Courtesy SEA ANGLER magazine

To discover the real origins of modern day Irish sea angling you would have to go back to the turn of the century and not to the surf strands of Kerry but to Ballycotton. In historical terms surf fishing for Irish bass is in the junior league, reaching back just over four decades, while the then magnificent fishing out of Ballycotton was discovered way back In 1900.

Ballycotton, a 40 minute drive to the east of Cork, is reckoned to he the best unspoilt fishing village in County Cork, and I certainly wouldn't argue with that. Perched along the edge of a cliff, the village looks out over Ballycotton Bay, a wide Inlet of the Atlantic Ocean. A steep winding road leads down to the small harbour and it is from here that anglers have put to sea for hundreds of years.

In those early days it was the London-based Dreadnought SAC who explored the new untapped grounds. Old angling logbooks published In 1909 clearly document the tremendous catches taken by those early pioneers.

A tour of Ballycotton's pubs reveals old black and white pictures hanging on the walls recording the heady days when big catches were taken for granted. The more upmarket Bay View Hotel also has a fine display photographs documenting the great fishing had at the turn of the century.

The pictures may be faded but nobody can fall to be impressed by the size of the skate, sharks and other species, Including halibut, that came from within Ballycotton Bay. I wasn't even born when those first bass baits were cast In Kerry, I'm pleased to say, though I'd give anything for a shot at the unbelievable quality of fishing, members of the Dreadnought must have experienced when they made the long journey to Ballycotton.

Ireland, like everywhere else on the planet, has suffered a decline in fishing over the past two decades, but Ballycotton has the opportunity to offer some superb rod and line angling.

Getting the Ballycotton buzz...

Last September I fished out of Ballycotton, thanks to, a generous invitation from one of the area's longest standing and most experienced charter skippers, Peter Manning. He has fished these waters for nigh on 16 years, and now runs the spacious Irish built 36ft Ocean Tramp Cleona. Back in the pioneering days at Ballycotton, onboard electronics were as common as rocking horse dung - the boats were probably commandeered commercial boats anyway and far removed from the Cleona's wheelhouse equipped with Trimble GPS plotter, Furuno radar, Fuso fish-finder, VHF radio - and did I see Peter with a mobile phone in his pocket?

Our game plan over two days was simple. One day would be spent offshore targeting the blue sharks which are so prolific in these waters, the other alternating between reefs and wrecks where we would undoubtedly bag up on ling, cod, pollack, conger eel and the like.

Well, to cut the story short, the weather turned total crap, the rain came at us like stair rods (and it hurt like hell) and we just stood on the rain-lashed granite harbour wall wondering what to do.

To be frank I thought we would be taking a liquid lunch [the nearest pub is right by the harbour entrance] - but Peter had other ideas. He planned to steam out behind Ballycotton- Island to gain a lee and then get on with the fishing!

Peter, like all Irish charter skippers, is used to dealing with the fickle and highly changeable weather and confidently predicted we would still have a productive day's boat fishing if we were game to try, but I won't tell you what went through my mind as we slipped through the harbour entrance. Let's just say my rain-hammered brain went into screen saver mode!

So there we were anchored within a short lob of the adjacent rocks, dressed like offshore yachtsman trying to battle their way around the Fastnet Rock. Yes, it was a battle, sometimes just to stand up on our feet!

It would be wrong of me to say we had an excellent day's fishing, but then what is excellent fishing? Sure, we were bitterly disappointed we couldn't get offshore and stuck into a shark or two, but we caught plenty of fish, including good numbers of conger to 20lb, the inevitable doggies, a few wrasse, rockling, mackerel and pout.

In truth, and taking into account the foul weather, we did get afloat and managed to sneak out to a mark that at least gave us some form of shelter. And by using light tackle we were able to make the best of what was most certainly a bad job.

Round 2… minus the rain.

At breakfast the following morning our small group of anglers were in a far more buoyant mood. Outside the sun was shining, overnight the wind had eased considerably and the word was we were going to try reaching a few of Peter's offshore reef marks.

Even though I had never fished at Ballycotton before, I do have a tremendous amount of experience of fishing Irish reefs. When it comes to getting a feel of a mark and trying to suss out exactly what's down there and feeding, well there's nothing to beat a string of baited Hokkai-style lures.

After the previous day's fishing we had resisted going to the pub, well, until later anyway, and set about digging for ragworm - now there's real dedication for you! And it was these hard-earned worms and thin strips of freshly-caught mackerel that I used to bait my lures, and the results were almost instantaneous. Small reef pollack came sniffing and within seconds of the rig touching bottom. These were joined by some very spunky ballan wrasse, an brightly coloured cuckoo wrasse.

Our species tally grew with pout, poor cod, doggies, whiting, mackerel, gurnard, rockling and scad all failing foul to a baited lure. I stuck it out with the Hokkais but others switched to long flowing traces terminating in jelly worms or whole head-hooked rag, which sorted out the better quality pollack.

Things were looking good, then sometime a little before midday the strength of the wind increased. We fished on but within the hour it had reached such force we had to make a run for port.

Sitting in the bar that evening, surrounded by pictures of anglers with their huge trophy fish, I tried to imagine what such fishing would have been like when catching specimen cod, pollack, ling and conger. It must have been almost a formality.

Giant skate are still caught in southern Ireland but it has been many a year since a halibut was taken on rod and line. Offshore I know the blue shark fishing can still be exceptional, and with experienced skippers like Peter Manning running well equipped charter boats, there is every chance of still catching that dream fish.