Bait Collecting For Beginners

First off, we would like to take this opportunity, to say the very best of luck, with whatever fishing you will be doing in 2013. For us it will be all kinds of shore fishing, from lure fishing for flounder, to bait fishing for stingray.
The most important thing when bait fishing is the bait itself. Several anglers have contacted us via our website, over recent times about looking after my bait. So over the next year or so, it may be worth looking at collecting your own bait, and we would be happy to help.(just send in any questions you may have) Your bait has to be in tip top shape, this even applies whether your bait is frozen or fresh. I do all my own bait collecting, that way I know for sure the bait I am using is the best it can be. Because when it comes to competition fishing, or any kind fishing for that matter, the superior bait will out fish any poor bait guaranteed. There are some great bait suppliers, dotted around Ireland today. This is ideal for any angler, caught for time; a good bait supplier’s will supply you quite gladly.

Collecting your very own supply of bait, for the next outing or even the rest of the year, can be very enjoyable, exercising and not to forget rewarding, even if other anglers might say otherwise. There is an abundance, of bait to be had on our shoreline around Ireland. I have to say “Its time well spent” and why not bring the kids along, a great way to pioneer them into angling; it also gives them a chance to get messy.

An angler can learn a valuable lesson, by going out and collecting his own bait. It gives you a chance to see what the formation of the ground you may well be fishing later on that day is like. Where any gullies, weed banks and rough ground marks may be situated.

Some of the most valuable baits to me, generally for my fishing trips would be the following.
Lugworm common or blow-lug
Maddies or some might know them better as, Harbour Rag
Peeler Crab
Sandeel (frozen)
Mackerel (frozen or fresh when in session)
Black Raps
White Rag
The list could go on evermore, however like I said these would be the key baits I would keep in my bait fridge all year round.
The main items needed for keeping lugworm at home would be.
A Fridge (and not the family one)
Some Trays, ones that can be stacked, one on one are best.
A Container of sea water, the more you can store the better.

In this article I will explain about the lugworm, and how to keep them on hand at home, for the day you might be held up at work or too lazy to go and dig some, but still fancy a bit of fishing.
Lugworm: (Arenicola marina) a very easy bait to look after, it can be kept in a fridge for weeks on end. I was once told by a fellow angler who had lugworm up to six Months in his fridge. In the end all he could do with the lugworm was let them go free, as he had become kind of emotionally involved to them, Ha us anglers!

The lifespan of lugworms is known to be 5-6 years; (Interesting) and they can make up to 30% of the biomass of a typical sandy beach. Making them a very important part of the food network in their habitat. Lugworms also have a clever way to avoid being eaten — the part of them which is usually exposed to predators (the tail) can be re-grown if lost. Lugworm can be dug at low tide on many beaches around the coast. Lugworms live in very large colonies with thousands in any one bed. Lug live in “U” shaped burrows in sand or sand and mud mixtures, and can be easily spotted by the cast they leave behind as they burrow down. I tend to notice that in the colder months they will burrow even deeper.

When you go digging lugworm the best thing to dig them with is a garden fork. Start by digging a trench and work along it filling it in as you go. When digging lugworm, back fill all the holes as you dig. This minimizes the spoil to the beach and allows the environment to swiftly recover. This is important for the conservation of our sport. You should only touch lugworm with wet hands, this is to avoid removing the worms protective slime layer,( very important).

Before I bring my lugworm home, I blanch them in saltwater at the beach, to wash any sand and mud from them. A good tip is to have on hand at all times, a container of sea water. A few liters in the bait fridge and the rest can be kept outside in a container. Temperature is important when keeping your bait in good shape.
So always keep that few liters in the fridge at all times. Keeping your lugworm at home in good shape for a few weeks or so is quite easy. They can be kept a lot longer but 3 weeks is the most I would keep mine for.

Place your lugs in whatever trays you have at hand. Cat litter trays are widely used by anglers or something similar.  Do not over fill with water; just half an inch of saltwater is significant enough to keep your lugs content. That’s the hard work done, from here on its quite easy. The following day you just need to change the saltwater and dispose of any dead, and iffy looking lug. This needs to be done for the first 5 days or so, once the lugs have acclimatised to the temperature; every 2 to 3 day is enough to just check if there are any casualties. One dead lug will kill off the rest quite quickly!

