Bass on surface lure

South coast bass today on surface lures - http://www.probasslure.com/2009/04/on-home-ground.html

bendy rods

Beautiful fish!
I thought the surface lures would not work till later in the year!!
I have no luck with poppers......

Nice going....

The fish was caught very far south. It was caught by an angler whom has been putting in a serious amount of work in his local area. I do feel that as water temperatures rise from a south to north direction so too do the bass and mullet follow. In many particular ‘exceptional’ localised areas, water temps (and/or a prevalence of food like small sea trout and smolts) may be higher than the deeper ‘shoreline’ water hence bass may well hunt higher in the tables in shallower warmer water seams and some anglers can enjoy catching them while others cant.

There is no doubt than many early fish are falling to crabs at the moment, but expectations are pitched unrealistically high from a lure and fly point of view, it’s still very early in the season. We are experiencing very settled dry weather which is very helpful for bass fishing but no angler should feel that he’s doing something wrong if he’s not catching fish at this time.

For what its worth - my own expectations for Wexford are normally based around the F1 season with a ‘challenging’ patch both at the beginning and at the end. Dunner don’t give up on surface lure fishing!

Would second Jim on this.

If I put in the same time at the moment with surface lures r plugs instead of bait I think I would get a fish. But for me, its wait another while and then have a go, especially with the fly. Remember, Jim is a "professional" bass guide so he knows his stuff.

sk

I was out with the fly rod on friday..it was challenging to say the least, but where i was anyway, there was not a sign of life.
I moved over to fountainstown then for a look and hundreds of mullet there...
Ya...i know its early..im the same every year daw..cant help myself..like a kid on christmas morning...
looking back over the years i usually dont catch on lure till end of april start of may..
but its just getting out with the rods after a long winter...you got ta love it...
and if the sun is shining its a bonus!!!
Also its a good way to test your summer gear too . . . i discovered a hole in my waders...
And i like to look at different/new areas for a bit of recon for later in the year...
Hope i came up with enough excuses for not catching a thing!!!

Howya lads read this thread last night and said Id give the surface lure a go today fished a shallow diver first at a new rock mark found the other day, found a spot shallow rocky bassy
Switched over to a lucky craft surface lure didnt meet anything but came close, on the second cast with it it was followed and there was 2 boils around it had about another 40 cast there but no good.

beautiful fish. wanna get a decent lure rod about€150 ish
any suggestions

I have broken 3 rods in the last 18 months.
I wont spend that kind of money anymore...at the moment i have an 11ft fladen IM6 graphite cross weave rod from uk about 50quid sterling... seems ok but must get a really good fish on it to test it out..have had a few small ones last year.

Fished a surface lure around the Dingle area from march 28th, 3 short sessions over 3days. Caught 4 bass from 2.5lb to 6lb with a fair few swirls and follows. Fished the same week in the same spot last year which resulted in 36 bass up to about 5lb over 5 days. One session I had 11. about 5 on a fly. On this day the bass were mixed in with a huge shoal of mullet which streched about 100yds along the beach so many mullet that while spinning I foul hooked 2 . Great fight !

nice fishing that jc