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!
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...
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
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 !!
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...
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!
Fished a couple of hours last night without much to show for it (Just one fish) but I enjoyed it. The sea state ranged from flat as a mill pond to a 6 inch wave, the tide was a neap high, the water crystal clear with a bit of lettuce weed in places. I opted to stick with first lure pattern I tried all evening Hawg Wild 6" rigged either weightless or with a Gamakatsu Worm EWG Weighted Spring Lock 4/0 3.5g Hook which is unusual for me but I felt it suited the conditions and the style in which I wanted to fish perfectly. I enjoyed using the cover of darkness to fish different angles in the areas I know so well from my daytime fishing. I also enjoyed working the soft plastic in 10 or more different ways, a nice contrast to the casting and winding of late with the bigger minnow patterns we've been using for our night fishing. So not much of a result for my efforts but by mixing it up I kept it interesting for myself. At the moment, although the reverse can be the case, my confidence in my own fishing is high - my confidence in the fishery is low. Can't wait to see what the next gentle S or SW brings...
With the arrival of Padraig from Tuam a couple of days ago my unofficial "Guiding" season began and in all honesty I wasn't expecting much from the day game having proved to myself too often this summer that fish are too few and far between to make it worthwhile. The first mission proved this reasoning, three prime locations were fished at key times to no avail so plans were made join the night shift. Our first night session was poor with only one fish between us in a 2 hr session but lessons were learned and we repeated our plan on the second evening with better results. When I arrive for a night session I prefer to arrive at dusk, settle in and asses the conditions while its still light, I also like to start by fishing at range my theory being that the fish gain confidence and move into the shallows to hunt as the night progresses. Typically I use smaller subtle metals and flutter type baits that also allow me to fish the water column from top to bottom and probe any known or unknown gullies and other variations in depth and the plan worked from the off with first fish coming to a 25g Tackle House
Pboy jig in Sandeel pattern which perfectly "matched the hatch" of Sandeels which disturbed the surface in their thousands around our feet as the small wave rolled into the strand that only hours previously was thronging with holiday makers. Now it was all ours, ours and the natural world's. We moved along the strand and the second fish came just as the light was fading, I'd followed my plan and stepped up slightly in size to the smaller brother of my favourite IMA Barbarossa 120, the 95, rigged with the standard trebles rather than my usual assist hook setup (See above). Sometimes you carry a lure for ages just waiting for the right situation to unleash it this was one of those occasions with the 95. Encouraged we moved on to another strand as I felt the good conditions of the previous days had improved even further with the light onshore breeze and cloud cover hiding the moon helping the light levels to drop quickly. As an aside it was interesting to note the abundance of tiny fluorescent charged life forms on the leading edge of the surf that had been completely absent the night before, I have no idea why. At the second strand after various changes we stepped up to large shallow running minnows in the form of Daiwa shore line shiner 17 F-G's which resulted in the best fish of the night, things were really going to plan at this stage but as time pushed on and no further action occurred we decided to call it a night. To be continued (Tonight) ;-)
As I seem to be doing more night fishing of late I decided it was time to invest in a better quality head torch having have had many cheapo models that havn’t lasted long for various reasons.
The Petzl Pixa 3 caught my eye mainly as its waterproof (Rated IP67) which makes a lot of sense for our shore Bass fishing that quite often involves a drenching or two by the surf even when its gentle. The PP3 is quite a robust and chunky unit and the yellow plastic trim makes it easy to spot if taken off or when stored in the back of the car and on storeage the lamp can be rotated 180 degrees in its frame to leave the lense protected from damage when not in use.
There is a choice of 3 beams and the rotating switch is chunky and can easily be worked with cold fingers. None of the beams are red to protect night vision but a film could be added to the lense if it’s a preference. Batteries required are 2 x AA which will give 12 hrs usage on beam 1, 6 hrs on beam 2 and 3 hrs on beam 3 according to Petzl. A fully rechargeable version is also available.
The Petzl Pixa 3 retails for around €70 and is widely available with the Petzl brand being carried by most outdoor shops so not cheap but its a vital for safety and should outlast the cheaper alternatives
On lighting in general I note some of the Striper fishers in the US and Japanese anglers prefer to wear the lamps around the neck rather than head which makes sense when trying to keep light off the water, it’s worth a try and may suit some. On safety I always carry a second light source of some kind when out at fishing night, normally a small single LED head torch which sits comfortably in a waterproof pocket as backup...
