West Waterford, 22nd & 23rd Apr

People: me and 3 others

Duration: 9 hours first day and 6 the second.

Tide: 5'ish. Fished incoming and outgoing.

Weather:Wet most of the time

Bait:Lugs, Razor and rag

Rigs: 1 up and 1 down

Results:bass, dogs, flounder, rockling, turbot, grey mullet


Report:
We were expecting a reasonably strong S or SE wind on Wednesday & Thursday but nothing of any consequence developed. After collecting bait from Cortaz he reckoned that the beaches might have little or no surf. So we decided to try an estuary. We started at 1400 but had to move because of too much weed. The wind meanwhile had increased and so we chanced moving to a beach. The surf was not great but enough to give a bit of encouragment. Cortaz appeared down around 1530 to see how the crew were getting on. As he passed Tom’s rod by it bounced followed by a slack line. A nice bass of 2 Kg was soon beached.

Meanwhile Cortaz said that he had something to do but would wet a line and catch a good bass after 1600. Ye right!! If you were a stranger meeting this man for the first time you might think he was a spoofer. When he says he will catch fish you can believe him.Well that is exactly what happened and he landed a 3 kg bass on a Shallow Feed lure. He just casts a spell over bass and they throw themselves onto the line. He never seems to fail!!

At 1730 we packed up and went home for dinner and a rest.

Back to the beach at 22.30 where the weather had disimproved terribly. The wind had only slightly increased but that rain that really gets in everywhere had arrived. First cast I had a nice bass of nearly 2 KG. Then I missed one. Tom then caught a bass of about 1kg. Nothing then happened until the tide turned around midnight. I had an unusual bite and thought it was a slack liner initially. However, it was a doggy. This was soon followed up by another bass. Bob caught 2 good flounders. Then Tom a miniscule turbot. Then Bob had a nice bass of about 1.75 Kg. Tom had a good Rockling and I followed up with another bass.

It was actually hard to depart at 2am but the rain and wind finally beat us.

We were back on the same beach the following morning but there was very little surf. 2 of the lads went home after a ouple of hours. Tom amd I moved to another location. Bass were actually shoaling and cahsing small fish up and down the beach….. maybe mullet fry. Unfortunately, I had no spinning gear. My rod gave a slight chuck and then it was like a fish was playing with the bait. To strike or not to strike?? I struck and a good fight ensued as I prepared to land “another bass”. The silver side could be seen on the way in and suddenly a grey mullet appeared on the beach. Not the fish that I wanted but a nice surprise. This is only that 3rd mullet that I have landed in over 40 years of fishing.

Thanks again to Cortaz for a bucketfull of nice black lugs and his advice on where to fish.

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well done lads , bet you were shocked to see the mullet

Good fishing - the mullet must have been a nice surprise.

good result overall stan, considering it was almost flat clam, a mate fished there from 8/10.30 ye arrived as he left, he had 2 an missed a few.

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Ye we were very happy. Think it was the bait..... big black lug!!

Can't wait to get back down and catch more bass.

Nice suprise with the mullet. Cortaz has a way with bass just walking past a rod and it gets a bass.

cracking session lads i'll bet if it was dry you'd still be there

same gully were i got the fish on wed. 3 casts got 2 lost 1 out and back home whitin the hour.

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is it just me art or has the larger bass a very flat snout

Will have my Shallow Feed with me next week. Going to get a specimen this year.

is it just me art or has the larger Bass a very flat snout

Looks like it,

Also missing a bit of its Anal fin and tail.

dn,t notice anything a miss with the fish, it was spent and battered lookin, and is still alive
Stan i got em on gowlies .

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Art, will have to get loads of tyres down in the near future to get a regular supply of bait

well done lads thats a nice mixed bag and a mullet bet that was a surprise

great reading lads. going to have to get down that part of the world soon. well done lads