Wednesday morning and I was feeling like a little boy on Christmas Day morning. I was going out with professional Bass guide and good friend Peter Aspinwall. Pete has a vast knowledge on the Clonakilty area and his methods of catching Bass are quite something. I fish in a lot of Estuaries and rocky marks, Yes I catch fish in these places but fishing on sight and using birds as to indicate where the fish were was something else. We were greeting by around 30 birds sitting on the top of the water. Pete explained that we now wait for the birds to indicate something. After 5 mins of waiting we were rewarded with some activity. The birds had seen something so with the on board electric engine we slowly moved over. Then I saw it, something ive never seen from the shore before, a shoal of feeding Bass splashing around in the water. Pete told me to cast at the swirls on the top of the water, so with sweaty palms I cast the lure. One, two turns of the reel a big splash and wammo!! Fish on! I have never caught fish of the top before, seeing this fish come out of the water to nail these lures is something else! It was happining all over the Bay! In the session 4 prime bass were landed between 3 and 4lbs, I missed another 3 or 4 but that was because I was heap of adrenaline and made silly mistakes. If anyone would like to contact Pete then please let me know. He is an awesome guide and also an awesome fella, sharing the love we all have for this kind of fishing. Ill leave you with one of his videos from Youtube so you can see for selves what you could be in for. Until next time take care and tight lines!
So I plan to fish my local mark on Tuesday with a buddy of mine. Im not to confident as the weather is shocking its freezing cold and its just not very fishy. Now I hope that im surprised but i wont hold my breath. Now i saw a comment the other day that the soft plastics would out fish hard Lures all day long. There is nothing wrong with this comment what so ever as any man is allowed to voice his opinion. So I just want to put it out there, Lures or Soft Plastics? I must say that i have great things to say about both types of Lures, but I cant see past my favorite lure of all which would be the Tackle House Feed Shallow, I love this Lure and i would never go fishing with out mine in the box. But then I have lots of various Savage Gear soft plastics as well. I have used the Savage Gear in the dark with great success, but then ive caught in the dark on the Zonk. So i cant give a Lure that i prefer.
Also if you can get your hands on one you should try the Diawa ShoreShinner. These lures are brilliant, they come in a 25 Gram version and if you have braid on they fly when you cast them, they are great lure to have if your fishing Estuaries for that extra bit of distance. These Lures can be purchased at The Half Way Angling Center which im sure most of you use any way. Dan also has a great selection of other Lures including TackleHouse, MegaBass and lots of others.
So Tuesday awaits, the rod waiting, The new reel is loaded with braid, New hooks on the Lures!
Ill blog about the session on Wednesday sometime
Untill then tight lines!
This session started in the Pub!! No we didn't stay there all night and day! We arrived at our mark but the tide was still racing out and to try and fish would have just plain crazy. So we said we would watch the first half of the Ireland v Italy game and discuss what the tactics we were going to use for the fishing (Not the football) So as we looked on at the ball hitting Shay Given on the head and then hitting the bar and going in, The groans around the pub said it all. So we decided to get down to our mark and start fishing. Joined by three good buddies, Jonathan, Ed and Benoit we decided that we would start with soft plastics. So we all started off casting our bits of plastic into the ripping the water. The first half was a nightmare the water was running to fast and all we were getting was weed after weed. I decided to move away from where the boys were fishing and move up stream towards the mouth of the Estuary. I found a spot where the was water was moving still but not as fast. I changed my Savage Gear to a different color and threw it out. I let it sink, and started the retrieve. Two turn on the reel and BANG fish on!! My first Bass of the summer season was on. The great feeling was back of the fish shaking his head trying to throw the hook. After a little 5 minute fight she was beached. A very nice 3.5LB Bass, Not a bad way to start. Ed had joined me just as id released the fish back into the water. We were chatting away about what area I had caught it and what Lure i was using and WALLOP another fish had hit me. At first i thought it was around the same size, but then she started to take a bit of line, and gave a few runs. Even after she came to surface it didn't seem to be of any size. Until i lifted her out the water. What a beauty! I had been rewarded with a cracking 5lb Bar of Silver! Carefully unhooking her Jonathan had arrived and he took a picture and she was released back into the water giving me a cheeky soaking and she turned her tail. (Picture will be posted later, waiting for it to emailed) A successful night was had by all four us, Jonathan catching 3 Bass, Me getting 2, Ed has 2 The Guru picking up a fish also. So we left happy boys.. I was going to go out tonight, but then remembered that the England game was on. But if we are 3 nil down at half time, Ill go.
Until the next time people
Tight Lines
Craig
So the boys from England arrive and French Eagle has landed. Yesterday was a strange kind of day. Raining in the morning, Windy in the afternoon, and then like being in the Sahara in the evening.
We went down to our local mark around two hours before low water. Using various methods we started the hunt for the bar of Silver. Me, Ben and Ed opted for the Soft Plastic while Johnathan used the MegaBass X140. Unfortunately for three of us the session was disappointing with myself getting a couple of plucks but not a decent attack, The Guru from France out fished (again) Landing 3 nice fish the biggest being 4.5LBS.
With the time at 11:30pm and and it being very quiet. The only place to go..... The Pub.
I'm going out again this evening so I will blog again in the Morning to tell you how we got on.
