Bait Digging on the Dingle Peninsula
Best Places to dig Bait on the Dingle Peninsula
Whats the most asked question the Dingle Peninsula Page gets asked all year around? Where do you dig your bait? The reality is it does take years to find the best spots and it takes experience to know how and when to dig. Most places are passed down through generations and anybody who thinks that a lug bed is theirs, in my opinion should have a good chat to themselves.
Through my own experience and anglers are going to think I am crazy but its impossible to dig a place out with pikes. Commercial digging can do damage but that never lasts and I have seen a few different beds where digging has stopped and they have gotten worse. Take for example our local bed in Blennerville where digging has gone on for at least one hundred years.
My grandfather used dig there in the 30's and my father used dig there in the 70's. This is when maddies where called tissees?! A few years ago the gates that keep the water in the canal got damaged and the entry point onto the local lug bed was gone for a year at least. After the gates got put back in the beds were not the same.
The same happens in Kilshannig out in Castlegregory where there is an invasion every September of anglers for the Dawia pairs. Although there is intensive digging for a month at least it doesn't seem to affect the bed. The same can be said for the local famous maddie beds that have provided maddies for a long time, although there can be at times between 20 and 50 people digging for maddies there doesn't seem to be a huge decline in the beds. For maps to some beds around the peninsula click on the links below the pictures..
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| Lugworm |
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| Kilshannig Lugbed Castlegregory |
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| Cockleshell Maddie Beds |