A number of Maryport & District Sea Angling Club members recently visited the beautiful area of Dingle in the county of Kerry, Ireland. For those who have not visited this part of Ireland, it is an area of stunning natural beauty. A landscape of beautiful hills, towns, and villages with numerous rivers cutting their way to the sea, but the area that stands out is the majestic coastline. A mixture of pristine sandy beaches and towering cliffs that are inspiring when being battered by the powerful Atlantic Ocean and in flat calm conditions. Add wildlife and flora to the scenery —like seals, the possibility of seeing a whale or dolphin, and numerous species of birds , the millions of bright red fuchsia flowers, and other plants that thrive in this very localised climate of its own— you have an absolutely awesome place! Not to forget the local people, who are very friendly and helpful, who are always happy to stop and have a chat.

Twenty-one members of the club travelled over to Belfast Port from Cairnryan ferry terminal, setting off from West Cumbria by car and van at 3am on a Friday morning. Each vehicle is filled to the brim with fishing rods, tackle, cool boxes, fridges, and freezers. Additional fridges and freezers are required, in addition to the accommodation ones, to keep our large quantity and selection of baits in tip-top condition.

Nine vehicles arrived at Belfast Port on the ferry, and then there was a seven-hour drive south to Dingle, which thankfully went uneventfully. We had booked six self-catering houses in Dingle, a convenient five-minute walk to the popular town’s shops, pubs and restaurants.

The next week’s itinerary comprised three 5-hour matches of fishing on Ventry Beach on Sunday, Fermoyle Strand on Tuesday, and the iconic Inch Beach on Thursday. Also, the club members had the opportunity to catch the longest fish from the seven nominated fish species from midnight on Friday through to 2pm the following Friday. The nominated species were: bass, flounder, wrasse, pollock, bullhuss, thornback ray, and painted ray.

Early on Saturday morning, just after 6am, we reluctantly dragged ourselves out of bed. The 14-hour journey on Friday and a few pints, well, quite a few pints of Guinness during the evening, made this a strenuous task. So we started the hard week of fishing and socialising, sleep-deprived and with one or two headaches!

Two of our house occupants, Kieran Armsrong and Jamie Lawson, were down on Dingle Pier early to catch some fresh mackerel for bait. I was the nominated chef for the week, so I was preparing a hearty breakfast for their return around 8am. The indications coming from local angler Chris O’Sullivan and Martin McGowan, the owner of the Angling Hub tackle shop in Tralee, were that the mackerel have been very few and far between. So, it was a nice surprise on their return that they had managed to catch around a half a dozen large mackerel each. That was the days fresh bait sorted, and a couple to be frozen down, as well!

After eating a rather large fry-up, Kieran and I headed up to the River Cashen estuary, north-west of Tralee, a journey of about 1.5 hours, passing over the stunning Connor Pass and past the beautiful Brandon Bay. The other members had decided to try other locations — some further south in the Valencia Island area, and others opted for a restful afternoon in the Dingle hostelries, betting on a horse race or two! The beauty of this trip is that you do as much or as little fishing as you want.

The Cashen estuary is known for large flounders and bass. Armed with a number of baits that flounders and bass particularly like —crab, maddies, ragworm, and blowlug —we were excited about fishing a venue that was home to two of the target species. The estuary varies in width from a couple of hundred metres at the entrance to over 600 metres elsewhere. The area we planned to fish was a quite shallow channel with weed on the bottom, which harboured crabs, shrimp, and small fish that the bass would be hunting.

Things started well: I caught a schoolie bass on the first cast with crab, but it didn’t develop from there, and we didn’t have any more bass or flounder for the rest of the session on baits.

When we arrived, there were two anglers in the water spinning for bass to our right near the mouth of the estuary. Later, they walked past us and were a great couple of guys, a great source of local bass knowledge; they administer the Facebook page Bass Kings Ireland. Have a look at the link below, there are some cracking bass pictures, caught on lures from various marks.

