September in Ireland Part II

Tony Vallack plays a bass while Mike Duckett waits with the net

Following Tony Hooper’s earlier report here are a few further notes and pictures of our Irish adventures.

I was lucky enough to be able to go to West Cork for 10 days from 10^th to 20^th September. I went the long way round; Plymouth to Pembroke Dock in South Wales, then on the ferry from Pembroke to Rosslaire, and then overland through Wexford, Waterford and Cork to Courtmacsherry.

For the first week I stayed with Tony Hooper, his wife Sue, John Williams a mutual bass fishing friend from West Cornwall, and his son Chris, at Anchor Bay Cottages in Courtmacsherry; very nice digs indeed, and excellent company. Tony, it seems knows everybody, and most of the pubs, in West Cork and they all know him, so that made it all the more fun.

Guinness or...

...Murphy's - the hardest decision of the week?

As well as catching the bass shown in his report together with one or two others somewhat smaller, I managed to lose my passport and my driving licence! It happened like this:

In preparation for a trip with Tony in his inflatable boat, I was sorting out my fishing bag at the back of my car. On noticing that my passport and driving licence were in the bag I thought ‘Oh, I need to take those into the cottage where they will be safe’. So I temporarily put them on the roof of my car while I finished getting my gear ready. I then forgot they were there. Well, you can guess what happened next, yes, I drove off down the road with them still on the roof! Two days later my passport turned up after someone had handed it in at the local lifeboat station and my driving licence ended up being posted back to Plymouth, courtesy of a kind lady from Dublin who found it on the road to Timoleague! Anyway, despite the anxiety that they might not let me leave Ireland without my identity papers, I had an excellent time.

Now, where's my passport?

After that I went down to Rosscarberry to stay with Mike Duckett and Tony Vallack in their luxury rented bungalow; which was also very nice. They had arranged to fish with a local guide, Pete Aspinwall, from his small boat. It turned out he was taking them to one of the places I had been with Tony Hooper earlier that week. Sure enough he put them on a few bass as well as a bonus sea trout.

Tony with a nice bass...

...and a seatrout

Mike Duckett with bass and Pete Aspinwall

In the latter part of my stay I had hoped to catch some mullet, possibly on the fly, from the saltwater lagoon at Rosscarberry, a well know Cork mulleting spot, but it was not to be, and after ten days and many pints of Guinness and Murphy’s I made the long journey home via the Rosslaire to Pembroke Ferry.