Like the great Wildebeest migration, that happens every year in Africa the autumn migration of Maryport DSAC anglers to catch fish on the beaches of County Kerry, Ireland, took place again this year from 7 – 17th of October. This migration is without the dangers of crocodiles awaiting in every river crossed, but it is a test of endurance. This is driven by these Maryport anglers need to fulfil a visit to Dingle, with a craving to catch a few fish, and sample a few pints of Guinness. Some of the members have been doing this journey now for over 40 years!

The numbers were slightly down on the previous trips due to several factors: health issues, mis-timed family holidays and work commitments. However, 15 members braved the 460 miles by road, and a further 61 miles by ferry from Cairnryan Port in Stranraer, across the North Channel of the Irish Sea, to Belfast Port in Northern Ireland. A journey of approximately 15-16 hours!

The trip comprised of a seven day species hunt and three 5-hour pegged matches on the beautiful beaches of: Inch, Fermoyle Strand, and Rossbeigh Beach.

The intrepid anglers had a few days free before the competition side of the trip began, so bait collection was the order of the day. Some chose to catch a few mackerel and sandeels, but both proved scarce this year; however, enough were caught for the forthcoming species competition and the matches. Also thanks to Martin McGowan at The Angling Hub tackle shop in Tralee, who provided fantastic frozen sandeel, which caught numerous fish species during the trip.

Link to Martin’s shop: The Angling Hub

Local sea angling YouTube star Chris O’Sullivan also provided the guys with some great sandeel to bring back for fishing over the winter months. Chris’s YouTube channel is well worth a visit if you’re fishing in County Kerry.

Link to his channel: The Inshore Angler

The species hunt started before the first pegged match, beginning at 0600hrs on Friday the 8th of October and was scheduled to finish at 1400hrs on Friday the 16th of October. The objective of the species hunt was to catch one of the largest specimens of the 7 target species. Those being: Bass, Bullhuss, Flounder, Painted Ray, Pollock, Thornback Ray, and Wrasse.

The first species to be put forward was a 44cm Thornback Ray caught at Castlegregory by Paul Tuck, followed shortly by a Pollock of 42cm caught by David Bell.

A number of the team early into the trip drove down to Valencia Island to fish the rocks and the pontoons in the harbour, hoping for a decent Bullhuss, Wrasse or Pollock. Ben and Harvey Butler managed to catch several fish of note, Ben catching a Bullhuss of 96cm and a Wrasse of 43cm.

Harvey improved on the size of his dad’s fish with a fine specimen of 102cm. Two other notable Bullhuss were caught at another beach, a 80cm specimen by David Bell and a slightly bigger fish of 83cm by Gary Lawson.

Another notable species, which was not on the target list was a superb Trigger Fish of 41cm caught on the rocks on Valencia Island by Kieran Takacs.

Tony Lewthwaite caught the largest Bass in the Inch Strand match again this year a fish of 45cm, not as large as his 72cm bass he caught last year, but still a very nice fish. Tonys 45cm Bass was beaten by John Dixons 51cm fish and Kenny McCoy’s 52cm entry later in the week.

Paul Tuck left it to the last cast, of the last match of the trip on Rossbeigh Beach, to catch a superb Bass of 57cm that was in prime condition. Paul also had the largest flounder of 38cm during the trip caught in the first match on Inch Strand.

This year the match fishing proved to be very hard with the numbers of fish in daylight being noticeable down on previous years. Those anglers that stayed out of Dingles fine hostelries, and fished into darkness were rewarded with greater numbers of fish especially bass. Mark Armstrong and Kenny McCoy over three sessions in darkness caught 26 x bass, 4 x flounders, 4 x dogfish, 1 x bullhuss, 1 x thornback ray, 1 x plaice, and 1x sole at Castlegregory.

One entry in the species hunt was thrown out when Gary Lawson tried to enter a Common Tern that manged to get tangled up in his fishing line. The bird was returned non the worse for its experience! Gary also has learned how to hover in the sitting position!

Going into the final few hours of the species hunt there was not one Painted Ray on the scorecard, so Kieran Takacs was delighted to land one with just a couple of hours to the end of the competition measuring 42cm across the wings. Just after Kieran had landed the fish a party of junior school pupils along with their teachers walked past and we had a job persuading them that Kieran was not one of their school group!

MATCH 1 – INCH

Moving onto the match competitions, the first being on the iconic Inch Beach. The sea state was good, with a reasonable surf coming in, but the fish were not there in great numbers. Only 61 fish was caught between the 15 anglers averaging 4 fish per angler. 42 Flounders, 12 Bass, and 6 Turbot. It’s sad to see the decline of fish caught on Inch over the past few years, particularly flounders and turbot. The bass seem to be there in decent numbers, particularly in the dark hours. Kenny McCoy and myself catching 7 in a short night session, later in the trip.

The match results are:

• 1st John Fleming – 9 fish, 7x flounder, 2 x bass – 78pts
• 2nd Ben Butler – 5 fish, 2 x flounder, 3 x bass – 75.5pts
• 3rd Harvey Butler – 2 fish, 2 x bass – 39pts
• 4th Paul Tuck – 3 fish, 1 x flounder, 1 x bass, 1x turbot – 38pts
• 5th Tony Lewthwaite – 1 fish,1 x bass – 38pts
• 6th Gary Lawson – 6 fish, 5 x flounder, 1 x turbot – 36pts

Largest round fish: Tony Lewthwaite – 45cm Bass

Largest flatfish: John Fleming – 36cm Flounder

MATCH 2 – FERMOYLE STRAND

The Fermoyle Strand match proved to be the worst match the club have ever fished on their annual Dingle trip. Last year it was very good, producing quality bass, painted rays, turbot, and some excellent flounders. The sea state was fine with a nice surf, but the day proved very demanding with an offshore wind gusting over 40 mph, heavy rain showers and the lack of fish combined to make a day that should have been spent in a local bar with a pint of Guinness!

