Novice query about Sea Bass

[EamonX1]

Am a relative novice to beach-casting. Last Thursday, East of Cork, caught 8 llb seabass on lugworm , on outgoing tide (3 hours out). Have fished same area without result for two years (yes some flat-fish, codling, colefish, dogfsh, but no bass) and always understood I should be fishing last 2 hours of incoming tide, plus one hour outgoing. There was good surf and the fish was hooked close in. Knowing little about such matters, how good a fish (re: weight) was this one? What is the best advice re tides?

[Tanglerat]

That's a very fine fish indeed. All of us would be delighted to catch that stamp of Bass.

Specimen size is 10 lbs.

[tiddler1]

Thats a fish off a life time fair play.I fish 2hrs before H/W and 2hrs after it, but always told not to cast to the gods if i want bass they are a small chuck out infront and thats so true.But better anglers on here they could give you better info

[razor2]

Am a relative novice to beach-casting. Last Thursday, East of Cork, caught 8 llb seabass on lugworm , on outgoing tide (3 hours out). Have fished same area without result for two years (yes some flat-fish, codling, colefish, dogfsh, but no Bass) and always understood I should be fishing last 2 hours of incoming tide, plus one hour outgoing. There was good surf and the fish was hooked close in. Knowing little about such matters, how good a fish (re: weight) was this one? What is the best advice re tides?

Nets maybe not as many bass around

[liamdenn]

Hi
Well done on the fis. My best advice would be to take a note of conditions and then you are giving yourself every chance of catching another fish when the conditions are repeated. The things I would note are: size of tide and where in the fornightly cycle did they occur, temp of both the water and the air, wind strngth and direction, how rough the sea was and how clear or murky it was,bait or method ie spinning and time of year for example the first big tides of March. Hope that helps. I use a simple spreadsheet with all that info on and fill it in everytime I go fishing including blanks(probably more important than when I catch). I can then search the database on any of the above headings and see how those conditions fished for me before

[dexs7]

Thats a great fish, Its bigger than my P.B and I have being bass fishing for over 3 years. Well done. I cant tell you how many times I have read articles by experts that said most anglers over cast for bass. Bass have being caught in a foot of water. A buddy of my caught a 9lb bass on a miss cast. As liamdenm said record everything. I use a diary to record the conditions and locations so I know what locations fish well different times of the year. I record all news of other peoples catchs also. My system wouldnt be as accurate as Liamsdenms but I can see a pattern emerging after a few years. It is always handy to know what marks fish best on low tide, high tide, droping tides, filling tides and slack tides so you will always have an venue to fish no matter what time of the day it is.