Twin paternosters baited with freshly dug lugworm settled on the clean sea bed one hundred meters offshore, a flooding spring tide and a setting sun heralding the promise of fish, I was not to be disappointed. Within two minutes a rod top nodded, first tap tap before a strong downward pull then slack line as the fish swam inshore. Picking up rod number one while reeling to make contact a heavy gliding weight signaled flatfish. Having cast off a rock platform into relatively deep water as the fish came closer dives and a circular motion of the mainline confirmed my assumption, double flounder a great start.
Thump, thump, slack, “what is this no time to think“, having barely had time to unhook my initial catch away goes rig number two. In hand and winding fast to maintain contact over goes the rod into a nice curve, now pumping the fish to clear an inshore kelp bed the white underbellies of two nice codling become visible through the crystal clear water. Ensuring a few turns of shock leader are wound around the reel spool I point my rod down towards the brace and lift them up and onto my fishing station, running a pound and a half plus each they will make a nice tea.
What a start and it did not stop there, six species to include dab, flounder, codling, pollack, coalfish and wrasse over a three hour session to dusk high water. How many fish were caught I do not know it became a blur of double codlings, double dab and any combination of the species list in between. The best fish was a pollack about four pound in weight which hit a trailing bait as I was reeling in a coalfish, what a session on a much loved mark quite obviously back to form. A muggy mid October evening belied the time of year, having made the decision to travel at short notice based on a weather window, one could not have planned it better.
In todays’ world of diminished marine fish stocks the Beara is a sea angling destination worth visiting and getting to know, traveling down for a decade now this angler has only scratched the surface. Yes I’ve seen changes, while numbers of fish encountered remains high mackerel are both scarce and small, while the average size of pollack on certain regular marks that I fish appears to have halved in weight. That said, a fish a chuck in the 2.lb bracket with at any moment a possible lunker ready to snaffle your jelly worm, then heaving your rod over as it dives for the kelp always making the journey worthwhile.
On this visit over two and a half days yours truly landed nine species, the six already mentioned plus scad, dogfish and conger eels to 15.lbs. Sea food chowder with slabs of buttered brown bread, pints of stout, the full Irish breakfast, traditional music of an evening, a nice welcome wherever you went and of course the scenery, what more could one ask for? It’s why I keep returning……..
