People:Bootsy, Dave (From Wexford), John & Martin
Report:
Due to the lack of fishing & poor results when I do get out I’m harking back to the glory days of September and our annual week in Kerry.
We’ve already document a Ray & Rock session (
viewtopic.php?f=3&t=41034) & (
viewtopic.php?f=3&t=41078) but there were so many others with quality fish, I wanted to fire my own enthusiasm as much as anything.
I’d done a fair bit of research before heading down, coupled with a log book of marks & session over the last few years, we wanted to fish tried and trusted marks as well as have a look at a few new ones. First session was on the rocks under the lighthouse in Dingle. Dave or Fintan hadn’t done a whole lot of rock fishing previous so I showed them the craic with the float and SP set ups, and it wasn’t long before we started winkling out ballans, Pollock & Goldsinny’s straight down the rockface, and a flick over a big rocky reef saw us continually buried without ever seeing the culprit!
Fintan (who’d won his first competition the night before in Wexford after 6 years of trying) & myself had drove pretty much straight from Wexford to Dublin after the comp, dug enough rag to last us for the week and grabbed 2 hours sleep before hitting the road. So we were like zombies during this afternoon session. But when your luck is in, it’s in – Fintan using float fished rag got a good bang and the two of us looked at the float started shooting left at silly speed and then turning and shooting back right and this continued for a couple of minutes. Usually when you hook a good wrasse the float just disappears so we were all a bit shocked to see a bass on the float set up having grabbed the rag in 30 feet of water! Small it was, but on very light tackle and with the Bass Hoodoo off our back we were all delighted.
Several cups of coffee & cans of Red bull later, we arrived at LW to fish an small estuary mark we identified on the Ordinance survey map. It was now dark so we flicked out crab baits into the estuary & waited, something didn’t feel right and I walked into the estuary and stood on my trace in ankle deep water (better fished at high water!!). We went to Trabeg Beach nearby and conditions were perfect with a few nice rollers coming in. As usual this mark disappointed us a little, we had a few flounder, small turbot, Fintan & Dave (PB) had a reasonable bass each but that was that for day one and I really needed a kip!
Day 2 For high tide on day 2, we again headed to the lighthouse for some sport over high water. Fishing was consistent with ballans but not as solid as the first day. This area gets fairly heavily pressured due to ease of access so no doubt this will have an effect on putting fish down occasionally. It was a grand easy session to relax after a hectic few days.
We adjourned back to the house before our evening beach session and I cooked a decent Pollock we had caught & filleted the previous day. Deep fried in tempura, it was really good and a 4 lb fish easily fed 3 of us. It’s a little blander than cod but when you batter, sprinkle in lemon juice & cover in tartare sauce even an old shoe would be tasty!
That night, we met the legend that is John Sheehan of Kerry Sea Baits (
www.facebook.com/kerryseabaits). He said he’d bring us bass fishing and we were only too happy to follow his lead. Turn of the tide John told us was the vital time and the fish should switch on, and like clockwork as soon as the flood began the flounder disappeared and the bass began to hit the lug baits with abandon. Not pulling rods off tripods but 95% slackliners, we had a 2 hour window where we would catch a bass most casts. At times you couldn’t bait up a spare rig without the other going slack signalling another hooked spikey charging toward you. It was terrific. We were just about to leave as the tide raced up the beach when John had shouted to us he had a good fish on, we all ran over to help him in the surf when he managed to play a treble shot of bass 7.5lb 4lb & 3lb to the beach. Truly remarkable fishing, John smiling ear to ear and Dave, Bootsy & Myself shaking our heads at the quality of fishing we had just experienced. I got back to my rod – another slack liner, another 3lb bass. The incoming tide had now flooded up past my tripod so I released the bass where I was and as I waded back out of the surf to collect it half a dozen sizeable bass spooked in my headlight under my tripod in 9 inches of water eating the bits of old lug.....madness. Then understatement of the week from John “told ye there’d be a few bass there”
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Last edited by alby on Tue Nov 27, 2012 8:58 pm, edited 1 time in total.