In September every year a hardcore of sea match anglers make the pilgrimage to the town of Dingle on the extreme southwest coast of Ireland. The Daiwa Irish Pairs is a sea angling competition without any other comparable. It is unique with three 5 hour matches that are fished over the week, but between these matches you are free to catch a specimen fish (hopefully) with no restrictions placed on where you fish. So if you want to put in the hours and be prepared to drive a few miles there is some fantastic fishing for bullhuss, various rays including some huge stingrays and big flounders, bass, wrasse, pollock and congers. I want to stress fish are measured, photographed and returned to the water alive.

This year I was late booking my entry and finding a partner for the competition. Maryport club mate Tony Lewthwaite came to my rescue needing a partner, as well.

My next issue was finding somewhere to stay!

Trying to find suitable accommodation in the vicinity of Dingle where the competition is run from the towns Dingle Bay Hotel was a challenge for several reasons. Firstly the cost, as Dingle is a very popular tourist attraction, primarily for thousands of Americans. The demand for accommodation is especially high within the town and its not just as simple as booking an airbnb or hotel. With the amount of gear we take, numerous rods, fridges, freezers etc, etc. A small stately home or castle comes in useful!

However, I received a message with an offer of accommodation in ‘The Frank’s Palace’ my first thoughts were it sounds like a hotel in Las Vegas! The message was from Tony Royal a famous angler from the Brighton area, I think that should read infamous angler from the Brighton area!

“Tony is a member of a group of anglers called ‘The Frank’s’. ‘The Frank’s’ are named after a famous british TV comedy character ‘Frank Spencer’. Frank Spencer was famous for being accident prone and getting into all sorts of comical situations. So I believe the term ‘Frank’ was born about 20 years ago when Tony Royal had done something out of the ordinary and one of his friends wanted to swear, but resorted to calling him a ‘Frank’ as there was several nuns within earshot. So the ‘Frank’s were born!

‘The Frank’s’ are best described like a foreign legion of anglers from various UK countries and Ireland wreaking havoc internationally!

I will come back to ‘The Frank’s’ later.

Travelling over on the ferry from Cairnryan to Belfast was pretty uneventful apart from the mirror like calm sea and brilliant sunshine.

On the first competition day all competitors were fishing on the iconic Inch Beach. With a nice surf on this beach it can be a great place for flatfish and bass, but with the flat calm conditions on the day it proved to be a hard 5 hour session. A number of anglers blanked and there was not great numbers of fish caught over the whole match length. The bass were notable by their absence due to the calm conditions with not one caught. You will be glad to know I have had a word with the match organisers to make sure they book them for next year!

The couple of days preceding the first match is usually spent collecting bait, such as digging maddies, catching a few mackerel and netting some sandeel. I brought a wet suit, which I had borrowed from my son. He is a lot slimmer than me, so getting into the suit was not only going to be an ordeal but highly embarrassing. I did however manage to borrow a larger sized one from ‘The Frank’s’ and a slimmer Tony Lewthwaite donned my sons.

Having spent a couple of hours dragging a net through freezing cold water for pretty meagre numbers of sandeel and avoiding the danger of the Japanese whaling fleet. It was disappointing to find out my colleagues had left the eels in the accommodation freezer when we returned home!

No one would own up to this faux pas, so to avoid any embarrassment we will use a pseudonym for each of the two suspects. Those being Tony Lewthwaite and John Fleming!

To further protect their identity blacked out photos of the pair can be seen below:

Returning to ‘The Frank’s….

They are famous for making an award in the fishing world on par with the Oscars, Grammy’s and Tesco Clubcard Points!

This prestigious award is a pink beret modelled on the one Frank Spencer wore in his TV series. It is awarded to the member who has gone beyond expectations in cocking up over the competition. The award winner must wear it all evening to their embarrassment, but I sensed it was a badge of honour for some. Please see it modelled by Andy (mountain goat) Booth below:

Prior to the official competition presentation the ‘The Frank’s’ get together in any Dingle pub that will let them in and take a vote on that year’s nominations for the award.

Hosting the event was the infamous Tony Royal, who also was one of the nominations. He started off the awards ceremony explaining how on a competition day he managed to leave his all important match card used to record his fish in his accommodation! Not a problem you say as he catches **** all! However, this is seen as a huge failing by the other members and possibly worthy of the coveted beret.

