Competition time!!!

We are doing a bit of decorating in the shop and want to turn the wall behind the counter into a photo wall of people's best catches. So if you are willing to have your best catch displayed in the shop send us a printed copy of your best catch and we will put it up. It can be any fish by any method. It will not be judged by the size of the fish, it will be judged by what we think is a photo that's says what fishing is all about. Fun, freedom, passion, joy. So to enter you need to send a printed copy(no larger than 7" X 5")of your photo to:

Absolute Fishing
Site 2
Rivers town Business Park
Tramore
Co.Waterford
Ireland
 

The winner will receive a €100 voucher.

Entry's close the 20th of October.

Don't miss out....

Now is a great time for big bass, dropping water temperature signals to the the bass that winter is on the way and its time to bulk up. Small weather windows around this time of the year can lead to some outstanding fishing. Keep your eye on those weather sites http://www.windguru.cz/int/index.php?sc=47761

Here are two nice October fish taken in the last couple of seasons....here's hoping! 

Festival Round-Up....

Finally getting around to this, here is a quick roundup of how the Irish Bass Festival went this year. First of all we would like to thank the entrants for taking part and making the festival such a great success. The atmosphere in the shop all weekend was outstanding with everybody entering into the festive mood and the banter as always was great.

With regards prizes we were very lucky to have some incredibly generous sponsors that included Topwater lures, Costa del Mar, Fiiish, UK Bass and Active Angling Ireland. Among the prizes were some of the best rods on the market, top polarized sunglasses, lures and accessories and even a weeks fishing break to Ireland!!

So how was the fishing....   

The weather was what it was, blue skies bright sunshine with very little lift on the water making things a little more difficult for the anglers. As the saying goes "adapt or die" and the anglers who adapted to these conditions reaped the rewards. It was a bit deja vu with regards weather from the 2012 festival however confidence was high among the anglers who were waiting to register and get out fishing. We opened the doors at 5am to car loads of eager anglers ready to get out along the coast, by 10am we had almost 80 anglers signed in and out fishing. Soon, the messages start flying around of fish being caught and it was obvious it had been a successful morning for some anglers. Fish were taken during the early morning and throughout the day with some anglers having impressive numbers of fish on surface lures. Estuary marks were producing fish in the daylight hours and rock marks in low light conditions. After an 18 hour shift in the shop it was time for us to catch up on some sleep safe in the knowledge that anglers were out throwing all manner of hard and soft lures into gullies along the copper coast through the small hours of the morning.

Time for breakfast after a long night fishing...

                                          Taking a break from the summer sun...

It was another early start for us in the shop, as our main job during the festival seems to be ensuring there is a steady flow of coffee in the shop for tired anglers who pop in with updates. Saturday saw a small change in the weather with a slight SW picking up, again fish were caught throughout the day and the rumour mill was in full swing of high sixties and 70 plus cm fish being landed. Sunday morning came around very quickly and before we knew it we were registering fish from anglers who had been fishing hard all weekend. A big thanks to Fred and Sandra from Fiiish who spent the day in the shop on Sunday answering questions anglers had about their products and giving demos on rigging Fiiish black minnows. 

  

Overall there were good numbers of fish caught by entrants over the weekend (official numbers to follow) and those who put in the hard hours were rewarded with some nice catches over the weekend. Here are the official results.

1st - Jamie O' Rourke (71cm)

2nd - Eric Upton (70cm)

3rd - Jason Nash (69cm)

Best 3 combined - Eric Upton (193cm)

Best Visiting angler - Timothy Pound (67cm)

Juvenile Winner - Mark Kett (63cm)

Timothy Pound (best visiting angler)

Juvenile winner 2013 (Mark Kett)

With some nice fish caught and some monsters lost, plenty of sunburn, some falling in and epic fishathons this year's festival has some great stories that we will be hearing about until the next festival comes around, which we are already looking forward to. We have some big plans from next year festival to make it even bigger and better. Watch this space!

Jamie O' Rourke (Irish Bass Festival winner 2013)

Once again thanks to all the entrants who made this event possible and all the sponsors who provided outstanding prizes, Henry Gilbey who helped with prize giving and also the Grand hotel for looking after the visiting anglers and hosting the prize giving....see you all again next year.

Festival time.....

So it's almost festival time, we hope you guys are ready for a great weekend! We are going to have over 100 people taking part this year which really is a great sign of how bass fishing is growing within Ireland. Again this year we have a lot of people travelling from outside the country which is always great to see and demonstrates how well our bass fishery looks when people are willing to travel to Ireland to fish along our coastline, showing we should never take the bass fishing we have for granted!

We have some amazing prizes on offer this year supplied by our sponsors TopWater lures and Costa del Mar. Fishing celeb Henry Gilbey will be across for the prize giving on Sunday evening in the Grand hotel in Tramore which will be great night with plenty of fishing chat.  The prize giving kicks off at 7pm (make sure to bring family and friends).

Nick Roberts from TopWater lures will be in attendance for the festival so if you have any questions about your favourite IMA or Megabass lures or any of the products Nick supplies make sure just to ask. We are also delighted to announce that Matt and Fred from Fiish will be in the shop all weekend so if you would like to talk to the creators of the incredible Black Minnow the guys will be on hand to give some tips and advice on their great product range.