With a few days of fine settled summer weather here the fishing finally kicked off for me after the close. Fishing after dark was most productive with 12 fish landed over two sessions the second session all fish were between 5 to 7 1/2 Lbs which I have to say felt very good after many months of very little Bass activity here in West Cork. I've been trying to get some good quality night fishing photos together and despite 100's of shots I'm still not quite happy with the results but I think I understand the issues. I hope to get better quality images for a magazine article I'm writing as the summer continues and hopefully blesses us with some more good weather. At times the photography aspect has been quite comical, the routine being, land fish, tow it to shallow water and safety, set camera to repeat fire self timer on mini tripod, press shoot, flounder around with fish in the darkness as the flash fires, release fish and check results! Also during these sessions I feel I've definitely been groping around with regards to what is THE lure to be on and stick with if I'm on the fish and conditions are stable, not easy if you're fishing on your own but I don't think I'm too far off...
With the Irish Bass closed season well and truly upon us (15th May - 15th June) and as someone who's never shy of guided fishing I decided to head up to Kerry and team up with Pro Guide John Quinlan for some alternative fishing in the form of Mullet Fly action which turned out to be a very good call. John has put a lot of time into this and all aspects of the guided fishing services he offers and it was a real eye opener to experience the maggot oriented presentations he's developed. Just to prove how effective they are even I managed to hook and land one on my first cast which is quite amazing when you consider the Mullet's reputation as an almost un-catchable fish at times. I thoroughly enjoyed my 3 night stay during which I was very well looked after by John and his wife Lyne, I had some wonderful fishing experiences at a time of year when I'd normally be going up the wall's with frustration and I learnt some fascinating new techniques that I'll be taking back to West Cork with me...
As we wait out the closed season here I'm reflecting on the year so and thought I'd Just give a bit of background to this post from back in Jan that already seems such a long time ago... Despite the time of year and a poor forecast of strong westerly winds with rain, I did take some comfort from the fact that my chosen location was West facing, with a fraction of North, and that the winds were due to turn Southerly by the time I'd arrived which would afford me some level of shelter from not only the weather but also the swell and also that a Southerly can switch on the fishing as if like Bass fishing magic at times here on the South Coast of Ireland. The location I had in mind was a boulder field that has produced for me before through the winter but even so I wasn't too hopeful when I saw the conditions that greeted me on arrival, not suprisingly it was very messy. The water state wasn't too bad, dirty yes from the heavy rain of the previous few days but that doesn't put me off, the mixed pieces of broken weed floating and suspended within the water column were not good news for lure fishing but as I had plenty of weedless presentations with me this wasn't a problem. I settled for some large white shad patterns for maximum visibility and vibration in the wild conditions. I matched this up with my 9' Daiwa Branzino (90M) with a Certate 4000 for extra punch and control along with a 22g weedless jig head the plan being to stay in contact with the bait, fish as slow and as deep as possible whilst gently skimming and bouncing the bait over the boulders and through the attached weed heads on the retrieve, with perhaps the occasional lift of the rod as the winds lulled. After moving and casting my way along the shore, heading into the howling wind and lashing rain for a while, I managed to get my back to the wind and proceed to work a pattern of initially short casts directly out from the shore, wilist sinking the tip of the rod straight after casting to avoid a massive bow in the line and get under the surf, followed by progressively longer casts along the shore and downwind which caused less problems with the line. The wind was almost blowing me off my feet in the gusts and knowing I couldn’t do much else technique wise I decided to give it a couple of hours max and see what happened. After 20 mins the line went tight which I didn’t get too excited about as I expected to occasionally get snagged fishing in the manner that I was but as the “Snag” slowly moved away from me my face lit up with a big grin and a sense of near disblelief swept over me as I realised I was into a very good fish despite the conditions... This has proven to me yet again that Bass, often large ones, can be present and on the feed in what looks to us like hopeless conditions and as we all know can equally be nowhere to be found or switched off when conditions seem perfect...
