2007
April
Estuaries all around the county are enjoying an influx of flounder. While the fish may not be very big and averaging well under a pound there's plenty of 'em and they're hungry! Plenty of schoolies available also. The spring "peel is well under way also and this may be a factor in the estuary fishing at the moment. Our attempts at a few early season bass on lures didn't go quite so well, but bottom fishing large crab baits has sorted out a few better fish to 4lbs. The stingray are on the way already and a nice mid-double came ashore during the middle of the month during an exploratory ray session. Things seem to be shaping up nicely...
May
This entire month was spent chasing tope up and down the west coast. We didn't even get so much as a run in Kerry and other marks on the Shannon and in Galway fared similarly. One our mates did contact a few fish in Galway during the middle of the month but we failed miserably to get a fish down our side. It was very very disappointing but some good thornback and undulate rays interspersed with the usual truck loads of dogfish did help to make the fishing a little more pleasurable. In fact the thornbacks and undulates are inshore in good numbers it seems. On the plus side fresh bait was not an issue with Culoo rock producing plenty of mackerel on the flood along with shoals of monster launce when fishing sabiki and mini rigs. The estuary fishing has got even better and better and provided a welcome relief from numerous blank days after tope. Sessions with 15 - 20 fish in the 1lb bracket provided hectic sport!
June
June started off badly with a few more blanks for tope, my efforts to bag a few bass plugging weren't too successful either! things were not looking good. Some good sea-trout and bass were to be had in estuaries such as Cloghane and Barrow with many of the white trout in the 2 - 3lb bracket. Sandeel was taking the better fish. Plenty of action back west on the usual rock marks around Slea Head too, the wrasse fishing is on fire. This was all before jetting off on holidays during the middle of the month, hopefully July will bring some better fishing although it is usually a quite month for me on the bottom fishing front, I can never seem to find the better fish.
July
Plenty of small flounder available at Blennerville and the beaches from Ballyheigue up to Ballybunion are throwing up some nice painted ray along with the odd turbot and even sea-trout. Sandeel is the killer bait for picking out these species along here. We had a jaw dropping plugging session in the middle of the month but it had nothing to do with bass (which we didn't catch incidentally). 
We were fishing near Aughacasla and encountered huge numbers of stingray, along with the usual "pups" that are available here for the most of the summer the amount of big fish in the 20lb - 40lb bracket was staggering. Spinning waist deep in the water with half a dozen 40lb stingers swimming around you is a little disconcerting to say the least. Naturally the followng two evenings were spent targeting these fish and as can happen with these stingray they were just not interested in anything we could offer them. Watching these huge fish swimming past beautifully presented baits right under their noses would drive you insane. Towards the end of July we contacted some nice thornbacks in the Spa and at the top of Inch. A couple of wrasse sessions on Clogher Head produced fish to specimen size but no big pollack unfortunately - yet... we hope! No big bass came to lures but there's plenty of schoolies around and are providing excellent sport.
August
More good thornback fishing this month but the average size of fish seems to on the small side. Certainly double figure fish are hard to come by. Much of the month was spent down in West Cork chasing my first ever Gilthead Bream which can be seen on the photos page. Rosscarbery produced some great Bream for us over August and the mullet which inhabit the inner estuary here proved to be very obliging also. I would thoroughly recommend targeting these fish, pound for pound they would put a bass to shame, incredible fighters. The Gilthead Bream record was broken in Cork Harbour incidentally with rumours of a fish touching 5lbs. Watch this space... After our success with the Bream, coat tails were up and way too much time was spent chasing golden grey mullet in Cork Harbour which proved to be a completely fruitless exercise unfortunately. Marks near Fenit and the Spa fished very very badly for Ray particularly on the bigger spring tides.
September
Back to some fun fishing this month with lots of sessions for wrasse on Slea Head. The beaches around Castlegregory are throwing up lots of fish at the moment also, plenty of average size painted and some really hungry thick lipped mullet who kept snaffling up maddies fished in the surf. Of course thoughts immediately turned to golden greys again but it wasn't so! All the usual marks are producing thornbacks and there are some undulates still knocking around also. Lure fishing in general has been brilliant all month. There are lots of fish available, catches of a dozen bass along with the same numbers of garfish and mackerel have been possible. Happy days! No really big fish this month but lots of quality fishing with plenty of fish and species to keep us happy.
October
After such bad weather all summer we finally had a chance in October to really target bass on lures. The fishing has been exceptional all month with big numbers of big fish. Catches of a dozen bass a day sometimes with fish in the 5 - 7lb bracket have more than made up for a slow summer plugging wise. Over the course of two 3 hour sessions alone during October I bagged approximately 70lbs of bass, now that's some fishing by anyone's standards. Mackerel are still around in big numbers and if the freezer needs restocking for the winter get out there now! Hopefully if this weather holds we can get some more light tackle fishing in before the winter arrives...
November - December
gone drinking...
