times are a changing

this is gonna be sour, crudely written and god damn awful although im not in the mood for caring to be honest...

fuck me blind, its been sometime since ive used this yoke son. this time the fishing will take back seat and what will ensue will be known as a rant. yes sir, a good oul rant. a bitch about something that truly gets on your tits is the best tonic to cure oneself, thats for sure.

so what has pissed me off this month. what sinister acts can wind a happy go lucky 21 year old i hear you ask? a certain internet forum thats what! now your probably going; 'how childish, just get on with it you stupid narcy immature cunt'. but fuck it i want to, it makes me feel happy and i know im not alone in my opinion. thats for sure.

so how bout a bit of history to my to the source for this particular gripe. once upon a time in celtic tiger narnia sprouted a fabulous internet forum dedicated to sea angling. this site was a great source of information to budding newbies and experienced sea dogs alike. what could go wrong? fast forward to 2010 and yours truley has become a regular poster. so much so ive grown a pair of keyboard balls and take great enjoyment in the art of arguing for the sake of arguing. winding someone up for the sake of it is fabulous, it cant be denied by even the most holy of citizens.

but then again thats not really what all this is about. for the most part this about them being wrong and me being right! when i see so much shit being posted up by the same shower of fucking dicks with about as much angling abilty as a legless heron i get pissed off because they protray themselves to be something their not. you are not a good angler, i do not respect you and to people who know what they're talking about you come accross as a right gobshite.

my actions now mean every post i put up has to be looked at by a mod in advance before it is publicly viewable. ah balls! and so my fun has ended.


im going to stop now before i really go beyond the point of no return. il take my pills and become normal again i swear.

big fish,little fish, cardboard box!

this is the tale of my first roving comp. our club decdied to fish a big fish comp, so longest round and longest flat won. simples!

People: 13 unsatisfied anglers, 2 very content anglers

Duration: 7-11

Tide: ????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????its wexford, care to take i guess, cause im all out of ideas

Weather: ughhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh bit like the irish government during the late celtic tiger era, seemed rosy enough and then the sh!t hit the fan.

Bait: a multitude

Rigs: flappers and that kinda shtuff,

Results: lets keep shtum yeah!




Report:


so it was roger buggy's big fish comp, and since laytown is about as hit and miss as my toilet skills we decided to fish old bawn. after a breif pit stop in kilmuckridge after the sai comp (which taught me that a match is won and lost when an army of shoolie Bass park themselves infront of your neighbour's pegs on the last few casts) in tinnebearna we made route for those lovely wind mills.

the beach did at first seem beautifull, if not a little vast and lonely. but hey the surf was running and it was Bass we were after what more could we want? getting to the beach around 7, i barely had time to bait up, get my card and get organised before rogers whistle went off. i tossed out the most half assed rig ive ever used in match, im ashamed. reused bait from the other comp, knots on the snoods, bend hooks from flounder etc... the most important task took precendence unfortunatley, and that was easting my chips and chicken fillet burger!

with the job over i went back to taking the comp seriously. while most lads went with the 4/0 big bait 2 rods theory. i opted to fish size 4 in a big comp, small baits and a light fixed spool set up. avant garde!! within 3 casts i had managed a lovely little turbot of 19cm and while not in its always a delight to seem them.the next three casts came back in as the went out but the following casts yielded a double flounder, 22cm each. it was obvious now i was shlick dog and my plan was working a treat.


then next few hours went by, the rain came in, the wind increased and with this the fishing died. only dfella, jonh1 and carl whelan had managed a fish. carl however landed a 40cm which put him in a clear lead for the ngest round. i was narrowly holding on with a 22 cm flounder, which is kinda sad in BIG FISH comp. 11 bells couldnt come soooner to be honest, packed up i made my way back to the car park, where the news that john had a 22 cm flounder too revieled itself. 'fair enough we'l share the pool' ; i muttered to myself. with everyone back and ready to go, two headlights emerged from the dunes and it was harry and harold, and harold had only gone and bagged himself a 26cm flounder and 45cm Bass WTF like? at which point samo decided it would be a good time to mention he caught a 30cm flounder.

this video is fuckin ace! if only this could be played at a comp with a loud PA system for all to hear.


http://youtube.com/watch?v=GgzS18Vktm0

to trout or not to trout!

well what can i say sir! i caught a sea trout, the most lucky and unexpected catch of my lifetime. theres only one way to target sea trout and thats with a modified and improvised rig while trageting flatfish using lug and mac. its also important to note that while fishing with a slack line you will never see a bite, even from a 3lb sea trout.

the inter provincial irish team trials

People: 34 competitors

Duration: saturday to sunday

Tide: varied

Weather: absolutley phenomal, like summer it was

Bait: sandeel, mac, maddies, rag, lug and wraps on my part

Rigs: varied

Results: thornbacks, dogs, coalies, turbot, flounder and rockling.




