Mayo skipper Willie still boasts ‘tight lines’ at the age of 79
by Tom Gillespie
WHEN deep-sea Mayo fisherman Willie Oglesby retired, the salt water was still in his blood so he had to remain on the ocean wave.
And since 2013 he has been skippering the ‘Dolphin Explorer’ out of Killala for day-tripper anglers.
And Willie, who celebrated his 79th birthday when I met up with him, has no plans to quit, just yet.
He confessed: “Thankfully I am in good form anyway. I am quite fit for going up and down ladders and looking after the boat.”
Before his ‘retirement’ Willie worked deep-sea all his life in 30-metre trawlers out of Killybegs and fished all around the coast and from Norway down as far as Spain where he was fishing for white fish - haddock and cod.
He added: “Then we fished hake, herring, mackerel and scad and off Achill we fished for monkfish, about 50/60 miles out in the 150 fathom line. We fished the Porcupine Bank then for prawns. They were a good moneymaker.
“But it was a hard life. You would be out there for 10 or 12 days at a time and it wasn’t always good weather.”
In 2000 he sold off his boat and launched his deep-sea angling business in Killala where he has resided for the past 51/52 years.
“I had a 70-footer in Killala for a good while but with the bigger boats I had to move on to the deeper harbours.
“Here in Killala Bay we have a good mixture of fish - wrasse, gurnard, conger, haddock and whiting. We got some fine cod the last day we were out and fine pollack.
“A few days ago there were massive schools of dolphin about and we also saw some humpback whales, up to 20 metres long.
“You don’t see much of them, just the little fin, and then you see the big wide back going down in the breach.”
The boat owners in Killala have been campaigning for some time for the installation of a pontoon at the quay in the town to facilitate safer embarking and disembarking of craft.
Willie stated: “Finally the pontoon (pictured) was installed the other day when the season is nearly over. It was supposed to be here in March, but at least it is in now.”
Mayo County Council are planning to sink a trawler in the mouth of Killala Bay in order to create an artificial reef. “In time, when a bit of growth comes on it, it will be ideal for divers and angling,” says William.
The 60-metre MV Shingle was offered by the Revenue Commissioners for the project after being confiscated as part of a tobacco smuggling operation.
The vessel will be made environmentally compliant and safe for experienced divers to visit and will be deployed in a manner that is cognisant of the biodiversity of Killala Bay, a planner’s report set out.
Willie’s parents, Donegal native Andy and Annie (nee Madden from Currane, Achill) Oglesby, met while tattie-hoking in Scotland. Sadly, his mother died of cancer at the young age of 39. Willie was born in Dundee and his brother, John, in Perth.
Willie’s son, Paul, is working down in Namibia where he is a captain of a big ship and his daughter, Ann Marie, is second-in-command of the ambulance service in Ireland.
When Willie got the ‘Dolphin Explorer’ in 2013 he had her completely redone and refurbished and fitted out with a new engine.
For comfortable fishing he can accommodate eight anglers and recently anglers caught a cod of 12/13 pounds and a pollack of 10 pounds.
“The fishing has been pretty good this year, but the mackerel were a bit slow earlier on,” said Willie.