Just while I am on the matter of writing about worm baits, I would like to add a little bit more. White-rag worm or snakes as the really big ones are known are much similar to keeping as the lugworm. White rag are not as plentiful as lug, but are a deadly bait to have on hand at any time.  A few straightforward steps and you will be able to ensure your whites are in as good a condition as the day you dug them.

These few tips will allow you to maintain these deadly baits in prime condition for a lengthy time.
When you are lucky enough to have a place to dig this fantastic bait, (after keeping the mark to yourself) you should keep them in a container of clean salt water, while digging, keeping as cool as possible and out of any sunlight. Try and get your whites home as fast as you can.

When at home and using the saltwater you have stored in your fridge, transfer the whites into your trays and just add a few millimeters of salt water.
Be careful and make sure to discard any broken worms as they will kill the whole ones.

After around 2 days change the water and try your best to use the same water you have in your fridge, and again checking for worms that look iffy. From here on, just by keeping an eye on you worms and changing the water every couple of days, will give you bait when ever needed.

Ullcacth.com

Match anglers are fishing competitions that would usually take 20 flounder to be in the prizes. Not this year 2 our 3 fish is enough to win most comps and most anglers are happy not to blank. Having had 10 weeks of those Easterly’s and more to come, things are pretty dismal for all anglers. The low pressure that the Easterly’s bring completely put all fish off the feed. Weather a fresh water angler our sea angler this kills the sport of angling.

Recessions, house hold taxes cuts in payments, etc are things that anglers go fishing to take their minds off. Not this year we have too much time to think about all this crap, because we are catching feck all. Meteorologists and fore casters are predicting a good summer again. Yah we have heard this before and I certainly won’t be holding my breath.

There’s light at the end of that long tunnel though, can you imagine how hungry those fish will be after the coldest winter in over 50 years. Easter was the coldest recorded to date, maybe it’s the start of another ice age, and this would really cheer every one up. All the money we got could go on fuel, no more new fishing rods ever again.

But it’s not all bad, there is hope the summer species of fish should be arriving before Christmas. This will be a good excuse not to go Christmas shopping and save you all some money.

Think happy thoughts, it can only get better.

E. F. Ullcatch.

Anglers sometimes bring home the odd Bass for dinner.  Wild Bass are good healthy fish and not farmed, and the best of fish, very good for you. Respect the laws on bass conservation and only keep what you’re entitled to.

Anglers sometimes bring home the odd Bass for dinner.  Wild Bass are good healthy fish and not farmed, and the best of fish, very good for you. Respect the laws on bass conservation and only keep what you’re entitled to.

Conditions were eventually just right to get a chance to catch those powerful and amazing Blue sharks. Over the past few years here in Co Kerry weather conditions have made it unachievable to get out for some shark fishing. After seeing the forecast we knew we had a small window of opportunity to try some shark fishing.

The excitement of shark fishing is something only those lucky enough to have caught shark would have experienced. The next job was locating the shark gear which hadn’t seen daylight for some time. The trace I use for shark fishing is 3 ft of 150lb steel line, to this I use a 10/0 hook on one end of the trace and a 2/0 swivel on the other end. You must be sure to crimp your trace perfectly and I always double crimp just to be on the safe side. To the steel line I also attach 12ft of 200lb mono, this is a must as sharks tend to twist and wrap themselves in your line, when their in and around the boat. Make sure you test your trace by putting as much pressure on it as you can. Lots of good fish and sharks are lost due to dodgy gear.

Scent is what draws sharks to the boat, and you must have plenty of rubby dubby. Any type of blood will drive sharks wild but no human blood lads! It’s not a very pleasant job, making rubby dubby but this is very important. Fish oil, fish, bran and blood along with all your old dodgy bait mixed to a near pulp will do the job and the more the merrier.

With all the hard work done it was time to head out and see would the angling God’s be good to us. Leaving the Pier at 5am in the morning we knew we had a good 2 hour journey ahead of us to the shark grounds. Our skipper for the day was the experienced John Deady, a skipper who’s landed hundreds of shark over the years. Our crew on the day consisted of Bryan O Keeffe the owner of the Westend bar, Eugene Farrelly, (Ullcatch) Frank Mcyntyre, Mike Ryle and myself. With 2 hours of a journey ahead of us, it gave us plenty of time to have our gear in top shape. On the way out to Brandon we spotted a big mass on the fish finder, so in went the feathers and jigs. Herring were all over the place, good enough bait but not as good as mackerel. Only after 10 minutes of jigging we had over 100 herring which would be handy later on. Without mackerel we were wasting our time so we moved on a couple of more miles to try for mackerel. Bingo! Mackerel along with more herring, it didn’t take long to catch our bait for the day with another large catch of herring along with half a box of mackerel we were on the ball. Sharks here we come and a half hour later we were on the fishing grounds.

