As Day follows Night...

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Despite it being the weakest tide of the cycle a chance to fish the extremes of  night presented itself so Michael Quirke and I joined forces again at the weekend and agreed to meet at mine for 3.00am to head off and fish a bay on the falling tide which we duly did. We found the bay to be free of suspended weed so fishing hard plastics was no problem. Wading in the clear water I was fascinated by the streams of phosphorescence swirling of my waders as I felt my way around under the stars casting into in the darkness probing around the water column in search of a fish. Michael moved from the open strand onto a rocky point and got hit by fish a few times but didn't connect, buoyed up by the presence of active fish I joined him and we concentrated our efforts here as the dawn slowly broke behind us. Sensing that our chances of finding a fish or two in open water were decreasing fast as the light levels increased, I moved on to another section of the strand and after a few casts I connected with a fish which I got to the surface before it threw the hooks and the line went slack, tough going but the results so far were about what we’ve come to expect of the fishing this “Summer”. With the sun well on its way up we returned to the car and headed off for a deeper water rock mark which we fished intensively with soft plastics and metals to no avail until, just as we were about to call it a morning and head to our homes for a well earned rest, this most welcome fish grabbed my Wakasagi (Dark Brown/Silver Fleck) Spindle Worm mounted on a 7g Batchi jig! So, not a great session numbers wise, probably about par for the course at the moment, but very enjoyable all the same... 

Techniques for tough times?

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I'm sure this is all pretty obvious to seasoned vets but to anyone starting out you could be wondering what the heck you're doing wrong at the moment so, for what its worth I'll stick my neck out and offer my thoughts. Unlike spring for example when the colder water temps change their behaviour causing early season fish to act more lethargically I think we are just fishing to less fish rather than uninterested fish. The fish I've caught this year have been just as willing to chase down lures and attack aggressively at times. The big difference this year, and to a point last, is that we're simply fishing to less fish. So, where I'd be hoping to catch half a dozen I'm VERY glad to pick up one and where I thought there was a chance of a single fish in the past, at the moment it's probably not worth bothering other than to practice techniques and familiarize in readiness for better times. So, I think, its not so much about changing techniques but more about being more focused on where and more importantly WHEN your best chances are, based on past experiences, which to be fair makes it very difficult if you don't have that behind you from past seasons. One way of increasing your chances for sure in good times or bad is to fish the changes light (Dusk or Dawn) or to night fish. From what I'm hearing and experiencing at the moment, by night fishing it IS still possible to match somewhere near average daytime fishing results of a better season so if that appeals it's probably the way to go when looking to increase your chances...

A quick trip away...

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Decided to take a trip away in search of better fishing and re visit some places I've come to know and love during my fishing years and was not disappointed. Every time I travel and put the time in I come away with valuable knowledge to continue building on in the future. Old locations revealed more about themselves to me and the penny dropped on how and when to tackle some new ones. Building this knowledge takes thousands of focused hours over years but its that endless learning process that keeps it so interesting. This time my trip saw me arrive at a strand and start fishing at 3am rather than lounging in bed until the sun has risen and switched off the fishing on the open beaches, on one occassion standing in the gentle surf in the dark taking in the stary sky with its shooting stars and sattellites I made out a disturbace in the water a few feet ahead of me and an under arm flick followed by two turns of the reel handle was all it took to connect with a decent fish. On another occasion I noticed what I thought to be mullet cruising close in at a boulder field which I cast at a few times with a 4" weightless soft bait and connected with a lively Bass. These are just some highlights of a memorable trip, looking forward to the next one...

Lucky Costa’s

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Had a bit of luck during an evening into night session this week... Waded into a rocky and very weedy spot on the falling tide with my daytime Costa Sunglasses perched on my baseball cap (Yes I have two pairs, obscene isn’t it !) and fished until darkness, as darkness fell I decided to give up and, crossing back over the weeded rocks, slipped and fell backwards into a rock pool flooding my waders. Oblivious to any other problems I waded back to dry land shivering a bit and climbed back up the hill to the car to find.....no beloved Costa’s on head! What to do? Leave them to the rocks weed and the darkness our launch a search and rescue mission? I dumped rod and equipment at the car, grab a second head torch, marched back down the hill waded back to said rockpool (Or was it that one !?!) to see nothing other than water and weed, retraced my steps back to fishing location looked in more rockpools and was about to call off the search when under the light of my head torch I spy an unnatural item in amongst the bladderack....a kind of Grey black spike? A few inches away I see an identical plastic “Spike” I don’t believe it success !!! I reach into the rockpool and grasp my beloved glasses in disbelief still in perfect codition!
Well after all they are Costas and they are called Brine...

Red Hot or Not? We shall see...

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Tough times.