Until then.. Tight Lines
I have heard all kinds of storys about Lure fishing in the dark. I for one when I first started Bass fishing thought that this couldnt be possible. I done a bit of research and found that it was a prefered time to go out for many Anglers. So i ventured out on a Full Moon with the tide being low at 0.00am. I arrived at the mark with Savage Sand Eels and some shallow divers. I first fished the plugs with this fish (See Picture) taking a plug third cast with the tide with still a slight run on it. I used the plug for around an our and that being my only fish. So i changed to the Pearl Savage Eel. I cast out and let it hit the bottom and made slow retrives. This Eels really are the the real deal, the action in the water is quite something else. Then BANG fish on, catching Bass in the dark is becoming my favorite way to fish. Before long in about an hour i had three decent Bass on the Savage. The vibration of its tail mut be the factor of the bass finding these in the dark in my opinion. If you havent got these in your tackle bag then I suggest you go out and get some. Below are more pictures of the fish that were produced in the session.
Tight lines !!
Craig
Now before I start this piece i would like to say that if you are the type of Fisherman that takes undersize Bass or likes to leave line and all your other Lure boxes all over the place, Then please give it up. I was fishing with my buddy today we got to the beach two hours before low water and found it quite clean with there not being to much weed. We started on the Savage Lures fishing close to the bottom and reeling in quite slowly to try and make the puffs of sand on the bottom to try and entice any passing Bass. We tryed this for about 45 mins with no success. I changed Lures to the Feed Shallow and was in to a fish straight away (See Picture) A rather plump 4Lb fish who put up a great fight and which gave me two great runs! As we were fishing we could see an Angler in the distance. He had hooked into a fish and was reeling it in. He got it up on to the beach and unhooked it. This fish was about 25cm long a very small fish that should have been returned to the sea. Now for those of you who dont know Bass are protected by Law here in Ireland.
BASS Minimum overall size limit of 40cm. From tip of snout to end of tail
Bass Fishing Conservation Bye-law (Renewed annually) The effect of this Bye-law is to impose a bag limit on anglers of two bass in any one period of 24 hours and to provide for a ban on angling for bass during the spawning season (15th May to the 15th June).
Bass (Restriction on Sale) Order, (Renewed annually) The effect of this Order is to prohibit the sale or offer for sale of bass (other than bass which has been imported into the State) from 1st day of July to 30th day of June.
Note: Penalties for breach of the above laws include confiscation of tackle and heavy fines.
To my horror this Angler who i though couldnt have fished for Bass before takes the fish of the hook and proceedes to kick the fish down the beach!! Im not one for getting into an argument but this could not happen. Now before I got to him the fish was dead. As I approached the man he asked if id had any luck. "Yes" was my answer, "And you i asked?" He went on to tell me that it was just a Sprat! I gave him the low down on what he had done and he was quite surprised to hear what i was telling him. I would of thought a man from Ireland would have known this law. Perhaps he didnt, but to miss the big blue sign on the beach explaining the laws above I feel he knew full well what he had done and was playing dumb. So the session ended on a bad note with me fuming and a very small Bass dead because of peoples ignorance. Altogether 6 fish were caught in the 2 hours of the dropping tide, my fish being the biggest (WHOORAA!!)
Please if you are going to go fishing please remember the laws and please take home line and rubbish that you are not using. At the end of the day its common sense.
Untill my next session
Tight Lines!!
Craig
Starting Off.. June 15th to Present
Ok first of all this a very thing for me. Im sure it will be full of mistakes that people will pick out, but hey here goes. The reason for starting this blog is that I wish to share my experiences of fishing for this fish that I just cant get enough of. I live in West Cork and feel very lucky to do so. Around these coasts I have seen (with the help of many friends) some breath taking scenery and had some great days out fishing.
So after waiting for a year for June 15th to come around so I could get back out with the Spinning Rod to try and get out and catch a few. I arrived at midnight (Not giving any marks away!!) at my prefered spot for a bit of spinning in the dark. First Lure was cast which is one of my favorite lures, The Tacklehouse Feed Shallow. First cast and i was back in the game Spinning. Second cast not to turns on the reel and BANG Fish on!! After a little fight she was ready to come in and was rewarded with a fish of around 2lb. And so it began, after letting the fish swim off into the night again it reminded why I stay up and also why I get up so early to fish for these spectacular fish.
After meeting four other anglers we got talking on various tactics for the night spinning. Now I have read in various magazines and fourms that we should be using black lures at night as the fish are looking for moving silhouettes. Well these boys turned that on there head, they were using Savage Sandeels which of were of the Pearl colour. I quickly changed to one. First Cast BANG! Fish on a beautiful fish of around 3lbs. Needless to say that session between 5 of us, Over 30 Fish were landed.
There is plenty of Bass about at the moment in these areas. A friend tells me of how he had 14 Fish in one session, to return the next day and catch a 10lb Bass at the same mark on a lure. I know that my fishing partner has had 7 in one session very recently.
Know before i finish this very short first attempt of Blogging i must say a few things. Im not a professional by far. Im just a normal man who is married have two children but have a love for Bass Fishing. The only reason im doing this is to let you know of my fortunes (and not so many of them) while the Lure season is on. I hope that some of you will find it intresting and hopefully sometimes helpful.
Untill the next time, Tight Lines!!
Craig
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