First job to be done at our destination was getting our scent trail started. Whiten minutes there was a nice oily slick on the water surface. The water depth was 200 ft. and it was time to get the balloons out, which are used as floats to keep the bait suspended in the water. We were fishing full mackerel as our bait, a mixture of mackerel flappers and plain whole mackerel baits. Those who don’t know what a flapper is, it’s when you cut out the back bone and tail of the fish, doing this gives a flapping motion in the water, and also a lot more scent. The herring we had caught earlier was also being cut into pieces and put into the water, a little appetiser to get the sharks taste buds going. Different coloured balloons were being used by us, so there would be no confusion when a Shark took the bait. The baits were being fished at depths from 15ft to 25ft and distances from 30 to 100 yards. There have been lots of stories about the one that got away, not only the fish, rod and reel too. So make sure your drag is set on your reel.

It’s nice to fish light rods when boat fishing but those sharks will batter a soft rod. The rods we were using were 30lb to 50lb and matched with heavy duty multipliers. Shark will bully any angler, so you are better off with heavier gear and line too 40lb in strength. As I said this style of fishing is time consuming and to keep your sanity you must fish a second rod on the drift to keep yourself occupied. We were catching lots of big pollock too 8lb, poor cod, pouting, ballan wrasse, cuckoo wrasse and scad which were keeping us busy while waiting for those sharks.

After 4 hours of fishing there was still no sign of a shark, the boat had drifted 3 or 4 miles our rubby dubby was still leaving a good slick behind the boat and you could see it as far as the horizon. The boat was nice and quiet, until Brian’s reel started screaming off and his red balloon was shooting across the surface of the water. The game plan had worked and now Brian’s rod was under some serious pressure pandemonium had taken over the boat. After about 5 minutes Brian’s Shark started running towards the boat at speed and as Brian tried to reel in the slack line to put pressure on the Shark, disaster the Shark had bitten through his main line. We were all gutted after all that excitement, the only good thing was we knew there was at least one shark out there.

Sitting down eating our lunch we were trying to figure out what went wrong, when yes you guessed it mayhem again. Mikes yellow balloon disappeared below the surface at tremendous speed, shark on. Mike had a very different take to Brian’s, and his shark went deep, after a few minutes it decided to come back to the surface. After fighting the Shark for around 15 minutes he nearly had it to the boat, all we wanted now was to see the shark. So as Eugene grabbed the long trace to land it, we got our first look at the beauty, a lovely Blue Shark. The fight wasn’t over though; the Shark nearly pulled Eugene over the boat with its incredible power. On the 4th attempt Mike at last had the Shark tired out, and was finally netted by the skipper John. Finally a cracking blue shark on the boat of 65lb happy days it was what we were here for after all.

New baits were back in the water within minutes, with the anticipation of another blue shark in the vicinity of the boat. With it being the first blue shark we had seen in a couple of years, we were buzzing like a pack of little boys. Anglers never grow old when they can still catch beautiful creatures like the one we had just landed.

Time for more rubby dubby along with the remainder of our Herring to see could we maybe catch another shark. At this stage we had been fishing almost seven hours, things were going well with one blue shark landed, and one lost. Only ten years ago, with the same weather and conditions, we would have had a lot more sharks. Unfortunately millions of sharks are killed every year for their fins, and the sales of shark fin soup are decimating one of the planets oldest predators. Sharks are such an important part of the eco system, feeding on weak fish, and cleaning the Oceans of its left over’s. The laws have to be changed to protect these amazing creatures.

Anyway back to the fishing, we were still catching lots of fish on the bottom, and keeping our self’s busy. We must have drifted 10 miles at this stage and we were running out of time. However there was still one more surprize in store for us, Eugene’s purple balloon disappeared. Wondering what had happened to his balloon he reeled in the slack line. As Eugene started to feel a bit of pressure on the line bang, Line started ripping from his reel. The speed of the shark was incredible; it’s not very often these days one gets to feel the raw power of nature.

