South East 2nd club match 2025

[Robbie_B]

A little later than I'd planned but here it is, a small report of our 2nd club match of 2025. Our 2nd club match was on last Sunday on our local south beach in Arklow. You'd think being local we'd be first to arrive, even though we were a little early, we were last to arrive and myself and Kalim got the final two pegs of 11 and 12. I thought great, not to far to walk with all the gear. I had been down twice during the week up to this up to this, one day produced no fish and the 2nd day plenty of fish. Today was going to be a little different though. I helped Kalim get set up first, he is using his trusty old 12ft shakespeare rod, perfect for him and extremely light, paired with a tronixpro reel with 16lb mainline. He loves this reel because the reel handle is quite big and easy to grip. Myself, I decided to set up two rods, my yuki a6 sensitive paired with my old ultegra xsc with 16lb mainline for shorter distance and then I had the anywhere anyfish 6 and bait paired with a surfblaster 8000 with 12lb mainline for longer distance. Bait today we had mackerel, sandeel, black wraps, fresh rag and lug. First baits were in the water for 11am and we were fishing till 4pm. It turned out to be a very tough day, baits were coming back untouched most of the day, not even a sign of a crab. After about 90mins I got my only fish of the day, a 20cm whiting which was just enough for me to get points on the board and save a blank, finishing 2nd last. Kalim had nothing up until his last cast where he got his first ever pollack, only a small one of 22cm, enough to save him a blank and get some points on the board. He finished 3rd in the juniors and he was well pleased with that. It was another tough day in the office, I thought things would start to get a little easier, I thought I'd start to figure things out and catch a little more but how wrong was I, it's tough and I've still loads to work on and to try figure out but still loving this. We did receive a few prizes at the end of the day from last year's master angler, Kalim was runner up in the juniors last year and I got the longest fish of the year, an 86cm hound, it was my first match last year and my first hound so it was nice to get something for that. Our next competition is 3 weeks away now and it's on Wicklow beach, we've never fished this one before so it'll be an interesting one. Not many pictures this time round

 

[tdxs133pm]

south beach in Arklow.

Nice write up Robbie.I Remember that beach as if it was yesterday and not 9 years ago.Like you I've never fished Wicklow Beach although I've been past it a few times on the train from Gorey.Good luck with your next match.

Here you go,full report.Click on the link. Ballybrack SAC fished Arklow South Beach