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.
once again we seen some settled spells during april allowing us to push that wee bit farther offshore and were rewarded with a good few specimen fish (gallery 2009 so far) mackerel are becoming abundant offshore but are still reluctant to move into the bays in any numbers.this year thanks to joseph bradells belfast we will b running a competition for a top of the range okuma reel and i have decided that will go to the heaviest conger this year caught aboard predator II.
march was a better month with the specimen count growing the weather was more settled resulting with more offshore trips.end of feb we attended the dublin award ceremony with the predator bus and march saw myself in rotterdam with the dutch boys (photoes in dutch section) . mackerel are starting to appear in small shoals offshore and its only a matter of weeks and they will move inside.pollack have started to come onto the reefs with the usual scouts first and the larger ones will follow whn the mackerel move inside
february seen a couple of weather windows for us to get some offshore stuff done and it paid dividends with a good few specimen fish being landed with nicholas mcalorum bangor recording an amazing 6 specimens in the same day along with some nice congers.dublin was the venue for the specimen awards on 21st feb and as usual the bus travelled down south with the specimen hunters to collect their awards.march i will see a lot of my dutch friends collect their awards in rotterdam and a few months after that they will be back on our shores hunting again look forward to that.
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