Where are we?

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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.

Draw...Sink...Stop - A Cold Water Presentation.

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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...

Traces - And why not?

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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 !!  ; )

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