by Don » Tue Sep 07, 2004 9:03 am
If you had written this last week the young lad and I would have agreed with you on the east coast but last Saturday he and I caught our first bass ever, followed by two more within an hour.
I used a flyer rig with a ragworm on it to slide down the young lads line and enter the surf very close to the beach after he had cast his regular ledger rig.
I was setting up a second rod when the tripod keeled over. Thinking I had not stuck it down far enough into the sand I asked Sean to pick it up and when he did the rod was going hell for leather and we landed a nice bass about 4/5lb.
We had been catching nothing worth talking about prior to this and Donagh (fair play to ye Donagh) posted a topic on the forum on flyer rigs which I subsequently tried and it worked a dream.
Sunday morning I attempted the same thing again but the ragworm were not very lively to say the least and there wasn't as much of a surf.
I did however keep one bass 22inches long, didn't have a scales to weigh him and when I checked his stomach he had a load of crabs in there the size of a euro coin.
All of the crabs I have used to date are much bigger than this and I am wondering if we are using baits which may be too big.
Anyone know where one can buy crabs this size? I reckon if I'd have been using crab I would have caught a lot more fish.
The flyer rig is the way to go. The beach I was fishing was quite a steep beach and previosuly I would have been casting to the third breaker for bass but all of the takes we got were on the last breaker right in close to the beach.
I think the next time I will fish a lighter rig close in with a small crab on a float or use a freelined sandell on a bubble float.
Keep the faith lads, the fish are there. Its amazing how much you grow in confidence once you hit something decent.
Tight Lines,
Donal.
Gone Fishin, there's a sign upon the door............