46th Cobh International Deep Sea Angling Festival - the results

Well it’s all over for another year and what a great success the 46^th Cobh International Deep Sea Angling Festival has been! Despite numbers being down this year, it was a great week. The weather was extraordinary with blue skies, flat calm seas, gentle breezes, and hot sun greeting the anglers every day. Indeed, you’d have been forgiven for thinking that you were fishing in the tropics. By Friday all the participating anglers were sporting a fine suntan more reminiscent of a Spanish holiday rather than a fishing trip off the South coast of Ireland!!! That kind of weather hasn’t happened for over 8 years and was quite a welcome change from the wind and rain that can so often face the anglers at this time of year.

The weather certainly put everyone in great form but it was the fishing that put everyone on a high. For the week as a whole the fishing could only have been classified as exceptionally good. Although, there was a bit of slack fishing for some on the last few days the results from Monday and Tuesday, in particular, were fantastic. Add in the usual craic and banter, and the merriment that was had back on dry land in the various pubs/restaurants that had sponsored the day’s fishing, and you’d have to say it was a phenomenal week!!!

The weather allowed all boats to fish outside the harbour on everyday of the competition. Although, fishing in the harbour is quite good the chance to get out to the offshore reefs is always welcomed. It is out here that the anglers are always in with a chance to catch something a bit more spectacular and so it proved to be the case this year as near specimen cod, conger, garfish, and lsd’s were landed. The numbers of fish landed were also quite spectacular with over 2,000 fish recorded amongst the 43 anglers participating.

Once again this Festival wouldn’t be the success it is without the hard work of certain individuals from Cobh SAC and for that many thanks are due to Mary Geary and Ruud Boelhower in particular. Without them the Festival would not go as smoothly or seamlessly as it does. Others who helped and deserve a lot of credit are Tracy Fortune and Ger O’Flynn for their work on keeping the scores, inputting all scorecards and compiling the results on a daily basis. Many thanks also to Truus Boelhower who put on a magnificent spread for the official opening of the Festival on the Sunday night. Truus’ chicken liver pate is something to behold and I would advise anyone to sign up for next year’s Festival just to get a taste of this alone! Truus also provided many other tasty tidbits including the smoked salmon, smoked trout and smoked mackerel, all ably and competently smoked by Ruud himself. Many thanks also to those who helped on the pier each morning and included Frank Burke, Frank Cronin, Richie Fortune, Donal Geary, and George Stockley. Thanks also to the stewards, Jimmy O’ Mahony, Ben Richardson, Richie Fortune, Cian Ryan, and Aidan Kneeshaw, to name but a few. Also, many thanks are due to the skippers, all members of the Cork Harbour Angling Hub, who worked tirelessly to put the anglers on the fish all week. These included Joe Lynch of the Wreckhunter, Donal Geary of the John Boy, John Geary of the Lee Star, John Barry of the Cuan Bawn, and Ger Keohane of the Naomh Cartha. Final thanks is due to the Port of Cork who facilitated Cobh SAC in many ways by allowing full use of the facilities on Kennedy Pier, Cobh and to Eoin O’ Sullivan, of Marine Transport for the use of the offices on the pier.

What a great event this Festival is, though! It is quite unique in that it is not run like most competitions where points are based on the species of fish caught. Points are instead awarded by weight. In that difference it is a throwback to the competitions of old, before conservation measures were brought in. In those days, bags of fish were brought back to the pier to be weighed and, though it made for spectacular viewing, it was terrible, in hindsight, to think that most of the fish were then dumped back over the side. Now the fish are weighed onboard each boat by the stewards and, immediately returned alive and kicking (unless of course they are to be kept for the table by the angler). The weight to the nearest kilo is calculated and 10 points are awarded per kilo; a further 5 points are awarded per fish. At the end of the week the angler that has landed the heaviest bag of fish is the winner, regardless of species caught. This can make for interesting tactics with anglers having to decide to either target conger or pollack for the week. Having said that there are some great prizes for other categories such as heaviest cod, heaviest ling, etc…

