13/04/2026
A fine breezy afternoon greeted Southshore’s finest in the Carpark in Arklow for a competition on the jewel in the East Coast Match Circuit - Arklow South Beach. On what should have been desperate conditions for shore angling (very small tides and bright sunshine), Arklow turned up the goods as usual.
From first cast, fish were in evidence in doubles & trebles all along the stretch. Mainly whiting to start but a few flats & dogs would normally show aswell!
In Zone A Thomas Keogh & Jim O’Brien were duking it out, with Jim picking off multiple whiting and Thomas finding more higher scoring dogs. Dave Cottell & Rob Moore fished hard to keep the pressure on both the lads as they all progressed well into double figures of fish.
In Zone B, there was an early charge from Eamonn Bermingham who had located the dogs at distance and had half a dozen with the first couple of hours of the match. Not to be overshadowed and somewhat inevitability, Ciaran Fogarty located the dogs aswell and a single or double was regularly seen skimming in onto the beach. Alby Allan on a fancied end peg was struggling to keep pace but located a few double dogs late on to keep some pressure on the lads.
A fascinating subplot was also emerging as Gordy Hardman on the Golden Peg (which has now amassed close on a thousand Euro) had foregone typical whiting & dogfish tactics to use worm baits to target bass & flounders to see if he could take a pool out and a big fat slice of the dosh!!!
You couldn’t write it, but with precious few flats coming to shore, Gordy landed a 21cm dab which was in pole position. Gordy and Ian Daly have a longstanding shared winnings agreement, and after a couple of hours Ian was as excited as a kid on Christmas Eve!
Gordy, ever the Good Samaritan was giving Tony Kelly a lift to the match and unbeknownst (or was it??) to Tony, Gordy had a fortune in his grasp, when in the last knockings, Tony landed a cracking 30cm Flounder that sent the lads holiday plans to Kerry into a tailspin. Several anglers, although not 100% confirmed, saw a man similar to Tony trudging along the N11 back to Dublin after the match with Fishing gear in tow!
Back to the match proper and Thomas Kept the pressure on to win Zone A with 15 fish, from Jim O’Brien also with 15 fish and Dave Cottell in third on 11.
In Zone B, Ciaran managed enough dogs to get up comfortably for the Zone & overall win (21 fish), his consistency, tactical acumen & skill are a joy to behold in addition to assisting and giving tips to any angler who asks, well done that man! Alby Allan (18 fish) had a strong last 90 mins with a few double dogs to just pip Eamonn (19 fish) for second place.
Finally the pools went to Dave Cottell with a 26cm Whiting & Tony Kelly with that fiscally challenging 30cm Flounder!
