East coast Bass?????????????where did they go?

Lads , I'd like to know what the Bass catch is like for other lads on the East coast(PM me if you want to keep it to your self). I tend to fish the Louth Meath coast and by this time last year i had 8 Bass BUT i have not had a take this year. There are other lads also fishing these marks and they are getting nothing either.

I'm not looking for marks lads, just concerned about the lack of Bass, i normally fish with lures and return 90% of fish (which drives the misses mad - ha ha ) The people who fish baits might have a different story to tell. .........Again just concerned about numbers.

Hi mate, yeah from what I hear its a very poor year. The main prob is, and this has been said here before numerous times, is that I dont remember ever before so many people fishing for Bass. The prob is that ye have an increased number of ppl fishing at taking a fish or two, which is within their right. But times that by the number of people and the number of times they fish and its very easy to impact a local mark or area. There are other factors, warmer water, plankton migration north to cooler water, fish following and so on but I think local pressure on a mark is killing it. I heard there was a net pulled from Mornington with 70 Bass in it. That came from a fisheries officer, not just rumor. That kind of thing certainly wont help your area.

I think fishing in general was piss poor all summer on the east coast not just bass, hounds, flounder ect
I,m contemplating emigrating to warmer fishier climbs!


Kerry you may not have the Sam maguire but you still have fish [PERSON RAISING BOTH HANDS IN CELEBRATION]

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70 Bass in a net is not the news i was hoping to hear, all the fish i caught bar 1 went back last year because like most people (i think) the idea is to try and maintain the species. I caught a big Bass in double figures that was obviously a female and i was in a near panic to return her to the water that i never even got a photo. Putting these fish back like most people gives me some sort of hope that the species will recover but hearing that 70 Bass were caught in a net -- gets my blood boiling. there are some real idiots out there.

I reported lads netting in Baltray two years ago to Fisheries never heard anything back.

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(My perspective is Cork-based)

As conservation-minded anglers you will always hear about netting and the elusive " boxes of bass were landed". I am not saying that it doesn't happen, but a lot of the time you will not be able to confirm the stories. The amount of illegal fishing certainly varies from place to place.

In 2012/13 our bass fishing fell off a cliff. Numbers of fish were away down on previous years. My own catch rate decreased by more than 60%. This was a country-wide phenomenon, not just my patch. Were all the fish illegally caught? I don't think so - nobody could net every patch of coastline. Were they scooped up by trawlers outside the 12 mile limit? I don't think so.

Something did happen though. Did 60% of bass decide not to migrate back inshore after the winter? Stranger things have happened...

Without fail, there are more anglers fishing/catching on local marks, If they are "keeping" they will wipe the place out eventually. If an angler evolves and has an interest in bass they will improve their catch rate as long as there are still fish there to catch. When bass fishing is poor the "angling effort" expended by anglers tends to decrease rather than increase. It is only the brave few who keep flogging the water for little or no return. Most either fish less or give up entirely. A poor summer weather wise will also have an effect on bass numbers that are already low on the shoreline. Many anglers report "decent" fishing. I notice many of these have maybe changed their effort - fishing lures at night or fishing in places where they did not before. The thing that gets me is the inconsistency at the moment - you might catch today and in equal conditions tomorrow, not a sniff!

While the are certainly local forces impacting on bass stocks countrywide I cannot believe that the only impact on bass numbers has been manmade. The drop is too big and too widespread.

The fishing on the East coast this year is very very poor. There are a few fish about but the number of blanks is quite shocking. I agree with some of the above but I also think the storm we had a couple of years back damaged alot of the marks, and wiped out many good Bass marks, I think it will take a good few years to recover, hopefully.

FROM Probassfisher 2011.

Putting your fly or lure in the right place at the right time is great way to catch fish. One of the most common questions I'm asked at my workshops and through e-mail relates to choosing the correct fly or lure at any time for the circumstances.

Those circumstances can be as wide as water colour, depth, speed of current, weather conditions, tidal flow and on it goes. You can do one of many things and make it very simple - fish soft plastics bounced and twitched on the bottom (break your wrist and nothing more) lift and drop in the killing zone and there is no doubt you can catch many many fish. Of course there is a degree of knowledge required as regards timings and a fair degree of water craft and practice and time invested to do this but you dont have to know too much of anything else to have great fun and to catch a lot of bass.

From another angling perspective putting out a fly line and fishing a clouser in the zone and getting it to behave in a similar manner happens to be a more challenging pursuit, for many reasons. And the inevitability here of course is to draw comparisons between the techniques or worse still to divide anglers into segments based on technique and then attach greater or lesser extents of expertise to those anglers and techniques. Even more silly is to think that anglers who practice one or the other and catch large numbers of fish have greater or lesser degrees of 'angling superiority and ability' - effectively dividing anglers into a class system based on techniques or numbers.

