Deep Sea Dingle

Fog was thick then the Minkie Whales arrived. We hadn’t started fishing when one of JP’s guys shouted ‘Whale’. Everyone looked everywhere until the whales appeared again. We followed slowly, I noticed there was a lot of fish marking mid water, small Mackarel ? For about an hour we watched the Minkies feeding, then the Common Dolphins came to join in the feast. At one stage we could see several animals jumping around us. I increased the speed and the dolphins rode our bow-wave the guys were delighted and cameras were out, because of the fog the shots came out poor.
Later we moved away from the Mackarel and tried a few drifts over a reef. JP landed a fine Ling, we also had a good variety of Cod Coley & Pollack.

Mixed weather last week but from Wednesday on it improved with the winds dying down. We again had a ‘mixed bag’ of anglers and holidaymakers out fishing, the good thing was all got fish some their first as it was with the Wolves Family from Latvia who had to endure thick for on Sunday morning. There was a great buzz around dingle with the return of Humpback whales, apparently regular visitors to the Blasket Islands. We fished south of the Islands on Sunday but with the visability down to a half mile at times a sighting would be difficult.

The fishing was slow until the tide changed but the the Family were hauling, Pollack, Cod, Ling & Mackarel with a few gurnet for colour.

 

This was a great exprrience for the family and their 1st time on the sea, all including the young boys had fish.

The past few weeks were very fine, the schools are on holiday so we had a lot of families out fishing. It is alwaye great to see the your kids catch their 1st fish. Most of our trips were short 3/4 hours with the families but we had a few good family anglers with fine hauls. Some of there took the fish to have dinner at their rented cottages and hostels, what better than cook your own on the day !

The evenings were also good, the music and ‘craic’ in dingle is second to none. At John Benny’s last week there was a great ‘session’ of music & dance.
What can be better that a day fishing, cook your own fish and have a great night on the town of Dingle ?

The months of May & June were poor weatherwise, mostly SW winds of F5+, no good here. But we had a few days. In early June we fished for a few days but things were very slack,

 

very few fish would make you think you were doing something wrong, but that’s fishing. Mid June things picked up a bit but the Mackarel dissapeared. Late June I had good bookings and the fishing turned up good. most days we had at least 40 kgs of fish Pollack, Cod & a few Mackarel. The Marchetti Family from the USA changed my luck they had a great day out from the kids to Granny all enjoyed the experience.
Menno’s group of Dutch anglers were very keen fishermen we did a lot of travelling, west and east of the Tieracht the Blasket Sound & the Wild Bank. Most days the fishing started poor but as the tide slackened the fishing improved to an average of 100 kgs each day with the last day the best. Species were Pollack Cod, Ling Pouting, Whiting and Wrasse. Our drifts were short due to the strong tides in the Blasket Sound but there was good fishing even a 50 kg box of big Mackarel. Looking foreward to some fine weather for the weekend.

Friday the 13th is supposed to be an unucky day. Not for Phil James and his anglers from Wales. Wednesdays wind was too strong for fishing F7 Southwest so we posponed to Friday. The morning was flat calm bus as the day went on the wind came up to about F5. This was no problem although while steaming there was plenty of spray over the bows. Our 1st stop was when I saw a good sign of fish on the sounder and we had our 1st drift. After about 4/5 minutes we drifted back over the fish mark and straight away all rods were bent with good Pollack, landed. We steamed back west over the mark and again more good pollack. Then everything went queit it was at the top of the tide and the wind dropped to a calm so did the fishing. we moved again to another sopt and I found another good marking of fish, this time they looked like Mackarel and the were. Some very good size but most were throw back size. We moved again a few more times with no great fishing until we were about to head to port. One last drift we said but then the fish started with big Cod big Pollack at one stage all the rods were bent and the guys hauling for all their worth. We had over 60 kgs of Cod Mackarel & Pollack for our 5/6 hours. The lads were excited about cooking fish for dinner that evening. Valentia Radio gave a weather warning of winds to F7 the the rest of the day but we had the wind and good luck to our backs as we steamed to port on Friday 13th !