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We really are having tough fishing times here at the moment. The weather has remained unsettled here since the season restarted in June with continuous change leading to poor results. With the technology experience and time I have at my disposal I'd expect to doing really well at this stage in the season but I'm just not. I could do more night fishing and cash in on the greater catch rate but that would still only get my numbers up to reasonable summer fishing results and although I enjoy it now and again I'm not really looking to do all my fishing in darkness despite the results. So for now I'll keep doing what I enjoy which is varied fishing, go when it suits me, look forward to hopefully a few patches of good fishing and enjoy this "Summer" whatever the weather. At least my home or business wasn't flooded like many others less fortunate than myself here in Cork.

That one NEARLY got away...

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Into the night...

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I took up an invitation to fish with Michael Quirke at one of his spots yesterday evening and it proved worthwhile. Water quality was good and the NW wind put a bit of welcome movement into the water. The plan was to fish soft plastics and allow Michael to demo a rod of mine which we did until Michael cracked and switched back to his beloved hard baits which, to be fair produced the first fish! Photos were taken in lovely soft evening light and the fish released only for me to realise that I’d left the memory card out of the camera and the built in memory was full, what an amateur! We fished on and as the light was fading I lost a decent fish at close range after a lively battle, Michael rejoined me and landed this fish on a weedless & weightless Spindle Worm which is one of his first successes on this style of presentation and from what I could see won’t be the last! Good skills Michael.

An evening to remember...

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Photo by Jim Hendrik

After a tough afternoon session under the sun for a change (20c!) in which we both fished, Jim on the fly and me trying every single plastic I carry to no avail and which involved lots of sweaty and sometimes hairy climbing and treking it all came good in the evening. Within the first five casts my lure was slammed in an identical manner to yesterdays fish which resulted in a decent sized fish being landed, photographed, and released after which energy levels soared as the andrenalin kicked and the senses sharpened in anticipation of what could follow such a promising start. We switched to the surface, relocated slightly to "rest" the spot we'd just taken the fish from and within a few more casts there was an almighty disturbance of white water behind my Dark/Gold Patchinko that made me take a step back, followed by a solid hit after I'd twitched the lure on the surface, this resulted in a smaller but much welcomed second fish, more photos followed and a safe release was made but the best was yet to come.... We swapped to a Smith Zip Sea Pop and again after not many casts the lure was hit and I connected with what felt like an ok sized fish, after a couple of seconds the fish came off  but......as I started to quickly wind in to recast the popper was slammed again whilist still subsurface by a much more powerful fish, subsuface popper fishing ?!? Thankfully this one stayed on and after a spirited battle with some powerful runs and some close encounters with the rocks the fish was beached. This fella had swallowed my popper whole and I was relieved to get the trebles out with the foceps and with no damage to the fish, more photos and off she went, amazing during such a tough period of Bass fishing in Ireland many thanks to Jim for, amongst many other things, never giving up on the chance of a fish, looking forward to doing it all again next year. See Here for Jim's super photos.

Today - Green Yellow Silver & Bronze...

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A tough day...

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Today delivered the kind of fishing we'd expected yesterday - Poor! It all looked good at first as we fished into the drizzling rain, nice clear water and a fish was hooked but not landed early on it having gone for my static plastic as the bait got put through the washing machine current driven by the swell. Things went downhill from there when my VERY expensive rod broke at the tip section for no apparent reason but as always Cian at Absolute Fishing was on the ball and a new tip section was in the post from the manufacturer before I'd finished my packed lunch, now that's great service! We checked out a few more marks with no success and witnessed a much sadder breakage, this time a Great Black Backed Gull with a broken wing standing on a rock unable to fly and paitently waiting for the inevitable end. Jim made a call to the local services but its chances were not good. Crikey can it get much worse !?! On a more positive note the forecast is looking better for tomorrow with even the possibility of some sunshine whoopee!
PS For photographic evidence that even the ability to walk on water was not enough today see Here.

A Good start...

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Well, despite all the dire predictions and lack of expectations we have made a good start here in Wexford. The first hour looked like it would be the same old story, perfect conditions (Thanks to Jims expert local knowledge) but no fish as has mainly been the story of post close season 2012 so far. As I fished soft plastics from a rocky weedy point focusing on the area to the right Jim directed me to fish to the left and after a few casts my bait was hit hard by a nice fish that looked big by my recent standards but was probably around 5Lbs. With confidence levels elevated we moved on to a similar spot at which my bait was grabbed almost under the rod top by a fish that motored of on a powerful run that made the drag sing which after a good battle I managed to lose just as Jim was getting ready to grab it. We finished of our session with this nice bonus fish which hit a lime green “One up shad” at a deep water mark... See Jim's photos here Here

Enough?

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Just about to hit the road and I'm wondering if I have enough
SPARE Baits to keep me going for the week !?!

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