Sunday 30 November 2008

Bitterly cold, but the bass are still feeding

  • It was just Graham and I fishing this morning, and we decided it was worth a go on the crab baits - we took lure rods as well, but with a biting northerly wind and increased colour to the water, both of us felt this morning was the time to put baits down for the fish. On my first cast I had a good bite, but the fish dropped it. A little later, Graham connected with a decent fish on a rod he won in a match the other day - a Greys GRX-S bass rod. Above you can see him beaching the bass. Check out those huge skies that are a serious joy for me to use in my photos - not bad for the last day of November !!

  • Here is the result - a cracking bass weighing 8lb 8oz, glinting perfectly in the early morning sunshine. The weather continues to be stunning, and although there was not such a hard frost this morning, a far fresher northerly certainly kept the temperature right down - note the hat and gloves again. The fishing was slower today by Ireland's standards, but how often do you see an 8lb plus bass coming in ? Still pretty awesome fishing to me.

  • We did try the soft plastics today, but apart from a couple of bumps we hooked nothing on them. Not completely sure why I have to admit, but there were far less fish moving around this morning. Perhaps the cold has finally got to them a bit.....or perhaps not.

  • Above is a nice bass of 5lb that I managed to nail on a small crab bait - a typical knock-back slack, then tap, tap, thump right over kind of bass bite that was essentially unmissable (he says !!), and it gave a good scrap in the tide.

  • Here you can see the sort of peeler crab baits we were using this morning - a simple 4/0 pennel rig fished off a Varivas 3-way swivel (the lead is connected via a split-ring I put on the 3-way swivel), a short 35lb fluorocarbon hooklength,and a 4oz plain lead that can roll around in the tide and find its own resting place. Still the best all round shore fishing hooks I can find are the Varivas Big Mouth Extra pattern - get them here. All nice and easy stuff, and the bass like it just fine.

  • Graham and I are heading back out for a few hours' cod fishing over the high water this evening, and then we have made a plan to get out on the rocks tomorrow for some more lure fishing. It might be a bit of a gamble, but we are both itching to fish a certain mark on the back tide that has produced plenty of fish in the past. We shall see....

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Very well done on that chaps (& good luck with the cod and the rats later)
Pity the wind picked up (but at least you both got up on time lol)

Tom

Rob Appleby-Goudberg said...

Looks cracking, with some great fish to show for your efforts, who can ask for more ?!.

Cold?, no way, try floating in the North Sea for 7 hours,.. you're clearly being spoilt with these all these foreign trips!

Henry Gilbey said...

Rob,

Yes, you are right, I never used to feel the cold like I do now !! I must start to work more in extreme cold instead of (lovely) heat......???

But I'll take the bass fishing any day of the week. Mindblowing.

Rob Appleby-Goudberg said...

I reckon feeling the cold is just part of getting old.. and it sucks!!, I suffered badly the other day though there were fish to show for it. I reckon once you've sampled the warmer climates and the powerful fish that frequent those waters it's rather hard to come home !

Unknown said...

who cares about the cod fishing when the bass fishing is excellent at the moment on the south coast not much in the way of cods showing up great fishing from cork Waterford & wexford.