Co Dublin Lure Session 23/06/09

People: Myself lure fishing, m.b.3 bait fishing

Duration: 6ish-11ish

Tide: flood

Weather: flat calm, sunny

Bait: rag, lug, crab for mark - poppers, sammy's, crystal minnows for me

Rigs:

Results: nothing




Report:

My first time lure fishing for bass, so this was always gonna be a case of just learning a bit for future trips. One or 2 lessons certainly learnt.

Fished the crystal minnows at first over kelp beds, found the lure to be diving a little too deep at first, even with a very steady retieve, it was diving upto 2 feet or so, and consequently snagging on the kelp a good bit, I was advsied by m.b.3 that it was probably too bright/early for the pooper and best save them till dusk. Got a hit within the first 30 mins, a good fish that spat the hook on the surface almost as quick as he was hooked. A few fish swirling in the swim but no further hook ups. As the tide filled, the action in the water petered out, the fish obviously moving on.

I tried the sammy's and poppers as the light dropped, and walked the coast a bit further inland following the rising tide for a few chucks, again a couple of fish swirling in front of me, even managed to cast a popper beyond a fish and bring it right past his nose without inducing a take.

I was using 6lb braid left over from our recent shad trip to st. mullins thinking it would be great to get a bass on such light gear, having suffered a few wind knots I quickly realised why lure anglers use heavier line. It's been ordered now, so I'll not be making that mistake again.

A question, are there any shallow divers that will dive just within the top foot of water, as this mark really looked fishy right at low water, and the amount of water above the kelp made it difficult with the crystal minnows I was using. Even with a very slow retieve these were diving 2 feet deep.

m.b.3 didnt have any luck at all bait fishing, stripped baits from the crabs, I think he'll be bringing the big stick next time and going for distance casting.

Gonna try again on thursday, so any tips on the lure fishing front before then would be very welcome.

Thanks lads.

Try a bubble float to about 8 feet of fluoro, a size 2 and a small Storm sandeel. Retrieve slowly through and over the rough stuff.

Thanks for the tip pete, I'll give that a go.

So thats some bubble floats and storm sandeels added to the ever growing shopping list

Forgot to mention I also tried a german sprat and dexters wedge for all the good it did me

You can try jointed storm thunderstick or tackel house feed shallow.

Hey, hard luck on the blank but as you said you will be ready for the next session try using a maria chase bw holo silver, they dont dive deep and they have a nice action. There on veals better luck on your next session, Cheers, Ian

Thanks for the tips lads, think I may try a few artificial sandeel type lures with a single hook out the top, this should help with the snagging problem.

the other thing you could do is embed the hook even more in the artificial sandeel/shad/worm lure so the bite produces the point of the hook - and it would still in theory bounce off the weed/rock

Yeh I'd read that somewhere Brian

unlucky mate