Bass festival sessions, Wexford & Waterford, July 2012

People:Mise, Paul, Anthony agus Barry

Duration:Friday 20th July to Sunday 22nd July

Tide:Dropping & rising spring tides

Weather:It varied over the weekend

Bait:N/A

Rigs:Various soft plastics, surface lures & hard lures

Results:Nothing




Report:I don't want to bore people with all the details of each and every session so suffice to say that between four rods (for most of the weekend) fishing over various marks at various stages of the tides at various stages of the day using a variety of lures under sometimes difficult and sometimes good (seemingly) conditions we didn't connect with even one fish. There were some good sessions had by a few anglers where high numbers of fish were caught and there were also some big fish caught (the winning fish was 80cm). However there were a good few anglers that either blanked or only caught one fish over the whole weekend. My nightmare continues!

your not alone,iv been trying hard down around here with the last few weeks & its been very slack indeed,so its just not around east-cork that things are bad by the sounds of it....hopefully things pick up shortly

It was tough going alright - I blanked on Friday, managed to get one bass on Saturday and didn't bother fishing on Sunday. I might have done better if I had gone night time fishing or got up for dawn but after a long session on Saturday including a good dunking in the sea I wasn't so much in the mood for that.

It was hard work down there John.I hit few spots and not a thing.To be honest i tried loads of different lures and was suprised that i got 1 follow and that was it.Water seemed very calm too.But at least there were bass caught by some anglers and from what i hear the festival was a great success.

I have to say i was shocked to find 3 bass heads on a wexford beach.

Tough going John. Three of us headed down and fished hard all weekend and managed two in the end. One on friday lunchtime and the other 2am on sunday morning, I think they were 49cm and 39cm respectively. Seen plenty of fish moving alright, just had trouble connecting with them. Cracking festival though, planning another trip as we speak

I also heard from one or two people down at the festival that even anglers over in France have noticed a decline in bass catch rates lately so who knows what's going on?!

John D.

Keep the faith John it will happen for you

Funny thing John is that up to 3 years ago I done alright with bass on lures and the fly rod. But see this last 3 seasons I'm finding it very hard going indeed. Fishing the same marks that were kind to me on the rights tides for them spots. Dont think that I'm doing any worng as other peple are still catching when I'm there.

I hope you're right Sparkey+1!

That's interesting Tom H.

The fact that other people are still catching when you're their adds an extra element of complexity to the whole scenario.

In relation to those who are catching, what way are they fishing?

John D.

well i also have been struggling on the lure fishing was down there for thursday and friday and back down sunday i seen lots of english guys fishing with noting on thursday and on firday was talking to a guy who got and 8 pounder and a guy beside him got a 5 pounder so i got back down sunday went fishing monday and said i would give it a go lots of lads were leaving the mark due to weed so i put on a popper and stopped in the water i was at my pocket i think aand next thing bang heard a splash and my reel was screaming but i lost the fish got to see it once and it was a mighty size bass i was gutted but happy that a bass actually hit my lure but i can say that fight was unreal not what i expected

I would love to see the total hours put in and the number of anglers, with the total number of fish caught and work out the bass per angler ratio. It cant have been 1-1 I reckon. I know a few big fish were caught but with that many anglers spread out and over the 3 days you would expect the odd biggie to turn up. Who knows why it is so poor. Bound to be a number of factors. All of which have been mentioned a few times on the site over the past few months no doubt. The only fishing that seems to be doing half decent at all is the Salmon fishing. My own personal opinion is the vast amount of rain water and the overall water temp combined with lower salinity, cant be helping things.

its says here there was 250 fish caught have a read here some good info http://absolutefishingireland.blogspot.ie/

I hope you're right Sparkey+1!

That's interesting Tom H.

The fact that other people are still catching when you're their adds an extra element of complexity to the whole scenario.

In relation to those who are catching, what way are they fishing?

John D.

Same way as me so it seems! Could be any way from just banging out a kilty to top water lures and not forgetting bumping weedless SPs along the bottom. I just don't know what the difference is now to what i was doing say 4 years ago? Out of my trips to the Wexford/Waterford area total number of days I have put in is 2012 = 12 days (so far)= 0 bass. 2011= 15 days=1 bass 2010 = 14 days = 7 bass. 2009 13 days = 24 bass. 2008 12 days = 18 bass. 2007 12 days = 20 bass. And much the same bass numbers for the years before that. Must say its costing more and more each year to travel down that way for me. But still love the area and as long as there is a chance of a bass or two I just hope I can still get down.

I dont fish enough yearly to be able to give a good account of hours v fish. The only thing I have to go on is how Kerry fishes when we fish it maybe twice a year. This year was one of the best for numbers of fish. In one session before the rest of us got down, my brother in law described it as the best session he had in years. Every cast was either a bass, a fish on and lost or a rattle and bait stripped. We arrived the next night and it wasnt quite like that but still brilliant fishing. As the week went on and we neared the neap tides the numbers became fewer and fewer but we still didnt blank. But looking at reports on this site, and reports from other sources it seems that overall numbers are down. Maybe we got lucky on this trip. Having said that, the mark we fish has never blanked so maybe its the wrong mark to look at.

hi lads have not lure fished in a few years but hearing how slow things are this year.i think it could be one or two things could be the weather its been all over the place this year so far water prob not as warm as it should be at this time of the year.mackerel are scarce as prob are other bait fish.
or the worse problem with the down turn in the economy the netting of bass in the waterford area anyway has increased i heard of 4 nets been seen one of witch lads were removing bass from a net over the weekend of the competition this def cant help.

They're some useful statistics Tom H. You may be asked for them at some stage in the future so please make sure you keep a record of them going forward.

Tight lines,
John D.

Well Eoghan, maybe large numbers of fish have moved around the coast?
High angling pressure in Wexford/Waterford disturbing the fish perhaps?

I don't know. I'm just throwing ideas out there.

John D.

Thanks Barry. I sure hope it's not extra poachers on the water causing the decline in numbers because at least with the weather the fish are still in the sea but just not as responsive etc.

We'll all have to keep a very calm and open mind on this subject.

John D.

its says here there was 250 fish caught have a read here some good info http://absolutefishingireland.blogspot.ie/

Hiya lads id say there was alot more than 250 fish caught, a friend of mine who fished the festival landed 6 bass himself the biggest being 50cm, he didnt bother entering any of them because of the size and on hereing of bigger fish being caught, the fact that the weather wasn't perfect, and maybe the hype didnt help either some lads from accross the sea and some irish lads that hadn't fished the copper coast before were under the impression that you just had to turn up on the coast and land those big bass ye here everyone talking about, unfortunatly it doesnt always work that way.

You could be right Kibo37.

As a matter of fact the exact wording of the statement I believe is that there were '...250 fish caught and released...'. Therefore maybe there were a couple more that were caught and retained? But of course I get what you're saying that a few people caught fish but didn't even bother registering them.

Thanks,
John D.