The weather was great for the past week and the weekend was no exception. On Friday we had some fishers from China, studying in Dublin.
We had a short trip and caught some Pollack and a few Markarel, see photos.
Saturday & Sunday were family days. The 1st fish caught was by the youngest lady on the boat. As you can see from the photos Cod were a good size and we had great Pollack also.
All of the time we fished 6/0 hooks with a variety of feathers and other lures. towards evening we came on Mackarel, these were a good size fish and provided great fun when the kids hauled in 3 at a time.
The tides were weak so we drifted slowly in light winds of F3/F4 and fished at about 20 to 25 fathoms of water.
Next week end is a long one also and I’ll report on Monday.

For the past 3 weeks the fish have been difficult to find, fishing for 2 hours without a result is, a little frustrating.
After all it is called ‘Fishing not Catching’. Eventually we came ona weak mark on the fishfinder and started to drift. Using 6/0 ferthers, muppets & eels things started to happen as we drifted over the mark. We had a flurry of activity and then nothing ! Off again to search for another mark, this proved to be a long search at least 1 hour. We eventually came across a shoal of Coalfish and things livened up and revived the spirits.
Our last move brought us on another mark and after about 5 minutes drifting we hit on good Pollack (3kgs) and Cod.
We also had 3 Mackarel, the first of the year. Forecast is good for Easter so I’ll report after the Weekend.
Rory.

Another great fishing day. Within 4 miles of the harbour we had tried yesterday without ant luck, so today we set out for the deeper water south of the Blaskets. The tide was ebbing with us as we left, when we got to the fishing grounds it was about low water with slack tide and a slight SE breeze. Again like yesterdat the fishing was sporadic. We kept on the move trying with a few good Pollack here and there. All of a sudden one of the guys spotted a seal, this was bad news for fishing as there are hundreds of seals on the Big Island beach at this time of year. We hauled up and steamed off at full speed to the South. Shortly after starting fishing here and with the deeper water we started getting fish slowly at first. All around us we had great company, Common Dolphins gave us a fine display of jumping and bow riding an unusual sight for some of the guys from Latvia. As the tide started flowing the fishing out here got much better with fine Cod & a few Ling being landed. The forecast for the next weekend is poor so we will have more news & phoots, hopefully, next week. Rorycaption=”Playfull Common Dolphins”][Playfull]

We had great weather last week with light winds and slack tides. We set off from Dingle as usual with a mixed crew of fishermen, some experienced & some learners. The morning was blowing about F4 but by afternoon the wind had died to a F2. The day started poor, no fish. We travelled to a few favourite spots, still nothing. So we decided to steam around exploring the deeper waters. The new Furuno FCV digital sounder/fishfinder did the business within 1 hour we were on a good mark hard on the bottom at about 76 metres. All of a sudden fish were coming aboard mostly good size, 3kg, Pollack at first. One of the experienced guys had his own rigs, 100cm Muppets now we were getting good Codling up to 3 kg. Soon everyone was getting good fish, It was smiles all round. Towards the end of the days fishing we came across a large shoal of small Coley we fished them for a while but soon steamed for the pier at Dingle. The days catch was about 150kgs total 100 Pollack 50 kg of Cod. Another great day out.

We set out from Dingle at 10am last Sunday the 6th March.
On our way out we were escorted by Fungi, the Dingle Dolphin. Heading west, I tried out my new fish finder a Furuno FCV Digital. Just west of Ventry we came across a large mark of fish. It was all action with the guys and they were hooking Coley in 2’s 3’s and Peter hooked 5 on one Jig. We then heades west again to a mark I know here we hooked the 1st of the large Pollack. We were joined by seals, so it was time to steam off at speed to the next mark SW of Slea Hd. Here again we hooked and landed more Pollack and a few Cod. Again more seals fishing went dead so we moved west again South of the Foze. More good Pollack and Wrase here and even some Herring !
We bagged about 150KGs for the day. The guys were delighted as most were avaid ‘fish eaters’.
The forecast for next week from 11th March onwards is not great with SW winds 5 to 7 so next fishing trip will be the weekend after St. Paddy’s Day.