Irish kayak angling meet 2014, One to remember.

Hi everyone,
Here's what happened last weekend Saturday the 24th and Sunday the 25th of may 2014.
Well it was that time of year again and it was my turn to organise a meet in Donegal. I choose mid may to early june as the bass ban is on and it gives the bass men some thing different to have a craic at.
This year I had the best turn out so far with 10 kayak anglers on the water there was to be many more but the usual family life and work held some lads back that would have liked to be here.

Saturday the 24th
Well nearly all landed on Saturday morning and the weather was brutal to say the least. It was blowing a gale of wind but the lads knew that but they where determined to come and take a chance on the weather. Well they came so I brought them to a bay I know that is sheltered in a NE wind so we went there.

In a bay for some ray
Seven of us launched with another 3 to come later in the day. It was breezy but more than fishable and I was first out to get on the mark to show the lads where I reckoned where it would be worth ago.
I got anchored and next out was the brother David, he dropped his line down and done a fast drift past me to see if he could get a fish from under my nose and of course he did the bugger he had a nice little turbot in the first 5 mins of his drift .
Very soon after Sean, Anthony and Martin where out beside me, anchors down and we waited for the ray. We didn't have to wait long and we started to hit them my first up was no bigger than a butterfly lol.

Here is the little beauty lol.

David was not to be out done and had to go and catch a bigger one. David is the brother if you didn't already know.[ You can feel the rivalry lol].

He only laughed for a short while as I managed this beaut a few minutes later.
This one was caught on the lynx tope flowing rig.

Anto was on the ball to with this thornback ray.

We where all into ray and the craic was good. But the strong breeze and cold seemed not to bother us one bit. And to make my day extra special this PB dab came to the kayak for me I was delighted it looks small in the photo but he was a nice 35cm. Sean also had a cracker at 34cm.

More ray was had by all and the craic was great. But as the tide turned and on queue the ray went quiet. So with that everyone was staring to feel the cold and it was time to hit the shore for a BBQ at my place and a few beers. 

On the road heading for grub and some beer. Thankfully Linda my wife had the bbq on for us when we got back.

Back at my place Tony was busy chatting up a few females lol.

SUNDAY THE 25TH, In hope of some Tope time.

Our tope mark was unfishable on Saturday so as the weather settled we were all busting to hit the tope on Sunday.
Even with a few sore heads all were up and ready to rock at 7am. As the low water slack was at 12.30 we had to head out when the tide was strong so we where out and anchored up as the tide starts to ease as that's when the tope come on the feed here. We all got some fresh whiting on the way out and headed on to anchor up. This area has a strong tide and you really need to anchor wright the first time so your not back and forward trying to get it wright.
 We all got settled in and waited for the tope to come. At this stage the tide was quiet strong and we got the lines in and waited.
I was first on but only briefly, he hit my bait I gave him the usual short run and struck but I missed him, I let it drop straight away again and whack he hit it again, As they normally devour it on the second hit I just gave him a short go a it and struck and I missed him again, again I dropped the bait but nothing.
This got every one awake and every rod was being watched as if our lives depended on it lol.
Then 15mins later my rod got hit again I gave him the usual few seconds struck and FISH ON,
He took off and I was grinning like a good thing, but what happened next ended in BO##OX
Fish off, Oh I was gutted. But 2 mins later a shout came from Anthony Byrne FISH ON,
He was having a screamer of a fight and yelps and shouts of pure mayhem mix with delight could be heard every where. Very soon Anto had the first tope of the weekend on his lap for a photo. 1 very happy angler,  And it had the rest of us green with envy.

But again we did not have to wait long. David let out a yelp FISH ON and to add to the excitement he hooked it on the shamrock animal rig, an all mono trace. I was afraid it would bite through the trace but he was lucky and landed a nice tope of 25 to 30lb

 

Again no sooner had David got his on his lap, Tony let out the now becoming familiar yelp FISH ON, Oh the yelps of delight and shear joy could be heard all around lol. He also had a seriously good scrap. Eventually tope came along side Tony and the decision to take it in for a pic or not seemed an awfull dilemma lol.

It was Tony's first kayak tope and you could see him looking for a spot to grab it to haul it in. Of course us heckling him telling it won't bite you OR WILL IT lol didn't help. Like a pro Tony got it in and got one of the best tope pics I have seen to date here it is below. Excellent selfie lol.

Thank fully it was my turn. As I had dropped 2 tope in a row I had changed to large fillets and sure enough it was my turn to let out the FISH ON yelp.

Again this fish was on steroids he screamed off line down tide then turned and power up the strong tide turning me side on to the tide, David was about 80yards above me and I was very worried he was going to run into his anchor. But some heavy pressure on the drag to slow the bugger got him turned, he fought to the bitter end I thankfully got him in for a quick pic. Another very happy chappy.

 Again in the 25lb to 28lb range

This set the theme of the rest of the session, with tope being hooked all over the place no sooner was one returned another rod would take off. At one stage we had 3 tope at 3 kayaks at the same time.

 

Heres another of mine.

Here's Tony's fish, this fish we called the macko lol. I was fishing away and a loud yelp came from Tony FISH ON and with that a tope came flying completely out of the water like a missile towards me. Tony seemed to be fighting a fish in front of him, but no 2 seconds later his kayak done a 180degree turn as the tope gave another cracking fight.  It was a fine tope of at least 30lb.

Trophy shot of one of my 3 fish

One very happy welsh man, well done Tony. One of 3 Tony had that day

 

 

Another fish of Tony's, A lot bigger than he looks in the pic.

And Sean landed this beauty at the end of the day and we had a full house of happy kayak anglers.

Well done to all that attended you's all done immensely well and it was a pleasure to see you's all catch fantastic hard fighting fish.
So the final tope tally was Tony 3, David 2, myself [Graham] 3, Anto 1, and Sean 1.
So until the next bass ban lads tight lines thanks for coming up and hope to see you's all up here again.

Well thanks for reading everyone hope it wasn't to dragged out for you's.
Until next time tight lines.