So far I have been in Ireland for 2 weeks now and with a one way ferry trip could be for a little while longer, in an ideal world I would be able to come on here and blog about lots of fish being caught with a good few big ones and epic fishing sessions along the copper coast of Ireland and down in Kerry. This however is not an ideal world, at least not for me, I’m sure if you Follow “Henry Gilbeys” blog or follow “Fish on Lures” and “Absolute Fishing” on Facebook as I do you will be seeing wonderful reports of good numbers of fish being landed along with a handful of double figure fish! I have caught some fish myself but bearing in mind I was fishing the same area over the same period of time and sometimes the same exact marks, this just proves fishing for bass is so much more than chucking plastic and metal at the sea.

Don’t get me wrong I never expected to rock up to Ireland start plugging away and start landing numbers of bass, that’s just not how it works, bass fishing takes time, effort, knowledge, dedication and I think a slight obsession for all things bassy. And these guys have got all of this from fishing this coastline in some cases for over 20 years, I’ve been here 2 weeks. For example today I spent about 5 hours fishing this one mark, okay I know that’s a long time on one mark but there was plenty of ground to be covered and my god did it look fishy, casting away perched on single rocks in 30mph wind coming at me side on with the aid of torrential rain for the whole period I was there. As you can imagine with this sort of wind it’s going to be kicking up some sort of waves and oh yes it was, every minute or so I would have a set of 5 or 6 seriously big waves crashing in on me with each one chucking a wall of sea water at me. Anyway about 3 hours in even with waders and full waterproofs you can imagine I’m wet through but no way am I accepting that there is a bunch of bass hunting through this surf over the minefield of boulders that does not want to hit my lure, no way! Between sets I manage to spank out my sasuke 120 right out amongst it 1, 2, 3 winds of the reel and I get hit, straight away I see a big splash on the surface and it’s a bass I start cranking and I can feel it’s a decent fish, I get it about half way in and the fish decides to take a dive and ping went the line, my leader knot went. Now I must say that my Daiwa is very lucky not to have ended up in lots of tiny pieces littered amongst the rocks. The thing is I will be up early again tomorrow morning in what’s forecasted to be the same weather doing the same thing all day, now I ask the question is this dedication or am I just totally mental with too much time on my hands!! Maybe the latter but the more I fish the more it takes over me, even the shitty times as I’ve just described these just make me fish harder and longer. I know I’m not alone in this but I’m sure any normal person who hears of lots of fish being landed while not catching themselves would just throw in the towel!! But there’s something different about lure fishing for bass, something that drives you on and on through the bad it may not affect everyone but when I’m out there fishing against the elements I love it! It’s the fact that they can be so hard to catch that keeps me going as I’m not one who likes to be beaten but neither do I want to be handed something on a plate, so when it finally comes together, all those hours spent finding out what state of tide, what size of tide, day or night, weather conditions, type colour or size of lure, water temperature clarity and conditions and where the fish holding areas are on a certain mark the results can be just epic. It’s simply the satisfaction of the reward from working so bloody hard for something that keeps you going at it, and at this moment in time I don’t really see an end to this obsession!

In my short period of time I have had in Ireland I have been lucky enough to meet some cracking people and they have nudged me in the right direction and given me a few pointers. Being that I was based around the copper coast for the first week or so there is no way I could not pay a visit to Cian in his shop Absolute Fishing in Tramore, I must add for your own safety it may be wise to enter with the exact money in which you intend on spending or it could end up being a lot more, but on a serious note it’s a cracking shop very welcoming and very helpful and Cian makes a decent coffee!! I was also very happy to meet Steven Neely and his dad who were down for a weekend fishing the copper coast and they are two bloody nice chaps and seriously good anglers, I’ve been talking to Steven for a while over the internet so was nice to finally meet face to face, plus they cooked me a fry up so that was as bonus. I must also say congratulations to Steven’s dad John for landing a PB bass of around 12lb.

Finally I’ve managed to give my new little toy, the awesome Majorcraft Skyroad a good little work out. After meeting Henry on my trip to Kerry in August to John Quinlans Thatch Cottage,he said  that as we lived so close to each other we must meet up for a fish when we were back in England. I made it quite clear that I would keep him to his word, and as promised he arranged to take me out.
In an ideal world we would have liked to have gone out to catch some nice bass, but this is England and the weather never likes to play ball. These persistent east winds blowing made it quite clear that there was going to be no bass, or at least there were much better options! This being the mighty Wrasse!! a fish that I have caught a lot of in my short time of fishing and a fish that I very much enjoy targeting. Plus the fact that I had got a load of wicked Z Man soft plastics still in their packages waiting to be abused by some hungry hard hitting wrasse made it a good choice!!

