Fishing Adventures 2011

Me and James have been busy doing features the last 9 days and wow what fun we'v had! its been tough weather wise and fishing but as per usuall we nailed it! southwest ireland is such a gorgeous place to fish, what more can ya ask for that pure blue sea's fish literally everywhere and stunning coastlines its anglers heaven! we headed out with the Legend Nick Dent on the first day in search of monster pollack and cod on the light gear, we took our shore lure rods 7ft rods and 4000 size reels loaded with braid abusing jigs and grubs fished over the Fast Net reefs and rock ledges. the water was between 80 and a 140ft and had to be crawling! it was literally instantly into fish on the first drop! braid screamin off the reels

heres James lifting into one of the first braid melting runs off the Fast Net anyone who says you cant use light gear off boats is wrong! there is deffo conditions where its hard but as long as you have some water sense the fish are there to be abused good and proper and boy dont Pollack and Cod scrap on light lure rods! we had tons of Pollack to just under doubles all on our light jigs and grubs. it was the Delalande GT shads in the smaller sizes and Buster shads that truly came through with the results! coupled with Decoy jigs around 3/4 of a ounce to a ounce. it was cracking sport and i would be lying if i didnt say im addicted!

Not being one to turn my nose up at this sport i soon put down the camera and put the stomp down on these beautys..... between us we had 30-40 decent pollack to 9lb all on the soft plastics and it wasnt long before we lost the tide so out came the big gun rods the 20/30's for the conger and ling fishing! and after some funny rigging techniques shown by Mikey.H which worked a treat! we were soon into the fish! nearly 13lb Huss conger to 20lb ling to low singles your have to stay tuned to TSF mag for the full report and pictures.

the next day after a trek and a half we headed out on Nealy's boat out of Valencia as you can see above the weather did its usuall irish trick of pissing it down with rain but not being one to mess around i soon rigged up my lure rods and put on the Danny show for the cameras with action from the get go! we drifted casting distance to the rocks in 60ft of water loonking for structure it wasnt lomg before the fish came out to play! with this 6lb Ballan being the first decent fish to nail the jig's after a brutal fight it was released after a few piccys and again the rain pounded and pounded! we nailed a good 20 or so nice Pollack off this mark we moved on to what can only be said as the mother of all inshore Pollack marks...... after feeling a take on one of the first drifts on the drop and striking lifting into what can only of been a monster Pollack it comes off GUTTIN! but the next drift see's this corker showing

anyone who's done light shore pollacking knows how well a 6-7lber goes and when you nail doubles like this it really is a hold on for dear life style angling! they really do try and F%&k you up and after 4-5 steaming runs i still hadnt seen this fish i knew it was a brute due tonthe sheer power it had i pulled it pulled back! the water here is gin clear i got the Pollack under the rod tip, in about 15ft of water i finally saw it and panic sets in! one more run and it was over strate in the net! 11lb cant be all that bad! after a few more fish it was time to head in! again wait for the mag features for more details and fish! after this we headed off to the beautiful Beara

we stopped off at Kenmare in the hills of the Beara for a spot of Salmon bashin while the water was still running high fro recent rain! i think it was my second cast in the first pool this little bugger nails my flying-c spinner and wow what a heart stopping second...... if only it was 10lb heavier lol. but still my first Irish salmon dead chuffed! mean while Jimbo has the beast of all braid wind knots, iv seriously never seen anything like it ha ha ha . it was long before james was in and nails his first irish salmon too :-)

by this point the bass were calling us and who were we to say no to that! first stop was a spot tucked away fro the irish secret squirrel club on the Beara which no one knows about! thanks Mikey.H it was long before they were soon charging up behind the the soft plastic surface lures :-) but after a good few near misses and countless swearing from me and Mike nothing was banked to head off to Clon for the serious Bassing with local guide Allan i fished from the small boat with Pete and James stayed with Allan where they nailed 2 nice bass to 4lb on live eel where as i blasted out pollack after pollack on the hard baits Megabass X120's and IMA Komomo's i had fish to 6lb which again was a ball on lighter gear! me and Pete headed back up the beach to meet James and allan where i cast out my IMA lures for bass in the estuary, second cast and Bang!

a golden grey mullet....... from a distance i thought id nailed a small schooly but once i got it to my feet i could see it was a mullet! and it nailed my IMA komomo good and proper! while james rung Mikey.H we were told this was a seriously close contender for the Irish rod and line record!....... chuffed to bits but we later found out i was a couple ounces off, but still its the second biggest nailed and on a lure...... brilliant result! it was now time to trek off to Cobh in search of the monster Bass from cork harbour the second biggest natural harbour in the world! literally Bass central! on the first night it wasnt long before my Bass brain started churning and we got out with Kev and Howard (father son compo) and owners of the biggest fishing hotel base this side of the sea's. ill post up about these guys in the week . we headed out in the stunning Warrior 175's in search of Bass