Tony then went onto the other nomination for the award who was Neil Tyrell who managed the most deadliest sin of all, forgetting to take your bait to a competition. Relating this to other sports it’s like The Red Bull F1 Racing Team forgetting to put the wheels on the car!!!

A vote was then called by Tony and Neil was the well deserved winner by a majority of raised hands. However, Tony then went on to explain further how he had left his match card and the members decided a re-vote was required and the decision was reversed with Tony the new award recipient. Talk of “snatching defeat from the jaws of victory.”

Tony modelling his award:

Getting back to the matches the second match was on the beaches of Brandon Bay a beautiful beach stretching for miles, with the prospect of flounder, bass, turbot and rays.

The conditions looked a bit better than the previous match on Inch with a bit of surf stirring the sand, but again the fishing was not easy. Brandon is not a prolific beach for flatfish and can be a bit patchy, which it proved with a number of anglers blanking.

Personally I was finding it hard work trying to winkle a flounder or bass out, so for the last hour I decided to target rays. There had been a number caught along the venue including a few stingrays.

Casting into the surf baiting with sandeel I noticed that my lead had broken out and moved off to the right against the tide run, which can be a good indicator that a ray or other fish has picked up your bait. I started to wind in and upon lifting my rod I could feel weight of something, I was hoping it was not a lump of weed. I had however managed to cross the line of Steve Glynn an Irish Frank member pegged next to me. As I wound my rig into the shallow water I could see a bow wave of water going over a fish I initially thought was a small ray. As it got closer I was delighted to see it was a turbot and a decent one. I slid the fish onto the sand and to my horror the hook came out and with the imminent arrival of the next wave the fish would have been gone. In the process of sprinting forward like a baby elephant I managed to drop my rod, trip over my rod stand and tangle my feet in my line to the amusement of the nearby competitors. I managed to grab the fish, holding it tightly to my chest to prevent it dropping back into the water. I unfortunately I had got caught up in Steve’s line as well and ended up snapping it! Being focused on getting the fish to dry land I didn’t notice his line. Apologies were given and I was delighted to see a beautified turbot on my box. Quickly measured at 39cm and photographed it was returned to the sea and it sped off into the clear water.

This fish catapulted me into fourth place in my zone and saved a blank. Steve Glynn below next to me had two fine flounders and finished second in the zone, despite my efforts to disrupt his day!

In between the three matches the Pairs competitors travel around County Kerry and farther afield to catch that specimen fish. One area that can be difficult to fish is off the rock ledges around Dingle and the Valencia Island areas. With any southerly in the wind the waves coming in from the Atlantic Ocean can be huge and very dangerous. So any sessions on the rocks are confined to calm conditions like we had this year.

Taking advantage of these ideal conditions Tony (mountain goat) Booth invited Tony Lewthwaite and myself to a session on the rocks along with another Franks member Peter Cracknell.

Arriving at the mark we had a bit of a scramble down the cliff and were quickly catching a number of hard fighting wrasse, a lot of them over 40cm. Trying for pollock proved fruitless, so a move to another mark was agreed.

Tap to enlarge

Arriving at the next mark I got out of the car and walked to the cliff edge and looking over could only see a vertical drop to the rocks 500 feet below. After a hesitation I asked Andy “how do you get down there”? I know I enjoy catching fish, but not enough to fall to my death on a remote Kerry cliff! Without hesitation Andy and Peter who I both believe are related to mountain goats started to climb down the cliff. Tony Lewthwaite quickly joined them and reluctantly I followed.

After about 20 minutes climbing down with rods in hand and rucksacks on our backs we got down to the bottom. After a quick check of my underpants I started fishing. We were right into good sized wrasse right from the off, I believe Peter had the largest around 49cm. We started using various lures and started hooking into some hard fighting pollock in the 50cm range. Frustrating for Andy and Peter who were getting them just under the specimen size.

The climb back up was not as bad as the climb down apart from your lungs bursting with the near vertical ascent.

A photo of Andy Booth and Peter Cracknell climbing down:

I don’t want to sound ungrateful, but I don’t know what is more dangerous, rock fishing with Andy and Peter or eating one of Andy’s fried breakfasts. They were delicious but should carry a government health warning! I think I put on half a stone over the week and succeeded in furring up most of my arteries!

To be continued……

More food, sandeel saga and Frank craic!