Dishing out the fish, it’s just delish

THE bounty of the mackerel arrived off the coast this summer, as every summer, and were shoaling in the bay during the Women’s Angling Competition at the Courtmacsherry Festival last week.

Off the Seven Heads, the women hauled them in, and one woman kindly phoned us to say there would be mackerel for the taking on the pier at 8.30pm. After the days of relentless rain, it was great to have had a lovely evening for the competition. Thirty-five ladies took part. The largest individual catch was 56lbs of fish.

We were not the only plastic-bag bearers waiting as the boats pulled in. It must have been some small compensation for holidaymakers, having suffered sunlight-deprivation and deluge-disappointment for days, to be able to carry a dozen fresh, shining mackerel home to the holiday accommodation and have the weather to barbecue them outdoors that very evening. We took 20 fish for our current family of 10. Barbecued mackerel is a treat. The grandchildren, now no longer children, look forward to it when they arrive from the English Home Counties. You don’t get fish like that there, with their bright eyes and firm bodies straight from the ocean, and the salty taste of the sea.