As the title hints this was my local Irish Kayak Angling Competition of the year, situated in my local village Ardglass.
Last year was the first year I ran this competition here and even tho I could not attend as my partner was in labour it turned out to be a big success with brilliant feedback from all.

This year I was looking forward to the event running for the second time, as it’s quite late in the year I was worried about weather but once again it played ball and allowed the comp to run.

The competition this year was the first person to complete a set challenge of species wins, each challenge species equals 10 points, then an added joker species equals 20 points with 5 points per additional species towards the all Ireland championship.
The challenge was 1 coal fish, 1 flat fish, 2 species of Wrasse and the joker was a Dragonet.

After a safety brief and radio check the comp started at 11am on Saturday morning with 30 kayaks on the water, and all kayaks to be off again by 6pm.
I headed straight over to the nearby harbour and picked up my first couple of species then headed on out to the bay where I drifted about, and fished bottom baits, I was fishing 2 rods one with worm baits and the other with fish baits. My plan was to fish a bit over clean ground first then on over to the rougher ground. This was aided immensely by my new Raymarine Element 9, powered by a Nocqua lithium battery and running the latest Navionics charts. The down scan and side scan is totally mind boggling to the point that one could paddle about all day looking at what’s below you and get no fishing done what so ever!!!!!!

12.15pm………. Final species caught including the joker and a few other species, I announced over the VHF that I completed the challenge and had another nearby angler confirm it for me. I finished the day off with 16 species of fish and a win on my local turf…….
It was a great day with one angler Tom finishing on 17 species and also Tim and myself catching all 5 species of Wrasse we have here.

There was also a little pressure from another local lad Andrew who had been practicing here in the weeks leading up to the event and finished in second place…….. tho the only day he’s ever beet me was the day I wasn’t there lol.
It was a superb weekend that everyone seemed to enjoy and I’m already looking forward to next year….