february was the worst i can remember for the last 30 years east winds played havoc on the east coast with very little oppertunities to get the boat off the trailer never mind offshore.As usual the predator bus went to dublin to collect their specimen awards and a good day was had by all,hope to have better news next month.
weather wasnt so good to us in jan but when we did get offshore we were rewarded with lots of good congers and spurs and skate see gallery and the specimen season is well under way with 4 species recorded so far.as usual predator will be running a private coach to dublin for the award ceremony on sat the 20th feb and on the 25th 26th march i will be over in rotterdam to see the dutch boys collect their awards and will be on the tourisim ireland stand.this will be a special year for predator charters and all will be revealled maybe next month.
once again another specimen season comes to a close and we had our biggest season ever in the specimen stakes recording 139 irish specimen fish with 9 diffrent species the species were conger,tope,spurdog,bullhuss,black mouth dogfish,lsd,ballan wrass,cuckoo wrass,and blond rays.the specimen clubs once again cleaned up with connor mcneill,david cherry and richard mcalorum all acheiving silver tie pins for 10 specimens well done to all.39 specimens went to the netherlands and once again over 50% of them came from red bay so well done to the dutch lads no specimens were acheived by the belgiums and thats a market im looking for to exploit as im quite sure i can put the belgiums on the specimen trail.all thats left for me to do is to wish all my anglers and friends very happy new year and tight lines to all.
once again thats another season over and what a season it was once again predator recorded well over 100 irish specimen fish 9 species spurs,bullhuss,bmd,lsd,tope,blond ray,conger,cuckoo wrass and ballan wrass highlite of the season has to be hans dilkman (holland) with his magnifisent 249lb common skate which broke all records but was tagged and released for the cfb to fight another day look forward to that encounter again.
october was true to parr with plenty of wind but also some nice days a good few skate were taken ,tope,turbot,blond rays,cuckoo wrass,spurdogs,congers,blackmouths,cod and some big ballans mackerel have long gone and dogs and coalfish are still producing the goods with only 1 month left in the specimen season a big push will happen in november.
september was a long and difficult month for me as the mackerel have all but dissapeared from red bay and thats a big problem for me as they are difficult to locate offshore as well.highlite for the month was hans dykmans massive 249lb common skate the largest ever recorded in ireland and the uk (see dutch section).tagging continiues along with specimen hunting and have started targeting diffrent species with good results.
august dealt us a horrible card with the weather it rained every day in red bay and blew most of the days .the days we managed to get offshore we were rewarded with specimen,spurs,bmd,lsd,cuckoo wrass and congers the best falling to richard Mcalorum from bangor 56LB 7oz tagging is being carried out on behalf of the ISFC.
july was an amazing month for big fish and specimen fish with predator recording 35 irish specimen fish in one month.weather was on our side for a change allowing us to push farther and farther offshore into the deep water holes where there was quite a few good cod lurking in the deep water see gallery.in just 6 days fishing a group from holland recorded 11 specimen fish and landed skate to 162lbs.
june was a good month weather wise and fish wise ,found a new bank north of red bay whilst looking for a wreck and boy did it produce mostly large specimen bullhuss so as the water heats up then other species will arrive in that area ,keep you posted as usual specimen hunting is continuing along with the tagging programme for the cfb cod are hear along with pollack and the plaice are on the banks more photoes are being added along with a new youth gallery.
may was a funny old month producing a number of good specimens and the mackerel are becoming abundant.didnt do too many days as i was in norway for 10 days but the days we fished we recorded specimens most days.plaice are starting to arrive along with the pollack and the herring will start soon.hopefully we will get the summer we were promised allowing us to push offshore at every opportunity.
Loading ...