I must say it’s something every angler should experience and Eugene was relishing in it. After 20 minutes Eugene finally got the shark near the boat and Mike took over, as he pulled the blue shark towards the boat. The shark had other ideas though, and with a powerful dive it shot down into the depths. You must always make sure the line is not wrapped around your hands or any part of your body, when a Shark dives. You don’t want to be pulled over board, especially when there’s a hooked shark in the water. Luck was on our side today as we landed our second Blue Shark, this one was a cracking 80 pounder (well done Eugene) What an end to a great day, hopefully Mother Nature might just bless us with one more Shark session this year. I won’t hold my breath though.

Getting to a mark in daylight, helps with setting up

Every year after Christmas, people all over the World go fitness crazy. Driving your car around towns and cities becomes more like driving around an obstacle course. It’s like an invasion of bright color aliens walking, cycling and jogging all over the place. Gyms charge large sums of money for the new fitness enthusiasts, with thoughts of Olympic gold.

Two of a kind!

Stop the madness all you need is a couple of beach casters a few fixed spooled reels along with some basic tackle. Ireland has plenty of storm beaches along with most countries with shore line.

Off the mark with my first bass

Beach casting is a great way of getting exercise, and an angler can cover up to 6 miles with 1 rod over a 4 hour period, casting every 10 minutes. Like jogging and working out as you advance you increase your work rate and use 2 rods, now you’re covering 12 miles or more in a 4 hour session. With larger tides you cover a lot of ground and could be covering as much as 16 miles in a 4 hour session.

happy with that

Beach casting is also a great way of working on your bicep’s, reeling in puts your bicep’s under lots of pressure more so when you have fish on. Digging bait also a great work out and this uses most of the body’s muscles.

A Midnight workout!

People look at fishing and say how boring it must be, looking at your fishing rod for hours on end. Angling is far from a walk in the park, and dose take a lot of hard work if you want to catch fish. Scent and bait presentation is essential for catching fish, and an angler should be casting out at least every 15 minutes.

Save the best for last.

Another bonus about being out on a lovely beach is you don’t have to worry about being run over by some guy purving over some fit woman jogging. The only thing you might get a belt from is a wave or a bass’s tale. There’s also no need sucking in your tummy in front of the girls in the gym. When beach fishing you have all the space you need and some days you won’t see a sinner.

Anglers also get to bring home their catch for dinner, good healthy fish not farmed, and the best of fish. Respect the laws on bass conservation and only keep what you’re entitled to. In the future when you’re getting grief from the better half, all you have to say is your going working out.

Just about everything that swims in the sea will feed on these silver fish at some time during its life, and some species are entirely dependent upon them.

Start by cutting the head and tail off the nearly thawed out sandeel

Place the hook into the sandeel a few centimeters above the back of the head.

Push the hook through until it pierces through end exposing hook and barb as seen below.

Finally lash the eel to the shank of the hook with bait elastic.

This rig is the simplest of the paternoster family and generally used in clear ground situations – the rule being more hooks carry more bait and catch more fish.

That time of year again, late nights tying rigs, getting bait and the thought of 3 grueling competitions against the top 36 anglers in Ireland is a lot to take in. The World Team Qualifiers is the most prestigious competition any angler can fish. Thoughts of wearing the green blazer and representing Ireland in the World Championships is ever Irish match anglers dream.

Waterfoot beach, Glenariff in the beautiful glens of Antrim was the venue, for what was going to be a hard fought battle between the cream of Irish angling. Waterfoot beach is a mile long and all 3 competitions were being held on it, anglers knew it was going to be very hard to catch in all 3 comps.

The Ulster angling council were the hosts for the weekend and finally Mother Nature was on our side with lovely sunshine. With over 20 International anglers taking part in the this year’s fish offs the main goal was to stay in the Irish panel.

Spain of course was on the minds of all the anglers taking part in the competitions. With the bottom 16 anglers being dropped from the Irish panel there was a lot of pressure on the competitors. Since the new qualifying system for the Irish team was brought in 6 years ago, Ireland’s now recognized as one of the top teams in the world having won gold in South Africa 3 years ago and bronze last year in Holland.