Link: BassKingsIreland

Kieran, inspired by the two lure anglers earlier, seconded my bass rod and started to spin with an imitation sandeel purchased from the Angling Hub at Tralee, and after persevering for a while, he was rewarded with a nice schoolie bass.

Kieran, encouraged by his small bass, carried on lure fishing for another hour or so, until I asked for a go and hooked a slightly bigger fish after my second cast. Handing him the rod back and saying, ‘I have had enough now’, made him laugh!

A few more local anglers arrived while we were there and seemed to have some success catching small bass, with one looking to be a better fish around 5lbs.

We decided to make a move and drive down to Banna Strand, an open sandy beach, and see if we could catch a bass or one of the targeted rays on this beach. There was a nice surf coming in up the beach, and things looked promising. Kieran managed a small bass on his first cast, and we then had nothing else on baits, so Kieran tried lure fishing, and from the expletives coming from his area, I guessed correctly that he had just lost a fish!

Catching nothing else after a while, we moved back to the car and visited The Angling Hub in Tralee to pick up some baits we had ordered for a few of the other lads. Not a bad day fishing, no bass that big, but a very enjoyable day out. Disappointing that the flounders didn’t turn up at all!

Match Day 1 – Ventry Beach

Sunday, the 19th of October, was the first competition day on the beautiful Ventry Beach.

Fishing from 12 – 5pm, four hours of the flood and one hour of the ebb tide, we were hoping the dogfish would turn up in numbers, as they can do on this venue. Fishing the first few hours of the flooding tide, you can quite easily hit areas of weed, where the dogfish like to lurk, so usually the first three hours or so are the most productive. If you are a big caster, this can be an advantage on this beach. The venue is known to attract other species, such as flounders, bass, bullhuss, mackerel, and garfish.

Ben Butler had volunteered to peg the beach, placing out the 20 numbered pegs from the stream that runs into the water just a few hundred metres from the carparking area down the lane from the famous Páidi Ó Sé’s Pub. Paidi was a famous Kerry Gaelic footballer and coach, and the pub is adorned with his memorabilia and photographs of world-famous politicians and actors who have visited. The food served there is also very good and well worth sampling if you are in the area. Not to forget a great pint of Guinness as well! Sorry for the digression, it would be sacrilege not to visit the pub if you were in the Ventry area.

Ben had placed the pegs out at 20 metre intervals, giving each angler plenty of room to winkle out as many fish as possible. The stream area of the beach is known as a dogfish hotspot, so the low-numbered pegs were eagerly sought after by the Maryport lads. The pegs had been drawn in a secret draw prior to leaving the UK. So no one knew what peg they were on until their envelopes were handed to them in the car park, which added to the excitement of the match.

The match started slowly, then a few dogfish began to show, along with a number of mackerel caught on sandeel baits. The dogfish were not in great numbers, but a number of members were managing to catch 3 or 4, and the odd mackerel. You are allowed to have 3 mackerel on your score card. The higher-scoring members caught 5-6 dogfish, giving them higher scores in their zones. The dogfish were pretty evenly spread across the venue, but not in the numbers that usually show. A good contested match, nevertheless, with brothers Ben and Craig Shepherd battling it out in their respective zones with six dogfish and a mackerel each. Ben pipped his brother by eight points with slightly better scoring fish. Mark Armstrong and Tony Lewthwaite were close for 3rd place, with Mark’s extra dogfish giving him the edge.

The longest round fish was Joe Pattinson with a 66cm dogfish, and John Fleming with a 28cm flounder, taking the longest flatfish. See the table below for the full day’s results.

The Mystery Pairs competition was won by Ben Shepherd and Tony Lewthwaite, with a combined score of 3 zone points and 13 fish, for a conversion score of 535.

At the end of the 5-hour match, we all retired into Páidi Ó Sé’s Pub to sample their Guinness!

