Specimen Hunt
The Dingle Peninsula and surrounding Kerry coast is not only one of the most beautiful scenic coastlines in the world, but is the home to some fantastic fishing marks frequented by an array of specimen fish species.
If you decide to travel to the Dingle area to fish I would recommend that you take the opportunity to potentially catch some fantastic specimens. To maximise your chances carry out some prior research and decide what species you would like to catch and target them accordingly. Selecting the right marks, baits and a bit of local knowledge will increase your chances of a successful trip.
Local County Kerry anglers like Martin McGowan from The Angling Hub at Tralee is a great guy who can provide you with local knowledge, bait and tackle. It’s well worth a visit to his shop or call for info. This is the link to his website:
https://theanglinghub.com/Also another massive font of local knowledge is Chris O’Sullivan ’ The Inshore Angler’. His YouTube videos are extremely popular and well worth a watch. Chris can provide bait if you message him through his YouTube channel. He is a fantastic guy who will readily answer any questions you may have. He recently caught a huge tope off the shore near Tralee, the video is well worth a view. The link to his channel The Inshore Angler is:
https://www.youtube.com/user/AtlanticTackle/videos
The competitors in the Daiwa Irish Pairs regularly each year catch some outstanding fish. As mentioned in the previous articles the anglers roam the shorelines of County Kerry and beyond seeking that special fish, that will be longer than their rivals in the competition. I say longer as all fish are measured and photographed and returned alive to fight again. Fish welfare and conservation is a high priority in the ‘Pairs’ and every effort is made to ensure the fish are treated with respect and returned to the water alive.
The anglers from West Cumbria who attend the festival each year have a penchant for catching the specimen bass, with four anglers catching a winning specimen sized fish over the recent past years, Jeff McAllister, John Fleming, Dave Bell and myself. My fish was a superb 76cm fish I caught whilst fishing with Simon Hogan after a previous session when we caught 18 bass up to 6lbs in about 3 hours. Returning to the same mark the following day I was lucky enough to catch a fish of a lifetime! I didn’t weigh my bass, as I was concerned about getting the fish back in the water as quickly as possible, but estimate it was between 10-13lbs in weight. The fish took a full king ragworm bait in about 3 feet of water and after a good fight it slid onto the sand and the hook dropped out! The specimen bass prize in the ’Pairs’, is a set of tailor made ‘Bass Boots Waders’ kindly donated each year by the company owner Malcolm Scullion. I have to say without a doubt for sea fishing they are the best waders on the market and last for years. Have a look at his website at:
The array of specimen sized species that you can target around the Kerry coastline is outstanding with numerous types of rays including stingrays, bullhuss, bass, flounder, pollock, conger, wrasse, mullet and dabs. Also recently Chris O’Sullivan has shown there are some big tope to be caught as well! Tap link below to watch Chris land a fantastic tope in Tralee Bay.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UyyjS0X2MPA
Awards Evening
The weeks fishing culminates in the awards evening presentation in Paudie’s Bar in Dingle. This being the competition HQ, a great hotel where all the competitors pack the bar area regaling each other with stories of their weeks match and specimen hunting exploits, the fish getting bigger as more pints of Guinness are drank! The organising team under Nick Haward’s direction have spent hours during the week doing a fantastic job collating the match and specimen results coming up with the list of winners. There is thousands of pounds and euros to be won and an impressive selection of top class Daiwa fishing tackle awarded on the night to the lucky winners, but I realised that just taking part in this outstanding competition you are a winner! Held in a beautiful part of Ireland, great fishing, friendly locals and bars serving a great pint of Guinness the experience is hard to top anywhere in the world! Whether you are a winner or loser you cannot wait until you return again. One of the highlights of the evening is Ian Hewitt singing his rendition of the ‘Pairs Anthem – Ghost Riders In The Sky’. Unfortunately I don’t have any video of Ian singing the song, but if you click on the link below you can hear the second best version with this ‘Johnny Cash” rendition.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JMll6TNnTs4
I would recommend anyone to enter the competition and you will have a fantastic week whether you are a match angling expert or novice. If you are interested use the link below to have a look at the “Pairs’ Facebook site and contact Nick Haward for more info.
https://www.facebook.com/Daiwa-Irish-Pairs-1485480905077759
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