Deep Sea Dingle

At last the days are getting longer. Now is the time to pull the cobwebs off the rods, shine the lures, renew the lines and look foreward to a new fishing season.
I recently bought a pair of deep diving boards. They are attached to 6 10/0 rubber Eels and are acording to the supplier are lethal up to 18 fathoms.
I’m going out to the banks south of the Blasket Islands to try these. I will let you know if and how they work.
From mid February I’m starting again to accept bookings for fishing trips, so ‘Fish for Fun’ in Dingle this year.
See you soon,
Rory.

We have been hit with sub zero tempratures for the past two months. Snow in the Southwest very rare. This put fishing activities to a halt due to the icy roads etc. The harbour in Dingle had a thin covering of ice for a few days, something I dadn’t see for 35 years. The days are getting longer now and I’m looking foreward to the commencment of fishing. Traditionally the Spring fishing in Dingle Bay was the best, we will put it to the test in the next few weeks.
Looking foreward to the 2011 season.

We endured 5 weeks of poor weather and were hoarbour bound but on the the sea calmed on the 20th.
Aboard were a group of french fishermen from Brittany. After the bad weeks the fishing was poor to start then the wind came up again so we steamed into the entrance Ventry Bay for shelter. Here we marked fish close on the bottom and started fishing with cod feathers & rubber squids. Mackarel at first, then we came upon good Pollack.
We retraced our drift againand we came upon the same mark with more good Pollack. As the wind rose we moved to the East a mile or so and came across a small mark here we found on the squid lures fine Codling.
As the day wore on the wind calmed so out into Dingle Bay again but the fishing was scarce with a few good Mackarel to finish our trip.

Ventry Pollack

On Saturday 25th Sept we started trolling for Albacore at 7.00 am west of the Blasket Islands Co. Kerry.
At 08.45 we got our first strike for 20 minutes Alan Payne struggled with ths fish. A keen and experienced angler Alan brought the tuna to the boat, then it took off again and again eventually we boated it. It weighed in at 22 lbs a fine fish and Alans first  Albacore tuna. We got three further strikes but failed to land them. What a great day with hundreds of Common dolphins keeping us amused between strikes.

The best fight all year !

We fished again on Monday Sept. 20th around the Wild Bank. during slack water the fishing was excellent with big Pollack, Codling, Ling and some Mackarel.

Michael a good fisherman landed a 5 kilo Plooack and soon after our new recruit Pavel 1st time at sea landed a 7 kilo Pollack.

When the tide started to run with the wind SW F4/5 the fishing became slacker and a lot of small Saithe were caught and released.

The highlight of the trip was on our way home to port 2.5 NM south of Slea Head we came upon Gannets diving then we saw a large pod of Common Dolphins. The rode our bow wave and played around the boat for about 30 minutes. We estimated that there were up to 20 Dolphins travelling with us. I will post the photos soon, what a way to end a great trip.

Dingle Bay, Monday 6th Sept ’10.

We had a great group from the Brehon Hotel and Valley Suites, Killarney on Monday. At the Crow Rock we started fishing for Mackrel, got some there for bait. The day was calm F2/3 sunny the views at the shore from the boat were spectacular. We then steamed for about 30 minutes to the Wild Bank on the outer edges of Dingle Bay. Immediately, using squid jigs we were hooking large Pollack. Saithe were abundand but small so we dropped the lures to bottom quickley to avoid them. This worked, now we were on Cod & Codling. One of the guys Peter decided to bottom fish with the Mackrel cut in strips as bait. Within 10 minutes he was hauling 1 kilo Wrasse and Pouting. At the end of the evening on our way back to the Port of Dingle we say large splashes about 1 mile south of us, these turned out to be Fin Whales ‘lunge feeding’, what a sight.

Out again Friday, will update you.