I made the scenic drive down to meet Henry, I drop my car off and jump in with him where we then drive to his chosen mark! The nice weather plus the fact we were wrassing meant no need for waders so shorts, t shirts and wading boots, I liked this as there is nothing worse than wearing waders on a sunny day and sweating like mad. How wrong was I? we walked a short footpath which lead to a field and from this field you could see the sea. The only problem was it was about a mile away (this is a guess I stand to be corrected). This is fine, I’m no novice when it comes to walking distance to fishing marks but this was a mile down a few very steep fields which going down is fine but I was not looking forward to the hike back up!! Anyway once down there it’s definitely worth it, secluded little bit of coast lots of structure and nice deep holes and gullies.  I couldn’t wait to drop my line, first things first, crank my drag right up. First lure in was the Z-Man Punch Crawz a new favourite for me. First I cast very slowly, bumping the bottom trying to get an idea of depth and any structure, I bring it in right under my feet and give it a few twitches as I’ve had so many this way and smash, a very un-subtle hit. I lift into a nice fish and this Skyroad is loving it, putting a nice bend in it for sure, I crank him up and I’m rewarded by a decent fish of round the 3lb mark, cracking start. Also I believe Henry hit into a fish first cast, so things were looking good. We continued to catch wrasse with most casts resulting in bites, with the Punch Crawz being so successful there was really no need for me to change lure. Henry had a few different things he wanted to try out so he was changing between lures and noted that they seemed to be very colour fussy today. It seemed they were liking the darker natural looking colours.
Maybe about half hour into the session again I brought my lure right in under my feet, a few twitches and another fish on, I could tell this one was bigger so I really cranked hard to pull him out and away from of any snags. Once up off the bottom, he decided it wasn’t for him and dived for sanctuary, all I could do was just try and hold him up and to my god the rod bent over. After a few dives I manage to get him to the surface and it was a nice fish, luckily Henry was on hand to lift him out for me as I guided him into the rocks. A few pictures whilst keeping him near a big rock pool to keep breathing him, and he was sent back to the depths, a decent wrasse around the 4lb mark maybe a touch more?!

After a few more smaller fish between us the bites seemed to dry up leaving us with real tiny finicky bites not enough to make contact with. After such a promising start it seemed strange that it would stop so suddenly! Neither of us really had  an explanation, but if everything behaved as we expected it too then that would take all the fun out of fishing. The decisions made to pack up and head home. Oh!! the bit I’ve been looking forward to, the horribly steep long hill back to the car. These are the times you just need to man up and crack on, after all I’d  walk up and down any hill if there were fish at the bottom of it.
Photos on this post were taken and given to me to use by Henry Gilbey.                                              www.henry-gilbey.com

So the last few weeks have been a bit dry in the way of fishing, I’ve had a couple sessions with not much success but I suppose that’s what happens when your work determines when you can fish!!I visited  a estuary mark about a week ago and fished over low tide the place was alive fish everywhere, not necessarily all bass but definitely good signs, there were baitfish bubbling and jumping on the surface obviously being pushed to the surface by hungry bass, I fished hard trying everything I could, bumping the bottom with soft plastics, weedless wieghtless through the weed beds, shallow diving hard lures and surface lures, none of which being successful. I will admit its abit disheartening walking away with nothing from a mark when there are so many good signs but I suppose this is why we fish is it not?? The challenge of the chase!! Any way I returned to the mark a couple mornings ago and fished from about 3am for about 5 hours this time over high. Once again I fished most of my lures with no success, last option was the salt skimmer it was still dark but being there was clear sky’s and a bright moon it lit the sky abit, I launched it out straight into the deeper faster flowing channel, 4 winds of my reel and I hear a big splash right from where I thought my lure would be and then the line tightens, fish on, the fish was on for about a minute then came the mass of weed beds in front of me, poor angling or just unlucky I’m not sure but the fish managed to shake the hook!! Now as frustrating as it was I look at this as a successful session as in the past I have not had much success fishing in estuaries and is only ever a last resort, now this spurs me on to go and fish the estuaries specifically!

Things also seem to be getting better as of Sunday as I will have plenty of time to fish hopefully about 2 weeks if things go correctly and if things don’t go correctly well I will have all the time I want to fish, now in my books that’s what we call a win win! This I believe will be sufficient time to find where all these bass have been hiding so far this year! Also I’m very excited as Steven Neely has seen fit to part with his Majorcraft Skyroad 9ft 10-30g rod which was delivered today, after using the 8ft 6 over in Ireland a couple months ago I knew I had to get one for myself and after returning and starting with my own rod again, which is abit of a cheaper rod I was desperate to get a Skyroad back in my hands. I can assure you it will be getting a proper going over.

In the previous blog I was talking about fishing a certain mark that was really successful for me last year, but unfortunately hadn’t really had the conditions I wanted to fish it. Well every now and then we get a early finish at work compared to the usual work all day, this happened to be on the Monday, so straight away im checking the tide times and XC Weather for some info, and im really liking what I see ” 6:40 high tide, overcast, maybe rain and most important a 20mph+ SW wind” now im getting really excited!! I knew with these conditions there would be bass there.