Session 1  the competition was from 10 – 2pm on Saturday morning on the river end of Waterfoot beach. Sun shine greeted the anglers on the morning session and with no surf running we knew it was going to be very scratchy. 15 cm was the size limit along with 10 under size fish counting as 10 pts each. Mike Curtin from Galway was the first man to catch with a double flounder followed by myself with a cracking 33 cm flounder that took all 3 hooks (greedy bugger). There were fish being caught right from the start and things were looking positive for a good days fishing. 2 up 1 down flapper rigs were the most popular on the day, black rap, lug, rag, maddies, whites and mackerel were the most popular baits being used.

Anglers know fish can just turn off in an instant, and yes you guessed it the fish disappeared. Harry McKee Snr was giving all of us a lesson on how to catch small flounder landing 15 while other anglers couldn’t catch 1 fish. Local men William Weir and Nicholas Mc Neil were also showing that Ulster men were on fire catching good bags of flounder. Last year’s captain Martin Howlin was once again showing why he’s recognised as one of Ireland’s super stars winning his zone. At the end of the first and frustrating 4 hour comp there was 85 counters and 45 under size fish caught a total of 130 fish. With 36 of Irelands top anglers this was an average of 3.6 fish each, not a good start.

Results

Zone A
1st Nicholas McNeil, Ulster Bass, 6 fish 167 pts:
2nd Mick Mullane, Jimmy Smith, 5 fish 96 pts:
3rd Mike Curtin, Lisdoonvarna, 4 fish 79 pts:

Zone B
1st Harry McKee Snr, Millisle, 15 fish 248 pts:
2nd Tim O Sullivan, Galway Bay, 9 fish 178 pts:
3rd Peter Atkins, Connaught Gold, 7 fish 130 pts

Zone C
1st Martin Howlin, Master Angler, 7 fish 138 pts:
2nd William Weir, Larne & District, 7 fish 108 pts:
3rd Breanan Wall, Menapia, 4 fish 91 pts:

Session 2  Waterfoot is famous for its night fishing and after such a poor first comp anglers were looking forward to catching some fish. Conditions were still quite calm but the fish had finally read the script and the stuart’s were flat out measuring fish. Waterfoot was really living up to its name as a night venue with all the anglers catching fish like men possessed. There was a nice variety of fish species in darkness coalies, whiting, rockling, codling, place, turbot, pouting and flounder were there in large numbers. Fiachra McKenna from Corrane was the top man on the night session with 45 fish along with William Weir and the legend John O Brien. Anglers with 20 fish were finishing last in some zones this just showed how good the fishing was. Unlike the morning session the fish count was impressive with 764 counters and 88 under size caught a total 852 fish, an average of 23.6 fish each.

Results

Zone A
1st Fiachra Mc Kenna, Corrane, 45 fish 921 pts:
2nd Mike Curtin, Lisdoonvarna, 38 fish 839 pts:
3rd Stephen O Donovan, Leeside, 40 fish 808 pts:

Zone B
1st John O Brien, Post Irish, 32 fish 700 pts:
2nd Brendan Wall, Menapia, 31 fish 677 pts:
3rd Martin Howlin, Master Angler, 29 fish 619 pts:

Zone C
1st William Weir, Larne & District, 30 fish 659 pts:
2nd Jonny Snoddy, Ulster Gold, 31 fish 549 pts:
3rd Harry McKee Jnr, Glengormley, 41 fish 500 pts:

Session 3  Sunday morning was the 3rd and final match of this year’s fish offs and with all to play for. Team places were still up for grabs with 15 anglers still in with a chance of making the team. Anglers in the bottom section were fighting for survival to stay on the panel and there was a hand full of anglers just fishing for pride on the last session. Dropping out of the panel is heart breaking and anglers know it could take years to get back into it. Anglers were greeted by very high winds blowing from the land on the final comp so there was still no surf. After all the fish being caught on the previous night and this, the 3rd comp on the same beach in 2 days fish were going to be scares. Martin Howlin shocked every one when he pulled out a treble flounder on his first cast, maybe we were wrong about the fish being hook shy.

A couple of anglers caught on their first casts and then as we thought very little fish for the rest of the comp. When 11 top anglers blank this says enough fishing was a disaster on the session. Anglers were using size 8 and 10 hooks with single maddies to try and catch any fish possible. The McKee’s from Belfast were trying to set a new record as the first father and son to make the same team. The father and son duo where very unlucky finishing a very respectful 6th and 8th overall. Mick Mullane who qualified from the Irish Open played a blinder winning his zone with 5 fish.

