The Competitions
The three match competition side of the Daiwa Irish Pairs is to say the least a highly competitive part of the week. The specimen hunting is a more relaxed affair, time to enjoy the scenery and possibly a few pints of the black stuff. With a field of top class anglers which includes internationals from both the UK and Ireland the gloves come off on match days and the serious heads go on! The first competition is fished the day after the registration night and then every 48 hours with the species hunt going on in between, so effectively as soon as the 5 hour match is finished you are free to roam the coastline looking for that whopper! Specimens caught in the matches can be submitted in the competition as well.
This years winning ‘Pairs receive £2000 plus tackle prizes and there are numerous other cash prizes for day and zone winners, along with thousands of of pounds worth of tackle prizes kindly donated by Daiwa Sports. Additionally there are also thousands of pounds worth of tackle prizes awarded in the specimen competition as well. There is also prizes awarded for the best Individual performances, best 4 angler team and a ‘Old Gits’ competition. The ‘Old Gits’ must have a combined age for the two entrants exceeding 115 years old! Hopefully this years competition will go ahead, safety allowing, in this Covid-19 pandemic.
The first year I took part in the ’Pairs’ it was a massive learning curve as the match fishing in Cumbria at that time was a more shall I say crude affair compared to the finesse required on the sandy strands of County Kerry. Adapting and learning skills to catch the fish on these different beaches was a challenge. Match day one is usually fished on Ventry and Cappaclough two very different beaches and requiring different tactics. Ventry can be a fantastic venue in the right conditions, but on day one can end your ‘Pairs’ dreams if conditions are poor. As long as there is colour in the water, calm or with a surf running then it usually fishes well. The dogfish come close in and there may be a few bass, flounders and odd ray, conger or bullhuss caught. Ventry has no respect for reputation. If it is calm and clear it can test the best anglers and has regularly killed off many an ego on day one! I have seen hugely disappointed anglers trudging their way off the beautiful sandy strand and throw their rods into the back of vehicles and drive off in silence, holding their own post match analysis in their head, ‘what if I did this, or what if I did that‘. We have all been there! In the clear calm conditions being a big caster can be a tremendous advantage with the doggies sitting in the small weed beds at distance, unless you can winkle a flounder out in the gutter, but this beach is not know for great numbers of flatfish. The other saviour in these conditions is the garfish, which can save the day. This is a fish rarely caught in Cumbria. It is like asking a tropical fish to emigrate to the North Pole. They get a nose bleed anywhere north of the Bristol Channel! So as you would expect us Cumbrians are not the best garfish anglers. In my first few ‘Pairs’ competitions I was in awe of these southern anglers who would be casting out all sorts of pop ups, washing line rigs and huge floats that looked more at home with a Cunard liner tied up alongside them! In those early competitions it was doggies or bust. I have been lucky and only blanked once on Ventry and managed to winkle a doggie or two out. One particular match at the far end of the beach and not in a normally favoured area, I managed to land 5 doggies on my scratching gear fishing close in about 30-40 metres. I had started scratching hoping to get a flounder and immediately started to catch doggies on a size 6 B940 baited with an inch of frozen black lugworm, 5 maddies and a thumb nail sized bit of fresh mackerel. After the first one I thought I would get the doggie rigs out, size 1 hooks baited with mackerel and sandeel. I couldn’t catch a thing with them. Reverting back to my scratching tactics I managed another four, baffling, but they must have liked the cocktail baits and not the more conventional doggie baits. So if you come off Ventry with a few fish on your card – mission achieved!
Cappaclough can be a tough beach to catch on occasions, but not in the same league as Ventry. There are generally numbers of flounders to be caught close in around the gutter, with dogs at distance and the odd ray can show up and a stingray on occasions has put in an appearance. Again this relatively sandy beach has patches of weed at range and is usually inhabited by a number of small wrasse. Irish anglers and some of the English southern lads cottoned onto them a few years ago and I watched an angler catch 18 of them, nothing huge, but with the 3 points for each fish caught, he wracked up a tidy score to win his zone. It emerged the rigs used were very short snoods, tiny hooks in between size 8-14 and very small crab or maddie baits whipped on. These hook sizes are getting into the freshwater fishing realm and some competitors raised about minimum hook sizes, but at the end of the day the competitions are about catching fish and if that’s what it takes, so be it.
The beauty of fishing around the Dingle Peninsula and Brandon Bay area is that there is generally beaches available to fish even in strong winds. A sheltered beach in the lee of the wind is usually there to accommodate a match. This is one of the reasons the organisers have changed the policy of fishing the fabulous Inch Beach. In the past it was always fished on the last match day, as the finale of the week and quite disappointingly often had to be moved to another venue if the weather forecast was poor. Being a surf beach, if the wind is too strong the waves surge up the sand making it un-fishable and potentially dangerous. The organisers changed things a number of years ago, so if the weather allows it to be fished earlier in the week then the opportunity is eagerly taken. The iconic beach is an amazing scenic place with sand dunes at the back and a great expanse of sand running down to the waters edge. It looks awesome when the sun is reflecting off the wet sand and the white surf is rolling up the beach throwing a fine mist of spray in the air. The sight of anglers spread practically out of sight along its length is a fantastic scene. The competitors get a buzz being able to fish this world famous venue. The fishing can be outstanding, with hundreds of fish being registered on the anglers cards, mainly bass, flounders and turbot. It does throw up other species as well with dogfish, mullet and rays being caught on occasion.
There are other surf beaches that are fished such as Brandon Bay, Banna Strand and Rossbeigh. these are very similar to Inch and throw up the same species, but with more thornback and undulate rays being more commonly caught. These beaches are beautiful and fantastic fishing venues in their own right, also extremely popular with surfers.
Of course all the venues are subject to being weed free. After a prolonged period of rough tides the weed can be horrendous and makes fishing impossible on occasions. The huge strands of kelp that float around in large rafts are a tackle graveyard. The strands of kelp wrapped together snap off your rigs and leaders with their massive weight and movement in the surf. It is not good either for your line or reels if you do manage to beach a great big heap of the stuff. There is nothing more frustrating to find a huge bed of the stuff in front of your peg making fishing impossible, when literally 20-30 metres either side of you an angler is fishing normally! I have seen anglers sat on their boxes for 5 hours in the hope the weed moves off. Luckily this is a rare occurrence, as the competition organisers make every effort to avoid this, including moving the zones if necessary.
The competition catches vary from year to year, but generally there are plenty of fish caught and a number of notables specimens are registered as well. Like all match fishing it can be frustrating when you have built up a good score of flatfish and then someone lands a big ray or bass to blow everyone out of the water, but that’s fishing and its never over until the last cast!
My Fishing Passion 