Kerry - Brandon - "Bass Weekend"

People:Me, Bro in law Art, Stephen and Emmet

Duration: meant to be Thur morn until Sunday avo but see below

Tide: Various

Weather: Cold northerly, sunny spells, rain, hail, etc

Bait: lures, king rag

Rigs: single hook

Results: See below

Report:

So I thought about putting this report up, I wasnt going to but then what is the point of only putting epic reports up.
We had been planning this for weeks, and I had been counting the minutes from about 10 weeks away. Our usual journey to Brandon in Kerry to target Bass before the closed season. We knew it was going to be tough having see the forecasts and the recent fishing reports. It turned out to be one of those weekends where everything goes wrong. The plan was to head down Thursday morning around 9am and leave Kerry Sunday afternoon. Plenty of tides to fish and lots of options. I woke on Thursday morning to the cold wind and rain hitting the window. Not a good start. Then my wife gets some sad news about a friends relative. Kind of puts things in perspective. So Im going to come home Saturday now to allow her to go to the funeral. So we head off and in the back of my mind my gut is telling me to cancel it and do it in late June. Anway we get to Brandon, the water is a murky brown, the wind is freezing and there is weed, lots of it. My brother in law who went down on Tuesday landed 3 trout while we were traveling down so that gave us some optimism.

We fished literally all day when we are not eating or having a pint. Every tide you can think of, rising, dropping, and various marks. Not a sniff of a Bass. My mate takes a nice trout off a rock mark which is about the only mark I know where there would be some clarity due to the surge and swell there. Great bass mark but not a sniff. We then focus on the estuary as its the only mark clear enough and producing fish. My bro in law takes a trout and a flounder on a lure, not foul hooked, clearly went after the lure. My other mate takes a trout and im begining to think there is a cloud over my head..!

I get a txt then from the wife to say she has been up since 4 with the twins who are sick. At any moment candid camera are going to jump out and say the whole thing has been a setup..!
So as the fishing is not great, and because of sick kids etc I decide to head home. The lads do too as we are really after Bass and the trout are small enough. So all in the cars for about 12 on Saturday afternoon.

Now the one good thing about the weekend was meeting up with Steve from this forum. Had a chat over a mark we met up on and was great to put a face to a name after we have exchanged lots of PM's.

This is where the straw broke the camels back. Half way home I get a txt from Steve to say he is fishing a mark and hammering Bass...! There was minor damage to the dash board and the doc tells me the hair will grow back in time..!!

So there it is. I blanked.....for the first time ever in Brandon I blanked. Unheard of. No Bass either between 4 of us.

The lads :
Art - 4 trout and a flounder
Stephen - 2 trout
Emmet - 1 trout.

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hard luck mate, i feel for you i know well how bad it feels when u put so much effort into a big trip and it all falls to sh**te when u get there but there will be other days

Entertaining report there Eoghan, thanks. It's good to know you can blank like the rest of us

Apologies again Eoghan!! Felt a little guilty afterwards!

I was actually going to head over to Inch Saturday morning or else fish a mark near Annascaul to escape the northerlies. But driving by the beach the surf looked perfect so I said what the hell and decided to give it a go for an hour. It was one of the most genuine surfs I've fished in 15 years of fishing these beaches - the wind had completely dissappeared and there was a swell surf rolling in with lovely defined water tables (compared to the two previous days when it was chaotic, completely unfishable and borderline dangerous). Plus there wasn't a scrap of weed when the day before there was massive rafts of kelp in the shallows.

Wasn't expecting much but had 8 in 13 casts and only 1 cast didn't produce a bite. No great stamp of fish (biggest was 4lbs but to be honest I wouldn't expect much bigger from the surf in these parts) but after the few previous days of blanks it was heaven!!!

Booked in for two weeks in mid-August, but suspect I may head down again once or twice before then!

Good to meet you anyway Eoghan - I'll drop you a text next time I'm heading up in search of trout.

The gas thing is we said the same thing driving by Steve, it looked amazing. Classic rolling surf.
We should have known, blowing a gale for days, then it dies down on sat, warm sunny weather on sand at low water. Always a chance for bass to run the shallows on a day like that after previous conditions.


Like I said via txt I am delighted you txt me, very nice of you to do so. Most ppl would keep info like that to themselves so fair play to you. Hope I can return the favour. Would be good to meet up with yourself and Rory alright and have a go at some bass n trout.

Thanks for posting eoghan, and hard luck, but that's fishing for you!

Hard luck Eoghan ,,,,still,,there's more important thing's in life as you realised. A great report all the same and another learning experience . I'm still thinking of you whacking your head off the dashboard hearing about the schools of Bass in the surf as you drove home Thanks for posting

oh kerry can be so cruel and so kind too ,hard luck on the blank but in all honesty with the weather the way it has been even kerry has sufferd myself and gordy only hit the fish in numbers on our last day of our trip and due to family commitments had to leave that afternoon the following day the weather turned again so i quess we were blessed
you can go back next time and make up for it

pity bout the blank but there are more important things in life sometimes,heading down there friday,good to have a lil insight...huup ou dat...

pity bout the blank but there are more important things in life sometimes,heading down there friday,good to have a lil insight...huup ou dat...

PM sent, best of luck