The species-hunt submissions were trickling in, with Paul Tuck landing a fine 61 cm bass on a lure in the Cashen Estuary. Two bull huss were submitted with Jame Lawson recording an 88cm fish, but being outdone by his dad, Gary, with a fine fish of exactly 100cm. Ray Mallinson also had a Wrasse off Valencia Island of 45cm, and Nathan Holm had a pollock off Ventry Pier of 43cm:

Match Day 2 – Fermoyle Beach, Brandon Bay

Tuesday, the 21st of October, was the second competition day on Fermoyle Beach in Brandon Bay. Another stunning venue!

Fishing 10am – 3pm. One hour of the ebb and four hours of the flood tide. We were hoping for some quality bass and painted rays around the ebb and the first two or three hours of the flooding tide. There was an ideal surf running, so things looked very promising!

Word came along the beach from A Zone that Ben Butler and Paul Tuck had landed a painted ray, so a decent ray or bass was required to compete with these guys. Word of John Dixon landing a ray soon followed, and then Kieran Takacs in Zone B landed a painted ray of 40cm on peg 14.

Scratching had to be put aside, and sandeel was baited up in the hope of a decent ray or bass obliging.

Kieran Armstrong on peg 8 in A Zone started the match targeting bass and rays and was paid off, with a bass of 61cm. By holding his nerve when people were catching flounders and he was blanking, he landed the cracking fish. He went on to catch another bass of 44cm, both fish on the frozen sandeel supplied by Martin McGowan’s Angling Hub, Tralee.

I had managed to scratch out a nice 23cm turbot and decided to cast a bit further out in the hope of a bass or ray. It paid off when I noticed my line dropping in the water. I picked up the rod and could feel by the line that something was swimming inshore. Winding down to the fish, it then started to swim away from me. Lifting the rod up, it was great to feel the weight of a decent fish. I recognised it was not a bass, as they are much more lively. I saw a ray break the surface about 40 metres out. I could see my hook in its bottom lip as it got nearer, so I decided to wade out to the fish and pick it up in the knee-deep surf. It looked as if it wasn’t that well hooked, but when I was on the shore, I shouldn’t have been that concerned. It was a nice painted ray, 50cm across the wings.

Ben Butler was having a good day, having caught another ray.

Phillip Pape, scratching, caught a nice 39cm flounder, which was later beaten by a fantastic open beach fish of 42cm caught by Michael Kerr.

It was nice to see some quality fish throughout the match venue —not just the number of fish caught on Ventry, but better specimens. Even the weather was kind to us after a few early heavy showers, the sun came out!

Fermoyle proved to be a tight, competitive match, with some close results. Paul Tuck won the day with his bag comprising two bass and a painted ray. John Fleming stuck to scratching and caught a great bag of eight flounders to win his zone. His biggest being a respectable 37cm. The longest fish winners were the longest round fish, Kieran Armstrong, with a great 61cm bass, and the longest flatfish, Michael Kerr, with a 42cm flounder. The Mystery Pairs winners were Ben Butler and Mark Armstrong with a combined total of 4 zone points, catching 4 fish and a score of 457 conversion points.

See the table below for the full day’s results:

The species hunt submissions kept ticking over, with this nice thornback ray of 48cm caught by John Dixon at Castlegregory:

Match Day 3 – Inch Beach

Thursday, the 23rd of October, was the third and last competition day, fishing the iconic Inch beach!

Fishing 11am – 4pm, one hour of the ebb and four hours of the flooding tide. The surf looked ideal, and the bass can turn up in numbers around the low water and the first few hours of the flood, so expectations were high!

Ben Butler and Ray Mallison pegged the beach, well away from the entrance and cafe area of the beach. This avoids any visitors who wish to swim or kite-surf. Checking out the Inch surf camera online in the morning, it looked ideal with a nice surf running and the promise of a few bass to come.

As mentioned earlier, the peg draw was made in secret in the UK, and members didn’t know their peg number until they opened their envelope on the beach. Handing Tony Lewthwaite his envelope, I waited to see which peg he had drawn. Tony opened the envelope and immediately grimased, and said, ‘I always blank on peg seven’! Tony walked off a bit disappointed to his peg. Ten minutes into the match, Tony’s luck had changed, and he landed a fantastic fish of a lifetime! A 72cm bass first cast, caught on maddies tipped with fresh mackerel. What a start!

