KILMORE QUAY
Home of the famous Rosslare Small Boats Festival, Kilmore Quay offers some craicing inshore and offshore Irish sport
Kilmore Quay is a busy fishing harbour located in County Wexford in the south-east corner of Ireland. Kilmore has long been a popular port for boat anglers, both those who fish aboard charter boats and those who trailer and launch their own boats. It’s the location for the long running Rosslare Small Boats Festival, a hugely popular species hunt that attracts many of the UK’s very best small boat anglers.
e species fishing around Kilmore Quay is some of the best in the whole of Ireland, and it’s not uncommon for over 40 species to be landed during this week-long competition.
MARKS
You only need to look at chart covering the area to see just why the boat fishing here is so varied and productive. Just over three miles offshore you’ll find e Saltee Islands; the waters around these islands are surrounded by a myriad of reefs. Take note though, as the seabed off the south-east corner of Ireland is littered with numerous drying reefs, partially submerged rocks, and dangerous shoals, which in addition to providing perfect holding and feeding ground for fish, also pose an obvious and very serious hazard to navigation and safety. I’ve fished off the Saltee Islands on numerous occasions, and we have almost always fished on the drift, using various types of lures and relatively light tackle. Productive areas to fish are located around
e Short Bohur, e Bore, e Brandies, Red Bank, Coningmore Rocks, and the swift flowing sound between Little and Great Saltee islands. Take extra care in the vicinity of Red Bank and in between the Saltee Islands as powerful tide rips can make the seas here very unpredictable, notably during spring tides.
TACTICS & SPECIES
Lures worked over rough ground off the Irish coast invariably mean pollack, and apart from mackerel, pollack are the most frequently caught species. In this corner of Ireland pollack average 2lb-6lb, occasionally a little bigger, but all provide tremendous sport if caught on light spinning rods. Other species to expect when lure fishing over rough ground include coalfish, bass, mackerel, launce, gurnards, codling and several species of wrasse. Fishing over open ground expect to catch various species of ray and flatfish, dogfish, huss, smoothounds and more. e tope fishing off Kilmore Quay can be excellent. Fresh bait, especially live ragworm, is hugely effective for coalfish, cod, ling, bass, wrasse and numerous other species. Live mackerel is deadly for better quality bass and, of course, tope.
WRECKING
Lying on the seabed out in the deep water off the coast of south-east Ireland and the Celtic Sea, there are plenty of wrecks. Many of these hold concentrations of fish that will provide sport of a standard many anglers have never experienced. Once again, you’ll catch mostly pollack, but often these rusting hulks hold decent numbers of sizeable coalfish, ling, conger and cod. roughout the summer months drifting for shark offshore is yet another option. You’ll mostly catch blues averaging 30lb-80lb but much bigger fish are often caught, including an occasional porbeagle. In the last few years thresher and mako shark have been taken off the coast of southern Ireland too.
As good as the fishing is off the Irish coast, most angler’s thoughts and conversation invariably start to drift towards the legendary Irish hospitality that awaits the thirsty fisherman on land. A few pints of Guinness consumed during your stay in the Emerald Isle are almost obligatory! ■