Although, the Festival is competitive there is still great fun and onboard the boats there is always some great slagging and banter. The craic continues well after the fishing ends. Each day one of the local hostelries sponsors the day’s fishing. All contestants normally flock back to this establishment to discuss the day’s fishing and, of course, tales of the one that got away. Normally, there is a bit of food and music and the combination of all these factors makes it hard to get away. Many an angler starts with the good intention of heading off after and hour or two, just to get that time to replenish stock and retie traces. However, it never works out that way; the craic and banter is just too good!!! Sore heads and seedy bodies are normally the result the following day. It is this fun side of the week’s long event, as well as the fishing, that draws people back year after year. As a result, many of the foreign anglers have been returning to fish the Festival, year after year. In fact, for some of the Dutch anglers this is there 37^th year here. This year anglers travelled from the Uk, Wales, Switzerland, and Holland.

…..and so, to the fishing! On Monday the designated area was to be the Power Head/Pollack Rock area. Anticipation was high, for with the good weather and good tides it was hoped that the fishing would be good. The fishing didn’t disappoint! In fact, for some of the boats the fishing was superb! Each boat averaged over 50 congers, with the average caught per angler about 6. The average scores coming in were between 400 and 500 points. Compared to normal Festival’s this is very high scoring. Everyone knew it was a good day and were hopeful that their good score would put them in a good position on the scoreboard. However, nothing prepared the anglers for the news on returning to the pier. The Wreckhunter had an exceptional day with two of the anglers onboard scoring over 900 points. This is almost unheard of in the annals of the competition. Dutch angler, Gerard Gersjes topped the leader board with 980 points, followed closely in second place by Welsh angler, Paul Evans, with 925 points. Local angler, John Warner, who was also on the Wreckhunter, came in third with 730 points. Many were blown away with this scoring. There have been Festivals in the past that have been won with that score over the entire week. Was the race for the top already won? With such a lead could the leader be even caught at this stage?

Heaviest fish fell to Tina Kneeshaw with an 11kg conger. Tina was fishing onboard the Cuan Bawn and skipper, John Barry, had put them on one of his oldest tried and tested conger marks. What an ugly and saucy beast it was too! Tina, a seasoned angler, had to jump on top of her tackle box to escape its wrath!!!

On Tuesday many anglers hoped just for a good’s days fishing resigned to the fact that the pole position might just be out of reach but the results that day were to prove that you can take nothing for granted in this game. As the anglers gathered on the pier on a magnificent Tuesday morning the fishing grounds were announced as the Smith’s reef, grounds to the west, including the Daunt Rock area. The weather on Tuesday was phenomenal; the winds had swung around to the northwest quadrant and were quite slack; there wasn’t a cloud in the sky and the temperatures soon started to rocket. Sun cream was the order of the day and, fair play to the skippers, they had an ample supply and prevented many an angler from roasting and shrivelling under the midday heat…..and boy, was it hot! By early afternoon the heat was more reminiscent of a day at the beach under the Spanish sun!  

The fishing on Tuesday matched the weather….spectacular!!! Again, it was the Wreckhunter that led the way. Skipper Joe Lynch was anxious to keep his anglers on the fish all day and to his credit that’s just what he managed to do. Joe put his crew on Lenny’s Rock first, and then the Smith’s, followed lastly by the general Daunt Rock area. Cobh SAC Treasurer, Pat O’Shea, was bagging a steady amount pollack all day. In the afternoon, things really heated up. Both Pat and fellow Cobh SAC angler, Martin Perryman were in the two aft positions and in the last hour and a half of the competition bagged over 70 pollack between them, with many touching the 3kg mark. By the end of the day Pat had landed nearly 60 fish to win the day with a spectacular tally of 1,220 points! To put this in context, remember that last year’s Festival was won with a final score over the 4 days of 1,270 points. Over the history of the event it’s thought to be the highest day’s score ever. Martin Perryman was to come in second place with a score of 865 points and Paul Evans of Wales in third with 685 points. That scoring certainly put the cat amongst the pigeons as the leader board changed dramatically. Pat O’ Shea was now in first place with 1,710 points with Paul Evans of Wales in second with 1,610 points. The race was now on!!!

