Hit hard...

A nice morning session today resulted in a couple of nice bass fishing in and around very shallow reefs.

The lure which I had the fish on today was the IMA sasuke 140, the last couple of fish I have had on this lure I have been holding the rod tip up and working the lure back very quickly and the takes have been savage getting hit very hard right at my feet.

A cracking lure that is working really well for the bass at the moment.

Tight lines,

Fly and Lure....

Henry and Nick were over for some bass fishing both on the fly and the lures last week. As always it was a pleasure to fish with the guys and a joy to watch nick casting a fly for some bass and he was duly rewarded for his efforts with some nice bass on the fly. You can check out Nicks blog here.

Here are some pictures from the guys visit....

Nick fighting a nice bass on the fly

Fly caught bass...

Off course conditions at times were far from ideal for fly fishing....

Nice for lures though...

Nick and Henry on the lures.

Lure caught bass (Photo courtesy of Nick Hart)

Lure caught double (Photo courtesy of Nick Hart)

The guys have moved down west to fish for some pollack along the beara and wild trout in the mountain lakes, to follow how the guys are getting on see Henrys blog here.

Tight lines.

Some new toys...

Some new lures have arrived in the last few days.

IMA popkey 80.

IMA trip 85 (24g).

IMA Sasuke SF-95

IMA molmo 80. This is a ultra shallow diving lure, and has also been working well for us. This lure imitates a bait fish struggling at the surface.

IMA Komomo II 90. This cracking little lure has the great action of the renowned bass catcher the komomo II, however komomo II 90 bites down into the water very well and can be fished into turbulent water very effectively. We had some nice bass on this lure on the last good tides when we were fishing some extremely shallow ground.

IMA komomo II. This hugely popular colour is a well known bass catcher along the waterford coast.

IMA komomo SF-130. Another super IMA shallow diver also worked very well for us when fishing into really shallow ground.

IMA Run dams are also in, as well as a range of colours in the lures above. Also in are the Duo Tide minnows 140 slim and 145 sld's.

Tight lines.

Great week....

Henry and Andy have been over since the day after the ban and have been fishing non stop since arriving. Granted the conditions were far from ideal we still hit it hard trying our best to find the fish and from time to time we managed to track down some bass and at times had some superb fishing.

During the week Henry, Andy, Ger, Cian and Paul had good numbers of fish ranging from 3-8lb, Ger as usual seeming to sneak out the bigger fish on his tried and well and truly tested Feed Shallow. Both Henry and Andy lost some really nice looking fish (possible doubles?) but we will try not remind them of what could of been.....maybe next time lads.

It has been a real fishathon since the lads arrived dawn to dusk most days, its great fun fishing with the guys they are seriously passionate about their lure fishing and no doubt we will wet a line again over the next few months. Looking forward to it already.

Check out Henry's blog here for some really outstanding pictures of the fishing during the week.

Here are a few pictures of my own from the week.

Henry

Ger fishing some nice ground

Andy with a nice fish

Henry behind the lens

Henry at the other side of the lens

The result of non stop fishing....

Tight lines.

Back on the bass...

So the day has finally come the 16th of June, time for the summer bass fishing to begin.....

Due to the wind picking right up last night my confidence was well down, I did a quick recce yesterday evening to find the marks I hoped to fish, a total write off due to brown water and a lot of floating weed.Slightly disheartened I still set the alarm for 3.45am and proceeded with plan b which was try my best to find clean water. To my surprise the water was not as coloured as I expected as the wind settled right down during the night.

There was plenty of life on the water and the ceremonious wave over the head within the first few casts had me wide awake, sure enough within the first half an hour I had a nice bass hammer my pearl zonk gataride which gave a great account of itself in the well oxygenated white water. As the tide pushed in so did the weed....

So on to the next mark which usually fishes best on the rising tide but I said I would chance it on the drop, fishing a cruising blue gataride into coloured water a nice bass of around 4.5lb snatched the lure right at my feet, another great fight in lively conditions.

Crusing blue

On a side note this little guy got washed up on to the beach a rare boarfish looks like it should be swimming around tropical reefs and strange to be found in shallow water this time of the year as this fish is generally associated with deeper water, so what lure can we use to match the hatch here??

As I write this the wind has picked up again which will most likely make things extremely difficult along the copper coast in the form of weed and coloured water.

Make sure to keep an eye on Henrys blog here from what I here the guys smashed serious numbers of fish this morning to 8lb, so looking forward to seeing the pics.

Tight lines,

James.

Almost there now....

So with only a couple of days left until we can wet a line and chase some silvers along the coast again excitement is certainly building, conditions look good in the form of a nice SW coming onshore, nice set of tides. So time to get the lures ready for hopefully another bumper season on the bass.

Looking Good!!!!

And to add even further to the excitement levels its now time to get those surface lures ready the water temperature is up and we all know its by far the most exciting and visual way of hooking a bass.

One lure I will have at the ready as soon as the season opens is the super effective Xorous Patchinko. I know that this lure did serious damage for Cian and Paul last year accounting for a lot of their bass last season.

Heres hoping there will be plenty of fish and smiles like this in the opening few days of the season.

Tight lines to everyone for the start of the new season.

James

Soft Plastics...

We have just got in some great new colours in the Slugos (4.5, 6, 7.5) and now have texposer hooks from size 1 up to 5/0.

From top to bottom 7.5 inch Arkansas Shiner, 6 inch Pond Shiner and 4.5 inch Green Phantom

7.5 inch Albino Shad and 6 inch Pond Shiner

7.5 inch Seafoam Shad and 4.5 inch Green Shad Flash.

We have also got in some Delalnde articulated jig heads, 5g 7g 10g and 12g available. These articulated heads work very well with shads giving extra movement to your soft plastic, a 10g articulated head mounted onto a GT shad can be seen below.

Decoy nail bombs have also arrived which sit very nicely on the xlayer seen below, these jig heads work well when you want to fish your xlayer into snaggy ground.

Tight lines