Beach Lure Fishing for Bass in East Cork

40 pm

Hi, I've Recently got back into fishing my local rock marks with no success.
After reading alot of blogs and watching alot of YouTube videos of lure fishing beaches over lockdown I'm very keen to give it a go. My setup is 8ft 7-28g lure rod, 3000 spinning reel with 12lb braid and 15lb fluro leader. Iv just got a delivery of a few lures suck as Fiish Black Minnow 10g, savage gear seeker 28g and savage gear sandeel. Is this setup okay to start with??

I'm plan on hitting Ballycroneen/ballybranigan and inch over the next 2 weeks

Any general help or information would be greatly appreciated.

Tight Lines.

Your setup sounds perfect and those lures sound good.
I'm not one to recommend you go spend fortunes on lures but I think you should add a shallow diving hard lure into the mix, like a Feed Shallow.
Ballybranigan is really rocky and weedy and you will lose any kind of sinking lure in no time

Thanks for reply, I have a few shallow diving plugs alright. Will give them a go. would i be right in saying that 90mins either side of high water would be most productive? Forgot to mention in my original post that all my fishing is C&R.

You setup is grand. I would be more inclined to get some 20lb braid (8 strand is usually the lowest diameter). The finest you can get at 20lb or 9kg or thereabouts.
You'll appreciate the pulling power when some of the more expensive lures in your collection gets stuck! You'll not suffer any loss in terms of casting distance.

As regards timing, you'll stand a chance on any stage of tide but some areas will do better than others at certain stages. You'll get to know where and when as you fish. The mythical 90 mins either side does hold true for many places and is a good place to start. Don't ignore the surf beaches either and of course dawn, dusk and darkness.

The areas you are talking about have been suffering from water clarity issues this last while, both from a bloom and also from rotting weed on the shoreline getting into the water. The current northerlies might sort it a bit. Just to make you aware of it.

Some good info from Jim above. I would recommend that you make sure your leader connection to the braid is really good. If you have a really strong connection it's surprising how little gear you lose, you can often bend out a hook before you lose a lure or even worse the entire leader.

Regarding marks, they all fish at different stages of the tide, you will just have to put in the time to find out what works. I have fished a lot for bass but not caught many so I don't have it nailed down myself yet.

Hi Mousey1991 My advice on all those lures is to get rid of the trebles and put on a Circle hook with 2/3 split rings I find there is no difference in catch rate and better hook ups aswell as safer for the fish ?

Thanks for reply lads. I am thinking of getting stronger braid alright Jim . short-circuit I am using a uni to uni not for connecting fluro leader due to its simplicity and strength . Mixer I will will change trebles for single where possible. I have noticed a lot of new lure models now come with assist hooks rather then trebles. Thanks again for helpful information lads.

Hi Mousey1991 My advice on all those lures is to get rid of the trebles and put on a Circle hook with 2/3 split rings I find there is no difference in catch rate and better hook ups aswell as safer for the fish ?

Alternatively you can replace trebles with double hooks. Due to the way they stand when the lure is moving the tendency is to go over obstacles and so lower chance of losing expensive gear. Also...easy to install since no split ring is required.

Ref leader to mainline knot you can also try FG knot (pleanty of youtube "how to" vids for this). Takes a while to learn it but it's freaking amazing. And if you can use 20lb braided mainline + 15lb or so fluoro leader (has to be lower resistance for the leader) it will almost always break at the swivel knot and not braid to leader knot...so you don't have to redo it everytime you get stuck in rough ground.


Also, if you're using plastics over rough terrain, try using offset hooks...you'll lose less gear.

Hope this helps.

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