West Cork Beach, 10/04/2008

People: me and petekd

Duration: 22.45 - 00.30

Tide: HW 21:30ish

Weather: occasional drizzle, mainly clear and cold, slight sw breeze

Bait: razorfish

Rigs: pennel pulley rigs

Results: me - bass (42cm), coalie : Pete - bass (43.....and a half :wink:)




Report: With one thing and another we ended up starting off late. I'd been intending to fish another mark, but given it was a bit of a hike and we were already late we opted for the old favourite.
We got down praying for a bit of surf and were pleasantly surprised to find a small rolling surf hitting the beach.

I was down to one rod and no traces, so with a lend of a pennel from Pete, I cast out over the surf, to about 60yds. Didn't have long to wait, as after a couple of minutes I got some bites on my rod, it went still, I resisted temptation, went to chat to Pete and it immediately started jumping again. Had to be a bass and it was. A skinny looking one of 42cm, but still double the size of the last one I caught :?

Not long after my bass had swum off, Pete's rod started knocking and he reeled in another bass, slightly bigger at 43.5cm, which contrived to be smaller by bending and refusing to lay flat on the stick.

We both had a few other bumps and bites over the next hour or so, but managed to miss them all. Everything seemed to be in the 50-80yd kind of distance, although to be honest we weren't fishing further, with there being plenty of action close in.

I got the coalie towards the end of the session, he actually slack lined me which was impressive for his size. It was pretty quiet for the latter half. Who knows what we would have turned up if we been there earlier?

No sign of the fox tonight, but we did see something unusual - a roll of bait elastic that had gone all the way to the end without being lost or decayed. Amazing!

Don't think I've ever seen a little bass look as angry as that one with gills flared to the point of seizure. Would have been nice to have been there an hour or two earlier but sure not to worry. Good old razor strikes again..... :lol:

was the razor the packaged stuff you buy or dug by yourself and frozen?

Stuff we gathered ourselves Oisin but had plenty of fish on the packet stuff too.

The main difference I've found (since Sunday - two trips experience only :) ) is that the stuff we gathered seems much softer and consequently harder to keep on the hook. Don't know if that's because it's not been frozen as long or the way I froze it or whatever compared to the packet stuff.
The packet stuff worked great last year for me and saved me a pile of digging for lug (cheers to Pete for saving my back :)). I was catching bass (and other bits and pieces) on it last year, whether it was straight from the freezer, refrozen two or three times, or even sitting in my bait bucket for a day or two.
Guess it wouldn't be a bait that works everywhere.....but it definitely works around here.

Would you use a full razor and just wrap it on to make a good big bait or do you have another method,,...have tried it on East coast but not much luck :(

great report boys and good to hear u got a couple of nice fish for your efforts. I have never had much luck with razor up this direction, I have used various cocktails with it but not much results. Hopefully over the next couple of months I will experiment a little more with the ole razor.

Yeah a full razor, or half it's a biggie (the packet ones tend to be smaller). I just wrap it on the hook with elastic into a bit of a sausage. If I'm using a smaller hook, I'll put a smaller amount on.
Pete was showing me yesterday with the soft razor, that wrapping it into a sausage with elastic before you rig it keeps it together when you wrap it onto the hook, which it did.
I tend not to cocktail it, but have done with lug, but it seems, here at least, that it doesn't seem to matter. Bit of surf helps I think.