At long last....

At last I've caught on a lure on my home patch. What an effort put in...I'm months at it !

I took a few hours off work and headed out in my auld boat 'Red Gill' to try a catch a few before the bass ban kicked in. I decided to use some soft plastics and was rewarded . Over a two hour session I managed 3 fish . The best of these was this fine plump fish measuring 61cm. I can now retire for the month a happy man. Roll on June 16th!!!!

Well done Pat a well fed looking bass, looks like you are having better luck down your neck of the woods than we are....

Well done Pat a well fed looking Bass, looks like you are having better luck down your neck of the woods than we are....

Its been hard work. Normally you'd have a few on lures by now. This year and last year have been hard going. I suppose its down to the cold water temps .

thats 1 plump healty fish pat,,same here dou had a few in jan/feb then nothing on lures until the other evenin, first cast wit the s. feed, , i got 6 schoolies and missed same today on rubber, my mate fished bait in the same l.w. lagoon and had 5 from 3/6lb. on the same tides 2 years back we had near 50 for same efford at same spot under simlar conditions, we prob encountered 200+ today less than 20 think(hope) its to do wit the weather, weed growth is about 3/4 weeks behind and mullet are still searc, theres a few g.g.m. about but still not what they shoud be, then theres plenty mackrel about and its got to be warm for them , the first set of spring tides after the season reopens will tell a lot.

Very nice results for your labours there Pat, were you right in the shallows or were they out deeper?

Thats a fairly depressing analysis Art, sounds like there's a Fish Recession on too.... and thats down south, you can imagine how much worse it is up here in The Tundra. There's only ever a few bass up here at the best of times, I might have to forget it altogether until late summer.

Lovely fish Pat, well done.

There is a distinct lack of fish around at the moment.

Nice one Pat, that's a super fish and well deserved too.

There is a distinct lack of fish around at the moment.

Tell me about it Danny, well on lures at least. I'm starting to forget what they look like and now I'm going to have to wait another month to find out.

.... were you right in the shallows or were they out deeper?

I was within 50 yds of the shore. This is the first sign of bass within Cork Harbour this year and God knows we did try. The mullet arrived in towards the end of March and we expected the bass to follow them shortly after; but it wasn't to be .

There is a distinct lack of fish around at the moment.

I reckon its to do with water temps. Last year was poor before the ban aswell. I didn't have my first fish until mid-March. This year it was mid-April. Normal years you'd catch every month of the year.

Well done Pat, that's a nice plump fish.
Its been tough going alright, my pre-ban total for this year is 16 compared to 37 last year; of the 16, 3 were from Kerry, and only 3 from East Cork, the remaining 10 were from West Waterford. All taken on bait, nothing on lures despite a fair bit of effort in East Cork, West Cork and Kerry.

Yep, Frank, it sure has been tough. Water temp is the key factor me reckons, although, JimH makes an interesting case for wind direction viewtopic.php?f=28&p=219174#p219174

I just read Jim's comments. Probably a combination of both factors - so far this year there have been so few days of southerly/southwesterly winds that you could count them on the finger of one hand - but anytime there was a southwesterly blowing and I got out fishing I managed to get at least one bass off the beaches.

In the calm weather when the northerly breezes flattened out the surf I did try some bait fishing with crab into gulleys between rocks and a bit of estuarine fishing but only got one 45 cm bass (Cork Harbour - a mark you know well ). I reckon the water was just too cold for them to come close to shore in any numbers.

I am sure you remember November 2008, the frosty nights with calm conditions and light northerly winds, when there were plenty of bass to be had off the East Cork beaches - the wind didn't put them off then, but the water would have been considerably warmer.

Water temperatures in November are similar to those of May - its the particular constant frequency of the N/NE/ and E direction thats playing havoc here. It always does.

What is the water temp on south coast at the moment?

What is the water temp on south coast at the moment?

Two weeks ago the surface temp,on the sounder, never went above 10c.
Last sunday I had readings on average of 12c in both the harbour and 8 miles off shore shore.