Garretstown Strand, Co. Cork 15/06/05

People: Myself and the Missus
Time: From 8.30pm to 10.30pm
Tide: High tide at 12:30am approx
Weather:Dry and breezy, nice surf running.
Rigs: 2 hook rigs, 5 oz grips.
Baits: Razor sandeel and lugworm.

Results: My first ever Bass!! Came in at just under 4lbs.


Arrived at Garretstown more in hope than expectation as have never managed to connect with a Bass of any size before. First casts were from the right hand side near the rocks. It was like casting into soup, the amount of loose weed gathered on the line was phenomenal. We decided to move further up the beach and ended up fishing directly in front of the blue flag at the corner of the car park. fished one rod at 80/90 yards and the other at forty or fifty yards. Set rods up, left the missus to keep an eye on them and proceeded to wade out with the spinning rod and a Ron Thompson Bass buster surface popper. Weed was still a problem and after 20 minutes of this I gave up and returned to the rods. The missus was happily sat on her chair paying no attention to the fact that one of the lines now appeared to be running parallel to the beach and had crossed the other. We grabbed both rods and started to retrieve them, I could feel myself connected with something which I initially thought was another huge clump of weed, well until it set off hammering in towards me at a serious rate of knots that is! Cue several minutes of frantic winding, untangling and weed removal and all of a sudden there it was, my first Bass! A lovely fish, tipped the scales at just under the 4lb mark, an absolute beauty. Fish had taken the bottom hook on a two hook trace which had been baited with Razorfish. (first time using that bait) Only down side was that it was gut hooked so had to be despatched for the frying pan. I will post a picture up tomorrow. Over the moon to no longer be a "Bass Virgin"

good to see you lost your bass virginity. well done. bet you'l be trying razor again?!

We'll done mate. Be careful.... Bass are addictive and nothing wrong with taking the odd one for the pan.

Cheers lads, was most surprised at hooking it on something that resembled snotty squid and not on some of the lovely sandeels I had! Will be back for another crack at it next week, makes a serious change from the usual doggies and flounders I have picked up there.

By the way lads, best way to avoid grief from the other half I find is to bring her along, cast a rod out, tell her that its "hers" and make sure she has a chair and a book. Works a treat!