The two lures above (IMA HOUND 125F Glide Bora Mullet) a faboulous long casting lure, are identical patterns. The difference is the the top one is straight out of the packet and shines like polished chrome, the bottom one I’ve toned down the shine a little with a fine sandpaper to reduce the flash when fishing in clean water. I believe that too much flash could be a bad thing when presenting a lure to fish at times so that’s the reason for undoing some of IMA’s fine finishing work. Unless I find someone willing to fish a number of sessions next to me, with fish present, who works the lure exactly as I do its unlikely that I’ll be able to conclusively prove that the theory stands up but if it makes sense to me and improves my confidence then it’s worth doing I think...
Having looked at all the offerings in the compact waterproof camera market I finally settled on the Olympus Tough TG-1 for my fishing photography as an upgrade to the Pentax W60 & W90 I have used up until now and will continue to use alongside the TG-1. I looked at the other brands and also considered the later model the TG-2 but it's larger, heavier, has features I don't need and is of course quite a bit more expensive. The TG range are the first compact waterproofs I've come across that will take external lenses for both additional zoom and also fish eye which are screwed in after removing the threaded ring around the lens and do not affect the watertight integrity of the camera. It remains to be seen how much they contribute but they can only improve things I would have thought, I will make sure the basic camera performace is worth it before investing further... I'm pleased to say I was able to "Shop local" in these tough economic times rather than going the internet route, having found one at the Dublin Camera Exchange who gave me some sound advice and a good deal including a free 4GB memory card along with free postage. I'd dearly love to be using a DSLR at this stage but, even with a waterproof case, when fishing I don't think it would last long and I don't want to be lugging one around with me when I can carry two compacts in the breast pockets of my wading jacket and not even notice they are there, I just just need some fine looking fish to point them at now!
Despite a mildish winter the howling and relentless Easterlies throughout March and into April have set back the whole of nature so it’s not surprising for the fishing to follow that pattern and make for a slow start to the Bass fishing year. Being that, frustratingly, things only seem to really get going a few weeks before the close on the 15th of May it will be interesting to see if the pre close action really gets going at all. It is encouraging to see strong indicators of the onset of summer in all the new plant growth of leaves, buds, flowers etc along with arrival of summer migrants such as the wonderfully aerobatic Swallows but what I’m really wondering is what will be the true state of the Bass population in 2013 as accessible to shore anglers such as myself? It’s been pointed out many times to me now by those who have fished Bass all their lives that things are not what they were and also, are not what they should be. As we all know, after a collapse in stocks due to overfishing, in 1990 laws were put in place to protect the species from being commercially overfished in Irish waters and these laws became permanent in 2006 good news, job done, or maybe not.....? The picture that’s clearly emerging is that despite these legal protections the fishing is declining year on year, and why is that? If the majority of Anglers are C&R which I believe they are or at least abiding by the law either the law is still allowing too many fish to be removed, poaching and netting are rife or the fish are being hoovered up offshore. With the equipment and techniques now at our disposal catches should be far out weighing those of five or ten years ago but the evidence is they simply are not. Probably the truth of it, which I’m purely guessing, is that its all of the above and more to varying degrees. A more recent negative influence has of course been the weather, successive bad summers has made Bass fishing unbelievably hard at times and for last year in particular. More times than I care to remember I fished long and hard in what seemed like perfect daytime conditions for very little return, with night fishing the only way of improving ones chances which is not everyone’s cup of tea and should be done with great care. The general trend of warming water temperatures should in theory have improved things for Bass and may do over time but as previously said it’s not evident in our catch rates as yet. I think everyone at this stage Bass fishers or not are hoping and praying for at least a reasonable summer with some stability in the weather patterns which will undoubtedly help the fishing, at least in the short term, we shall see. I’d welcome other views on this important topic.
If you're like me and lucky enough to fish boulder fields or rough grounds in which Bass love to spread out and hunt in, often as individuals, from early spring and throughout the summer and Autmn here's a suggested method to use, alongside the traditional suspending hard baits, during the early season. How about flicking out a small weightless or lightly weighted softie (as conditions allow) Texas rigged as pictured above, allowing it to sink and leaving it for a few, lets say 6 seconds. From here, after a slow draw or maybe a "Jerk" draw, let it sink whilst remaining in contact as the take will most likely happen at this point. Slow fishing is the key here as our quarry can be less inclined to chase down and attack a hard plastic shooting over their head's at warp speed due to the reduced water temps and more likely to be rooting around looking for small items of food such as Crabs, Blennies, Rockling or what ever they happen to be focused on as a food source. I can say without doubt that takes can be tentative early season and a lot of fish are dropped. For this style of fishing I would choose be using my lighter set up of the Yamaga Blanks 81/12, 2500 sized reel and 15lb braid for a nicely balanced feel. Let's hope we get some calmer weather soon to use this and many other effective methods...
