BRAYSEAANGLERS

Picture this, 10.00am, Sunday morning, the temperature is 5 degrees, the sea is like a mill pond. And three completely mad anglers venture out to sea in search of their dinner. I couldn't take the peer pressure anymore. On Sunday last I buckled an gave in to the call from the sea (or at least the call from two other gobber's wanting to go out as well). It felt great to be heading out through the mouth of the harbour in the middle of February. Each year I promised myself I'd do it but here I was actually acting on it. The plan had us heading 9 miles south-east towards the West Codling bank to see if we could find a few species hungry enough to take our bait.

The codling bank was a bit of a waste. We tried a number of drifts on the bank at various depths ranging from 20 feet to 90 feet but all we have to show for 30 minutes of drifting was one whiting measuring 11cm. From there we decided to head due north 13.5 miles to the Kish Lighthouse where we had heard that the previous day saw another local angler "John Davis" boat 9 good 2lb-size cod.

At the Kish we hit the slack, which was perfect as it can really rush by there in the run. The weather was also improving as the sun finally broke through and heated us up a little. We tried various drifts past the lighthouse, as well as hugging the sides to see if we could pick up any of the cod from the previous day. On one of the drifts I managed to bag a nice 2lb codling, but unfortunately with the exception of a few postage stamp dabs that was all.

From there we motored into Dalkey and on up the bay stopping at the usual spots around Killiney but to no avail. What a day though, it was worth just being out.

A few details from the day, during the peak of the summer I have registered water temperatures around the bay as high as 14 degrees, when I've ventured out to the codling bank I haven't found any variations in these temperatures. Yet, on Sunday, the temperature in the harbour was 5.5 degrees, for the first mile as we headed out to the bank we registered 6.5 degrees. But on the bank and at the Kish we registered 7.5 degrees. I'm sure this is one of the main reasons the fish go deep. Like bears hibernating in winter in caves to prevent large fluctuations in temperature, the fish must head for deeper waters where the same is true.

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I know I'm a glutton for punishment but Wednesday saw me heading back out to sea. I couldn't resist giving it one more go to see if a change of bait might tempted the Pollack at least. Myself and Steve Guest headed down south to a couple of drops that we know produce good catches of Pollack during the summer. We tried leadheading with rag, we tried black feathers, red feathers, but nothing, not even a bite. Straight out from there to the Kish for the next drop. Again using the rag, the leadheads, the feathers, we drifted past the lighthouse at various angles. A few very small codling measuring under 10cm were landed to the leadheads but nothing else. So thinking along the lines of the water temperature idea, we decided to go out east to the edge of the kish bank and anchor up to try in the deeper water for a few dog fish. Surely they at least would be around to brighten up the day. We anchored, baited up and were fishing again within minutes, we waited, and waited, and waited, but nothing. Then after about 25 minutes Stevie managed to pull up a lonely little dogfish. What was this telling us?

Ideas were in short supply, so up we hauled and headed due south to see if we could find a mark directly in line with Bray head and see if that might produce dog's as we knew they were plentiful during the summer. We were soon anchored up again and fishing in a ridge 108 feet deep. No sooner had we hit the bottom than we were plagued with whiting. Nice whiting mind you with the average being around 28cm. This got very boring after a while as there was no sport in it and the fish were making a mess of the rigs, no dogs appeared so after an hour we headed back to Killiney. Using the rest of the bait we drifted up and down the bay looking for Pollack at first, but eventually as the day drew to an end anything would have been nice. But unfortunately this marked the end of my boating excursion off Bray for February. My next plan is to consider bringing the boat down the coast, maybe to Kilmore. I do feel there are fish off Bray somewhere, but you need to be looking for at least 200 feet of water and shelter. Maybe if we get the co-ordinates of the Leinster shipwreck we'll give it another try. By the way, thanks to Brian Whelan and Mick Leggitt for helping me with the boat. When we got into the harbour we hadn't a drop of water so many hands made light work.

I hope at least they come back for the summer, or we're all fecked.

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The Beach Master Angler Competition: One left, you all know the story at this point. Richard and Liam are battling it out for the Master Angler prize, but we still could see an upset somewhere along the way. We also have longest flat, longest round and most species to fish for, so please try and make it. The details are on this page. Also, I've updated our photos and have a whole section dedicated to the Men of the Beach.

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News from the Crew: Tony O'Connor and Pat Murray were at it again last Saturday. There's not a pike safe anywhere in the midlands when their about. As usual they managed to land a few beauty's and took some really nice photo's on top of it all. With the amount of pike related photos flying in I've also dedicated a special section to it. Click here to see some really fantastic photo's. Now if I could just get Pat to write a weekly Pike article as well we'd be laughing (are you reading this Pat?).

