bass count

1995 may/july 631 bass + 0 bream best day 19/7. 101 bass
2005 april/july 153 bass + 23 bream best day 6/7 . 35 bass + 12 br.
2006 april/july 375 bass + 29 bream best day 25/7. 45 bass
2007 april/july 163 bass + 4 bream best day 10/5. 20 bass.+ 5 br.

Weather playing havoc this year Arthur or are there other reasons for the decline on last year? Curious as the constant southerly winds down this neck of the woods have rendered a lot of the beaches I would usually hit, choked with weed for the majority of the summer. They seem to be clearing a little now though.

pete,
a lot of the best times/tides have been spoiled by bad weather.
then when conditions were good i opted to try new marks, lures and methods.
they say that tis an ill wind that blows no good......................................
the other nite fished i found 10/12 big bass at a mark, its less than 1 mile from the square in dungarvan and less than 2 from were i live. would not have found it if the weather had been good.
was forced to fish a small shallow cove again due to bad weather tryed lots of different lures for 3 hours nothing, put on a deep diving plug and wound it hard till it was digging into the sand along the bottom in first few casts got 2 bass 3+5lb. have used this method? with promising results and would like to give it a go at other sandy marks which i cant go to becaues of the wea... :x its the oppetice of a popper, bump,bump,bump along the bottom instead pop,pop,pop along the top :idea: .......i think this has the potental to be a good method........needs more input.....
i think the southerlys have pushed a lot more sprats ashore and created an abundance of food, easy pickings no need to go chasing lures. theres been huge numbers of fry washed ashore all summer..

Seen vast quantities of fry all over the place alright, from Galway to Kerry to Cork, it was that thick, last week I was spinning for a while on a local beach and every cast was pulling in foul hooked sprat about 2 inches long. Why would they chase something when they are that well fed is right. Interesting about using the diving plugs along the bottom in shallow water. Must give that a try soon. Cheers Art.

its the oppetice of a popper, bump,bump,bump along the bottom instead pop,pop,pop along the top :idea: .......i think this has the potental to be a good method........needs more input.....

Interesting that. I've noticed that when I'm sea-trout fishing in the eastuary with a German Spratt that I get a lot more follows and takes when I bump it along the bottom enough to raise small puffs of sand.

Nice one Art, that seems to make perfect sense, it would look like a sandeel trying to bury itself in the sand?