Casting wasn’t important on the day with fish be caught less the 10ft from the shore. The skill of angling is catching what fish are in front of you, no matter how small they are. Richie Dalton from Waterford also won his zone with 5 fish and the man himself Martin Howlin was the top angler on the day with 10 fish. With fishing being so hard there was only 48 counters and 46 under size fish caught, a grand total of 94 an average of 2.6 fish per angler.

Results

Zone A
1st Mick Mullane, Jimmy Smith, 5 fish 123 pts:
2nd William Weir, Larne & District, 4 fish 81 pts:
3rd Aidan O Sullivan, Waterville, 3 fish 39 pts:

Zone B
1st Richie Dalton, Waterford Crystal, 4 fish 96:
2nd Christopher O Sullivan, Tralee Bay S.A.C, 2 fish 51 pts:
3rd Kieran Begadon, Waterford Crystal, 3 fish 44 pts:

Zone C
1st Martin Howlin, Master Angler, 10 fish 151 pts:
2nd John O Brien, Post Irish, 8 fish 150 pts:
3rd Brendan Wall, Menapia, 5 fish 78 pts:

Well-done to Graham Blair, Eugene Andrews and the Ulster Angling Council for running a great show. The stewards were fantastic and worked really hard for the anglers making sure every fish was measured correctly. Anglers no that fishing can be hit and miss, we hit on Saturday night but most missed on the day sessions, no fault on any one. Good Job over the weekend by Peter Flahive and Tom Lillis the manager was on the beach keeping an eye on his team for Spain.

Congratulations to the anglers who stayed in the panel and will be competing somewhere in Munster next year again. Commiserations to the anglers who lost their places in the panel who have a lot of hard work to do to get back in.

Ireland has a fantastic team going to Spain in October and I’m sure they will do the country proud as usually. With 4 of the team having fished in World Championships in the past and the experience of Captain Brian Cooke along with the rest of the team we should have no worries.

I’m so jealous boys, Spain and sun regards Eugene Farrelly.

The 2012 World Championships were in Veere the Netherlands. Team Ireland decided that they would drive to the championships to optimize their chances. Having not fished in Veere before, the team wanted to cover all bases and with 2 cars and a ford transit full to the brim with fishing gear, we were ready for all that angling could throw at us. The team met up at Rosslare and the long journey began across the Irish sea, then from Wales down through England to the channel tunnel. On the French side we had to drive up along France through Belgium and after a lot of fighting with the gps we were in Veere, the Netherlands. It was more like arriving in Spain the sun was shining and the locals were in shorts and t shirts. Considering it was the middle of October the Irish team certainly weren’t expecting this sort of beautiful weather. The headquarters for the championships was the hotel Golden Tulip which was only 200 metres from the beach.

Practice makes perfect so team Ireland were in Veere a week before the World Championships began. The 1st day was spent looking at the beaches that were being fished and organising bait for the practice days. The bait was lugworm, maddies and razer fish, a bit like home. 2 sessions a day was the game plan, so early starts were important, the team were on the beach for 8 in morning. Practice is so important, and fishing 2 rods hard for 8 hours a day will give any angler a good idea of what’s out there. Too the teams delight there were plenty of fish in Dutch waters not like Italy last year which was hard work.

Dabs were the most common fish followed by pouting, flounder, pouting, rockling, whiting, bass and the odd lucky sole. The fishing was excellent and the team members were catching up to 20 fish each session.

The biggest problem that effected the team was trying to land fish, not because of their sizes unfortunately. We were fishing into a major shipping lane with large ships passing every few minutes. The water was over 100 foot deep in parts of the channel and the biggest problem was getting your fish over the steep bank on the way in. Fishing with a steep bank only 50 meters or so from the beach was going to be the winning our losing of the championships. Anglers know how hard it is to reel in at speed on your arms, but this was a complete different kettle of fish. Your arms were burning with pain before you were half way in, and if you slowed down for a split second you lost your fish and trace. It was very frustrating losing gear and this happened mainly when you had more than 1 fish on. Things are bad when your arms are sore even having a well-deserved pint.

