B.A.S.S. X-mas Comp 14/12/08

People:12

Duration:2pm - 8pm

Tide:4.3m h/w 6.30ish

Weather:not too bad actually

Bait:mix

Rigs:various

Results:60 fish - 1 cod, 1 bass, a few decent flounder and a plague of whiting ( if i ever see another whiting i may have to kill someone = plague )




Report:12 brave souls turned up for this competition for guaranteed prizes and they were not disappointed - except for the 3 who blanked, who shall remain nameless - BUT THEY KNOW WHO THEY ARE.

Anyway.

Conditions were good - slightly overcast and a steady breeze made it an ideal day for not blanking. But as there is a shortage of cod and coalies around, i decided to try for some flounder and in my first cast had a nice bite that didnt result in anything. Next to me was Clinton and after an hour he decided to use my tactics which resulted in a flounder of 40cm for him. The fish must have decided to start moving because about half an hour later i pulled in a double, the biggest being 43cm.
And that was it for me.
i had bites for the rest of the day which resulted in 2 things - 1) no fish, they just wouldn't swallow (sigh ) or 2) undersized whiting - not even 20cm, and i know because i measured all 16 of them.
As it got dark rumours started circulating about what was caught, all i know is that i continued with my undersize whiting marathon while Clinton was picking up fish to size right next to me and on the other side of me my dad had started to pick up whiting to size as well as the things that were plaguing me. As the time slowly ticked away and i contemplated stapling two of those things together to make one fish that would count, fishing one either side of me had improved and rumours were flying around that the fishing was generally good, and finally at 8pm the competition/my own personal torture, mercifully, ended.
As it turned out my 2 flats did okay - i won a 5ltr keg of heiniken.
Others did better than me though.
Clinton won with 22 fish.
Someone else caught something significant, but dr. seafish can fill in those details

howdy tom, sounds like ye had a bit of craic anyways, bet the heineken is long gone , still havnt got around to defrosting last years prawns and fishing the carpets.....any cod showing

Only one cod - maybe 1.5lb.
Very poor cod and coalie wise this year.
The keg has to settle in the fridge for 2 days otherwise it'll just be froth, and i worked very hard for that keg so its staying in the fridge an extra day!!

wonder have the crab pots anything to do with it or maybe just an off year. I'm planning a few early morning sessions over the chrismas I'm sure the coalies will know when. Might see ya down there

I fished the main pier for about an hour and couldn't connect with any bites on 2/0 hooks until I changed to size 2 hooks.I managed about 10 whiting in a half hour, 4 of which were 30 to 33cm.I packed up as ye were weighing in.Not a sign of a cod or any coalfish either.

if i ever see another whiting i may have to kill someone = plague

At least you were catching something.
Well done to Clinton - I met him out digging lugs on Saturday - he was getting well stocked up on big black lugs - I guess that is one of the reasons he did so well.

ot a sign of a cod or any coalfish either.

Strange the lack of coalfish everywhere - this time last year I was catching lots of them - I was new to bait fishing at the time so I was delighted with that This year I started to catch a few as early as September and into October but then they just seemed to vanish

Fish baits were the most productive, he had a load of lug left over.

As for the shortage of cod and coalies - crab pots may be doing damage, but the fact that we had very little southerly wind this year - it was mostly east or west and in the last month mainly northerly could be more to blame, its not just youghal, its all over.

the fact that we had very little southerly wind this year - it was mostly east or west and in the last month mainly northerly could be more to blame, its not just youghal, its all over

That could the reason alright - it was probably in late November last year that I had my first ever night time beach session on one of the East Cork beaches, first cast I had a coalie. But I do remember there was a fairly strong southwesterly blowing - and lots of weed!!!

I think I have only caught two coalies over the last 6 weeks having fished a number of marks in East Cork and West Waterford.

Normally the southerly winds that bring the cod in start in October, but it didn't happen this year.

And with no cod or coalies, there are only whiting.

lots and lots of whiting.

small whiting.

Its the opposite up here in the areas of donegal that i fish. For the past two months loys of coalfish up two 40 cms are being caught . Strangely we are also catching a few pollock up to 4lbs along with them which we have not done in previous years. Also areas in which we would expect to be catching lots of small whiting are producing the best coalfish. The masses of whiting not having showed up yet this year. Last weekend we had a codling of a beach the first i have seen in the past 5 years. It was very small about 28 cm but presumably
were there is one there must be more.

I finally managed some time to upload those pics.