This fine nearly 6lber was the first to show its face to a Cultiva shad and Decoy football jig combo banged out to the treeline you can see behing me in this picture. by this point we were both shattered as we had covered serious miles getting here it was time for Rum and coke! we steamed of back to the hotel for a well earned bit of grub and smash back some drinkys! i nailed three decent bass in the next sessions all over 5lb and the biggest being 7lb sooooo much fun and on the last days session we nailed yet another 8 more bass to over 8lb again watch out for the reports in features for TSF and Boat Fishing mags soon. ill post up more stuff as and when we deal with it. a cracking week with amazing people behind us big thanks to Micheal Hennessy, Paul Harris, Kevin Murphy and Jim Clohessy for the support and friendly welcome while me and James had a tough yet awesome week!

tight lines Danny

Free stretches...... :-)

Just recently me James.O and briefly young "lure Guru in the making" Jamie have been seeing what the local free stretches have on offer! with mostly chub and perch in mind we'v managed some good results, one of the most comman comments i hear on stretches of water like these are "you aint going to catch anything decent there mate" we lets hope this short report and pictures spurs you into having a venture on you local free stretch.

heres James with a chunky chub on one of our recent outings just touching 4lb and taken while stalking fish in gin clear water, none of this sitting there and waiting for it to happen, when your fishing these type of venues you gotta make ya own luck and getting out using water craft and reading the swims is key to successful fishing we knew these fish were here it was a case of setting the trap and going for it, remembering to keep off the skyline and keep out of the chubs crafty view and bingo this was one of twelve fish over 3lb mostly 3-4lbers one under the 3lb mark! not bad hay for a "useless water"

heres the biggest from that session at 4.5lb a cracking scrap as i was in the usuall snagged up chub swim "hold on tight" with light gear as they dont half pull, you gotta have ya witts about you when near cover as chub know there homes better than we ever will! all you need is a good pair of polaroids we wear Costa Del Mars which are pricey but they are the best you can get leading the way in the fishing glasses scene! http://www.costadelmar.com/ and some nice dark clothing as you can bet your last quid the fish will see you before you see them! we bumped into to a couple fairly large perch some 2lb plussers but we couldnt get any to play but hayy Danny knows where you live now!!

we fished today on another free stretch me and Jamie with some cracking results..... the sun was beaming kids were climbing the trees and jumping in it wasnt what you would call my kind of scene while our light lure fishing but i wanted to get out and show jamie some nice local fun fishing! now iv done very well here before and have had perch to over 2lb and chub well over 5lb here but to the locals its just a "roach bashing" venue with tiny perch, roach, gudgeon crawling the river bed, i often get asked how iv caught such big fish here as its just not seen as a big fish venue. but if your willing to put the effort in and sculk around looking for the features there is plenty of whoppers here, just most of you spook them before you get a chance to see them! after a hour of tickling out half a dozen small perch on texposed kalin grub i get to my banker swim :-)

second cast with a pepper pearl Kalin grub tex rigged on a decoy offset hook weightless chucked over a raft of weed where i could see 4-5 2lb plus chub and this beaut of a chub, i let the lure sink and started my retrieve and bank the biggest nails it! after a spirited fight under all the weed and snags i managed to get it up on the top. with anglers line wrapped around my braid i was worried this chub was going to snag me up but after some crafty netting by young Jamie and it was ours :-) weighin in just over 5lb proof is in the pudding this fish and many other was no more than 20yards from spots where other anglers sit on bait nearly every day of the week! this fish didnt have a mark on it, no hook damage and yet again it is another big chub from the venue that "aint got no decent fish"

i also managed to whip out two pike from the same swim this little bugger Jamies holding and one of about 6lb also. which Jamie actually has attack his savage gear grub again on our way back! just showing these aggressive little chaps are here for some fun on light gear even if its only a hour after work. we ended this session with 10 perch 3 pike and a decent chub all on the same stretch of river not far from exeter, cant complain it was awesome seeing the smile on jamies face every time i called him over to show him another fish :-) jamie also had 2 pike on but they came off and lost a coulpe small perch too he was beaming with smiles which makes me a happy bunny as i remember being his age and catching pike and perch, i wouldnt be the man i am today without those experiences. tight lines to next time

Danny