Specimen Bass, East Cork - 9th March

The 525 got a bit of TLC alright as soon as the excitement wore off! A good soak in the sink, cleaned the spool of grit etc and she's good as ever - a great reel that I inherited from a great fishing friend who died in Australia a few years ago so lots of sentiment with the reel. 30lb line straight through did the job!

That was a great story and your not the first one to pull a specimen out of there,some years ago i used to fish there when i fished with Great Island SAC and a friend of mine in midleton done the same but didnt run into the same problems as you the conditions were alot calmer,anyway welldone to you and your young fella on a great story and putting the time into the report.

John Ainsworth
Galway

Well done on a smashing fish and reward for perseverance. Great story to go along with a specimen fish too

great fishing mate

I still have a couple of old TDPKs rarely used nowadays.

well done on the bass

My 5 year old and I arrived to the slipway in Ballinwilling for an houur or two's ray fishing towards the top of the tide last Saturday, armed with some re-frozen crab, my old TDPK rod, 525 mag and my son had a small spinning rod with a rolling lead on, thoughts of a flattie or so close in. We fished off the slipway out of the back of the car (handy to keep little people warm and/or entertained...). I was lamenting forgetting bait elastic and was playing with my son only to turn around (3rd cast in) to see my rod after falling out, down on the rocks under the fence, being pulled out to sea by something.... Thankfully i couldnt find my wellies that morning and brought the chesties - down I went but the rod was too far out to reach and the waves were high and I was getting soaked... pegged it back up to the fence, stole my sons rod, tied a 5ounce gripper to the line (10lb strain!) and aimed for the beachcaster, now separated into its two sections and about 30yds out. 3rd cast i hit it (amazingly) and started to pull in - the line 10lb line and spinning rod worked hard, fighting 2 large leads, a Daiwa beachcaster and a penn 525 - plus some unknown fish on the other end!

About 15 mins later i managed to get the 2 parts of the beachcaster in and miraculously the fish was still hooked and fighting hard - I managed to get him into the boulders, thinking it was a decent ray or something as we'd ahd no other bits on the earlier casts... I was well and truly soaked, head to toe now, inside the cesties an' all...
up came the fish - my PB Bass, and first specimen, weighing it at 11lb and measuring 70cm nose to tail. Was badly hooked unfortunately after all the drama so it came home with me - id much preferred to have released such an old fish. Cracking day - havent fished that slipway for 15 years and had planned on fishing the stream above it, but felt lazy. Good thing too!
John




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Super Fish! Congratulations

Best short story i've read in ages. You're luck was certainly in that day. Hell of a fish. Well done.

one of the extream report and good looking fish too.well done boys.

whopper of a bass lad,nice one,nice to see the big bass biting again after all the shite conditions lately,absolutley excellent story too man,i was sucked in after the first sentence,definatly a day to remember for you and the small fella,congratulations on the pb and the arduous quick thinking to rescue both your rod and the fish...the best story i've read this year yet...
lovely stuff.
ps,if you ever forget your bait elastic again,just look down at your feet!
if your wearing cotton socks you can pull a few strands out and use that...saved the day for me a few times!

fantastic fish & well done & surely one to remember

great idea on the socks - thanks lads!