Ok So it's getting dark, you've just been busted off by a decent fish and you strongly suspect there are more right in front of you for the first time in a long time.. Time to re-tie. So along with the sentiments of this post Here would it be quicker to just pull out a pre-tied fluorocarbon trace of just the right length (Normally about 1 meter for me) such as the above, or start from scratch. I know it only takes seconds to grab the spool of line, pull of the correct amount, cut it to length, tie your chosen Griner/blood/ whatever knot, then tie the all important Albright or similar maybe not in that order but......if it starts to go wrong as it can for me me due to over excitement/cold fingers/poor light/or just poor tying it might help to give yourself a little bit less to worry about and get back to the all important business of connecting with a decent fish or two without losing valuable time or worse still tying a bad knot and losing a valuable fish or even just getting frustrated and, heavan forbid, temporarily losing one's fishing mojo !! ; )
Taking this post as a basic template for a session maybe we could consider the following. Will setting the alarm half an hour early, to make sure you get to the first location with time to spare, be time well spent? Will making sure you eat some carbs before leaving home and having a snack and some water with you help you to focus during a longer than expected session? Will making sure you know not just what the weather is expected to do but what its been doing for the last few days be useful? Will loading you braid to just below the lip help with distance casting? Would tying your chosen Albright and clip knots at home in good light and with no rush help reduce the chances of a knot failing ? Would always using the same clip because you know it works perfectly every time, rather than buying what happened to be in the shop when you called in, be a good idea? How about adding rattles to your soft plastics? (More on that soon) I could keep going for pages here but my final question is - Do any of the above make a huge difference to your chances on their own? Probably not, but.......put them all together along with all the others I didn't mention and you've probably moved things quite nicely in your favor. Worth a thought?
I'm really interested in what effect temperature has on our Bass fishing. Its well known that as we move from average winter sea temps of 8-11c through towards our summer average sea temps of 14-18c and there's talk of the "Magic Ten" the temperature at which we can supposedly expect Bass to start taking interest in and maybe even chase down our lures. The Americans even have tables to predict their freshwater bass behavior in relation to temperature. How relevant this is to our Sea living bass I'm not sure but I wouldn't be surprised if its similar, oxygen levels would of course change with temperature changes as different plants in the lakes contribute their oxygen input and also apparently does the PH values. What I'm really interested in is local temperature variations and how they effect our fishing. Watching the Sky Sports Tight Lines program hosted by the inimitable Keith Arthur, as I do on a weekly basis, I was most interested to listen to one of his expert guests explain how carp behavior revolves around local temperature changes within the lakes in which they live, apparently a 1 degree temperature difference or even less can be all it takes to switch them on to feed or move to a given area of a lake. I know that Kerry based Pro Bass Guide John Quinlan recommends at times looking for south facing rough ground on a rising tide that will boost the water temp due to the thermal energy stored in the rocks on a sunny day that transfers to the water and warms it for a while as the tide floods, also my local fishing friend Michael Quirke tells me he can feel the local effect from heat of rocks warmed by the summer sun even with a wet-suit on when snorkeling some of his fishing marks - Now that's keen!
So, trying to put this all together it's clear that temperature plays a major role in fish behaviour and probably the prey species they hunt too, not just as the seasons change but also as a local effect even within the sea. Anybody else got any thoughts on this? PS I've bought what I hope will be a suitable cheapo thermometer for taking a few readings and it may well be cast into places it was never designed to go as well as taking a reading whilist dangling on a lanyard from my wader belt. The scale may not be fine enough to measure the minor differences I might find, air temps will also play a major role in influencing sea surface temps. Oh my! I feel a whole new hobby coming on : )
Restless sleep in anticipation, an early start, the cup of coffee to go, dew on the the car, a morning still dark, the fox out hunting, the empty roads, a town still asleep, trying to gauge the weather - is there a breeze...
Arrival at the spot, dawn is breaking, a first look at the conditions and the natural world around me. Getting into waders and jacket, loading up with chest pack and accessories that took so long to source. Decision making of which rod & reel will suit the location / conditions / chosen method. The feel of high quality equipment in the hand, a first re-tuning of the strategy the impatience for the first hit and the worry it might not happen.
