About

After two interrupted years, the club finally got back to normal with our Small Boats Festival out of Dunmore East Co. Waterford. May 21st & 22 nd was the date set for the festival, with a strong entry of fifteen boats growing again in the festival's fourth year. Anticipation was high in the lead-up to the event that fishing was going to be good again.

Unfortunately, a storm forecast for the early part of the week hung around and kept a low pressure over us with windy weather on both days. This meant restrictions had to be put in place restricting all boats to the Waterford Estuary for the weekend. The fishing times were:

Sat: 09:00 -18:00

Sun: 09:00-16:30

Post-check-in, radio check, and boat inspections, all boats went off in varying directions to get to their chosen marks. Strong tides and winds made for hard fishing with most boats struggling to find their targeted species.  Although there were plenty of the more common species, the mix of species were hard to find, and building a species count was hard work.

At lines up on Day 1, check-in was conducted in the harbour after 18:00, with a picture and measure system in place. This made for a speedy and efficient tallying of the day’s scores. Showing their skill and experience last year’s winners Shamrock Tackle flew into the lead with 13 species followed closely by local boat Katie on 9 species and the 2JDs on 8 species.

Day one results:

1st Shamrock Tackle- 13 species

2nd Katie- 9 species

3rd 2 JDs- 8 species

4th Rockling 2 -6 species

5th Pieces – 6 species

 Day two saw much the same weather-wise and all the boats again availed of the shelter of the estuary. We are lucky to have such a wide range of fishing locally with estuaries, bays, and open sea which cater for a wide range of species and provides shelter in all but the very worst of weather.

The species were hard to come by again due to the conditions but plenty of the already captured species kept anglers busy throughout the day. On day two Katie keep the pressure on the leaders adding five to the nine from day one, the two JDs and Here Fishy Fishy did well adding four to their tallies, while Team Rinnashark tried to make up lost ground and added seven for day two. But retaining the title for the second year in a row was Shamrock Tackle, adding two to bring their tally to fifteen. This was a super performance and the pressure is now on for the three in a row.

Prize giving, refreshments, and banter took place in the Haven Hotel at 19:00 on Sunday where a large array of prizes were on display, with all anglers and boats receiving a prize.

Results:

1st Shamrock tackle- 15 species

2nd Katie- 14 species

3rd 2JDs- 13 species

4th Team Rinnashark -12 Species

5th Here Fishy Fishy –  11 species

6th Shockwaves – 9 species

7th Pieces – 8 species

8th Rockling 2 – 8 Species

9th Thresher – 7 species

10th Pure Chaos – 5 species

11 Free spirit – 4 species

12th Nicole n Will – 4 species

13th Wet and wild – 3 species

 

Biggest combined Huss/ Hound

Here Fishy Fishy

Biggest

Smoothhound: Katie

Gurnard: Pure Chaos

Bass: Rockling 2

Flat: Team Rinnashark

List of species caught over the two days:

Bass, Flounder, Silver eel, Conger eel, dogfish, Plaice, Dab, Corkwing wrasse, Goldshinny wrasse, Ballon wrasse, Smoothhound, Sea scorpion, 5 Bearded rockling, Pout, Poor cod, Tub gurnard, Grey gurnard, Goby, Pollock, Weever, Whiting, Bull huss, Blenny, Launce & 3 Bearded rockling

25 species in bad weather while being restricted to the inner estuary, really shows what the area has to offer.

 

The Committee of Rinnashark Sea Angling Club would like to thank all the anglers who made this a special weekend and we would also like to thank all our sponsors; without them, this festival could not be run:

 

Inland Fisheries Ireland - IFI

Akios/ Inova

Shamrock Tackle

Waterford Angling & Outdoor Centre

Halfway Angling Centre

Murph’s tackle

3 Mobile

Purcell Properties, Estate Agents.

Spar Dunmore East

Suir Engineering

Union Chandlery

Farrells Filling Stations, Tramore

Mc Carthy’s Builders Providers, Tramore.

Mc Donald’s Builders Tramore