Anglers killing bass

When my father (and others) tell me stories of Bass blitzing on the surface in shoals in Wexford harbour more like a scene from Montauk, I can compare then to now. If I ever see that in the future then I know the species will have recovered – I’ve seen it once or twice in small numbers in more than thirty years of fishing.

Like you Jim I've seen it once or twice over the years, but last week I was lucky to witness a bass bust of gigantic proportions. In the particular bay I was fishing the bass were busting on the surface for about three hours. At one stage nearly the entire bay was boiling. I've never seen so much activity in my life. Its an encouraging sign.

Lack of concern generally, and apparant apathy from those who should be concerned is the reason that our marine environment is under such threat today. There is not one lobby group that I am aware of, apart from Irish Bass recently, making a concerted and visible effort to turn the tide. Until such a group materialises and links in with the wider public our marine environment will continue to decline.

I have never caught even one Sea Bass. Still would like to, so I will keep flogging away, might try fly fishing for them but need a Junky reel to do it.

As they grow so slowly I would say its inevitable that you will have either a tagging system
for Bass (like deer and Salmon) eventually or a complete ban.

As usual before Government closes the stable door; the Horse will be long gone.

We can blame Europe for what happens on boats but ourselves for what happens on beaches.

It is great to see the level of concern, how do we take action ?

Publish the Car reg numbers of offenders ?

Hi lads, good to see a lot of concern. I started shore fishing last year and to be honest could not wait to catch my first sea bass. This only happened last week and it was a good size, but i have no idea what weight as i dont have scales etc. It is probably a good job that it was this year and not last year that i caught my first bass as i have done a lot of reading and browsing for the last year and realised what a special species of fish that the sea bass really is. So i let it go, and i cannot type here what some of the things people have said to me because i released it. But as a lot of you more experienced anglers have said, absolutley nothing will be done about it until it is too late which is sad for new shore anglers like myself. Like a lot of things in the country at the minute, if the ones at the top cant profit from it, nobody cares. I hope something can be done, sooner rather than later.

Was in a well known SE Harbour last Saturday and witnessed a navy blue half decker angling boat return after a day out landing no less than 6 bass between 3 and 7 lbs approximately.

Dissappointed is the best way I could describe feeling - obviously well experienced anglers that should know better.

No wonder we're the laughing stock of Europe....

Jim,

Was in a well known SE coast harbour last Saturday and witnessed guys coming off a navy blue half decker angling boat about 17:00 with 6 bass between 3 and 7 lbs approx.

Dissappointed is the best way I can describe the way we felt watching them - As obviously experienced anglers on a well known boat they should be aware of the implications of this kind of behaviour.

Are you aware of who needs to be contacted in the vicinity to patrol these kind of takes ?

Thks

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errr, paddy: How many anglers are you talking about? There's nothing wrong or illegal with an angler keeping two Bass per 24 hours. So if there were 3 anglers on the boat they're within the legislation.

i caught 2 guys on sunday foul hooking bass and mullet i took photos of them and their car and said i was getting the garda they jumped in to their car and sped of up the road .the photo of the car and them in action and the mention of the garda works a treat .these people don't like the garda .may be we should have water keepers for each area who know the local garda and can be watching their local patch .like the coarse anglers have set up and it is starting to work for them.