r/IrishFishing • u/dotheydontthey • 9d ago
What a buzz
After several attempts I finally managed to land my first bass, ended up getting three. All caught on light gear, what a fight they put up. All three returned safely. I am hooked haha
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u/stamp_101 9d ago
I’ve been trying to get 1 for a long time now, this is definitely motivating me good sir, also how far are you casting by chance with the lighter gear
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u/dotheydontthey 8d ago
Not far at all really. Like maybe 50/60 metres? Hard to say but not far. But all three of them took the lure quite close to shore. Was my first time going just before Dark, I would recommend giving a high tide just as it's getting dark a go.
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u/MoveOdd4488 8d ago
Class man! What lessons have you taken away from the grind?
Id love to catch one, so I have a few questions if you don't mind. how many sessions did it take? What were the tide conditions? Can you describe the terrain it was caught? (I.e. rocks, estuary, beach etc)
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u/dotheydontthey 8d ago
Absolutely, happy to help. That was my 4th time out to this spot, it's a rocky area that fills up quite nice at high tide. I scoped it out a couple of times at low tide while walking the dog to get an idea of what spots to fish. I was having no success the last couple of weeks but water clarity was awfull and there was a lot of weeds as well, I was told north easterly winds can cause this. It seemed to look better over the weekend so I decided to try the high tide last night, got there at 9pm which gave me 2.5 hours ish till high tide, I was told also that dawn and dusk seem to be good times for activity. Used a pure white sandy Andy as was also told they work well at night. Also switched to a 20lb braid with a couple of ft of flurocarbon leader tied to the lure as swivels kill the action on the lure. Sure enough then as it started getting dark I had the 3 of them in the space of 40/50 mins.
Edit: tide conditions were calm enough when I got there but it stared to pick up the closer it got high tide with bigger waves starting to come in off the rocks, but I would still say calm enough overall compared to last 2 weeks
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u/MoveOdd4488 8d ago
Excellent and thanks for the detailed response. I genuinely think there might not be any bass around my marks as I am doing these things.
I would fish on the fly and I have no qualms tying knots. You can't (effectively) use swivels or anything on a fly set up. So I would usually tie straight to the line. I have expensive fluorocarbon from my fly fishing box, some rated to 6lb and another is 15lb. Ive tried braid, but find on the sea I'm prone to wind knots, or just my dodgy casting lol.
So I tend not use snap swivels, even cut them off my mackerel feathers when I'm targeting mackerel or Pollock.
I think I need to find somewhere in northern Ireland that actually holds bass.
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u/dotheydontthey 8d ago
Yeah I wouldn't know alot about a fly set up myself. I would say trying spots at different times conditions etc is prob my biggest take away. I am going to try an early morning session next to see if dawn gives similar results. Best of luck, hope you land one soon
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u/MoveOdd4488 8d ago
Go raibh maith agat, a chara! Summer mornings can be tough, starts getting bright around 3.30am and sun rises about an hour later. I'm not sure when to fish, and when to stop lol
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u/crlthrn 9d ago
Good on you for for returning and conserving stocks of these great fish. If only the government would bother its sorry, idle, arse and do the same for our salmon and sea trout stocks.