St Helens, 28/09/06

People:Just me

Duration:4 hours

Tide:Low

Weather:Heavy rain

Bait:Rag

Rigs:Lots

Results:Nothing

Catch and Release:: Yes/No



Report:
Very Bad day !!Low tide and lots of weed in the water made for lots of lost rigs. I could go on :roll:

Hi Martin,

where is St Helens?

JUDE

St-Helens is near Rosslare Co Wexford. Was a great bass spot years ago.I remember catching thirty to forty, four to six pound bass there in a couple of hours during their annual Sea Angling Competition(Under IFSA rules) using a German Sprat on light gear. It was not unusual to see catches of 100+ bass of this size being caught by three anglers from a small boat. Similar catches of shoaling bass were taken all around the South and South West Coasts during this period. The majority of these fish were sold to the local fishmongers. This is a little Irish Sea Angling History which may be of interest.

"sold to fishmongers" - probably why it was a great spot YEARS AGO then...

LOL... good point corby

Hi Guys, just to clarify my earlier post re St Helens bass fishing. The period referred to was in the early sixties when sea angling festivals were held all over Ireland to promote tourism. During this period the Irish Tourist Board commissioned prominent UK angling journalists to promote sea angling in Ireland. Clive Gammon, Trevor Housby, Michael Prichard and Capt.S Norton-Bracey are some whom I recall coming over. Their subsequent writings extolling the Irish sea angling potential was a boon to tourism in Ireland. Trophy photographs were encouraged, the sea was full of fish, conservation, C&R, and tangle nets were unheard of. Edible fish were given to the boatman to dispose of as he wished. Giant skate,tope, dogfish and conger eels were all dumped after being weighed and photographed. (The St Helens bass were sold to a fish merchant in Rosslare.) The tons of tope and spur-dogfish taken during the week long Carlingford Festival were weighed and later dumped at sea. A similar fate was to befall tons of magnificent monk fish caught during the annual week long Wesport Festival . A month later the Moville Festival accounted for literally thousands of red gurnard, weighed and subsequently dumped. I could go on, sadly only the "Trophies" and photographs remain of an era that was expected to last forever.
One man with whom I fished, the Late Des Brennan ( then working for the Inland Fisheries Trust,) had the vision and foresight to see that the bass were beginning to come under unsustainable pressure from both commercial fishermen (tangle nets) and sea anglers (selling bass) that he lobbied the Goverment to introduce a minimum landing size and quantity of bass to be held over a 24 hour period in order to protect the spawning stock. Thankfully legislation exists today to protect bass in Eire but sadly not in Northern Ireland. To all you bass anglers out there, give Thanks that there was such a man as Des Brennan otherwise the bass would now be an another endangered Irish species.

I live a few hundred yards from St Helens. Trolling from the boat wasn't the best here this year but spinning from the rocks was very good. On good evenings I would have got 20 plus bass on a Kilty Lure or German Sprat. Some of these bass were big enough too, up to 7 or 8 pound. Some evenings it was like catching mackeral, they were everywhere in shoals. Some good bass been caught ground fishing too but not as plaentiful as spinning. So it's not doing too bad for a place that was once regarded as the best bass fishing ground in Europe. But is important to put these bass back.

Hi thirty, interesting post. delighted to see the bass are still there. Do they shoal over the Splaugh Rock at all now? They were like mackerel in the 60's, unbelievable! Sadly they were not considered to be the great sporting fish they now are and were persecuted only because of their commercial value. You are lucky to be living near St Helens, I have fond memories of fishing there and of catching good cod at the Tuskar Rock with John Ferguson in the "Splaugh Queen." Although often referred to as "the good old days" I firmly believe that with the protection the bass has now and coupled with catch and release as practised by anglers like yourself that this great fish indeed has a future.

For the first time in years they shoaled over slplaugh this year, they were hitting off both sides of the boat, the shoal must have been 300 yards long, I never seen bass like it. Most of the 'old-timers' hadn't seen scenes like it in many a year, no one could explain it. I actually do some fishing with John Ferguson's nephew now. Between splaugh and the carrigs there are the best reef of rocks I have seen.

Great news thirty, brings back happy memories. Let's hope Fisheries Protection keep an eye on the stock now that it has a degree of protection. Nice to know that John Ferguson's nephew is carrying on the family tradition. John was a great boatman, always gave it his best shot.


L

good news indeed