An Irish Anglers World describes and illustrates Irish angling as it presents, good, bad or indifferent. When reading the posts one has to take into account the competency of the angler, experience, effort, bait used, time of day, tide and other such variables. However what should never be lost on the reader is that the accounts are true, accurate and written with objectivity, when its good its good and when its bad, well………
A first beach casting session for this angler since September 2013 has to be taken into account, after all one has been out of the loop, that said, a sum haul of 2 small flounder, a 30 centimeter codling and a dogfish for two competent and experienced anglers utilising four rods over a five hour session is a poor return from a once productive strand. A waxing moon, tides getting bigger, dusk into dark and freshly dug large black lugworm all should have helped. Yes there was a light northerly breeze which flattened the sea and yes it was a falling tide neither of which in principal should have made a difference, still bait came in as it went out.
Beach casting is this anglers favourite way to fish. A lot of effort, thought and cash was invested in last Saturday evening, departing early in the day to dig bait, lunch in a local pub, snacks, petrol which amounted to €60.00 and of course the €1000.00 plus worth of tackle that was employed on the day. Given a healthy inshore environment this angler would go beach casting at least once a week from June to December spending more or less the above amount on each occasion, that’s €1700.00 shared between garages, pubs and shops in the south east. No fish means no spend, it is about time that the Irish government realised that sea fisheries are a public resource and as such should be managed accordingly. No business worth its salt should mine itself into extinction, no business has the right to destroy a resource and at the same time seek recompense through political means for their folly. Yet this is exactly what the commercial sea fishing sector does and worse still Government complies, the famine like experience of last Saturday on a once productive south Wexford strand the sad outcome…………