Tina Kneeshaw once more landed the heaviest fish. Tina was fishing onboard the Naomh Cartha, skippered by Ger Keohane and landed a fine 16kg conger. What was most amazing was that only 10 minutes prior to catching this she had also landed 14kg conger. Needless, to say after landing two leviathans over such a short period Tina took a much needed rest and relaxed for an extended fag break!

With the weather remaining so fine and settled it was decided to fish the Ling Rocks on Thursday. It’s not always possible to fish the Lings and it is a long steam from Kennedy Pier of almost 16 miles but when the opportunity comes you got to take it. The Lings can always throw up some truly spectacular fish with specimen pollack, cod, ling, and conger a distinct possibility and so this trip was greatly anticipated by everyone. Unfortunately, the fishing wasn’t as good as hoped but it was still quite good compared to normal standards. Given the spectacular fishing on Tuesday, everyone’s expectations had risen a considerable degree. Winner on Thursday was Steve Willams of Wales with 635 points, followed closely by Pat O’ Shea with 620 points. Local angler, John Warner, came in third with 465 points. In the overall standings Pat O’Shea was able to increase his lead over second placed Paul Evans. Going into the final day Pat had a score of 2,330 points with Paul on 1,905 points.

Ling featured a lot in the catches on Thursday, as did garfish and cod. Heaviest fish of the day was a 13.5kg conger, which was caught by Cork city angler, Dave Drohan. However, the luckiest catch of the day was onboard the Naomh Cartha. Gerard Gersjes was fishing on one of the aft positions and momentarily rested his rod on the gunwhales. Disaster struck…..in a flash Gerard’s rod was pulled over the side and was gone! The lesson here is to never leave your rod unattended. Fair play to skipper, Ger Keohane, though, who tried for an age to retrieve the rod with a set of feathers, but to no avail? Poor Gerard was inconsolable. Ger set him up with a spare rod but Gerard just did not have the enthusiasm left to carry on fishing. At the depth we were fishing, at over 100ft, the likelihood of retrieving the rod and reel were slim. Having said that the luck was with Gerard for thirty minutes later Sandra O’Shea, fishing in one of the bow positions, announced that she was into something heavy, but a dead weight. Could it be Gerard’s rod and reel? We daren’t get our hopes up…..but sure enough it was!!! Gerard was elated and kissed Sandra….and kissed Ger Keohane!!! Ger was not impressed!!!

On Friday the sun didn’t come out until midday but still it was another fine day. The fishing grounds were announced as the Power Head area and the Pollack Rock, the same as day 1. Could Paul Evans of Wales catch Pat O’ Shea? 415 points separated the two of them but anything could happen in fishing and that difference could be recovered. The fishing was very good once more and the congers did show in numbers. This suited Cork Harbour’s own conger specialist and a previous winner of the Festival, Frank Cronin, who was to prevail and recorded a good score of 705 points. In second place was Johann Duijts of Holland with a score of 665 points. Third was Noel Carey with 435 points. Noel had a fine cod of 5.0kg and could be forgiven for hoping that he had his hands on the prize for the best cod of the week. However, later in the day on the same boat, the Cuan Bawn, Sjef Van Raamsdonk of Holland landed an even better cod of 8.5kg. What a beauty! Just marginally below specimen. What was even more remarkable was that Sjef had two fish on at the one time; this fine cod and a 15.5kg conger! This conger landed Sjef the prize for the heaviest fish of the day.

….and so as the fishing concluded the race for top honours had become apparent. Paul Evans had scored 250 points to bring his total to 2,155 points, but Pat O’ Shea had a relatively good day scoring 375 points bringing his overall total to 2,705 points and winning him the title for 2012. Along, with a plethora of prizes Pat also bags the winner’s cheque of €1,000. Well done Pat!!!

The scores for 2012 were record breaking with the top 12 anglers beating the top score from last year’s festival of 1,270 points. Indeed, the winning score of 2,705 points has probably been never achieved before. We are currently checking the club’s records to see if this was the case.