Jeff McAllister won the match with the first cast , landing a double shot of small flounders, the largest being 27cm. Joe Pattinson manged joint 2nd place catching a 28cm bass on his last cast! Six other members managed to catch one fish each, and the remaining 8 anglers blanked. There was only 8 fish caught, 5 bass and 3 flounders.

The match results are:

• 1st Jeff McAllister – 2 fish, 2 x flounders – 10pts
• Joint 2nd Joe Pattinson – 1 fish, 1 x bass – 9pts
• Joint 2nd Ben Butler, – 1 fish, 1 x bass – 9pts
• Joint 3rd Paul Tuck – 1 fish, 1 x bass – 8pts
• Joint 3rd John Dixon – 1 fish, 1 x bass – 8pts
• Joint 3rd John Fleming – 1 fish, 1 x bass – 8pts
• 7th place Kenny McCoy – 1 fish, 1 x flounder – 3.5pts

Largest round fish: Ben Butler and Joe Pattinson – 28cm Bass each

Largest flat fish: Jeff McAllister – 27cm flounder

• MATCH 3 – ROSSBEIGH BEACH

The final match was on Rossbeigh Beach. There has been several reports of good numbers of bass being caught there, so expectations were high. On the first cast several members caught bass in the 35-40cm bracket, so things looked good, as the match progressed however, the fish were hard to find in any numbers. David Bell managed to land 4 bass and a flounder and going into the last cast was leading, until Paul Tuck threaded a large blowlug onto one of his hooks and a great bass of 57cm, approximately 7-8lbs hoovered it up. This bass had been feeding well, being in fantastic condition with a huge belly. This fish blew everyone out of the water elevating Paul into 1st place. In third place was Tony Lewthwaite who manged 2 bass and a flounder. Everyone manged fish, but again the numbers were disappointing. There was a total of 46 fish caught, 15 bass, 29 flounder, 1 turbot, and 1 plaice.

The match results are:

• 1st Paul Tuck – 5 fish, 4 x flounder, 1 x bass – 105.5pts
• 2nd David Bell – 5 fish, 1 x flounder, 4 x bass – 73pts
• 3rd Tony Lewthwaite – 3 fish, 1 x flounder, 2 x bass – 58pts
• 4th Jamie Lawson – 3 fish, 2 x flounder, 1 x bass – 49.5pts
• 5th Mark Armstrong – 4 fish, 4 x flounder – 39.5pts
• 6th Joe Pattinson – 3 fish, 2 x flounder, 1 x bass – 38pts

Other Competition Winners

As well as the three pegged matches a mystery pairs competition was run in each match and an overall 3 match mystery pairs. The identity of the pairs was not revealed until after the 3 matches and the winners were:

Match 1 – Inch

1st – Paul Tuck & John Fleming, 5 match points, catching 12 fish, winning £20

2nd – Harvey Butler & Mark Armstrong, 13 match points, catching 6 fish

3rd – Tony Lewthwaite & David Bell, 17 match points, catching 8 fish

Match 2 – Fermoyle

1st – John Dixon & Paul Tuck, 6 points, catching 2 fish, winning £20

2nd – Ben Butler & Kenny McCoy, 9 match points, catching 2 fish

3rd – Jeff McAllister & Kieran Takacs, 16 match points, catching 2 fish

Match 3 – Rossbeigh

1st – Paul Tuck & Jacob Watton, 12 match points, catching 8 fish, winning £20

2nd – Kenny McCoy & Mark Armstrong, 14 match points, catching 6 fish

3rd – Harvey Butler & John Fleming, 15 match points, catching 3 fish

Overall 3 match Mystery Pairs

1st – Paul Tuck & Mark Armstrong, 38 match points, catching 16 fish, winning a £200 tackle voucher Kindly donated by BEN BUTLER KITCHEN & BATHROOMS

2nd – Kenny McCoy & Ben Butler, 46 match points, catching 16 fish

3rd – John Dixon & David Bell, 50 match points, catching 20 fish

SPECIES HUNT WINNERS – all winning £50

Bass 57cm – Paul Tuck

Bullhuss 102cm – Harvey Butler

Flounder 38cm – Paul Tuck

Painted Ray 42cm – Kieran Takacs

Pollock 57cm – Harvey Butler

Thornback Ray 44cm – Paul Tuck

Wrasse 43cm – Ben Butler

SMALLEST FISH CAUGHT IN A MATCH

Flounder 13cm – Kenny McCoy winning £20

TOP THREE INDIVIDUALS

1st Paul Tuck – 8 points

2nd John Fleming – 11 points

3rd Ben Butler – 19 points

CONCLUSION

Another enjoyable trip to Dingle with the 3 matches proving very hard fishing on all the beaches. The consensus of opinion was the that the water temperature was still being effected by the very hot summer weather, and this may have had some lasting impact on the lack of fish on the beaches. We have sadly seen a decline in the quantity and quality of fish on the surf beaches particularly the flounders and turbots over recent years. The bass fishing remains constant, with the right surf conditions they showed up quite consistently.

The general opinion amongst the club members is that we fish matches into darkness to improve the numbers and quality of fish. Those members who fished into darkness had more fish, particularly bass, better quality fish, and more species. So it gives us something to think about for next year.