Cause for concern?

Had a decent session afloat today. There are reports of some nice catches in recent days. Things are looking better. Hopefully the weather plays ball.

Bass numbers this year are down due solely due to the bad weather, 2010 and 2011 been my best ever, catches up by over 60%, we,e also seen huge shoals of 3/7lb fish, we wer acually wondering were they came outa, they were never there before in such numbers??

Late last year I posted regarding what I consider to have been a deterioration in the numbers of fish that I expected to catch on a day by day basis in Wexford. That deterioration was significant running at 65%. Surely a reasonable post for discussion.

At this stage of the 2012 season that deterioration has continued and worsened to the extent that anticipated versus actual returns is down by 88%.

This post is not a discussion regarding debate across techniques or learning curves or methods employed, I measure very accurately across all factors. This post is a wave of a red flag that something is not right. This may be viewed as contrary to popular belief – but it depends on what and why you want to believe I guess!

Ensure comparisons, logic and timescale are valid – one or two big fish don’t make a season.

Today was a classic example of how tough it is –fishing with Pete Browne, who is a return customer who suffered last year too, Pete is a capable fisherman and under my guidance we can make a strong team and yet Pete had an extremely difficult day today, fish yes, fish missed yes but only at extraordinary effort and with minimum returns.

Throughout this blog and for the five years of its existence I have emphasised the extent of the influences that the fishery is prone to. To a large extent those influences are hard wired into the reality of the business, this is reflected here almost daily. The essence of what you see here is a reflection of the fishing, always has been.

Understand the influences and their effects on the marine environment/fauna and you can understand a large part of the challenges of Bass fishing.

Remember ‘Bass fishing’ is easy and fun and can be done by any person – other elements create the challenges.

Last year and into this year I believed that ‘weather’ was the major reason for such a tough season during 2012 and I guess I tried to validate that. Don’t get me wrong I know what bad weather is, but this is different. I like to believe that the fish are just a short distance off, inshore in ‘suspended’ mode waiting for ‘better’ conditions. A poor growth year perhaps. Just like 1986.

But I cant help wondering at this stage is it something else. Hopefully it can turnaround.

Whatever it might be, a big thanks to all for your patience and perseverance!

Jim Hendrick

Hi Jim.
Maybe you could give us your thoughts on how guiding affects "your" area/marks ?
1: Do you think Guiding has any effect on where you fish ?
2: Have you seen an increase in anglers in your guided areas over the last few seasons ?
3: Have you encountered anglers who return to guided areas who no longer require your services ?
4: Do you believe anglers who you do guide keep the marks to themselves ?
5: Do you think Guiding has any effect on Bass numbers in your area ?
6: With PMs flying all over the internet on good Bass marks, how do you see the future of local Bass marks ?
7: Lastly, do you think Guiding is killing the goose that lays the golden egg ?
lots to ponder there Jim,but i would be interested in your reply...

Lots to ponder indeed - as a person who doesnt know me or about anything what I have done here in Wexford and indeed whom I dont know maybe I can answer some of your questions

1. My guiding season starts on June 16th and ends on October 31st
2. I only guide on optimum tides so in fact its a max ten week season
3. My customer base is very carefully managed and is approx 85% non national with a 15% national base
4. During the period 2003 to 2007 this was almost a 95% non national customer base - 65% of customers return
5. The logic here was to manage locations with the buffer of distance between Europe and Wexford in other words why would I shoot myself in the foot in respect of locations when I was trying to do something sustainable and for the long run even though it was quite small
6. When I started my guiding I didnt put any advertising/Editorial into local magazines like Sea Angler Trout and Salmon etc it was all through international press - for nearly 5 seasons it was much done under cover - I could have easily broken the so called LURE MARKET wide open at any time in those early days I chose the fishing and working with people from around the world
7. I guide groups of three max for five days at a time - its mostly groups of two people who are constantly in my care and are in my responsibility on a day by day basis
8. In effect the amount of people guided is quite small 10 weeks by two people is 20 people
9. My Irish customer base is quite small in fact it remains at less than 10 people whom I guide regularly
10. I would say no to requests for guiding at least 8-10 times a week
11. My customer profile is one which uses the services again and again - they dont take out their own teeth!
12. I have of course made some mistakes in choices, but I believe very few.

As a result of much of this 'management' and tight 'lippedness' I am very often viewed as snobby, stand offish, and non communicative. I was the first person to establish such a business like this and www.probassfisher.com is probably one of the first if not the first of its kind. What you wont see is countless return links to www.probassfisher.com from other web sources but within the recreational community there is indeed as you say a vast network of facebook twitter and PMS - for example you wont find me on the lure forum or in any way hugely visible on any other such form of media except this particualr website and even the qty of PMS sent here from me is probably less than five.

