Bass on the East Coast in 2008

I'm interested in how people are finding the 2008 Bass fishing on the East coast. Personally, I feel the fishing is very poor.

All of my fishing is with lures at the moment and the conditions since June for lures on the east coast have been patchy at best (coloured water, wind).

The local bass anglers I fish with all feel that the bass fishing in North Wexford is worse than last year, which was also poor.

Vote on the little poll above and post any general comments below.

Cheers.

All of my fishing is with lures ,there are only 2 or 3 places that I use around the Dublin/North Wicklow region and each venue has produced Bass at some stage.So far it's been better than last year and my numbers are up and these venues normally hit a high around September and October, so its looking good. I have noticed that there are not as many Mackerel around as last year though.

Out of curiosity, what would be considered good? bad?

the easterlies have suited my fishing, my numbers are up from this time last year

Out of curiosity, what would be considered good? bad?

5 sessions with the lures and 5 blannks over the last 3 weeks at two of my so called "best" venues. Similar results for other local anglers fishing the same marks.

It's so bad that I'm travelling to the south coast for most of my lure fishing at the moment.

Sounds to me like your best venues have either been netted or overfished. Have seen the latter happen to good marks in Cork, which have taken years to recover. Can easily happen...if the venue is heavily fished and one is taken for the pot by every few anglers then, given the territorial nature of the fish, local populations can be severely dented.

I have my own suspicions.

The area is not netted commercially. There is some very small-scale netting but primarily for the netter's table, when it happens at all. There's no large population of plate-size bass here. Most of the fish seem to be in the 50-55cm range (around the 4lb mark).

I think a more likely cause is the intensive seed-mussel dredging that has taken place in-shore over the last few years. It's only a suspicion though.

Obviously the two bad summers running will also effect lure fishing ...

I'm by no means an expert, but surely it would be reasonable to expect fish to emigrate (for want of a better expression), like humans do. Humans will shift from one country to another, and then from one county to another...all in search of a better job, cheaper housing, better lifestyle etc.

Would it not be reasonable to expect fish to do the same, after all the marine environmet is ever changing just as our own environment is.

I only started sea angling in March of this year, so would not be best placed to comment on the question "is Bass fishing worse/better this year", but having caught my first Bass(a double shot!!!) a month ago, and seen plenty of my fishing partners catching Bass at Bassy type venues, then my feelings would be that they are around Dublin/Wicklow in reasonable enough numbers.

Just my humble opinion for what its worth

Its getting ridicules at this stage to be honest.
Marks that should be producing in great quantity are resulting in blanks ...unheard of I tell you !!
And the word on the street is that everyone is experiencing this lull.

For example hit a mark last night for 4 hours, top quality baits varying distances ......not even a bite, seriously not funny!

The fishing has gone down hill since May for all species IME.

Is there a light at the end of the Tunnel?

Its not the east coast I know but as an aside, I've seen plenty of bass this year on the south coast. Cant even go flat scratching in peace without them poking their nose in.... :D I will say this though, there seems to be an awful lot more of the smaller fellas around. Usual beach I fish this year, I've only had 3 or 4 out of maybe 30 odd at this mark that have been over 4/5lbs with my biggest this year at 6lb odd. Cant say theres been a shortage of them though with the majority of beach sessions seeing them come in either as a bycatch or specifically targetted.