When the tide got higher it was nearly impossible to get any trace back from the channel so out with the scratchy rigs. There wasn’t as many fish in close but we were still catching small bass and flounder. After 5 days of hard fishing we had a our game plan worked out and the next task was tying rigs. Anglers either hate our love tying rigs, personally I don’t mind but 12 to 15 hours tying rigs can be sole destroying. The Irish boys however were determined to have enough traces to cover all that angling could throw at us. 2 very long days later there was over a 1000 rigs tied by the team and new line on all our reels and spare spools, it was game on.

All the teams were now booked into the hotel and ready for the opening ceremony. On Sunday October the 14th all the country’s were picked up by coaches and brought to the beautiful and historic town of Veere. Martin Howlin the team captain was a proud Irish man carrying the nations flag through the streets of Veere to the famous Grote Kerk building. The Championships was opened and the teams were treated like the celebs by the locals. Sportvisserij Nederland put on a great show with lots of food, wine and beer along with music for the teams. All the competitors were having their last break before the madness started, 5 days with the best men and lady’s shore anglers in the World.

Official Training Day.

This year there were 11 ladies teams and 16 male teams taking part in the World Championships. Team Wales are always the team to watch on the training day as they pick their team after the competition. Other teams are playing it safe and will give nothing away to their opponents. Dutch TV were on all the beaches and the locals were also enjoying the spectacle, there were big crowds around the Dutch anglers who are stars in Holland. The training day is also a good day to meet the Stuart’s who have a thankless job over the week. Needless to say the results were as we had expected.

Men’s Results
(1st) Wales, (2nd) Netherlands, (3rd) Belgium one of the favorites.

Ladies Results
(1st) Italy, (2nd) England, (3rd) Croatia.

World Championships Day 1.

Typical our look had run out, it was just like being home again wind and battering rain. Today was the day, for lots of the angler’s years of qualifying through their club competition’s and national events along with thousands of hours of hard work. Representing your country is every match anglers dream and when the big day comes, words can’t describe the pressure and excitement that an angler goes through.

The ladies were fishing in Zoutelande- Westaplle and the men were on Westduin. The rain stopped just as the competition started but the wind made things hard for all the anglers. From the start fish were being landed in good enough numbers, dabs were the main species along with the odd pouting. Lots of anglers were losing gear when reeling in and this was adding to more anglers getting snagged in lost gear. Tom Lillis the manager and Kieran Begadon were flat out giving the team members as much information as possible. Every hour the results our put up and it’s important to relay the leaders of each of the 5 zones to the anglers. You’re so busy you can’t see what’s going on around you, when you know the leaders you make sure to watch their every move.

Conditions made fishing extremely hard on the 1st day and Ireland didn’t get off to the start we were hoping for. Only 4 scores count on a match day so you want 4 good scores every day to have any chance of winning. Unfortunately Ireland only had 3 good scores Martin Howlin 4th with 7 fish, Derek Kenrick also had a 4th with 8 fish and myself Eugene 3rd with 11 fish. The beaches have grinds every couple of hundred yards and you can be unlucky with your pegs. 7th was our position after the 1st day and we had a uphill battle ahead of us.

The Ladies Results on day 1.

1st France, 2nd Netherlands, 3rd South- Africa.

The Men’s Results on day 1.

1st Italy. 2nd Netherlands, 3rd England.

World Championships Day 2.

Day 2 brought the strong winds again and if that wasn’t enough we were fishing the biggest tides of the year. Westduin was the beach where the ladies were fishing and the men were on Westapelle. Like the first day anglers were landing nice dab and pouting from the off. Distance was the key but with such large tides rigs were being pulled down tide, making it even harder to get fish and rigs in. Netherlands were on fire and were controlling all the five zones.

The Welch were also doing the bizz and after finishing 4th on day 1 they were right back in the game. England were looking very strong in most zones and Ireland were hot on their heels, (game on). John O Brien from Waterford one of Irelands all-time greats finished a respectful 5th landing 16 fish, Derek Kenrick from Cork came 5th and also landed 16 fish. Both John and Derek were gold medallists in South Africa in 2010. Joe Duggan from Wexford came 5th as well and I was 4th. Ireland was 4th overall on the day and this put us in 5th place overall leaving us in good position.

Ladies Results Day 2.

1st Germany, 2nd South-Africa, 3rd Netherlands.

Mens Results Day 2.

1st Netherlands, 2nd Wales, 3rd England.

World Championships Day 3.

The weather had calmed down and there were just heavy showers on the 3rd day of the Championships. Domburg was the venue for the ladies and things were really heating up with the Dutch girls in 3rd place overall. South-Africa were looking good in 2nd place and the German girls were on top position.

