2015 FACT FINDING MISSION TO WICKLOW

Over the last few months PAKA have had requests about fishing different areas of Ireland:

Clive Jones, Alan Duthie and Daron Lawry took it upon themselves at their expense to visit Wicklow just south of Dublin, Wicklow offers a different type of fishing than Kilmore Quay catering for the angler who want the big Tope, Smoothound and Bullhuss.

After travelling overnight from Pembroke with Irish ferries it took us a further hour to get to Wicklow, Staying at the Bridge hotel which is a 2 minute easy walk to the boats, The Bridge was very disappointing and certainly not suitable for the traveling angler, as PAKA are currently advising and sending up to 400 anglers per year to Ireland it would be wrong to recommend this hotel, The Grand hotel offers much better options for anglers.

That night we met up with Kit Dunne the owner of 2 boats in the harbour and Ashley Hayden who probably was the instrument in promoting Ireland when I met him 5 years ago, we made plans for going fishing on the Tuesday being joined by Des Chew IFI and a couple of local guys, up bright and early we boarded the LISIN a 10.5mtr (35ft) offshore 105 (photo above) the space was great with plenty of room to move around she is a modern and a very fast boat comfortably catering for 12 anglers and 2 crew, about a mile offshore we quickly filled our buckets with fresh Mackerel and set off to a Smoothhound mark off Arklow  point.

Clive hit a Bullhuss (above) first with a nice one about 8lb on a velvet crab bait.

This was quickly followed by another one the Smoothound were also abundant, more pictures are to follow.
 Anyone who wishes to try this type of fishing should contact Kit on:
Mobile 00353876832179
Tel 0035340467031
Email info@wicklowboatcharters.ie

Kit can arrange bait and equipment and also he offers advice on hotels and restaurants, one place we visited was the whistler bar the landlord gave a great welcome even sending a round of drinks over, it’s the type of place that our anglers love to visit a sort of drink till you fall over place, local anglers also frequent there.

During October 2015, Kit from Wicklow, Des Chew, local hotel owners, also our favourite people Siobhan from the Quay house in Kilmore Quay , Eamonn Hayes skipper of Autumn Dream and representative from Irish Ferries are visiting  Wales to promote fishing in Ireland, the Irish fisheries have also been invited, the smaller businesses have agreed to offer free place to the winners of a raffle held on the presentation night hopefully, Irish Ferries will agree to a prize as well, all the proceeds will go to the RNLI fund. If anyone is interested please us the contact form to book, this is promising to be a popular event with places already being pre-booked, venue times and dates to follow.

Alan Duthie