County fleets to relive final offshore

No matter what happens on Sunday, mackerel season in October will see every moment relived across the radio waves when the fishing fleets from Donegal and Kerry meet off the north-west coast.

Time on the boat means getting to the games is a luxury, but missing county games on the satellite television is not an option for the crews — no matter where they find themselves.

That’s why this game will have an extra incentive for both fleets. With winter fishing and the move to the northern fishing grounds in store, the Kerry and Donegal boats are already planning ahead.

“We’ll all be fishing together for mackerel in October and we’ll be going to port in Killybegs,” laughed Tom Kelly, skipper of the Fiona K2, who fishes out of Dingle. “There will be massive bragging rights and whoever wins will have some massive flags on their boats.”

Captain of the Atlantic Challenge, Stephen McSharry, who works for Killybegs Fishing Enterprises, is already looking forward to it.

“There’ll be plenty of banter between the southern boats and ourselves. You’ll get a lot of it on the radio. But it’s all good fun. We’re all one big community on the sea together at the end of the day.”

Stephen missed Donegal’s epic semi-final win over Dublin but watched it on board the boat off the coast of Namibia with his 10-strong crew all wearing Tir Chonaill jerseys.

“We were on contract for horse mackerel and were coming back from Africa. The craic was mighty. The first 20 minutes were heart-stopping but after that there was plenty of noise.

“Thankfully we’re not going out again until the 28th. We’re all football-mad lads so we’ll get to see the final. We’re looking for tickets now.”

Unfortunately for the Dingle fishermen, Tom’s crew leaves port on Saturday night to start the herring season and will be 50 miles off shore when the ball is thrown in. The naive response was to ask whether they could wait 24 hours.

“It doesn’t work that way,” he said.

“Sometimes with herring you can but the season is starting on Saturday night and whole fleet will be out. If you waited you’d miss out on the fish but don’t worry we’ll be cheering them on from off shore.

“We have the satellite TV on the boat so we’ll watch the two games. We’ve all Kerrymen on board, bar two Waterford men who would be more into the hurling, on a crew of seven. I’d say they’ll support Kerry in this one and if they don’t we’ll have them well outnumbered.

“There’s a strong Dingle connection there with Marc Ó Sé and the two Geaneys, so we’ll be throwing on the jerseys and sitting around the table for sure.”