A good trip...

Its always great to hear from visiting anglers that make the trip over for some bass fishing and get some great results.. 

Steve Richardson and co had a great trip with plenty of fish around the 5lb mark with the best fish of the trip running to 7.5lb with the added bonus of getting a lot of fish off the top. 

Here are some pictures Steve sent onto us...

Its almost like a switch has been turned with the coastline fishing very well with some excellent reports coming into us in the shop....

Quality fish....

Well the fishing is really firing at the moment, here are a couple of the better fish Eric Upton has caught in recent days.....

Long may it last....

Back to some normality?...

We can talk all day long about how the conditions have been against us this season with most of us having to make the most of those very small weather windows throughout the "Summer" to date. The copious amount of rainfall we have been getting has made things very difficult lowering the salinity of our inshore waters and thus pushing bait fish and most likely the bass out to deeper water.

However in the last few weeks things have finally started to return to some normality. Last weekend on some neap tides we had some nice bass coming to hard lures in estuaries and along rock marks. The usual fish holding marks are again starting to produce the quality fish we know they can and reports are coming in steadily to the shop of some quality fishing all along the coastline.

Here are some pics from a session we had on Saturday, fishing hard lures into some moving water the bass seemed to be passing us in phases...put your lure in the right place and eventually a fish would oblige.....

There was some nice fish caught during this short session (4-7lb), with some people picking out a few more than others. It always great to see your friends (who you introduced to bass fishing) hook some great fish., even if they do out fish you!!  

If you get the chance check out this great video Peter Aspinwall put together, some very impressive surface fishing in Clonakilty bay..... 

Conditions....

Well what can I say but this season has to be the worst conditions for lure fishing I have ever witnessed. If its not Northerly or Easterly it's blowing a gale from the direction we want Southerly. Then wind comes good conditions look good but water clarity is poor due to previous wind directions and strengths. Fresh water running off the land, pressure seems to be low and not hitting the usual summer highs.

Let me start by saying this is just my opinion and I could be wrong but I think that massive storm we had in June ( the worst weather recorded for something like 113 years for that time of year ) had a massive effect on the whole season. All of the early summer weed and kelp got uprooted and is still all over the shore and floating around. The bait fish were slow moving in and and water temps were slow rising.

Did that storm stop the usual progression of the summer routine on our coastal system? Yet again last week we get hit with massive winds from the south. The biggest surf I have ever seen here in tramore real winter weather. The water clarity is now poor again when winds are perfect and tides are good. When I talk about water clarity it does not have to be gin clear but it does have to have some bit of visibility. All of these factors have made things very difficult but saying all that fish are still being caught and a good stamp of fish too. Put in the hours, search for that better bit of water and you just might be rewarded. When conditions are coming good and clarity is ok we seem to be hitting our normal standard of fishing but as we have all witnessed getting those conditions this summer has not been regular to say the least.

September and October have always been my favourite months so lets hope it comes good and I am sure a few good sessions would make everyone forget the tough ones. Wind is staying in the south a bit more lets hope it stays that way.

So yes it's been difficult but yes fish are still being caught and some good ones too. Unfortunately we can do nothing about the weather but we will keep fishing that's for sure because who knows....

Irish Bass Festival....

Well where do I begin, what was just an idea myself and Cian came up with sat in Absolute Fishing just over a year a go finally came to fruition last weekend. Between websites, rulers, rules and schedules for the weekend we eventually got there. The main reason we decided to hold this festival was to give anglers from the UK and Ireland the chance to experience the quality bass fishing we have along the South East Coastline all packed into a fun weekend.  

Well it was an early start for us on Friday morning getting into the shop at 4.00am ready for registration to begin at 5am. There were some eager bass anglers waiting in the cars as we arrived, keen to sign in and begin their bass fishing for the weekend.

By Friday afternoon almost half of the 121 anglers who registered for the festival had collected their measures and I.D cards and were out on the rocks and estuaries around the south east coast. Conditions on Friday were bright sunshine and flat calm conditions....far from ideal, however moving water in estuaries etc. were where the fish were located and reports were soon coming into us in the shop of good numbers of fish been taken.

Saturday morning was another early start and we were greeted by two very tired anglers who appeared at the door of the shop still in their waders, Patrick and John had been out along the Copper Coast and had fished through the night they soon got the camera out and showed us a nice 77cm bass which Patrick had taken on the ebbing tide in darkness, a super fish which was going to be very hard to beat....

Saturday brought similar conditions as Friday, at this stage all anglers were signed up and on the loose on the coastline. Bright sunshine and calm conditions made things difficult for the guys who went out however a South Westerly wind began to build along with the hopes of all the anglers of some better conditions...

Once again the estuaries fished well during the calm conditions on Saturday. Come Saturday evening the SW wind had risen and text messages started to come through telling us that the rocks had started to produce some fish. At 11.30 on Saturday night I got a phone call with the news of a 80cm bass, a stunning fish again coming in darkness on the Copper Coast.

Sunday morning was a busy day in the shop with lots of angler who fished throught the night coming in to register their fish. Numerous 70+ cm bass being landed Saturday evening and again through the night and into Sunday morning. Come 2pm all fish were registered and signed off, result time was upon us...

In total ~250 bass were caught and released over the weekend. Granted conditions were tough with flat calm conditions, the guys who targeted estuaries by day and rock marks by night got their just rewards with some quality fish being landed.

Darragh McCarthy (Juvenile winner)

 Seamus Enright (Winner of best 3 combined- 199cm)

 Steve Richards (Winner of the Longest fish from a vising Angler)

Steve with his 72.5 cm fish.

Eric Upton managed a nice fish of 73cm on Sunday morning when conditions were at there best along the rocks with a very nice SW wind creating a nice fizz on the water which earned him 3rd place, with the 3rd longest fish of the weekend.

Patrick Morris (2nd longest fish of the weekend)

Here is a picture of Patrick with his stunning 77cm fish. 

And last but not least the winner of the Irish Bass Festival. 

Anthony Phealan had this stunning fish on Saturday night, it was 80cm in length and was well deserved winner of the Inaugural Irish Bass Festival. 

We want to thank our main sponsors TopWater Lures along with Costa Del Mar and UK Bass who supplied some fantastic prizes. We would also like to say thanks to the Grand Hotel who provided accommodation for the anglers and where the function was held on the Sunday night. And finally a big THANK YOU to all the anglers who took part in the festival who made our idea a reality.

We hope you had a great time and see you again next year.

Cian and James.

T minus 2 days...

Some nice reports coming into us here in the shop of some good fish being caught all along the Copper Coast in the last few days... 

I went out this morning and had this nice fish and dropped another of similar size at my feet, plenty of fish around so hopefully we will see some quality fish being caught over the weekend.

Conditions are looking good for the  festival this weekend.

 Excited?...Because we are.....

James & Cian

Festival reminder...

Just to let everyone know you have until July the 6th which is this Friday to get your entry fees in.

 http://absolutefishing.ie/Shop/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=47&products_id=545

 And here is a pic of the trophy the overall winner will be collecting on Sunday the 22nd....