….and so a week of extraordinary fishing has come to and end and what a week!!! The final results were as follows:

1^st Pat O’ Shea, Cobh SAC, 2,705 pts

2^nd Paul Evans, Wales, 2,155 pts

3^rd Martin Perryman, Cobh SAC, 1,905 pts

4^th Steve Williams, Wales, 1,905 pts

5^th Steve Tyler, Wales, 1,880 pts

6^th Frank Cronin, Cobh SAC, 1,840 pts

7^th John Warner, Aghada SAC, 1,750 pts

8^th Gerard Gersjes, Holland, 1,645 pts

9^th Milo Burke, Cobh SAC, 1,520 pts

10^th Danny Kane, Cobh SAC, 1,455 pts

11^th Johann Duijts, Holland, 1,330 pts

12^th Martin Duijts, Holland, 1,315 pts

13^th Tom Johnson, Ireland, 1,265 pts

14^th Tina Kneeshaw, Crosshaven SAC, 1,265 pts

15^th Ger Brady, Cobh SAC, 1,115 pts

Best Pollack, 4.0kg, Noel Carey, Irl

Best Ling, 5.0kg, Bob Crebor, Irl

Most No. of Conger, 31 conger, Gerard Gersjes, Holland

Best Edible Bag, 175kg, Pat O’ Shea, Irl

Most Species, 9 species, Danny Kane, Irl

Best Cod, 8.5kg, Sjef Van Raamsdonk, Holland

Heaviest Edible Fish, 8.5kg, Sjef Van Raamsdonk, Holland

Best No. of Fish, 132 fish, Pat O’ Shea, Irl

Best ‘Out of State’, Paul Evans, Wales, 2,155pts

Best Junior, Michael Lane, Irl, 810 pts

Best Lady, Tina Kneeshaw, Irl, 1,265 pts

Heaviest fish of the week, 16kg conger, Tina Kneeshaw, Irl

Best Skipper, Joe Lynch, Wreckhunter

Fun Team, Ireland B, Steve Williams, Milo Burke, Frank Cronin, Paul Tennant, 6,245 pts

Two Man Team, Ireland I, Pat O’ Shea, Martin Duijts, 4,020 pts.

In addition to Pat O’ Shea’s win this is his second year on the trot winning the Best Edible Bag Trophy and his third year on the trot winning the Best No. of Fish Trophy. Well done again Pat!!!

Plans are already afoot to organise next year’s event. It will be run from Monday 2^nd September 2013 to Friday 6^th September 2013. Here’s hoping that the weather and the fishing will be just as good. You can rest assured that the craic and banter will be!!!

There will be a cash element to the prizes once more with €1,000 for first place, €400 for 2^nd place, and €200 for 3^rd. The winning team of two will also receive a cheque for €400. If you would like to enter then contact Cobh SAC through Mary Geary on 00-353-21-4812167 or by email on seaangling@esatclear.ie. Get your entries in as soon as possible; c’mon, you know its good for you!!!

2011 IFSA Boat Fish-Off's....

Well for the third year on the trot the club has hosted the IFSA National Boat Fish-Off's. These were held over the two days of the recent October bank holiday weekend. Thankfully, we acquitted ourselves well again and the event ran smoothly and without a hitch. Well done and thanks to our own Martin O' Leary, & Sean Og McShane, and also to Pat Wright of Angelsea SAC who did a great job of stewarding the event over the two days. Well done also to the background team of Mary Geary, John O' Reilly, and Tracy Fortune who did trojan work in running the event and also assisted John Martin IFSA in accumulating the scores. Also, we musn't forget the skippers, Donie Geary of the John Boy, Gerry Keohane of the Naomh Cartha, John Geary of the Lee Star, and Alan Kennedy of the Lagosta II, who kept the competitors on fish despite very trying conditions.