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You asked for it: Last week I suggested putting up a page dedicated to fishing related links on the Internet. Given that I know a lot of you don't have the time, or experience, I think this is a great idea and hopefully one that generates more interest. Here's the link. Please let me know what you think.

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What next: Oop's I made a mistake last week when I mentioned the date for our awards night I printed the wrong date. The night I've been told is Saturday March 27th in the Harbour Bar in Bray.

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Until next week..........

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Update: February 13th, 2004

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Here comes the Summer. Wednesday and Thursday of this week saw a glimpse of the summer, now it still froze the brass monkeys privates, but the sun was really doing its bit. I was bombarded with calls from a few of the crew looking to venture out in one of the boats to see was there anything stirring, unfortunately I had to decline.

We seem to be picking up some more regular viewers who have also passed on their comments on the site (cheers). I think the biggest request so far is the need for an "information page". I myself have accumulated a vast amount of links to various sites ranging from the who's who of online angling retailers, to the what's what of latest gadgets. I'm going to spend the next week experimenting with a sample page that I'll try out on you next week.

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The Beach Master Angler Competition: Not much to say this week except to remind the viewers of our last competition on Sunday February 29th. More importantly, DON'T FORGET THE PRESENTATION after the competition on the Harbour Bar at around 9.00pm. PLEASE COME AND SUPPORT.

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News from the Crew: Liam O'Callaghan (Snr) is running his annual trip to Killybegs this year during the May bank holiday weekend. There are a few places left so hurry. This year see's us taking the train to Sligo and a coach to Killybegs, we're also booked into the Killybegs Open on the Saturday. Sounds like a great weekend.

Our Club boat is being delivered to the pen on Saturday March 13th. Everyone is very excited, and the poor little baby still hasn't a name.

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What next: I dropped into the committee meeting on Sunday to see what the latest gossip was. All seems well, an excellent turnout. The only real piece of info I have for you are the details for the club awards nite. This year we're running our awards nite with the Bray Outcasts. We would like to invite you all to the Bray Harbour Bar on Saturday March 27th. Should be a great night.

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The Newsletter: I rest my case, its out of my hands. I have passed on your requests to the secretary, so we can only wait. I just hope the wait was worth it.

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Update: February 3rd, 2004

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Well if I had any cobwebs in the auld head before Sunday, I don't anymore. Sunday just gone saw the Outcasts run their very first ever Leinster Beach Open. The competition was held on Kilcoole, Newcastle and 5-mile point. It was well attended with over 90 participants. The weather really tried its best to throw everything it had at us, howling wind, buckets of rain and a little dabble of sun, but we stuck it out. The day itself produced very small bags of fish that actually counted, I suppose its only to be expected at this time of year when the larger fish are off spawning. Realistically, I think January and February should be the months when we all do our indoor chores to build up the brownie points 'cause it's pointless thinking we're gonna land a whopper off the beach. But anyway, here's to the Outcasts they put on a very good show, we all look forward to next year competition. And to top it all, their own Stephen Brennan walked away with first place with a bag of 11 fish.

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The Beach Master Angler Competition: We ran our second last master angler along with the Outcast open. Our club was very poorly represented with only five of our usual 11 seniors turning up on the day. The results didn't really do much to the running totals but we now have an interesting finish ahead of us for the last competition on February 29 with Richard Cullen needing to win and Liam O'Callaghan needing to finish with 45% or less for Richard to gain Master Angler status. Check out the Results page for the latest table listings.

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News from the Crew: It's official, we're buying a boat. A deposit was sent to England today to secure the purchase of our new club boat. It's a Commodore, seventeen and a half foot long, with a brand new 60 four-stroke pushing it along. We're hoping to have delivery before Paddy's day, so put the auld thinking cap's on, we need a name for the new club baby.

What will we call her?

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What next: Our final beach competition is being held on Bray Seafront opposite the Hibo on February 29th. I'll post the times closer to the date.

I also hear that our Junior section of the club is getting a well-deserved revival with the Junior officers, DOS, Ricky and Ray putting together a day out for the juniors at Aughrim fish farm to try and stir up interest before the boats start. I'll keep you posted on all the info relating to this as it becomes available.

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The Newsletter: A number of you have pointed out that you haven't received the latest newsletter, well, as far I know it hasn't gone to print yet. I'll see if I can get some info on this before next weeks update. Happy fishing.

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