Mulranny, Co Mayo 29th October 2007

People: Three French baskets (read on)

Duration: 4 hours, 5-9 pm

Tide: coming, near full?

Weather: not great by all accounts, unpleasant, odd nasty squall

Bait: nil

Rigs: flying Cs, dexter wedges, german sprats and assortment of illex plus (expensive but stunning looking, a christmas list job)

Results: 1 sea trout, half a dozen macks, and a few small pollack but one to around 3 kilos.. and...

Catch and Release:: Yes, everything

Report: Baskets. These lads are coming here almost every year predominantly for the pike fishing and someone asked me to guide them a few years back for some pollack fishing on fly rods. Serious anglers, they even bring their own boats with them to better explore the big lakes.

Anyhow, they were hassling me for information on sea trout (doh! - this is Mayo, there everything for heavens sake) and bass (doh! - this is Mayo, they are extinct here) for a laugh I told them to try the rocks below the golf course at Mulranny around high water into darkness for the mythical Mayo bass and the odd sea trout. Both are routinely reported and I did have a sea trout there. Once. To be fair these are seriously talented anglers and very conservation minded, so I don't mind giving them good marks. In fact I had recommended a new mark out towards Geesala but its was a bit far and it is very exposed and they wanted a few pints later...

Well the boys took the kitchen sink with them, got into their neoprene waders, camoflague jackets (at sea :roll: ) and starting to spin and plug.

A few macks later one of them lands a nice pollack, around a kilo. This is followed by another and another and another and soon all three are busy with a shoal of pollack, with one big dark fish touching three kilos. Great fish from the shore, especially off a beach to be sure. Weather had improved and was getting calmer. Waves reducing. Anyone, one of them slogs across to the section between the golf course and the "island", fishing into very shallow water and hits a nice sea trout on a small silver plug. I've walked this myself and its ridiculously shallow and featureless bar a long collection of low stones in amongst the sand. Very barren of sea life in the sand or the rock pools, probably scoured by big tides...

Another try and he's hollering and "leaping back towards us like a small herd of elephants" (sounds good in a French accent) holding a $£&%*!"£$ bass. Basket. His first. Ever. Not huge, 2 kilos or so, but "very fat".

Never year I will get them to fish the deep pool at the end of Bertra Strand... but on second thoughts I better not as they would probably pull out a succession of monkfish and skate! :wink:

picture to follow apparently, just to turn the knife as the French put it...

:wink:

so it is true.. bass do exist in mayo.. or did it have a map with it :wink:

That Bass was definitely lost! Did it take the small silver plug?

I want to see that picture!

Hey kieran,

Nice report, its good to see the unthinkable sometimes happens. Bass and sea trout on the same day, I'm sure that man will be back again next year. What distance where the guys catching the pollack at? would it be possible to reach them with a fly rod or where they smashing heavy lures half way to croagh Patrick?

Looking forward to seeing the pictures

Denis

Stranger than that, Kieran. Was talking to one of the lads in Westport yesterday who took a 7 lber from another Mayo beach in the last few days, he is one of the few people I would believe, too. Two Bass in Mayo in two weeks -who'd have thunk it??!! Send me a P.M. if you want the location.