Well what are the National Fish-Offs all about? The whole purpose of the event is to select the Irish team to participate in the World Championships of the following year. In 2012 the Worlds will be held in South Africa. The top five competitors over the two days qualify for the team aswell as the winner of the National Boat Master Angler who qualifies as captain of the team. The top 20 finishers automatically qualify for the Fish-Offs of the following year. They are joined by the top 12 finishers of the Boat Master Angler competition, so that in all 32 anglers are competing in the event. The purpose of this format is to raise the standard of angling at the top level and minimise the role that luck might play.

The anglers compete over the two days in 4 three hour sessions. Each boat is considered a separate zone and the winner of each boat in each session receives either 1, 2, 3, or 4 points all depending on the points on his scorecard. The angler with the most points will get a score of 1, and so on. The second placed anglers on the boats are then allocated points between

5 and 8 and so on down the line. The angler with the least amount of points wins the competition outright. This year the angler with the least number of points was Kit Dunne of Wicklow Bay SAC. Kit came first with 13 points having topped his boat over three sessions and coming second on a fourth session. On one of those sessions that he topped his boat he had the best scorecard amongst the 32 competitors and, thus, received the coveted 1 point. The other anglers in the top five, in order of merit, were Michael Barry of the Eastern Command SAC, Gordon Darker of Stella Maris SAC, David Jolly of Caherciveen SAC, and Tony Santry of Bishopstown SAC. Well done lads!!! They join Myles Howell of Wicklow Bay SAC, who having won the National Boat Masters competition in Sept, now captains the Irish team. Full results can be see on the IFSA website here.

Our own Danny Kane acquitted himself well. However, as he finished outside the top 20 he does not qualify to stay in the pool for next year's fish offs. Danny will have to try and qualify through the Masters once more. Well done in any case Danny, you put in a good showing for your first time!!!

The fishing itself was tough on the first day. There was a howling gale, driving rain and rough seas. With a strong ebb tide and southerly winds there was a big sea running....even between the forts. All the boats elected at the start to fish the western edge of the channel dropping into 'Deep Hole.' Before low water Donie onboard the John Boy switched over to the eastern side just below Carlisle. It was then that we got a fair idea of the sea running as the John Boy completely disappeared between the swells with only her mast showing. For the first session the fishing was slow. Dabs, small whiting, poor cod, pouting and codling did show. However, for the second session all boats switched over to Dognose to catch the start of the flood and hopefully the whiting shoals. They never materialised. Still by the end of the day most anglers had averaged between 20 and 40 fish. That's not too bad when you consider the conditions. This highlights the uniqueness of Cork Harbour; where else would you have caught fish on a day like that. In fact, in most other venues you just would not have got out.

On Day 2 the weather was much improved and with it the fishing improved dramatically as well. All boats decided to stay put on the western side and it was a wise decision. Most anglers recorded an average of 80 fish with good dabs and whiting amongst them. In fact a fair few dabs were close to specimen size. What a difference a day makes!

...and so the fish-offs concluded for one more year; we wish the new Irish team the best of luck in South Africa and, hopefully, Cobh SAC may be asked again to host the Fish-Offs someday again in the future.

2011 Festival

Well its all over for another year and what a week it was! The competition went right down to the wire, but in the end Danny Kane prevailed! Yes, he's done it again! Danny Kane is champion for the second year on the trot!

Fair play to Danny! This comes two weeks after his great result in the national boat masters. You can't say he's fluky anymore. Mind you, there are those that say that he definitely does have lady lucky smiling on him. On the final day Danny was in the top ten but a specimen conger of 19kg in the last few hours of the competition lifted him above the rest. This gave him 195 points and lifted him up the table. In the end his winning margin over the runner-up was a mere 55 points.

You'd have to feel sorry for young Cian Ryan, though. Cian was juvenile munster champion a mere few years ago and certainly has the credentials to give Danny a run for his money. Coming into the final day Cian was leading the table. It did look like it was going to be Cian's year. However, a number of seasoned anglers, Danny included, pulled out all the stops on the Friday and pushed Cian down to 5th place. Unlucky Cian; maybe next year. At least, the experience will stand to you.

