Toberpatrick, August Evening, 2013

A lovely roll on the sea generated by a warm south/south west breeze created a single crumping wave which dissapated with a thump swoosh of sand and shingle along Toberpatrick strand, north Co. Wexford. A six thirty pm 3:1 meter high tide on a rising cycle towards full moon in tandem with the sea conditions screamed fish. Due to it being an impromptu trip and having only ragworm as against an array of bait which normally would have included peeler, lug, and mackerel didn’t deter, the rag, fresh, red and large would definitely appeal to a smoothie, flounder, bass, or dogfish.

Evening fishing on Toberpatrick strand, Co. Wexford, Ireland.

Three biteless hours later with night closing in, after placing baits from the gutter to well over 100 meters out, using fixed and rolling rigs yours truly didn’t wait for full on dark, the untouched ragworm telling their own story. Normally shrimps, prawns, crabs, small fish, something would nibble at the hook presented offerings over the standard ten minutes they are left to fish before rebaiting time. Other than being washed out the rag came in as they went out.

Normally as dusk closes in flatties come on the feed, doggies become more active and hounds make their presence felt. Being just a stones throw from both Kilmichael point to the north and Clone strand south of Castletown bass are a real possibility too. Back in the day Toberpatrick threw up ray, doggies, dab, flounder, bass, hounds, and certainly would have delivered a few decent fish in the conditions presented yesterday evening as light faded. Unfortunately nothing stirred, I could have been casting into a desert.

Yes it was a nice evening going through the motions and chatting to passing beach walkers about the great summer weather Ireland has enjoyed and how dogs love to cock a leg over your tackle box, however, and at this stage one feels like a broken record. When your youngest daughters fishing mad boyfriend at 23 years of age starts to question this shore fishing lark having spent a small fortune on the best of gear you begin to wonder.

Ireland has a wonderful but savagely abused marine resource, sea angling at €127.5 million is the third largest marine fisheries product category after pelagic at €213 million and shellfish at €148.1 million. With 71,000 sea anglers in the country, and 150,000 specialist sea anglers residing in the UK who like to travel to fish staying for up to eight bed night per annum, what are we doing. Ireland has a socio economic goldmine on its hands and we have all but frittered it away because politically we cannot prioritise management policies that engage all stakeholders as against the few usual suspects.

Quickly researching both the Sea Angling Ireland and East Coast Raiders SAC websites told me all that I needed to know, “the beach fishes slow”. In the past it most certainly didn’t,  we need to get our collective act together once and for all, this marine malaise has gone far enough……..

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