The idea behind my fishing for giant shark was kicked off by my son Lee who published the book by Ian Harbage on Mako sharks. One of the captors who contributed to the book was Andy Griffiths who had caught a slam, and even a 6-gill shark.
Having read about Bernard Venables massive shark off Madeira decades ago and recently seeing Jeremy Wade’s one off Ascension Island I was keen to learn more.
I rang Andy and he said that he caught his off Ireland in only 200 feet of water not too far from the shore. I had always believed these to be big deep-water scavengers. I was intrigued and he told me he had flown to the west coast of Ireland and had booked accommodation with Luke Aston who was also the skipper of the boat Clare Dragoon out of Carrigaholt in the River Shannon estuary.
I rang my fishing buddy Reg, who travels to Ireland frequently and wondered if he was interested. Reg, like myself, was curious to see one of these sea monsters, so I rang Luke to try and make some plans. Sadly, he said his season was fully booked to the end of September and whilst the shark will still be there after this date, the weather in the west of Ireland may prove impossible. He suggested that if I booked his accommodation (dinner, bed and breakfast was available for anglers as well as lunch when on the boat) he would reserve the boat for the week, and we could pick the three best days for fishing on arrival. That seemed an excellent offer, too good to refuse, and a way forward without waiting another year. The plan was laid; we booked flights from Birmingham (near Reg whom I would collect on the way) to Shannon, and hired a car from Shannon to Carrigaholt, paid the deposit and just had to wait for the days to come around.
The tackle we regularly use would struggle with fish of around half a ton so we decided to use Luke’s gear which he had developed over the years and were ideal for fishing with a cranked butt on the rod, but not overly so, and he also had a harness to apply the pressure needed to bring one of these leviathans to the boat. The one thing we didn’t expect was his suggestion that we should bring lights with us as this may help the capture. Whilst there was no definitive proof that this helps, he felt that on the balance of probability based on his years of experience that these would be beneficial.
It seemed to take an eternity for the trip to come around. The forecast for the start of the week was very windy although there may be a slot for us mid-week which looked promising. We headed off with high expectations of catching our biggest ever fish, but also a little apprehension as we are both well on the wrong side of retirement. I picked Reg up and we drove less than an hour to Birmingham Airport for our flight. There were no delays or cancellations so we thought all was well as we took off, and it wasn’t long before we were on approach to land at Shannon. We felt the expected winds buffeting the plane as it seemed to bounce around as we descended so there was little surprise when the pilot said he wouldn’t be able land and we would have to reschedule. He subsequently announced we were being redirected to Belfast (the furthest airport from Shannon!!!).
There was nobody from Ryanair to help us on arrival even though they knew we had been redirected, so we spent a couple of hours trying to find out what was happening. Firstly, we struggled to find our bags, eventually finding them in the domestic flight area. The Swissport personnel advised us that Ryanair were trying to sort coaches but as it was a Sunday night, they were struggling to get a driver. We decided not to wait around and spoke to Budget, who were very helpful, and we hired a car to drive to Shannon Airport which would be collected at a later date. The budget franchise in the north and south were different companies so we were unable just to add this on to our hire already booked from Shannon. To reduce the costs, we asked if any other passengers wanted to share the car with us as we were driving to Shannon, and three Irish gents joined us.
It was a six-hour drive, but the Irish lads were good company and we dropped them off at Limerick (I can’t think of a suitable poem) before driving the last 20 minutes to Shannon, dropping this car off and collecting our pre-booked car for the balance of the trip. It sounds complicated, but in reality, it was very smooth and people were really helpful. On the way, we got a text message to say that a bus for the passengers left Belfast Airport at 9.30pm so we were relieved we had decided not to wait as we still had a further hour to drive to Carrigaholt, arriving just at midnight. Our rooms were ready and we crashed out and arose for the 8.30 breakfast. Nobody we spoke to could believe Ryanair had taken us to Belfast as it is much the farthest airport from Shannon.
After having a cooked Irish breakfast, lashings of tea and home-made scones, we sat down to make a plan with Luke.
He said that the best three days would be Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, and asked what did we wanted to do. I, in all innocence said that we both would like to catch a 6-gill and then fish for other species. Luke smiled and said I was asking for a miracle as he had one customer who had been for a week’s fishing annually for five years before he got his shark. We decided to keep to our idea and just wing it.
We spent the first day driving around the town, and tried fishing off the quay which proved impossible in the high cross wind, so we moved to the other quay and sat back out of the wind in the sunshine and tried fishing. I managed a solitary blenny on the LRF gear I take, whereas Reg was catching crabs six at a time. We didn’t know at the time that low tide leaves this quay waterless, but it was a very pleasant relaxing afternoon in the sun watching the waterfowl as we dozed.
We returned for our home cooked evening meal at 6.30pm. The accommodation came complete with a pool room and a sitting room with television, and tea/coffee making facilities. We decided to have a game of pool that lasted most of the evening due to our lack of skill before retiring for the night.
Tuesday morning finally came around and after breakfast we drove to the quay to meet Luke who had prepared the boat, ‘Clare Dragoon’.
