From the archives: Exceptional fish catches on Clew Bay in 1959
By Tom Gillespie
I HAVE been deep sea angling for over half a century, initially on Clew Bay out of Westport and later Newport, Achill, Belmullet, Inishturk, Inishboffin, and Killala, as well as Clifden and Inisheer in Galway Bay. Over the years I have had considerable success in catch numbers.
For 35 years I organised the West of Ireland National Union of Journalists annual competition on Clew Bay. In the early days of the event the competition winners were determined by the heaviest bag of fish.
Regretfully, when the bags were weighed at the Westport Sea Angling Centre, their piscatorial contents were dumped into the tide to feed the crabs.
Thankfully, we coped on and it was long before the conservation of fish stocks became popular.
The Westport skippers devised a chart which allocated points to the various species - the lowest to the most plentiful type like dogfish and higher points to the more exotic species - tope or cuckoorass.
So I was intrigued when I came upon an article in the files of The Connaught Telegraph from June 1959 headed ‘Glut of fish on Clew Bay’.
It read: In perfect weather and pleasant conditions generally, holidaymakers and local anglers are finding that many varieties of fish are usually plentiful in Clew Bay.
Two Mayo men, they reported, Dr. Ryan and Mr. Denis Sweeney, between them on a recent afternoon, had a catch of 16 tope, 90 gurnard, six ling, 75 whiting, two cod (of 16 pounds) and three boxes of pollock.
“We stopped fishing only because we felt we had more than enough to feed all the residents of nearby Clare Island for a week,” they explained.
They had fished in the shelter of Caher Island (pictured above) between Roonagh and Inishturk.
Earlier in the 1959 season Mr. Sweeney caught 14 turbot on an outing.
“The turbot weighed from 14½ to 25½ pounds,” he said. “I have marked the spot and I am sure that during the International Sea Angling Festival on Clew Bay next month (July 1959) there will be plenty of this edible fish landed.”
Other angling parties also forecasted that the catches would be very big during the July competitions.
On Monday, June 22, 1959, Dr. Liam Brennan (Carnlough, Larne); Dr. J. Browne (Tourmakeady); Mr. T. Conboy (Tourmakeady), and Mr. T. O’Toole (Tourmakeady), at a venue barely one mile from Westport Quay, caught five tope (average weight: 35 pounds) and eight monkfish of 315 pounds aggregate. The largest monkfish weighed 49 pounds. The party of four broke six traces and nine hooks during their busy afternoon’s sport.
What they described as their ‘best ever’ catch in many years was reported by five Westport anglers who were so busy hooking, gaffing and bringing fish on board that they did not return to harbour until 1 a.m.
They were Jeff and Mrs. O’Malley and Messers. E.L. Hynes, P.J. Clark and Padraig O’Driscoll.
As executives of the Sea Angling Festival, Messers. O’Malley, Hynes and Clarke were especially delighted to find the fishing so good on Clew Bay.
“We got tired pulling in almost every kind of fish we wanted - whiting, codfish, pollock, gurnard, tope and other varieties,” they said. “Curiously enough, none of us hooked a huss or dogfish.”
Odd fish caught were three ‘strangers’ of exotic colour.
“They certainly added glamour to the huge catch,” said Jeff O’Malley, “but none of us could identify them.”
Flashback: In the 1958 International Festival on Clew Bay Jeff O’Malley won a gold medal in the European championship for a bass of 7 pounds 13 ozs. caught in offshore angling.
Sadly, such exceptional angling on inner Clew Bay is no more and anglers seeking such excitement as the ‘glut’ report showed need to venture further out beyond Clare Island.