Its obvious that to physically and successfully cast a fly on a fly rod into the sea and catch a bass requires more skill than casting a soft bait on a lure rod to do the same thing, but with a far lower catch rate - and what difference does it make really? The choices we make regarding our fishing techniques are our own to learn and discover and practice and perfect as we prefer. Some require more knowledge and effort, others dont. But all require time invested in the fishing environment.

The one element that seems to be forgotten in this frequent bullshit debate of 'bass fishing technology preferences', the most important one, is the fish its appreciation and subsequent protection.

We have a fantastic national resource on our hands in bass fishing in this country. New technologies now allow us to present to fish EASILY in many different locations with techniques that have not been possible before allowing us to catch more fish, bigger fish, more mature fish more regularly than ever before. But we dont know how many are out there.

What we do with those fish is our responsibility as anglers, we need at times to proceed with a degree of caution. But we dont know how many we kill or when or what that impact might be.

The fixed spool reel didnt spell the end of angling as was feared by many when it first appeared - nor will soft plastics. There is anecdotal evidence that bass in Irish inshore waters have 'recovered'. But we dont know to what level.

That recovery is nothing in comparison to the abundance of the species that my father would have witnessed as a young man in Wexford. There is no current scientific evidence or political interest to map the scale of that recovery having had twenty years of protection. But we dont seem to know how to leverage the benefits.

Neither is there a will to examine the extent of the blatant clandestine illegal fishery as it continues to contribute to the failure of the fishery to recover even faster. We dont know its impact or true scale.

Much comment is made as to the effects of recreational angling in comparison to commercial pressure - and as the interest and accessibilty to the fish increases so too will the recreational impact. An illegal 200 metres of net in one shoot does immeasurable damage, a re-opened commercial fishery would destroy the species in perhaps two seasons. We dont know if the commercial ban is firm for any period

Recreational impact at this time is at a minimum in comparison to the above. Most bassfisherman I know are C+R oriented and handle fish with care, most will kill a fish for the table very irregularly, most observe the closed season. Some of course dont and have various illogical reasons for not doing so. The closed season begins on May 15th but in fact fish are spawning since mid April because of current conditions.

We dont know the possible effects of growing recreational pressure on important locations on a species like bass in Irish waters.

What we dont know are a lot of important things - BUT we need to do more to preserve what we have left - bass have been declining in obvious numbers since 2007

My own personal thoughts

[list=]The current population is / has been fragmented and broken up into smaller isolated populations considerably less than what existed here prior 2007
Localised poaching continues and is frequent both at night and day in Wexford, Cork, Kerry and North Co.Dublin - this has always been the case
Current soft bait techniques have impacted on the species as a means of catching the fish
Mortality has increased simply because we catch fish even if we return them
There is increased pressure on the species Kayakers, Spearfishermen, Pollution, forage degradation
Fishing at night ALWAYS meant catching more than during the day. - In a depleted population it simply means catching something that is difficult to catch during the day by virtue of this tactic
Some areas of the coast seem to have fish others don't (even though they did previously) - these numbers are continually decreasing even where they do exist
Comparisons are valid over time and location
Specific performing locations DO NOT represent Ireland as a whole especially where teams of anglers fish for extended periods over 24 hrs - this is not bass angling

We have no genuine knowledge of the winter aggregations and habits of the species off the coast of Ireland, (this is outside 1 mile and inside 5 miles) nor did we or do we know the true size of this population and its movements - it may very well be that a vast proportion of the Irish population which i believe was small to start with simply no longer exists.

As anglers - maybe we should consider - I know I know......!!

Specific areas should be closed for angling for longer periods entirely for protection
The closed season is extended to 12 weeks and is strictly catch and return to allow angling vigilance
Some methods of soft plastic fishing in specific areas at specific times restricted (Spring Autumn)
Make the species entirely catch and return on a tagged basis 3 fish limit per season (similar to salmon)
Spearfishing is closed for the species or restricted to size....
Hooks on lures are always reduced and debarbed
Boga grips are never used or reduced use encouraged
[/list]

Is there an appetite at IFI to introduce such restrictions Jim?

Hi Bob, there is a national bass policy in place. Personally I realise this is probably very difficult for IFI to implement for many reasons, so to go further is probably beyond the resource capacity. The debate needs to happen as to where to go and how we might contribute positively.

I believe that a large part of the future responsibility may lie with the bass angler. I think we need to 'angle differently', to fish differently to 'guide differently' to think perhaps that it's always more about the fish and less about ourselves.

You would miss the skylark from our early summer coast not because you wouldn't see them, but rather because you wouldn't hear them.

