The Beginning!
A number of years ago I was invited by a member of Maryport District Sea Angling Club to go with some of their members on their annual ’road trip’ excursion to the Emerald Isle to fish the Daiwa Irish Pairs sea angling competition. Over the tackle shop counter I had listened enthralled to Jeff McAllister, Steve McAdam and Simon Hogan, amongst others regaling me in the tales from this sea angling festival. It was quickly obvious this competition is like no other, a mixture of competitive matches, outstanding specimen fishing and a fantastic social aspect and camaraderie.
The competition/festival is fished by a maximum of 72 pairs of anglers run over 6 days. The 3 five-hour matches are pegged with your partner fishing on a different beach which can be 40 miles away! That is, apart from the Inch Beach match, where all competitors fish this magnificent scenic venue together. The specimen hunting has no boundaries, as in, you can fish anywhere you wish and ’Pairs Competitors’ have been known to travel over a 1000 miles during the week to secret venues trying to winkle out that ‘special’ fish. The superb social and camaraderie aspect makes this competition stand out from the others I had previously attended. Anglers from all over the UK and Ireland converge on Dingle and the surrounding villages and drink copious amounts of Guinness and tell more tales of the ‘one that got away’ than any other place in the world – arms getting longer by the day! Without a doubt the social side is fantastic and Guinness sales must spike that week!
Prior Preparation Prevents Piss Poor Performance
So after many hours interrogating the competition veterans I was taken aback with the vast array of gear I had to take. Some competitors start their preparation months before! So my list included:
- Rods & Reels – Continental scratching rods, distance casting rods, long surf rods, spinning rods, flattie rods, bass rods plus enough reels for each one with enough line to circumnavigate the earth several times and of course multiple rod rests to sit them all on!
- Rigs – Scratching rigs, flapper rigs, clip down rigs, slider rigs, popup rigs, garfish rigs, doggie rigs, conger rigs, mackerel rigs and of course ’hundreds’ of coloured foam winders to put them on 🎵🎶 Sing to the tune of Paddy McGinty’s Goat? 🎵🎶
- Bait & Bait Collection – Fresh black lug, yellow tail lug, blow lug, frozen lug, fresh crab, frozen crab, frozen mackerel, dirty squid, mini squid, sandeel, ragworm, maddies, the list was extensive. Then the multiple bait buckets, bait forks, water aerators, sandeel net, cool boxes, freezer packs, bait freezer, bait fridge. The bait alone costs the ‘GDP’ of a small country!!
- Personal Equipment & Clothing – Beach shelter, waterproofs, chest waders, thigh waders, wellingtons, rock boots, trainers, salopettes, hoodies, woolly hats, fleeces, thick socks, casual wear for socialising, sunglasses, sun block (unless you like the red lobster look), and camera just in case you catch a fish!
- Other Useful Items – A large ’Eddie Stobbart Truck’ to pack all the above in. Remember your partner has all this kit as well… A Satellite Navigation System (SatNav) and enough training to be able to turn it on! One pair of competitors who I will not name and embarrass now, but will save it for a later article, landed ashore at Larne in Northern Ireland. With the pre-arranged plan to pick up some crab bait off a friend on the outskirts of Dublin (good plan, well thought out – as it’s on the way down to Dingle), but they decided not to turn the SatNav on and after a 2 hour detour via Monaghan found themselves on the outskirts of Derry in a farm yard! I’ll say no more. Of course last, but not least some ’Guinness Tokens’.
The journey across to Dingle from West Cumbria is just over a 2 hour road journey to Cairnryan, Stranraer in southern Scotland and then a 2.5 hour ferry crossing to Belfast in Northern Ireland. From Belfast it is then a 6 hour road journey south into Ireland and finally arriving in Dingle. On one trip over, we were booked on the 0730hrs ferry sailing to Belfast, so I had arranged to pick up my partner John Dixon from his house at 0400hrs giving us a hour before the departure. On arriving at John’s house I was packing his gear in the back of my pick up and the hydraulic arm on the tail gate failed and the door came down hitting me on the top of my head! There was instantly a flood of blood oozing down my face from a neat cut just above my hairline. A cut of the scalp does tend to bleed heavily, so applying pressure I went into John’s kitchen to see if he had anything to stem the bleeding. His mother-in-law was there and gave me a couple of tea towels to wrap around my head. Conscious that we did not have any time to waste, I asked if she had any tape, so with several winds of ’sellotape’ around my head the tea towels were firmly in place! Having lost time we set off, foot firmly down on the accelerator we arrived at the ferry terminal just behind our other club members’ vehicles travelling on the same ferry. Driving up to the ticket check-in kiosk I didn’t realise that I looked like an extra from Shaun of the Dead! I had a white tea towel turban on my head and dried blood all over my face. When I stopped at the kiosk and held out our tickets in my dry blood stained hands, the lady did a double take! A quick explanation seemed to satisfy her bewildered bemusement at my appearance and we proceeded to the waiting area to board the ferry.
Once onboard and ignoring the shocked glances from other passengers I made my way to the toilets and washed myself down, Now, not looking like I had just had a run in with ‘Jack The Ripper’ I felt much better! The next thing that happened, which was worse than the cut head, was when queuing for the onboard breakfast I noticed they served ‘Scotch Porridge Oats’. Porridge being a favourite of mine I ordered some as a starter before my fried breakfast. Sitting down I eagerly spooned the porridge into my mouth and nearly choked and spat it out! It was totally tasteless and had no milk or sugar in it at all! Taking it back up to the food servery I explained about the tasteless porridge and the Chef was quickly summoned. This rather large Scotsman gruffly explained to this obviously stupid Englishman stood in front of him: “Scots Porridge Oats are flavoured with a sprinkling of salt”. The porridge, swiftly deposited in the bin, I then tucked into my fried breakfast! Haggis, deep fried Mars Bars and ’Iron Brew’ I can cope with, but porridge with salt , no chance!
The remainder of the journey passed uneventful thankfully.
My Fishing Passion 