Tony’s fish set the bar for the match, and you had to fish for bass, as we all had some catching up to do!

Joe Pattinson, on the end peg number 20, started off like a train, quickly getting a couple of bass and flounders on the card, and, like Tony in A Zone, running away into the lead. In the B Zone, Michael Kerr, on the opposite end, peg number 1, was trying to pull Tony Lewthwaite in with a couple of bass and a turbot, but Tony consolidated his lead with another three bass and four flounders. These additional fish added to his huge bass saw Michael off in the end. Michael ended up with a great bag of four bass, a turbot and one flounder. Ending the match in second place to Tony. Mark Armstrong was trying to catch up with Joe Pattinson’s rapid start to the match. He managed a bag of three bass, two flounders and a turbot. Joe however did slow down in the last two hours, but he had a cracking card of three bass, four flounders, one being 30cm a nice one for Inch.

Again, Inch proved to be a close match, with Tony’s stunning bass making all the difference, with Tony running out the winner in A Zone with eight fish for 336 conversion points, and Michael Kerr finishing with six fish and a score of 298 conversion points in second place. Next door in B Zone, Joe Pattinson was the winner with seven fish for a score of 120 conversion points, beating Mark Armstrong, who finished second with six fish for a score of 105 conversion points. The overall day winners were Robert Holm in third place with a catch of four fish, including a fine bass of 59cm, with a score of 231 conversion points. Michael Kerr in second place with six fish including a nice bass of 45cm, for a score of 298 conversion points. The well-deserved winner on the day in first place was Tony Lewthwaite with his 72cm bass of a lifetime in his bag of eight fish, for a score of 336 conversion points.

The longest round fish was a superb bass of 72cm, caught by Tony Lewthwaite, and three anglers tied for the longest flatfish, each with a flounder of 33cm: Joe Pattinson, Michael Kerr and Ben Shepherd. The Mystery Pairs winners were Joe Pattinson and Mark Armstrong, with a combined score of 3 zone points and 13 fish, for a score of 225 conversion points.

The full match results are in the table below:

Three Match Overall Mystery Pairs

Running over the three matches was an overall Mystery Pairs competition. The winners were as shown below, each winning a Penn Fathom, kindly donated by Ben Butler Kitchens & Bathrooms

Call Ben on 07730 451361

Species Hunt Results

The species hunt came to an end on the last Friday afternoon, and the results were as follows:

The winners win £40 each, and the smallest fish caught in a match wins £10.

Statistics

Just for you geeks who like a few stats, here’s a comparison of how each beach fished, which might help others to choose where to fish:

The Presentation Night – Marina Inn, Dingle

After a hard week’s fishing and in some cases heavy socialising, as the Guinesss sales had spiked in Dingle that week! I would like to thank Thomas Kavanagh and the staff in the Marina Inn at Dingle for an excellent meal and the use of the upstairs room for our end-of-competition presentation. The food was very well presented and tasted fantastic. I hope we return next year.

Link to the Marina Inn website: themarinainndingle.com

I will not go through all the categories we awarded prizes to, but would like to highlight that in every match, potentially 15 members could win a cash prize out of the 20 fishing, so spreading the prize money across the board. There were also the seven species awards of £40 each, the lowest-scoring house prize of £100, and even the smallest fish caught in a match earned the captor £10. The overall pairs down to 4th place, with cash prizes to the value of £280. Please see the award prizes in the photo gallery.

Conclusion

This is the first time as a club we have visited Dingle; some members have been fishing in other competitions in Dingle for over 30 years, but after some thought on how things were going, the club members decided to come here as a more closely knit group. The members’ feedback was that they thoroughly enjoyed the week and that the warm welcome and hospitality from the Dingle and surrounding Kerry residents were fantastic. A special thank you to Martin McGowan and John Sheehan at the Angling Hub in Tralee for their excellent bait, gear, and advice. We hope to see you all again next year.