Direct from the British "Marine Conservation Society", 25/09/2015:

Quote: The North Sea cod population has at last increased above dangerously low levels and hauled itself off our Fish to Avoid list, but only just. The hard work in this fishery needs to continue in order for North Sea cod to head towards the green end of the spectrum.

Despite this improving news for North Sea cod, nine other cod stocks in the north east Atlantic are on our red list, including recently deteriorated stocks in the Celtic Sea and West Baltic.

Whiting from the Irish Sea and all wild caught sea bass have also slipped onto our Fish to Avoid list, whilst wild salmon remains a Fish to Avoid.

Hake from the south west has moved onto the Fish to Eat list, reflecting the recent certification of the Cornish fishery by the Marine Stewardship Council – a great choice to buy!

I'd be only too happy to fish by these new restrictions should they be implemented JimH!

Here's hoping,
John D.

How do we get these ideas implemented i suppose is the obvious question. Excuse the pun but i'm only a very small fish in a big pond, i can only regulate my own fishing and talk to others around me to try and influence them. Again i personally agree with these ideas ..............how do we get them implemented?

As anglers - maybe we should consider - I know I know......!!

Specific areas should be closed for angling for longer periods entirely for protection
The closed season is extended to 12 weeks and is strictly catch and return to allow angling vigilance
Some methods of soft plastic fishing in specific areas at specific times restricted (Spring Autumn)
Make the species entirely catch and return on a tagged basis 3 fish limit per season (similar to salmon)
Spearfishing is closed for the species or restricted to size....
Hooks on lures are always reduced and debarbed
Boga grips are never used or reduced use encouraged
[/list][/quote]

B

Think first on the implementation of the National bass policy perhaps and the challenges contained there.
The pieces above are probably at the moment only within anyone's personal 'code of angling' like your own thought processes you mention in your post - this is where a lot of responsibility lies

The national policy amongst other documents you can find here - some of it is very technical, some of it related to tourism and coastal development, Fahys papers are the best and easiest to understand.

this link here is a summary of some thoughts etc - http://jimhendrick.com/2012/02/01/testing/

below are more .pdfs etc

https://www.scribd.com/collections/3734 ... -Data-Bass

Enjoy your fishing guy and the above too

source - Inland Fisheries Ireland bass policy Aug 2014

6.4 -

Recommendations regarding education/promotion/communication.

The economic, environmental and social benefits of sustainable bass stocks will be effectively communicated.

Recreational bass angling revenue has been shown to be worth multiples of the first-hand sale value of commercially caught bass.

1. The profile of bass in the public arena should be increased by IFI. Stakeholders and the wider public should be regularly informed by IFI through all available media of the economic, health and social benefits of the existing bass recreational angling fishery and the potential which could be derived from an abundant bass stock supporting a well-managed fishery. The potential contribution of such activity to local heritage and a sense of public well-being should also be emphasised.

2. Education (e.g. ‘Something Fishy’ in schools) and enforcement programs should focus on encouraging positive changes in public attitudes towards developing a stronger conservation ethos by including bass in their programme content.

3. IFI should encourage/support the development of local bass information networks which would provide information on bass distribution, catches, etc. through liaison (two-way) with local protection officers. Stakeholders should be routinely involved in surveying to support stock assessments. Non-destructive sampling of adult bass is often best achieved by angling. Angler network groups should be set up to monitor and report catches and to support survey programmes. Involvement of stakeholders confers a level of stewardship for the resource and will encourage responsibility in terms of contributing to data collection for management.

4. The angling tourism sector, particularly IFI and Failte Ireland, should continue to work together, to identify needs/areas for growth and improve information and infrastructure for domestic and tourist anglers.

5. A guide to the current understanding of the status and biology of bass in Ireland should be produced. The aim of this guide would be to present the current state of knowledge about bass in Irish waters in an accessible format.

Thanks Jim, I've a bit of reading to do. Hopefully i get the chance to contribute to the National Bass program. I'll also pass the info on, there are quite a few lads around that i'm sure are not aware of this program.

........ I'll also pass the info on, there are quite a few lads around that i'm sure are not aware of this program.

There is so much said in that sentence!

Sea anglers and vested interest groups such as charter skippers, guides and accommodation providers cannot look at marine species decline in a singular fashion.

If bass are to survive and thrive then those with a passion for the species have to consider not just bass but all fish that swim in our waters.

In recent years non quota species such as grey mullet have become fair game (ref: Roches Point haul) and now wrasse are being retailed, http://www.sea-angling-ireland.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=12&t=48187.

Responsibility and educating the wider population has to start with the angler (as stated in this thread), however all marine species have to be considered equally if we want to truly create an effective response to combat marine decline.