Westduin was the venue where the men’s teams were doing battle the Dutch were in a very solid 1st place, well ahead of the other teams. With Portugal in 6th place only 1 place behind the Irish we knew they would also be a serious contender. There was still a lot of hard work to try and pass the English, Italians and of course the Welsh boys were all fishing fantastically.

Fish numbers were starting to dwindle and the fishing was getting even more difficult. Lost traces over the week were causing havoc and anglers were really struggling to get traces back. At this stage every fish mattered and losing fish was driving grown men to nearly cry. For example on my last cast I had nice weight on, possibly a few fish and snapped off on the way in. Another fish or two would have brought me up 5 or 6 places in my zone, (head wrecking stuff).

The Ladies were having a right battle and the Dutch girls had now taken the lead. Germany, France and England were now all on the same points. The last day was going to be close and no bookie could give you odds on such a close competition. On the other hand the men’s Championship was all but over the Dutch were destroying the rest of the field. Wales were looking good for the silver Italy was in bronze position and Ireland had crept into 4th. England had a disaster and dropped 3 places; the last day was a fight for the bronze. John O Brien was 3rd with 10 fish, Joe Duggan 5th with 6 fish and myself and Martin Howlin finished in the middle of our zones.

Ladies Results day 3.

1st Netherlands, 2nd Spain, 3rd England.

 Men’s Results.

1st Spain, 2nd Netherlands, 3rd Croatia.

World Championships Day 4.

On the final day the sun made an appearance yet again and conditions were perfect. Westapelle was where the ladies were fighting out a very close and exciting final. The men were on Domburg a shallower beach. Ireland had it all to do and with the Italians looking pretty good it wouldn’t be easy. John O Brien got off to a great start along with Derek Kenrick, the start Ireland were looking for. Domburg however was my bogie beach and no matter what I done I struggled to catch. Reports were coming in that the English were winning most of the zones and could push them selves into a top 3 position.

The Italians were also finding it hard which was good news for the Irish. Martin Howlin and Joe Duggan were now catching fish so we had 4 good enough scores. We knew it was going to be very close and as the last and final whistle was blown. It was going to be a long wait, out of our hands, had we done enough all these crazy emotions.

Westaplle had also a very closely fought battle between the ladies. The French girls had done very well. It can all change so quickly and the Spanish Ladies finished on a high unfortunately this knocked the English girls back. It was looking like a well deserved win for the Dutch ladies.

Teams made their way back to the headquarters battered mentally and physically awaiting their faith. Not knowing the final results we headed back to our rooms to start packing away our gear as we were heading back in the morning. Roars of joy could be heard around the hotel and we thought that was it. We were loading our gear into the van and cars when were told by a very happy Dutch friend that we had done it. After such a poor start and now to be told we had won the bronze was an amazing feeling. There was going to be some celebrations at prize presentation.

Ladies results day 4.

1st France, 2nd Spain, 3rd Netherlands.

Men’s results day 4.

1st England, 2nd Scotland, 3rd Wales.

Team Results-Competition-Woman.

Team Results-Competition- Men’s

Individual Results-Competition-Woman.

Individual Results-Competition-Men’s.

Summary.

The 2012 World Shore Championships in the Netherlands was a fantastic success. Professionalism on and off the beach’s was very evident. The Dutch should be very proud of their officials, Stuarts, management and of course their amazing anglers. Fishing was hard but it’s the World Championships after all. Yet again the Welsh were World class and Alan Price won the individuals comfortably for the 2nd time. Joe Arch who’s ranked number 1 in the World came 6th this year, this just shows how incredible the Welch system is working. Ireland winning the bronze was a show on how you should never give up, something were famous for. That’s a Team Gold an individual Silver by John O Brien and a team Bronze in 3 years. Irish angling is also on fire at the moment.

The English men and women came very close and were extremely unlucky, but still brought back 2 medals. Richard Yates in the men winning the Bronze and Janet Verlinde in the women winning the Silver. South-Africa’s Christelle Oothuizen also had a fantastic Championship winning the Bronze. The highlight for me was the new friends I made, of course the team winning the Bronze. I am delighted for Mohamed Larbi who won the first ever medal for Tunisia winning the Silver. Spain have a lot to live up to.

Eugene Farrelly.