishing. 

 In the end the wind cut through us and we had to go home.

More adventures coming soon.

Tight lines

Eoin Angler

Co. Kerry

Ireland

Angling expo 2015 - Dublin National show centre

 The Dublin Angling show - Feb 2015

We arrived at 10 am in the morning, and it was not too busy with only a few people around . The early start had helped a lot as we had a chance to walk around and get our bearings before it got too busy.

The show was in a large hall with lots of stalls, from water safety to all types of angling. After a little walk around we walked past the Inland Fisheries Specimen Stand. Mike Hennessy was at the stand and he introduced himself to me.I was given the specimen book, which I hope to be featured in next year. This is a link to the website, it is one of my favourite to visit.  http://irish-trophy-fish.com/

 

Mike then introduced me to a very well known journalist from UK. He writes for some of the top fishing magazines. His name is Mike Thrussell, I was very excited to meet him as I have read many of his articles. 

It took us a few hours to walk around the show, there was a seminar taking place and we decided that we might learn something interesting from it. It was held in the theater upstairs and Jim Clohessy was talking about lure fishing and the mistakes he made and that many people make. I've always been interested in lure fishing and he really inspired me to go out and get it right. I have made most of the mistakes that he talked about and was happy to learn how to do it right. I had so many questions to ask him, but I settled for just one, I wanted to know did he do much rock fishing as this is what I want to do. His fishing is mainly done by boat, but I'm going to try off the the rocks with my new knowledge.

At the end of the talk he gave me a reel and said to me ' you will need this for your rock fishing' 

I politely thanked him .

I spent the next few hours searching for the perfect rod to match my new reel. Jim had also recommended a new line called Gliss that was in between mono filament and braid . I managed to find this at South Side Angling centre who had a stand at the show. 

Time flew and it was time to go home, we had a last walk around and I had a chance to look at the rest of the stands. It was a lot of fun, It was worth visiting and good value for money. I will most certainly go again next year. If you have ever wondered if it is worth attending then I would say YES.

There was plenty to see with every type of fishing stand from coarse to sea and fly to lure. Demonstrations all day long, seminars and interesting things going on all the time. We got to see freshly hatched salmon eggs, also known as alvin. We were given goody bags and show souvenirs. I enjoyed meeting everyone and look forward to next year. I hope to see you there next year and look out for me. 

Tight lines 

Eoin Angler 

Co  Kerry 

Ireland 

My Logo

A big thank you to Olly my big brother who works at Media Manager as social media specialist, for asking his company to do this work for me. Thanks Vicki Mountjoy for giving her time and allowing her team to design this for me . Andy lynch took my idea and came up with better than I asked for. Andy Lynch is an up and coming graphic designer who captured my style in this logo. 

Hope you all like it, because I do 

My next post is about some line that I will be testing at the weekend , it has been given to me by Shamrock Tackle. 

Tight Lines 

Eoin Angler 

Co Kerry 

Ireland 

  

Jeremy Wade - My Inspiration

Jeremy Wade with a large catfish he caught in India

Jeremy John Wade is a British television presenter and author. He is known for his television series River Monsters and Jungle Hooks.
The reason I'm making a post for him is because he is my idol, I have been watching him for many years and he has inspired me to fish and to do what I do. I would love to follow in his foot steps one day and become as successful at fishing at he is.
If any of you watch his show you will understand how dedicated to what he does, overcoming fears and on occasions he fishes for months to get results. One episode he fishes for months to catch a gigantic Gooch catfish in India. If you haven't watched it then I suggest you tune in on Animal Planet to one of the most successful programmes they have shown

 Jeremy Wade with a rare Glyphis Shark

Here is a mini bio that I found about Jeremy John Wade that is an interesting read if anyone wants to know more http://www.imdb.com/name/nm3953654/bio

Here is the link to the River Monsters facebook page
https://www.facebook.com/RiverMonsters?fref=nf
 

                                                                 Tight Lines

                                                                 Eoin Angler

                                                                  Co .Kerry 

                                                                   Ireland