Bass on the South East Coast

not a hijack at all Neil - theres some good flies there and its great to get this interaction - i know a lot of it is not revolutionary or anything but its still interesting to see/learn from other peoples ideas and experiences - i think SWFF is tough enough for anybody who tries it, so all help is good.

my sentiments exactly. not too many swffers down this way that i know of so tend to fish by myself, good to see how other peoples techniques work

heres my mackeral fly, doesnt look much like a mack fly but it worked fairly succesfully this summer.

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But this is a hijack :(

Guys I cannot comment regarding Bass (only have the opportunity to fish for them when I come to SW Ireland on my yearly pilgrimage) but I fish a LOT in the sea for sea trout - 95% of my trout are caught on two flies Grey Frede and Honey Shrimp (typical Danish coastal sea trout flies) BUT because they are successful I use them 95% of the time ...
so Lump could this be the same with your Fleye?

stuart

Interesting stuff guys, lots there to think about. Nice flys Lumpy.

to an extent i would believe so stuart..as you say success breeds success..if i go on a trip and have success with a certain fly i am more than likely going to use that fly the next trpi. what i am currently trying to establish is about a dozen flies which i can confidently apply to certain times of the year, conditions etc......think i'm about a third of the way there..

thanks for your time and effort ther jim very interesting looking forward to next year already

This is a reply to a question asked by 'Hammers' in a previous thread regarding bass.

H - i dont tag fish but i do feel very strongly that they are definetly residential - we have caught the same fish several times during one summer often not at the same location - it is possible to identify a small number by unique marks.

i have attached three charts for info - water temp, fly info table, and no of fish caught on fly. You can draw many conclusions from the fly chart, but this is not definitive only based on the fly caught fish recorded. I dont have a strong inclination as to the patterns of the various 'baits' that bass feed on. Personally i think they will eat anything that is presented to them in the correct manner and some times a better presentation can be all that counts be that colour, depth, speed or size.

I dont believe they become exclusive feeders or fixed on one type of bait source. Based on the fish that we have killed we have found shrimps, sandeel, sprat, mackerel, crab, gobies, mullet and immature flatfish inside.
I think they are opportunistic and faced with food of various types will eat that which is easiest to catch.

I do think that size of fly in relation to time of year may be important - small and sparse at the beginning and larger towards the end.

I tend to concentrate around clouser and deceiver patterns - i dont like sandeel patterns we also fish with crabs on sinking lines, shrimps, and other variations.

I have tried to add a sense of 'Irishness' to match the hatch of local baitfish so we have built tan and brown and grey and green into our flies, I am strongly influenced by Ray Bondorews thinking.

I do believe that a white and chartreuse or a white deceiver or clouser will catch bass on most occasions.

Jim,
i do not agree that all bass are residential what about the esturine fish ???
and last years mackeral, 2 week migration offshore but the blue bass around the rockey out crops pose a different question if they are resident and territorial why sometimes do we catch more than one from a single mark within the space of 1 hr but in some way i do agree , after missing a nice fish one day returning the next to nail it,yes it works somtimes
help

Gee

Hi hams

no problem there guy - the postings are written pretty fast and to be honest 'generally' and hopefully helpful, but they are based on a LOT of input hours and experience.

In an open forum like this I dont pay huge attention to all the words or syntax i write so ultimatley if you leave a word out or put one in it could be interpreted in many different ways, its often not to be taken literally or too 'precisley'.

the question i get asked most often is 'What color fly Jim?'
its not a one word answer i'm afraid and the selection comes from confidence and experience like BF's ability to fish with two patterns.

Will be writing more about this in IA over the next few months - hope these might help too.

Have been looking for that book by Ray Bonderew. My local bookshop who i always try to support by ordering through them cant get it. Seen it on some site last week presumably on a link i picked up here? Anyone any ideas?

Try amazon got my copy there..

Tried there Tom without success. :(

Dave try here - along with others - Ed Mitchells are good too

http://www.bearsden.com/product2898.html


nice shop for SWFF stuff and very nice people too.

best
Jim