Well the year started off with me banned from fishing till February as we were expecting our third child at home. I put our first posts on Ireland Fishing Diaries on the night of 5th of February and went to bed. I awoke a short time later, Caroline went into labour and after a mad dash to the hospital our son Tomas was born in the morning. As I rang Aidan and Joe to let them know the good news, I was shocked to see some feedback from the website which during the event I had completely forgotten about, and so that was the start of Ireland Fishing Diaries.

My first trip this year was after an invite from our good friend Kit Dunne, where he brought myself and my eldest daughter Alyssa on her first boat trip. Captain Kit soon had her convinced there was treasure in the caves on Wicklow head and he put on such a convincing performance she thought blackbeard was going to jump out so thanks Kit you made a little girls day…

I was out with Kit and Liam O’Connor a week later for an early recce and was delighted to get a nice thornback ray for our efforts.

A nice thornie aboard Lisin with Kit Dunne

Next up was time for the annual twaithe shad, this year we got to do just two short two hour sessions, one for me and one for Aidan and Joe. We got to grips with a few fish but nothing big and left wishing we had more time as always with fishing. After the lads session they went on down to Lough in Cork where They set up for the night.

Twaithe shad

After a quiet time on the Lough Aidan had this gorgeous mirror

A gorgeous mirror of 16.7lb for Aidan

The next session saw us on the south coast of county Wexford for an evening session, which we quickly had to change plan due to weed on the first mark. We upped sticks and moved to the next spot which produced a 5lb bass for Joe.

The next session saw Aidan flying solo as myself or Joe couldn’t make it. Aidan scored well with a gorgeous shore tope and after a bit of working out the self timer on the phone managed to take a few pics before it was safely released.

Shore tope for Aidan

Next off Aidan and myself were back aboard Kit Dunne’s boat where we were bringing Joe Radford of the Killinarden angling inititive who had won a raffle and Joe got his first tope, huss and smoothies.

Following on from this Me and Aidan took a road trip to Waterford where we met up for an evening session with Sean Martin. Fishing into darkness saw Aidan pick up a bass on a black minnow, before all too soon it was time for home with work the next morning.

After this we gave the smoothies just two sessions, once where Aidan went and brought his son Carl, nephew Ryan and niece Erin, and then once more where Ross Macklin joined us from Cork for the kind of social one you only get when Ross is around.

Aidan and Carl with a smoothie

Next up I was back out with Kit for more smoothies and tope.

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It was now time for our annual family holiday where we set off with our three families for Kerry. We had a great time with the kids really enjoying themselves and even managed two nights out fishing. The second one kinda fucked us up as we said we would be home at midnight and rolled in the door at seven am which killed the fishing for the rest of the week! We met up with John Joe Sheehan and fished a few marks and between us had strap conger, tub gurnard, schoolie bass and undulate ray. John Joe showed us many marks and we enjoyed the hospitality you only get in the kingdom thanks John Joe and Martin!

Next was an evening trip with Kit for tope again of course…

We then gave the mullet two sessions…..

Our next trip was Joe’s fortieth birthday and we decided to celebrate it on the Beara peninsula in http://www.dromagowlanehouse.com with an invite from Paul Harris and his wife Anne who run one of the best shore fishing guesthouses in Ireland.

We had a great time with many small conger and huss and stacks of ballan wrasse with a specimen ballan wrasse for Joe.

Joe White 5.2lb ballan wrasse

Next we were boat fishing again for our only shark trip we got this year, we were out with Mike Dennehy and Pedro Walsh on Silver Dawn which we have come to expect means plenty of slagging, verbal abuse and quality fish. Mike and Pedro are two of the best skippers in the business and joining us was their good friend Rob Vaughan, where Aidan had the best fish of the day and in between the slagging and sharks was plenty of garfish.

There were plenty of these around

The best of the day to Aidan

Next up was some nice east coast bass for Joe and some bad parking!

Joe with a 6.3lb bass caught on crab

5.6lb bass

3.5lb

Our last sea session of the year was on down south where we had plenty of cod and some painted ray including two specimens for Joe

one eyed cod

10lb 3oz painted ray

8lb male for me

10lb 9oz

With just two more sessions after that we turned our attention towards pike….

First pike of the day 8lb

Next up Aidan

13lb 5oz

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10.9lb pike for Aidan

Well thats it from us for 2014, and roll on 2015….

Tomas at Halloween