Don't knock the whiting too much because the beaches would be pretty dead without them at present. One thing I noticed was that my bait was been stripped clean (lug, razor, mackeral or crab) after about 5 mins. Plenty of bites but initally I was retrieving little unless using hooks smaller than size 1. THose fish I was getting were all small whiting although most between 20-25cm. I wanted a chance of better fish so I move hook sizes up to get more bait on and found that I had to strike each bite to hook the whiting. In the end I only ended up with 3 over 30cm but I had a lot of fish around the 28-29cm mark. Anyway good fun, some of my frozen bait never thawed so I will be out again soon.
The pics below are one of my better whiting and another anglers 2 specimen fish. Two specimens in a day you would have to be down this end of the country to achieve it.
The Bass was around 11.5lb and had a huge chunk taken from its tail. The flounder was over specimen size, Tom has the exact weights. I will try to get an age for the Bass in the next couple of days.

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I forgot all about these
The flounder was over 3lb.

Some slightly better pics. I didn't do the fish justice. YOu can see the chunk missing from the Bass's tail a bit better. Very nice flounder in great condition. One of those whiting.
Can't find my mini microscope to age the fish, but will do it at work tomorrow.

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I finally managed to age that Bass. An old female at ~19yrs old. Even though I had plenty of scales some were replacments and only 3 were readable. I only used a mini microscope and may have a chance to double check on a proper one at work in the New Year. It could be a little older or even 18yrs. However, I would bet on 19 yrs because 1989 was a great year class. Not many of those beauties left considering of all the nets ect they would have to avoid to survive. 1989 was one of the better year classes and would have accounted for many of the specimens caught over the last few years. The fish was actually a little light at 11.5ib considering its age. Its head was big in porporation to the body, making it likely that this fish had some lean times recently, which was also evident by very close age lines on the scales in the last couple of years. Also the big chunk missing on the tail would have inhibited its speed and taken more energy to propell itself. The chunk did look fairly recent though. Anyway a nice fish.

hi lads,
fished the comp on sunday my first ramble with the bass club only a member for the last 5 months great club!!!
went to the abbey for an hour and a half with my bubby graham,bit of a slack tide he landed a 29 cm flounder ,no good only fih over 300 cm counted,the tide turned and the water sfarted to drag or gear up river!!!.
as we decided to leave two more anglers from ballycottton turned up hope they got on well???
youghal strand the front beach was calling graham pulled in his first codind and a decent flounder plus toao doggies these didnt count.
futher up another angler not part of the comp landed a decent painted ray of a great size good too see a fish of that calabre being caught first time i had seen a fish like that up close.
after many and many of small whiting caught by myself time too check in at eight.
what a sight too be hold the bass fine size first time also i had seen great fish.
any way i walked away with a nice box of chochlate kimberly!!!!
looking forward to the next outing.

any time u have a rod in your hand is agood one!!!!

Fine bass and flounder there. Drseafish, what type of microscope were u using? Had a mind to get one for scale reading, be more use aging wrasse up this end though

HI Pete,

It depends on how good your eyesight is. If its ok you can get away with a good magnifying glass, however I have cheap plastic stage microcopes from a microbiology lab. If the scales are from an old Bass (over 10 years) it can be good to use a proper laboratory microscope, although I find that I rarly have to use one. Any scales that I have sent to the B.A.S.S in the UK have been spot on. THe best part of the info is that you will quickly see that most of the Bass your are getting (if your lucky) are from the same year classes. My problem is that I just don't get enough time to fish, although I am hoping to put that right over Christmas.
Regards

Kieran

Fine Bass and flounder there. Drseafish, what type of microscope were u using? Had a mind to get one for scale reading, be more use aging wrasse up this end though

Santa has one sitting under the christmas tree for me (complete with usb eye-piece so watch out for some interesting photos in the new year ) ,prob be using it for wrasse as well pete ,not many bass around these parts for me

Any pointers to make the scale reading easier Kieran ? also whats the best solution to store the scales in ?

Thanks for that Kieran, you havent been up Sligo direction these days at all?

Ronald, you'll have to give me the details come christmas day The usb eye piece sounds cool

Hi,

Actually the Bass scales keep pretty well dry. A saline solution will work well for long term storage but its not really necessary. Its easier to read the scales on a black background. You just need to remember to get 5-8 along or near the later line back from the head. Bass due to their preditory nature will lose scales and thus have lots of replacements.

Actually I will be up in Sligo for the new year to see the old folks and celebrate the big the "40". I doubt if I will be bring the rod as I fished last nite, will be fishing Christmas eve and a comp the day after St Stephans day, so I have to plan a few family nights and pub nights.