A first hit when you've lost concentration for just a moment, the heart rate increase to approaching 200 bpm as you know you're in!
Just some of the things that bring me back to the wild shoreline time & time again...
Topwater Smith Zip Sea Pop Zorus Patchinko II OSP Yamato Shallow IMA Komono II Daiwa SLS 17 F-G & S-G Tackle House Feed Shallow 128 Mid water IMA Hound Glide 125F Duo Tide minnow SLD 145
Duo Tide minnow Slim 175
Sinking IMA Barbarossa 120
Tackle House P Boy Jig 25g / 35g I'm hoping the fish approve of my choices !!
A small but vital detail of lure fishing has to be the clip and this upgrade might not seem worthy of a blog post but small details can make a big difference in this game, I think.
So, having used these Delalande in the smaller No 6 / 29 Lbs size for quite a long time now I've decided I really like the shape but find them a tad weak when repeatedly abused. I did have a breakage which resulted in a lost fish and I've also had a few near misses ( See here) so I'm pleased to have got my hands on the slightly larger No 7 / 35 Lbs size which are certainly not OTT and look very suitable for our Bass fishing to my eye...
I've been reading all the great coverage this bait is getting for a while now and I'm wondering, is there anything new here that has outstanding fish catching potential over say for example a Sawamura One Up Shad or a Daiwa Tournement D'Swim when rigged perfectly for the conditions? I've not fished with these, maybe I will at some point out of curiosity and if they produce outstanding results I'll be carrying them every time I head out. I'm completely open mined on this one and always open to anything that works better than what I'm already using... The number one benefit I can see here is the package, everything is designed to fit together in one package to give a weedless presentation which is unusual and will really suit some people. Next I can see that it looks like a fish or should I say Fiiiiiiiish - Great for confidence, natural colouring - confidence again maybe? I'm also thinking about the eye and may even experiment with adding eyes to some of the soft baits I use and swear by, rattles are another add-on I must revisit - after all it can't hurt can it?
The sad loss of young Pro Irish Windsurfer and friend Mikey Clancy at the age of 22 this week, whose funeral I attended with many others from the Irish Windsurfing community yesterday in Dublin, has stirred up many memories of my windsurfing days so as one way of marking his passing here on the blog I'll tell a short windsurfing / Bass related story that Mikey would have liked. One day many years ago I was happily blasting along at my old haunt, Minster Beach on the Thames estuary in Kent, near my then home in England, at a fair old rate of knots, probably 25+ as I was on my full on race equipment. The water was smooth as the wind blew offshore. Suddenly there was a horrible noise and vibration from the board and I knew immediately what was occurring but was powerless to do much about it as it was all happening so fast. The reason for this breach of my windsurfing peace was the 70 cm carbon fin grinding as it made contact with the mussel bank I was passing over as the tide dropped, a bad miscalculation on my part but I'd got away with it. Had I done the same thing 20 mins later the shallower water would have led to a solid impact which at best would have led to the fin being ripped from the board and lost to the mussel bank or even the back being ripped off the board, such was the light construction of it's high performance design. So luckily the drama was all over in a couple of seconds and rider plus equipment lived to sail another day. Fast forward 24 hrs and here I am again under identical conditions (Windsurfing like Bass fishing is highly addictive and something I did all weekend and any evenings it was windy.) I'm approaching the mussel bank again at speed but there's a big difference, the tide is approximately an hour later and I'm confident that there's plenty of depth to get me safely over the bank this time. So, imagine my horror, annoyance and general sense of deja vu when it all starts going wrong again and fast! So fast in fact that before I know it, following a dull thud, I'm pitched forward into the murky estuarine water, or "catapulted" as windsurfers call it, whilst still hooked into my harness lines that hang from my carbon boom to help channel the power of the sail through the body and into the board to create drive and forward momemtum. I find myself in the water quickly running checks, first on my body then my equipment for damage. All checks come back as good. I'm very relieved but puzzled, how could this have happened? I scan the scene and something alien to me at the time but now very familiar catches my eye. Floating on the surface dead or stunned is a nice big bass laying motionless having paid the ultimate price for being precisely in the wrong place at the wrong time.
