Bonanza Before The Bass Ban

6am and the alarm sounds….its fishing time 🙂

I was joined today by Mark ( Originally a Salmon Fly Fisher) for a brief Lure assault on the Billy’s (I was off work but under pressure to get back to mind the children 🙂 ). Mark fished with me before when he landed a double figure Pollock last year on board Wahoo, a first for him (and Wahoo), and his largest sea fish to date,  this is his first year targeting Bass on the light lure gear so to say he is buzzed up would be putting it midly. Today he was to experience another couple of firsts …..

On to todays session, a nice westerly was in play over a weakish tide creating a very nice choppy sea. Weed conditions were better than I expected and water clarity was good.

The spot we intended to fish wouldn’t be ‘ready’ for an hour or so, we under took a bit of exploration while we waited. On return and a couple of casts in I hook up on a SP on a 7g  jig head, the fish was in play for a minute or so when it charged at me creating a moment of slack line and then it followed through with a sudden U turn which straighted the hook !! fish lost…
As Mark was watching my battle his SP was nailed by a fine Billy and a nice fight played out for a few minutes while I readied the camera,  a new Bass PB for Mark. He was well Happy !!! Picture taken and the fish was returned and shot off like a bullet. Number 1 ‘First’ for Mark

Mark With His New Personal Best.

I follow next and landed a Billy, followed by another, my smile was nearly wrapped around my head! I could see a couple of fish hit something on the surface further out. I suggested to Mark to try a top water Lure ( Mark had never caught off the top before), he clipped on a Patchinko and wallop fish on ! madness the man couldn’t contain himself …ha some craic!!  He continued to catch 3 fish in 3 casts off the top wile I tried to catch it on video ( I did a bad job..il have to brush up on my camera skills!), Mark was delirious at this stage…and so was I watching the fish attack Marks lures, incredible sight ….it sure beats work I tell ya! Number 2 ‘First’ for Mark

Mark With A Bass Off The Top.

We continued for the next 90mins getting a fish a cast each until we decided to try another location ( yeah I know its madess to leave fishing like that but we had our sport and we wanted to try another location be fore we called it quits).

Hello Billy.

Billy The Lure Smasher.

Danny Off The Top In May.

The second location was not really fish-able, we gave it 10mins before calling it. So we went further afield to a spot I have been wanting to try for a while. On location and off to the spot I wanted to investigate. We fished it for 30mins, Mark landed a nice Billy and I dropped one with another straightened hook!

I See You.

Roll on tomorrow,  we are gonna try some different locations to build up a better picture for after the Ban.

Hooks straightened today on lost fish:
( I don’t set my drag tight)
V point Jig Head 7g
Tackle house Node
Megabass Zonk Gataride

Tackle used:
Mark:
Rod – Teklon Concept Spin 802ML
Reel –   Shimano Twin Power 4000 FC

Danny:
Rod: -Teklon Concept Spin 702L
Reel: – Shimano Twin Power 3000 SFC

Observations:
( while the fishing was good I tried a lot of different combinations and colors of lure to see what worked in the conditions over the 90 min)
Lures with the color red in them did not induce any take today.
Lures which were all white did not induce any takes today.
Lures with Yellow in them did not induce any takes today.
Natural colors worked very well.
Mark drinks more Red Bull than me !!!!

Well what a day is all I can say!

Danny.

Hard fishing.

Conditions have not been ideal lately to say the least, with Easterly’s and South Easterly’s mixing up the coastline and throwing suspended weed everywhere.

Regardless of conditions a mans gotta fish ! We have been encountering steady fishing through out these tough conditions with a little bit of searching.

We managed a quick session mid week. The wind was howling and the rain came down in heavy downpours. The sea was very rough although still quite clear there was a lot of suspended weed but we fished on.

May weather

I got the first take a couple of hours into the session, a slight pluck led to a fish taken my lure less than a rod length out. Cue the drag screaming as the fish powered towards the sea, this fish had good a bit of energy! The first run came to an end as the fish surfaced around 40 yards out and cue the head thrashing and splashing. With the fish turned I eased it a shore, it was a good fish too, unhooked then couple of pictures, followed by a few moments in a rock pool to gather itself and it was back to the sea for the Billy.

Danny May Bass

May Bass Rock Pool

(I was messing around with the camera settings for the last picture)

As the rain and crashing waves gave us a proper soaking, Pat landed a schoolie, hooked in font of a breaking wave which surfed the fish in for him. I followed up with another schoolie before we called it quits for the evening.

The Bass Ban is fast approaching so I have booked a couple days off work next week to get a bit of fishing in before it is upon us, hopefully the weather settles a bit.

Danny.

Rear View Mirror

I started swinging the lures out again on the local coastline with the lads in early April. The short dark days of winter forgotten as we experienced our best early season yet on the Bass front to date.

Soft, Hard and Top Water lures all got a result which is fantastic for the time of year in Wexford.

Personal bests were achieved, myths were dissected and dismissed, and the craic was great.

We have been out a lot over the month so I didnt have time to put up individual reports. So here is just a round up of a few pictures taken form different days on various marks around the South East Coast line:

4am

Sunshine

A Great Day

Pat Gahan with a fine Bass April

More Silver

All action

Crevan Bass April

Danny Bass April

Danny 2nd Cast Second Bass

Danny 3rd Cast 3rd Bass

Ready To Go Back Full Of Energy

Cruising Silver

The Sandeel Had No Chance !

What a day

See You The Next Day

Observations:
Clear days, natural colors worked best.
Murky days, dark colours worked best.
Pat Gahan would catch fish in a sand pit !

I will put up some video clips from April shortly.

Danny.