It was a tough week, though. At times the fishing was tough. This was mainly down

to the weak tides as we fished neaps all week. However, this was further compounded by the weather which was crap. A series of gales hit the fishing grounds over the week and the anglers took a battering. Although, most anglers struggled everyday there was, at least, one boat everyday that did bring in good results; so it wasn't all bad.

On the opening day of the Festival, 52 anglers gathered early on the pier and boarded the waiting charter boats promptly. Six boats of the Cork Harbour

Angling Hub charter boat fleet were used and were well equipped to deal with the inclement weather. Although, Monday started off okay the forecast wasn't great and it was decided to make the most of initial conditions and get outside the Harbour. The Smiths reef were declared the fishing grounds for the day and it was hoped that this would allow for some quality fishing on at least one day in the event of the boats

being confined to the Harbour for the remainder.

Although, all boats managed to stay on the Smiths reef, some 7kms off Roches Point, conditions during the day deteriorated dramatically. By evening a full blown gale had developed and sea conditions were building with wave heights in excess of 3 metres. Four of the six boats struggled with poor fishing. However, two boats hit a bit of a gold vein with plenty of individual scores in excess of 500 points. 1st place for the day went to Richie Fortune of Cobh SAC with 535 points; 2nd went to Steve Williams of Wales with 520 pts; and 3rd went to Tom Johnson of Ireland with

510 pts. Tom Johnson also recorded the heaviest fish of the day with a 11.5kg conger.

It was with great relief that many of the anglers greeted the call for lines up and when we retired to Tradewinds Restaurant for the evening there was many a body that was black and blue from trying to counter the motion of the sea. What harm; the craic and banter that was had in Tradewinds certainly made up for the hardships of the day and, as the band played on into the evening, most anglers unwound with a few pints of well earned Guinness and stories of the one that got away!

Day 2 and remnants of the overnight gale certainly blew the cobwebs away for most. An attempt was made to make it to the offshore marks but, with a heavy sea running and the boats taking a battering on the outward trek, a decision was

made to turn back to more sheltered waters. The fishing grounds were to be the Harbour mouth and the coastal reefs of Guileen and Trabolgan. Again, the pattern of the day before was repeated; some boats struggled but one or two had good fishing. Having said that there were more zero scores today. Seasoned angler, Pat O' Shea of Cobh SAC, was to get a duck-egg; the first of his career! Chairman of the club, John O'Reilly, was to have a cracker of a day. John came first with 415 points and

also had the heaviest fish, a 15kg conger. 2nd was Ruud Boelhouwer of Holland with 395 pts, and

3rd was Bobby Crebor of Carrigaline SAC with 330 pts.

With gale force winds, squally conditions, and heavy downpours the anglers were certainly battered once more. However, spirits were lifted when all gathered at the post match venue of Ryan's bar. Again the craic and banter was superb. With 'Buster' entertaining with his vast repetoire of songs, sea shanties, and ballads into the wee hours, all thoughts of a tough day were soon forgotten about.
The following day, Wednesday, was a rest day. That night all anglers gathered in O'Sheas Bar at the Commodore Hotel for Trad night. Traditional Irish band, Something Simple, gave rousing renditions of 'auldies' and Irish. This talented trio were superb! As the anglers got stuck into the traditional fare of 'crubeens,' conversation drifted towards the anticipated remaining two days. Frank Burke's crubeens had hair on it! That's the second year on the trot!!! (...if you pardon the pun). Was it to be an omen...it certainly was, as on the next day Frank put in one of his

best career performances in these Internationals to date!

Day 3, Thursday and not a bad day weather wise, or so it was forecast. It started off okay and this allowed the boats to get out to the outer reefs. The fishing grounds were decided as the Pollack Rock reef, a reef system that extends east of Power Head towards Ballycotton. The fishing was quite good with plenty of pollack, ling, conger, and cod showing. However, as the day progressed the winds started to build; as did the sea-state. By lines up, the anglers were once again glad to be homeward bound. Cian Ryan, fishing onboard the Lee Star, had a cracker of a day landing pollack one after the other to end up with 450 points. This put him in pole position going into the final day. Frankie Burke also had a great day. It must have been the 'crubeen.' Frank had landed eight fine congers to give him 435 points and second place. Third place went to veteran Fred Vickery from Crosshaven SAC. Mike Hade landed the heaviest fish of the day, a fine 13kg conger. On shore everyone headed to Kelly's bar where once again a great evening was had by all. With an earlier start to the last day most headed home that bit earlier than usual; all except Danny and the Welsh lads.