So after a agonisingly long drive to my mark I arrive to see a thick covering of weed, abit off putting but where I wanted to fish was around the corner so I thought it might be clearer around there. I get set up and on mark and the conditions are just awesome, onshore wind kicking up big surf on top of a shallow reef with plenty of gulley’s and big structure in the water, is there really a better sounding mark!! I start fishing trying a few different lures and tactics, and am picking up abit of weed with not many clean retrieves, so I work my way up the coast trying to find clearer water to no success. Right so the plan is stick to my original spot stick the Black Minnow on and fish it hard, weed wasn’t so bad with the weedless set up of the BM, and within 15 minutes I cast out couple winds and BANG, thank god for that I knew there would be fish here, after a little scrap I land the bass, not big but seriously welcome!! 

So now that I have saved a blank im happy, and carry on fishing hard, really expecting to get smashed any second, as with this mark I’ve found that it is usually 30ish minutes of craziness followed by a sudden stop in action!! anyway id say about half an hour im starting to think its all over with the weed also becoming worse until I get mullered right at my feet about 2-3 metres away from my feet right in the breaking waves, at first im thinking im snagged until I start to hear the sound of my drag ripping braid off my spool, this fishes first run is huge, im literally standing there holding on waiting for him to stop, I gain abit of line then run number 2 takes as much line again, by this time my hearts just about beating out of my chest, the fish gives up for abit and im able to gain quite abit of line back, until run number 3 not as long but still hard, I think the fish has finally given in and I can see the fish thrashing on the top, even from a way out I can see this fish is big, im seriously excited and shaking, I get the fish close bearing in mind ive got big breaking waves to contend with, and as I crush my barbs I need to keep that line tight so he doesn’t shake the hook. I must be at the last couple metres so I grab the line in my hand and I can see the lure in the fishes mouth and the weight is something ive never felt before I know its big, so a start walking back line in hand then PING, line gave in and my fish swims away!! My heart sank, I was literally speechless I stood there for minutes replaying what just happened wondering what I had done wrong. I know everyone’s perceptions of anglers tales of “ones that got away”, but this fish took 3 big runs and if im honest my drag was on the tighter side of what it should have been, also I saw the fish and felt the weight of it in my hand and it really had to easily be 6lb+ and that’s really being conservative!! bearing in mind my PB is 5.5lbs which was caught about 3 weeks previous, the one this week made my PB feel like a mackerel!! 

Sometimes the unexpected can be most rewarding, so I am out on some pretty awesome ground in the hunt for bass, real nice shallow reefy ground, somewhere that last year was my most successful bass ground! Ok so it was not exactly the conditions I wanted being that it usually produces on a real strong onshore wind resulting in nice big waves crashing over a shallow reef, fizzing everywhere. Today it wasn’t quite that although it wasn’t flat calm.

Being such shallow ground lure choice is rather important, this was learnt the hard way, this being me chucking numerous soft plastics mounted on heavy jigheads at the reef, although at low tide most of the reef is exposed and I took a walk along it one day and actually managed to salvage one of my Savage Gear Sandeels and a Fiiish Black Minnow. Anyway I went with the Salt Skimmer red belly sardine, a lure that I had recently gained faith in, although no fish it was nice to see that it worked perfectly over the top of small waves!! I then went on to use a few different Megabass soft plastics mounted on 3/0 belly weight hooks slowly twitching them over the bottom, at this point im starting to expect a smash on any cast as the wind actually starts to pick up and there’s some decent fizz in the water.

Time to bring out the big gun, the IMA Komomo SF 125 in Cotton Candy, now this is a lure I used out in Ireland a couple weeks back given to me by Henry Gilbey, ill admit at first sight the colour doesn’t really give me confidence in thinking a fish would mistake it for something they would usually target, but I did as I was told and oh my, 4 bass in a small space of time and a whole lot more hits on the lure that’s enough to install confidence!! So I start fishing the komomo and with the water being so clear I can see the lure really working just hovering above the reef, after a few casts I notice something in the corner of my eye I look down and see a glimpse of a fish literally under a ledge of the rock im standing on just beyond my rod tip, immediately im thinking bass and it looked like a decent sized fish, the water fizzed up and I lose sight of the fish but I cast my lure over the top a started to retrieve, just a slow straight retrieve. Just as my lure is getting to the ledge I see the fish shoot out from the ledge to position itself behind the lure then paused for split second before smashing the lure, now as soon as I saw the fish move I saw it wasn’t a bass and that infact it was a wrasse, after a decent but short scrap I land the fish then realising it was of a decent size. I don’t carry scales on me but I did measure it and it was 51cm and was a rather fat one aswell, im no expert but id say that it was nudging over 4lbs, being that I fish alone the pictures are not great as they are shot on a timer so don’t really do the fish justice but at least its something.

Anyway as the title says it was certainly a surprise to hit into a decent wrasse on a cotton candy SF 125 but a very welcome surprise at that!!