Report:
the preparation for this comp was pretty dedicated i have to say, with a week to go i made it my goal to get all my rigs tied and service all the reels, this of course was time consuming but was easily manageable unlike trying to collect bait. after managing to succsefully destroy 300 or 400 of richard gormley's nicest kerry maddies, wednesday evening after college saw myself and fellow team member paul whelan dig bait on some fairly barron spots to say the least, masterkeane popped down to lend a had too only to see our maddie spot from last year which produced some great worms and fair numbers too was vaccant, not too worry. a change to the lug beds was in order and this proved no better, 1 hour of digging saw 180 lug in the bucket, of which size im not going to say. so fresh bait was pretty elusive for a man with no car. a visit to the local tackle shop saw me load up with some frozen ammo mac and sandeels and 80 precious lug of decent size, i had a few packets of wraps in the freezer and luckily mick o'sullivan offered me a few packs of his sandeels which were perfect size for flats, so in conclusion if connacht fish had decided they wern't into frozen bait that weekend i was royaly ...

friday evening saw team leinster leave for connemara, a pit stop in athlone was made it has to be said, thank god for subway. that new road is fantastic, we were in galway in no time but the road to ciffden is as slow as always. an endless amount of bog, lakes, sheep and more lakes kept us company for over an hour when out of nowhere sprouted this town, a random piece of construction if ever i saw one. after checking in to the hotel, a fast shower ensued and it was off to the bar.

the meeting and peg draw kicked off around nine confirming the venues as gurteen, renvyle and lettergesh. the draw left me with pegs 19, 26 and 26, nothing too inspiring there. team leinster headed back up to the rooms and got some traces tied and discussed tactics for the first session on gurteen.

after a dodgy breakfast of under cooked pudding, cold bacon and wierd sausages, which i refrained from, i settled for a bowl of fruit, we departed for gurteen. on arrival to the beach it looked beautifull, flat calm, sunny with a gentle breezer coming off our backs, all the components for a tough day at the office sadly, some cloud cover would have been the icing. i was pegged between stephen o'sullivan and dean q'uigley, this wasnt going to be easy. it was obvious everyone had intentions of giniging baits out over the eel grass beds and i was no exception. i opted with a two hook up clipped down, size 2 kamasans and a flier in close with a size 4 kamasan. with an hour gone only a small flounder had come in off the beach, i was busy talking away to chris feeney and mick curtin when all of a sudden i saw a gentle pull down on my rod tip. i looked like the tell tell signs of a thornie, i decided to leave it be for a few minutes. with my back turnt while baiting a new trace i turnt back around to see my ine had gone slack. i gentley reeled into a bit of weight which was pulling back, surely this wasnt a piece of weed! i kept it coming and sure enoug a dark shadow emerged from the surf, damn it really looked like a piece of weed or the sister of the sock paul whelan reeled in earlier. thankfully though when the wave receeded a perfectly formed thorny lay beached. straight into the bucket and out went another trace. 37cm she measured, i was off the mark and on the most difficult expected session of the weekend thank .... on the very same cast dean landed a dog and stephen landed a small flounder on the flier, so it woud appear a few fish were moving. sadly it was not the case, that was it for the most part, a few more fish tricked in with warren brown and ger doran both taking a ray each and a few good flounder too popped up for a few of the other lads. work still needed to be done, i wanted a good showing. the flier started to prove its worth with both ger and dean getting a flounder on them. surely not! eventually my flier proved dividence with a 20cm specimen coming in with an hour to go on straight mac. the little beauty gave me first place by the narrowist of margins, 1cm. at lines up, only 9 of the 18 competititors in the under 21's category caught fish, even worse only 2 out of the 16's weighed in. it was tough going.


after a brief pit stop and an infamous well done rare steak in cliffden we departed for the stony beach in renvyle for session 2, i had done well but needed to keep it going. the beach was steep enough and screamed mixed ground, it was obvious it was going to be a doggie bash of sorts. i opted to fish a three hook clip down at distance with sandeel and mac baits. a few fish came in in daylight including a couple of nice ray for warren, ger and paul. the beach was effectivly split into two zones, every where from peg 29 upwards seemed to be horsing fish inwith everyone else really having to work for them. i started off missing two solid doggie bites in two casts, god were they finicky. i eventully broke my duck on the following casting landing one. it was really what i needed to get my head up, next cast saw me land another and the cast after that i missed another bite. it was the same for everyone, dogs were being dropped and missed left right and centre. lack off bites over slack water and the sign of the odd rockling coming in saw me change tactics. i opted to fish a three hook flapper with lug and mac baits in the gutter, i was rewarded with a treble, sadly only two fish made the rule, a little coalie and a good rockling. the dogs seemed to have returned and i need high scoring fish so despite knowing i probably could have scratched a few more rockas out of it i went after wow wows again. sure enough the next cast had me into another dog, i caught his little eyes with the headlamp as he cames toward the beach, about 1 foot from the sand he turnt around and swam off, it was gut wrenchin. last cast saw me land my final fish another dog. that one measily dogfish would have pushed me right up the zone placings and would have led to a much less stressful next day. i finshed 10th in the zone which was not a disaster but wasnt great, despite having a higher fish count than other high scoring rays and dogs pushed me down the list. with socres totted up i was third overall going into the next day with it all to play for, it was exceptionaly close to call with anyone from 9th to 1st in the mix.