On the final day, the forecast put paid to any thoughts of making the better marks offshore. Stiffs winds from

the south east forced a decision to limit fishing to the harbour area and marks within 1 mile of Roches Point. With such restrictions it was initially thought that Cian Ryan was safe on the top spot; nobody could chalk up enough points to knock him off his pedestal...or so it seemed. It wasn't to be, though; Danny Kane had a storming day, topped off by catching a specimen conger (not an easy specimen to catch and the first specimen conger in the Festival in many years). Most of the boats fished the Harbour Rock initially, but

Danny was on

board the Wreck Hunter. Skipper Joe Lynch opted instead to fish one of his marks close to Trabolgan. By lunchtime this didn't seem so good as there was only one fish onboard but all of a sudden the conger came on the feed. A steady flow of fish came onboard for the afternoon topped off by that monster conger.

That fish alone was worth 195 points for Danny and helped him to leapfrog over half a dozen anglers to put him in top spot overall. Top spot earns Danny €1,000!!! On the day Danny came in second spot with 450 points, with Milo Burke first with 475 points, and Con Cronin in third with 390 points. All three

anglers were on the one boat. Heaviest fish was, of course, Danny's conger.

So concluded a week of extraordinary fishing and the final results were as follows:

1st Danny Kane, Cobh SAC, 1270 pts

2nd Steve Williams, Wales, 1215 pts

3rd Tom Johnson, Ireland, 1140 pts

4th Paul Tennant, Cobh SAC, 1100 pts

5th Cian Ryan, Cobh SAC, 1075 pts

6th Fred Vickery, Crosshaven SAC, 1055 pts

7th Milo Burke, Cobh SAC, 1005 pts

8th Pat O' Shea, Cobh SAC, 875 pts

9th John Slynne, Carrigaline SAC, 860 pts

10th Bob Crebor, Carrigaline SAC, 820 pts

11th Sean Og McShane, Cobh SAC, 810 pts

12th Richie Fortune, Cobh SAC, 800 pts

13th Con Cronin, Cobh SAC, 800 pts

14th John O' Reilly, Cobh SAC, 780 pts

15th Frank Burke, Cobh SAC, 775 pts

Best Pollack, 3.0kg, Bob Crebor, Ire

Best Ling, 4.5kg, Tony Maguire, Ire

Most No. of Conger, Tom Johnson, Ire, 19 conger

Best Edible Bag, 52kg, Pat O' Shea, Ire

Most Species, Andrew Tucker, Wales, 8 Species

Best Cod, 4.0kg, Bob Crebor, Ire

Best No. of Fish, Pat O' Shea, Ire, 48 fish

Best 'Out of State' angler, Steve Williams, Wales, 1215 pts

Best Lady, Tina Kneeshaw, Ire, 685 pts

Best Junior, Ml. Lane, Ire, 650 pts

Heaviest fish of the week, 19.0kg conger, Danny Kane

Best Skipper, Alan Kennedy, Lagosta II

Plans are already afoot in organising next years event. Next year the tides will be springs so the fishing should be much better and the scoring should be much higher. If you'd fancy entering why not contact our club secretary. Mary Geary, at 00-353-21-4812167. C'mon, you know it's good for you!!!

A big thanks to Martin O' Leary who, once again, did all the photography for the week. Aswell as the photos here Martin has uploaded more than 175 pics of the week on our facebook page (Cobh Sac).

Well done Danny...3rd in the Masters!

Well done to clubman Danny Kane, who came 3rd in the National Boat Angling Masters!!! Danny and Sandra O' Shea were representing Cobh SAC at this years masters held two weeks ago in Killybegs. The fishing was very competitive with the best of the country's anglers slogging it out against each other over two days.