It was about an hour from there to the mouth of the Shannon and we stopped to catch pollack and coalfish for bait. We decided to try to catch the week’s supply in one stop, which took all of 10 minutes as out feathers were taken as soon as they hit the bottom. So now all set, we then went a further 2 miles out to a reef in 200 feet of water with soft sandy bottom around it. Coalfish are the preferred bait, so we set the two rods up, one each using a wire trace with a sturdy mono shock leader and the lights we had brought over with us.
There is no real tide here so unlike the Bristol Channel that I am used to, one rod was fitted with a 12oz lead and the other was about 1lb to keep them apart as they plummeted the 200 feet to the sea bed. We then relaxed awaiting our first bite. Every now and then we would drop baited feathers to the bottom to see what else was down there and managed scad, doggies, coalfish, cuckoo wrasse and the odd pouting.
Our shark baits twitched from time to time and when we checked them, they were all munched up. Luke said this was to be expected as it was a hotspot for spurdog and not to worry as the sharks are scavengers and didn’t mind eating bits of chewed up fish.
The day passed quickly with no major occurrences, and as we returned to port I spotted a basking shark swimming by the boat. I have always wanted to see one and this made it a red-letter day for me.
We returned to our accommodation, showered, had our dinner and dessert and the spent a while watching football on the television.
Wednesday came around and off we went again. I commented it could be a miracle day if we caught a shark and Villa didn’t lose to Bayern Munich in the football.
This time we stopped at another part of the same reef between 2 peaks about 300 yards from the previous day. We baited up with one and a half coalfish on each rod, then settled down again to await our shark.
It only took about 30 minutes before my rod twitched and a small series of clicks came off the reel. I tightened down and felt the weight and set the hook. Reg quickly wound in the other rod as Luke got the harness and strapped me in. As this was happening the rod was bouncing and bucking. I wasn’t sure if this was head shakes or if the tail was wrapped but whichever it was, I was getting beaten up. With no stretch in the braid, you just have to hang on in there.
Once into the harness, I could really apply pressure with Reg behind me to make sure I didn’t go over the edge and I was winning very slowly but then….disaster!! The 130lbs BS braid snapped. Oh, no!! I had blown our chance of seeing a shark for the week. I can only think that the tail had brushed against the tight line and Reg and I shot backwards. Luke also commented that I may have been using too much pressure, any rubbing would cause the break as braid is not good for abrasion resistance. Fortunately, (or unfortunately), we have experienced such traumas many times in the past and got on with setting up and trying again.
It seemed less than an hour before Reg’s rod tip showed signs of life. He waited in vain for the run to develop after a few minutes and gently tightened down to feel what was going, on and there was nothing there. He quickly relaxed the line pressure and the bait dropped back down, much as you would when conger fishing, and shortly afterwards the line ran slowly off the reel. This time, on tightening, he felt the weight and set the hook. We all knew what we had to do this time. I was already getting the other rod out of the way, Luke had Reg in the harness and the fight began. These fights aren’t sharks tearing into the distance. 6-gill sharks are just very powerful fish and tend to swim in circles and if you can get the head up and keep pressure on, then you gain line. However, if they get their head down, then you go back down to the bottom and start again. They are very big very strong fish.
Reg eventually got his to the surface and our jaws just dropped. It was so broad across its back and had such a deep body, truly enormous. We tried to take photographs but none of them do justice to the size of the fish which was estimated at 600lbs. We joked that it also had an evil eye, you could imagine it thinking “Just put your hand down here!!!” Luke then over the side of the boat and released the fish which slowly glided down into the darkness which preceded a short bout of celebration, handshakes, high-fives and man hugs. We had got our shark and were amazed at the sheer size of it. This is what we came for.
After baiting up again, we sat back to savour the moment, Luke not believing our luck at two hook-ups in the same day. After a while, he emerged from the cabin and said “20 minutes left”. About 10 minutes later a rod began to twitch as before. I wound down and there was nothing there so dropped the bait just as Reg had done. Shortly afterwards the line started to run from the reel and, unbelievably, I tightened into another shark.
Luke was beside me as I struggled to get the fish up and remember him saying 40 minutes were up and I still hadn’t seen the fish which eventually appeared, and it was big beast. We tried different angles to get a good photograph in vain but it was even bigger than the last one, estimated at 900lbs. It is hard to believe that this is the average size for the species caught there.
It had been an unbelievable day and it was our turn to rib Luke on the way back about what the power of positive thought can achieve.
Upon reaching the town, we had a little rehydration before having our evening meal, still with smiles across our faces.
The following day, we kept to our agreed plan and stayed further in the Shannon as the wind had picked up, catching tope and rays in a stress-free day. In fact, the whole break was the same; it was just so relaxing and when not fishing we explored the beautiful countryside and spectacular geology and were impressed with the friendliness of the people. I can fully recommend it, but you need to be aware, you may not be as lucky as we were.
If you fancy a go at this, then please contact Luke Aston at luke@fishandstay.com and tell him Keith sent you.
The next day was choppier so we decided to stay within the estuary catching tope and rays with the euphoria of the previous day still with us.
As with all of such trips, the real skill is with the skipper and Luke knew his stuff even having designed his own rods. The hospitality was excellent, as was the food. I would have no problems recommending this trip and the great thing is you don’t have to travel half the way around the world to do it and sampling the joys of Ireland is just so relaxing.