HOBBIES

Shocked!

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Slowly retrieving my weightless soft plastic through a jungle rocks and and weed as the early Autumn evening light fades, I feel the lure get hammered by an aggressive fish but all to quickly it’s over and the fish has gone... When I gathered my thoughts all I could liken it to was touching an electrified cattle fence only not as painful, my reaction to what I was feeling up through the braided line and down the rod was so fast (Well obviously not fast enough!) it was totally involuntary and similar to that tensing sensation one gets from a mild electric shock! I’ve never thought of it that way before but it perfectly describes that moment we all crave and the 100’s of other times I’ve experienced something similar when fishing. I was certainly wide awake after it and I’m looking forward to the next one!

Hard to Explain...

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Lots of strange things happen when we go Bass fishing here's one that happened to me this week...

I turn up at a very wide strand well after dark, stand back and pick my spot. I decide on how to cover the area and proceed to my starting point. I wade into the small surf, cast out at about 45 degrees to my left and start to retrieve my Shore Line Shiner very very slowly (Where would we be without them).....halfway back to me I get an almighty hit and the line is ripped off the reel, luckily I've set the clutch about right, just as the fish slows everything goes slack, oh well! I recast in the same direction, halfway in and exactly the same thing happens! Wow I'm in for a mega nights fishing I think to myself!! This time the fish is landed, a nice 6lb fish which I notice when unhooking has fresh injuries from hooks under its chin but the fish is lip hooked - definitely the same fish hooked twice in my opinion. The fish is released and I continue to fish the whole of the strand for the next 2 hrs trying everything I have without the merest hint of a fish. This episode raises so many questions for me.

If this was indeed the same fish did the fish "understand" it was hooked on the first occasion?

If so why would a hooked fish attack the same lure a second time? (Once bitten...... not this bass) !!

How could there only be one, very aggressively feeding, fish in that huge area of water?

What are the chances of my putting a lure on its nose with first and second cast in total darkness?

Did my released fish panic others in it's group?
How many times do we take a fish in our first five casts, release it and get nothing more...

I could think of a few more questions and I'm sure you could to...

Bass Safari...

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Just back from a trip away which saw the day game out fish the night for a change. Michael and I started our trip at a boulder field in the stunning West of Ireland and both landed fish in the first 10 mins from quite badly weeded water as the tide pushed in. Michael went on to find fish in the surf on shallow running hard plastics, including this beautiful olive coloured specimen, which I repeated the following day. We hit two locations hard under darkness at the start of the flood for a single hit and one fish landed from an estuary mouth as the spring tide started to push. We are accelerating our learning curves by sharing ideas and crossing over our differing styles of fishing and knowledge so these are interesting times with lots of new techniques to try...

Having now fished in all of our main Bass counties from Wexford round to Galway this season, both alone and with others it seems to me that the picture is pretty much the same with low numbers the norm despite conditions that appear perfect at times, with the occasional “hot spots” fishing well. At least we’re catching (And releasing) a few JJJ

Backing off...

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Having pushed it hard since the closed season I feel its time for a short break. The level of effort required to locate and land fish, even at night, has been beyond anything I've known and we thought the last couple of years were difficult! When it went southerly a few weeks back with the water warmed by the heatwave our hopes were high but it seems it's never that simple in Bass fishing - which is probably a good thing. So the plan is to sit out the start of the springs that have just begun, sort out my gear, regroup and hit it hard next weekend when I plan to travel for a change of scenery and hopefully some improved fishing...
Update, Conditions looked too good to back off so went out and..had some pretty good fishing, ah relief !!

Irish Angler - August Bass Special...

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( Contains a little article on Night Fishing by yours truly ;-) )

Summer fishing - A trip away...

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Myself and Michael teamed up for a bit of away fishing this week and worked hard for what were initially meager results - not unusual as you try to tune to new area but in peak season high water temps and the first southerly in living memory hopes were very high indeed especially when things looked so promising on arrival at our chosen locations but the numbers showed a return way below what we hoped for. Despite this we soldiered on, fished all the hours, managed to land a few decent fish over the couple of days and had a lot of laughs along the way...

Taking the plunge...

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I've finally done something I've been meaning to do for a long time and that's invest in a Life jacket. I opted for the Parmaris 150n Raider which fits perfectly around my chest pack and in no way restricts my movements or casting. I won't be wearing it for fishing strands or most of my fishing for that matter but its those situations where I'm exposed to surf our strong currents where it will definately be worn and unlike some of the combined fishing float vest / equipment carriers there are no zips to rust. I will need to get it serviced annually which is no problem so to sum it up, I'm sincerely hoping I'll never need it but I'm very reassured to know I have it!