Hi,
The best place to fish for bass, I don't really know, but I've caught a few here essentially on lures...
You can find lugs on malahide and portmanock beaches and along the estuary, I ve never found big rags there....
For sure a good part of these bites are crabs and big ones already caught maybe one thousand of them there, that's why I think I've had good smoothhounds session here... But for sure they are more than a plague, they can turn you crazy some times, you can caught them while floatfishing.... I don't know why there's so much crabs along this part of the coast....