UK Bass will also have a stand in the shop and if you are interested in joining a great conservation group who really have the best interest of bass at heart make sure to go to their stand to join up.

Dr. Willie Roche from Inland Fisheries Ireland will be in attendance on the Friday and he will be more than happy to discuss IFI's plans with Bass conservation projects they have in the pipeline. In conjunction with IFI's bass monitoring program all participants will be asked to take scale samples from fish they catch over the festival and return scale envelopes to the shop on the Sunday. When you return any scale packets you will be entered into a prize draw with the chance of winning a 100 euro tackle voucher, the more times you enter the better chance you have of winning ( prize courtesy of IFI). All information on taking scales and info needed on scale packs will be given to anglers when they are registering.  

So all that is left now is to hope the weather gods are kind to us and everybody gets the opportunity to experience the great fishing we have  along our coast.

Look forward to seeing you over the weekend,

James  & Cian

**(official prize list will be announced later this week)**

Here is the official itinerary for the weekend

Friday 5th of July
Morning:
Festival Starts.
You can register all day from 5am at Absolute Fishing until 6pm and collect your welcome/information pack with official measure and I.D card.

Once you have your official festival measure and I.D card you can begin fishing. 

Now go fishing!!!

Evening:
Live music in Grand Hotel on Friday night at 10pm.
*Again anyone staying in Grand Hotel who is getting up too early to get breakfast can order a packed lunch from reception. This must be done before 8pm.



Saturday 6th of July
Morning:
Registration is still open in Absolute Fishing for those of you who can only fish Saturday and Sunday. You can register from 6am.

Everyone else can keep fishing….

Evening:
Live music in Grand Hotel till late… 
*Again don’t forget to pre-order packed lunch if leaving hotel early

Sunday 7th of July
Morning:
Keep fishing!!
Afternoon:
All anglers who are entering fish MUST be back in Absolute Fishing by 2pm, we will not be accepting entries from anyone after 2pm. Your entry will be counted once you are on the premises of absolute fishing by 2pm.

Evening:
Prize Giving at the Grand Hotel at 7pm followed by the after party.
Finger food and live music. (Bring the family and friends)

Party and fishy tails from the weekend to go on until the early hours…..

Start of the new season..

Not much beats the long awaited arrival of June 16th and to kick things off we will be having a start of season lure sale in store this Friday Saturday and Sunday.

Make sure to pop in as there will be up to 25% off your favourite lures.

If you can't make it to the shop just give us a call on 051-393559

Festival reminder...

The closing date for entry to the Irish Bass Festival 2013 is fast approaching (1st of June). You can register by calling the shop 00353 51 393559 on or online here

You will find all the information you need here on the official Irish Bass Festival webpage.

Some action...

The SW we were waiting for hit the copper coast today, as the wind was in the north for a couple of days beforehand the water clarity was spot on and coincided nicely with a rising tide for us this afternoon.

Fishing is tough at the moment but the bass are slowly starting to make there way back to the usual marks. For the next couple of weeks the water temperature will begin to rise quickly and the fish will follow.

Cian had this nice bass today on a weedless soft plastic fished slowly through some shallow boulder ground.

Nice to see some silver turning up on the coastline again, lets hope its a sign of good things to come...

Could this be a turning point.....

Water temps are rising, spring tides and reports coming in of fish coming to lures along the coast. I know for sure its not a weekend to spend indoors.

Here's hoping...

Tight lines....

Maybe a let up?

We have been having constant easterlies for what seems like months on end at this stage. However hopefully things are starting to look up. In fact on the same spring tides only a couple of seasons a go see here  we had plenty of fish coming to lures so who knows what these favorable weather conditions could bring....

Saturday evening finally see the wind changing into a southerly direction, here's hoping is can stay here for a while....

Entries are coming through for the bass festival this year and its shaping up to be a great event with anglers coming from far and wide to fish the coastline again this year.

Please remember that ALL entries must be in to us by the 1st of June.

You will find all the information you need on the festival homepage

http://www.irishbassfestival.com/

and you can register through the online shop here or simply give us a call on 00353 51 393559

Lure Sale

Paddy,s day marks the start of the season for a lot of anglers. So to get the ball rolling we have a 20% off all lures this Friday and Saturday in the shop.
Conditions look good from Thursday to Sunday so lets hope its a good start to the season.

Irish Bass Festival 2013 

5th-7th July

www.IrishBassFestival.com

We have updated the package deals for anglers coming to the festival this year. Visiting anglers will be able to avail of some excellent package deals including ferry, accommodation (Grand Hotel) & Entry fee see here. 

Irish anglers will be able to get excellent rates from the Grand Hotel in Tramore where the function and prize giving will take place. Please call the hotel for more details on 051 381414 and make sure to quote "Irish Bass Festival"

Entry fees can be purchased here  

For anybody who is thinking of attending this year who didn't make it last year make sure to check out the full report from the hugely successful 2012 festival here

Here is a pic of the winning fish from last year

Any Questions please don't hesitate to contact us.

Online January Sale....

As promised we will be running our online sale from Friday the 11th until Tuesday lunchtime. Everything is reduced so check it out here http://www.absolutefishing.ie/Shop/

In the suds....

We often talk about having that fizz on the water when bass fishing and how it can increase our chances of having a successful fishing session.... seems the striper guys across the water like it as well, check out this video.