13. I do deliver workshops for people but I immediately establish that locations are not for sale - yes I can help you develop your bass fishing techniques methods and a sense of the fishing and what you need to do NO problem - I firmly believe that hard work will get you the better results nothing else.
14. Most people learn of the risks to the fish from many quarters in relation to the fish at a workshop are go away probably more concerned than ever
15. I wouldnt call my business one that exceeds the social carrying capacity of the fishery and bear in mind the decision making fish handling and location management is in my hands on a day by day basis
16.Its important to realise that what I dont see is any increase in Wexford of visiting international anglers to the coasts but I do see what I would call a huge increase in local pressure
17. It has taken me a careful ten years of very hard work to build a small business with a responsible client base who use my services on return - my close friends, family and some people in the industry realise what that means - they also recognise where the threats now exist in terms of the business.
18. Where is the constant source of the 'marketing machine' focused and what and when is it focused upon at this time?

And lastly - I learned bass fishing the hard way, it took a long time probably in excess of 30 years or more - nobody told me locations on facebook or forums or tweets, or by following other peoples cars - I did it for myself over countless days of hard work. I have complete respect for the fishery and the fish and as a business that respect is inherent in it - you come here to do things the hard way! I realised early the constraints ofthe business and accepted them within my family life and what it meant on many aspects - I dont need to see myself on the front of any magazines or all over any forum or inflating my ego on locations given to me by people with stars in their eyes.

I work very hard at what I do, I love and enjoy doing it and want to continue doing so, I am proud of my country and the quality of the fishing we have - why would I shoot the golden goose? For fame and fortune and ego - I leave that up to other people!

Responsible sustainable and real guiding is what I am about.

Thanks for your questions and I hope I have answered some of them - I guess you can realise my constrained passion!

Bass numbers this year are down due solely due to the bad weather, 2010 and 2011 been my best ever, catches up by over 60%, we,e also seen huge shoals of 3/7lb fish, we wer acually wondering were they came outa, they were never there before in such numbers??

If you are find it poor this year too then it must be really bad!!
2011 was my best ever year too - and similar to what you observed I had more bigger fish last year than any previous year. Many of those were from a mark that I previously only had fish less than 4 lbs, mostly in the 2-3 lb range. I was wondering where they came from too especially as that area is regularly netted every winter. Unfortunately there is no sign of those bass this year

If the weather settles down you may see a huge improvement. The weather in 2009 was similar, if not so bad as this year, and the fishing was a bit patchy then also. Then in Sept we had a great run of settled weather and the fishing took off!!! I'm keeping my fingers crossed for something similar this year.

If the weather settles down you may see a huge improvement. The weather in 2009 was similar, if not so bad as this year, and the fishing was a bit patchy then also. Then in Sept we had a great run of settled weather and the fishing took off!!! I'm keeping my fingers crossed for something similar this year.

Yes I remember that - I had much better results bait fishing than lure fishing over the Summer of 2009. Then at the end of August at the beginning of a period of prolonged high pressure the lure fishing really took off and was excellent for the following 6 weeks until the next big low pressure system hit the coast. Here's hoping for something similar for this year

If the weather settles down you may see a huge improvement. The weather in 2009 was similar, if not so bad as this year, and the fishing was a bit patchy then also. Then in Sept we had a great run of settled weather and the fishing took off!!! I'm keeping my fingers crossed for something similar this year.

Yes I remember that - I had much better results bait fishing than lure fishing over the Summer of 2009. Then at the end of August at the beginning of a period of prolonged high pressure the lure fishing really took off and was excellent for the following 6 weeks until the next big low pressure system hit the coast. Here's hoping for something similar for this year

Looks like you wont have to wait to long. High pressure for the weekend and in to next week looks good.

Im off to Kerry again in a few weeks time. Will be very interested to see how it fishes. Due to tides we wont be fishing our best mark, but will be concentrating on lure fishing around the clock. I can look back at previous years catches and will have an idea against that how it is doing. Hoping the weather settles a bit as I myself feel that this has a large part to play.

Jesus lads...i dont know....out again tonight and not a sign of a Bass.
Ok...maybe i was in the wrong spot?
All i can say is where i was tonight you would expext to see mack breaking and sprat getting mopped up by gulls and terns......a big enough tide tonight.
Nothing...not a sign of life...the gulls were eating sand hoppers as the tide came up...very disheartening......

Hi Guys,
I should have got involved in this thread sooner but I've been busy. There are several points in this thread that I think need clarifying. The first is the issue of poor recruitment. In Ireland we have always had good and bad years for Bass recruitment because we are so far north. This however does not explain the fact that we are no longer catching the large numbers of smaller fish that we were a few years ago. These fish might be bigger and slightly less plentiful but should be still in evidence. Bass can live up to 28 years so the good catches we had only a few years ago should not be stopping so abruptly. Something else may have happened to them. Dr. Ed Fahy has done the most recent scientific work on Bass and his view is that the Irish stock was much more limited that some would suggest. This could mean that angling mortality coupled with illegal inshore netting could have had a major effect.