Danny did exceptionally well to finish in third spot. Its Danny's first time fishing the masters and, apparently, this is the highest finish by a first time competitor. Sandra did well aswell, finishing in 42nd spot out of 60 anglers, and the best anglers in the country at that. Myles Howell of Bray finished in first spot and Stven O' Neill of Guileen (who is a regular entrant in our light line competitions) finished in 2nd.

Danny now progresses onto the National Fish Offs on the October weekend where he competes in a two day competition to determine the Irish Boat team for South Africa in 2012. Danny couldn't have a better chance of making the national team as Cobh SAC is hosting this event and it is once more fished in Cork Harbour. Danny's experience of fishing the light line competitions over the last three seasons should stand to him as the fishing for the National fish offs is very similar. Go on Danny, you can do it!!!

Festival 2011 - 4 weeks to go!

Are you booked in? Only 4 weeks to go....give Mary a bell on 021-4812167.

Cobh Fishing Tackle - new shop

Cobh Fishing Tackle have opened a new branch right next door to the Commodore Hotel in the old Seashell's Shop. This is a handy spot if you're heading out fishing for the day and need to top up on tackle; just a short distance away from the pier. Everything you need is there, including fresh bait. The bait freezer and fridge are well stocked up.

Best of luck to Mary & Donie, we hope this new venture is a roaring success!!!

Summer Light Lines Comp No.3

Last Monday evening we held the third in our series of summer light line comps. Everyone gathered at Kennedy Pier for 6pm and loaded aboard the Naomh Cartha. Fishing was alright.

Its amazing the difference between the seasons as regards numbers and species of fish. The main species caught on Monday night were dabs and doggies. In the winter its cod and whiting.

On the night, Danny Kane just pipped Sandra O' Shea for top spot. Danny had a total of 19 fish but so had Sandra; the difference between the two a mere 6 points. Well done to all who participated, the fishing wasn't great but the banter was mighty as usual.

Our next competition is the Festival. That's only 5 weeks away. If you haven't got your entry in yet give Mary a buzz on 021-4812167!!!!

Cork Harbour Championships

Well we had a good turnout for the Harbour Championships recently. Eleven anglers from the club fished and we were able to field three teams.

Fishing was a bit patchy, though. Danny Kane reports that he, Sandra and two others fishing onboard 'Sandra Anne,' struggled outside until they came in and fished the 'Quarry' in Whitebay and picked up a few congers.

At the end of the day Passage were the winning team, with Michael Geary from Monkstown SAC, the overall winner. Well done Michael!

We were also running one of our own Master Boat competitions as part of this comp and our overall winner was Frank Cronin. Well done Frank! Frank did well fishing for dabs on Curlane Bank and certainly raked up the points. Cian Ryan came third, with Danny Kane coming in fourth spot.

The race for the overall Masters spot for the year is hotting up but it looks like Frank and Danny will be slugging it out together.

Do remember, though, that we have a few places on the Masters this year due to the number of registered members so they'll still be places up for grabs.

All hell broke loose in the Kitchen.....

All hell broke loose in the Kitchen recently....literally. In a fund-raiser for Cobh SAC two teams of amateur chefs were pitted against each other to serve 70 paying patrons! Oh, the pressure was on. On one side were Pat O'Shea and Ger Richardson of Cobh SAC, and on the other Aidan Kneeshaw and John O'Reilly, also of Cobh SAC. Between the four of them....they couldn't boil an egg!!!

However, ably guided by Richie Fortune and Sandra O' Shea they muddled their way through it....and surprisingly, there were no complaints. Wow!

A great night was had by all, which was rounded off nicely by a great performance on the musical front by Dr. Pender and his band.

Many thanks to Sandra and Danny of Tradewinds Restaurant for use of their facilities, to Ger Keohane who provided the venison, to Donie Geary who supplied the cod, and to all those patrons who supported Cobh SAC on the night. Well done!!!

...and by the way, well done to Pat & Ger, who won on the night!!!