Specimen Bass, East Cork - 9th March

People: Myself & son

Duration: 2-3pm, Saturday 9th Mar

Tide: Flooding - full around 4, reasonable sruf, coloured water

Weather: SE breeze

Bait: Frozen crab

Rigs: 3/0 pulley pennel

Results: 1 specimen bass



Report:

My 5 year old and I arrived to the slipway in Ballinwilling for an houur or two's ray fishing towards the top of the tide last Saturday, armed with some re-frozen crab, my old TDPK rod, 525 mag and my son had a small spinning rod with a rolling lead on, thoughts of a flattie or so close in. We fished off the slipway out of the back of the car (handy to keep little people warm and/or entertained...). I was lamenting forgetting bait elastic and was playing with my son only to turn around (3rd cast in) to see my rod after falling out, down on the rocks under the fence, being pulled out to sea by something.... Thankfully i couldnt find my wellies that morning and brought the chesties - down I went but the rod was too far out to reach and the waves were high and I was getting soaked... pegged it back up to the fence, stole my sons rod, tied a 5ounce gripper to the line (10lb strain!) and aimed for the beachcaster, now separated into its two sections and about 30yds out. 3rd cast i hit it (amazingly) and started to pull in - the line 10lb line and spinning rod worked hard, fighting 2 large leads, a Daiwa beachcaster and a penn 525 - plus some unknown fish on the other end!

About 15 mins later i managed to get the 2 parts of the beachcaster in and miraculously the fish was still hooked and fighting hard - I managed to get him into the boulders, thinking it was a decent ray or something as we'd ahd no other bits on the earlier casts... I was well and truly soaked, head to toe now, inside the cesties an' all...
up came the fish - my PB bass, and first specimen, weighing it at 11lb and measuring 70cm nose to tail. Was badly hooked unfortunately after all the drama so it came home with me - id much preferred to have released such an old fish. Cracking day - havent fished that slipway for 15 years and had planned on fishing the stream above it, but felt lazy. Good thing too!
John

Nice fish, Well done.
Worth taking a soaking when you can
land a specimen bass. Brilliant.

Un believable and my house bout 5 yards behind ya brrilliant

Fine fish weldone!!!

Great fish! Great story!

cool stuff indeed congrats on the PB!

It was landed on the spinning rod, so was it not your son's fish?

Ha, no the beachcaster was landed with my son's rod - the bass was brought in with the beachcaster

Fine big belly on her good stuff

Great story.... Must have been some laugh.

Great story and great fish. Bet the young lad enjoyed that session.

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Fair play.. That's a great story and a great fish!

crackin wee tale..
cracker of a fish!

Outstanding, great fish.

[sparkey+1]

Well done cracker of a fish and some tale to tell in years to come.. Well done on the PB

Last edited by sparkey+1 on Mon Mar 11, 2013 10:15 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Cracking fish mate. Great storey to go with it.

Nice fish you were blessed to get it after all the comotion

great tale and a fine bass, well done !

cracking fish man well done

Well done on such a beater of a fish. Loved the story too. How did it eat? Heard that big old bass like her aren't great for the table. Not much else you do with a deeply hooked fish though. Congrats again.