The second point is something that all Irish Bass anglers need to be aware of. EU trawlers are not catching Irish Bass in the winter months. As part of research that I did for the Irish Bass policy group it appears that Bass are extremely rare in offshore waters in the Irish and Celtic sea. The figures I received from Mike Armstrong (CEFAS) for 2010 shows that all UK trawlers caught almost no Bass in these areas for the whole year!. French statistics show that their boats also caught very few Bass in these areas. The Marine Institute has 2 mordern research vessels and in 15 years of test netting they only caught 66 Bass in Irish offshore waters out of a total of millions of other fish that were sampled. In fact off the west coast they did not catch even one.How is it then possible that Irish vessels could be catching Bass in large quantities even though in theory they have no purpose in targeting them and yet the boats from the UK and other countries that have every incentive to target and land them can catch virtually none?

The Irish commercial fishing industry realised that they have no hope of getting access to our inshore Bass stocks at the moment given that the scientific advice states that the stock is still 96% depleted. It makes much more sense for them to try and undermine the law by suggesting that EU boats are catching them in large quantities just outside our 12 mile limit while they are forced to throw them away. If it were true even I would have some sympathy for them but all the evidence shows that this is not happening. If the Irish Bass laws were changed in any way then enforcement (yes I know it is very limited) would become impossible and what would be left of the legislation would collapse. The commercial sector know this only too well.

The last point I would like to make is the understandable suggestion that Irish Bass move offshore to spawn. The limited science that we have simply does not back this up. The work done by Kennedy and Fitzmaurice found Bass eggs that only been shed a few hours previously very close inshore in several areas around Ireland from Dublin to Kerry. These eggs had most certainly not been laid any distance offshore. Irish Bass move south along the coast in the winter. It's just that in cold water they are unlikely to feed so we may not catch many of them.

Taking into account all the evidence available it appears that the Irish Bass stocks stick close to our shore and unlike other EU countries we do not have an offshore stock to back them up. This makes our stock very vulnerable and would explain why it collapsed so quickly in the 1950's and again in the 1980's with only limited commercial expliotation.

The most worrying thing about all this is that the Marine Institute is aware of all these facts (one of their own scientists was on the Bass policy group also) and yet are currently quite happy to back commercial fishermen in their attempt to change the law. This unfortunately has nothing to do with good science but all to do with the lobbying power and influence of the commercial sector!

I know for a fact that this is untrue

Which part SD?

Yes sd please elaborate,which part is untrue

Yes sd please elaborate,which part is untrue

+1

The bit he made bold, I suppose. Marine Institute/2 boats/15 years/66 bass/millions of other fish.

I too would be interested in hearing more from somedose.

All points made are referenceable. The Marine Institute stats came straight from a senior scientist from the MI and I have all the specific details on file, exact locations, time and date ect. Given that the MI had, in 2009, recomended a change to the Irish bass laws, they were more than a little embarassed by there own figures. Nobody there had checked them before!!

If there is something else that is untrue then I think it only fair to me to say what it is and of course be able to prove your case.
Regards...

Point well made John Q.... Lets see what happens

I was talking to well known angler who works in a big fishing gear/bait shop and he said the numbers of people fishing is multiplying in a big way. This has allot to do with the amount of people out of work who are looking to pass time. Unfortunately most new anglers will take all the fish they can get and unless they are corrected or unless they are taught to fish by keen anglers they won't really understand the damage they can potentially cause. Now I am not saying all new anglers cause this threat but its a fact that a huge amount do actually keep schoolies and other small fish. I was lucky to be taught by a keen angler from day one so I was able to appreciate the situation but if I was self taught I would most lightly be filling my bag everyday. I often hear the excuse from a new angler "but what about the boats taking all the fish" . As we all know bass keep many many years to grow and the stock keep forever to come back after they get thinned out so with all this new interest in fishing people think its great for the sport while in fact its not that great if the rules are not adhered to correctly. While this is not the whole reason for diminishing stocks it certainly is not helping the situation, I agree with Jim Hendrick "cause for concern indeed"

Well Jim, has the fishing improved now hat the weather has settled,?

I am more concerned now than I have been at any point.

There is a risk here in sounding like a doomsayer or even coming across as being negative - for me this is coupled to a business where I need to be fair to customers at the same time. I'm also trying to be optimistic for the future! It may be part of a wider environmental influence.

After the end of August we have seen a 'settling' in the weather which also corresponds with a sequence of magic tides and decreasing light levels - September bass fishing at potential best........

Whilst there are fish around it is in my opinion, based on experiences, that numbers are still considerably down for hours input. In September I would normally expect a lowering of numbers anyway as quality increases - comparisons on previous 10 years measured would indicate a difference of expected versus actual on the Wexford coast as running about 85% below normal for September. The trend continues.

Speaking to a lot of 'level headed' anglers along the coast they seem to be experiencing something similar with occassions of success.

A lot of interpretation of 'good bass fishing experiences' may be made on sliding scales or exagerrated.