[IMG]http://i981.photobucket.com/albums/ae293/eric11989/26283_381729203757_511793757_362650.jpg[/IMG]


session three saw us on a flat calm lettergesh, as nice as it looked, fishy it didnt. everyone was after flatties here, so at kick off we all lobbed our baits into the reminants of whatever surf there was. after the first cast most of the competitors were rewarded with flatties, ger doran to the right of me pulled a double in and paul whelan to the left of me mirrored this. the tied continued to ebb and with it the fishing died off , i had missed my window and blanked. chris feeney did the unimaginable and pulled a dog from a mound of kelp about 60 yards out and warren brown was still adding to his fish count. i waited and waited for the tide to kick back in, but it was proving to be an eternity, i knew with the beginnings of a rising tide the fish would start moving around and feeding again. with less than half an hour to go the tide began to flood and after recieving some advice from the manager i fished three small sandeel baits in the surf and puled a beautifull little turbot, i was so pleased to see him, i had waited 3 and half hour for this, the next cast i caught its identicle twin and got my fish count to two, which put me 9th in the zone, not great but i might have been enough.

the closest of finishes left me and paul whelan tied for 5th spot and the final spot on the team. tied on points it was a true tie breaker, my 1st place on gurteen gave me the edge however and when my name was called out i was ecstatic.

i'd like to thank peter flahive as well for driving us around and getting all the hard work done doing the scores up in the dead of night when he should have been eating.

past week or so

its been a pretty boring few weeks, but hecticly boring if you get me. suppose i should start with the last comp i fished which was the 2nd leg of this years leinster league. this was fished on kilgorman, clones and toberpatrick. a slight south easterly gave the sea an invinting chop and colour but the fishing prooved disasterous. the bigger hitters really took advantage of the fact the fish were hanging around a sand bar 130/140 yards out. the eventual zone winner on my beach, richard gormley took 7 flats (flounders and dabs) taking full advantage of this with his impressinve casting . i battled on to secure 2 fish which was pretty disapointing. onwards and upwards they say . managed a few more sessions since around wicklow and wexford taking a few bass, coalies, flats, rockling and codling. nothing of any real significance. the fishing on the whole has been dire in the last month but hopefully the beginning of april will see things right. the spotties and bass usually come in before heading of to spawn so im still living in hope.

not forgetting im off to connacht at the end of this month to fish the irish youth fish off to try and gain a spot on the under 21 home international team. not feeling to confindent considering my recent run of form but il do my best. loads of bait and traces to sort, not to mention all the course work i have to get off my chest.

the first stepping stone

A failed friend, a failed scholar and a soon to be failed angler. why did i set up a blog? not really sure to be honest, it certainly seems to be in vogue, if all the cool kids are doing it, so should i. I wouldnt want to be left behind. here i hope to bring you the antics of my friends and my own travels fishing around the republic. maybe a few pictures too!

A little bit about me.
im 20 years old, im a first years student in ucd currently studying god knows what at this stage. i was previoulsy completeing a forestry degree but decided it wasnt for me. ive tried my hand at many things in my short lifetime, but nothing seems to sooth the spirits like angling. ive been lucky enough to be fishing since the tender age of 5 when my fantastic father brought me down to dunlaoghaire pier were a 4lb pollock and 3lb wrasse set a firm impression of my young mind. i caught the bug that day and eventually landed my first catch, a small and perfectly formed corkwing wrasse from the same pier a week later. from that moment on, summers evenings spent with my grandad fishing for mackerel with an improvised float constructed from balsa wood kept my burning passion for the sport ticking over. by my early teens i had fallen out of love with the sport only to find a passion for the game of rugby, however you cant keep a good dog down, by the age of 16 i had yet again returned to the beaches after a brief dabble with a fly rod (not for me) and i got involved with a local club. complete and utter luck saw me win my first ever junior competition and since then with the exclusion of a years brake during my final year of school ive been match angling with plenty of pleasure fishing to boot ever since. why did i set up a blog? after reliving some of those memories i can answer that with an honest and often ciched responce. im passionate about angling, its always been my first true love and always will be.