The good and the bad - 19th and 22nd March 2012

Message

#1 Post by **RockHunter** » Fri Mar 23, 2012 7:18 pm

People: Me

Duration: 19th - 10.45 - 2.45 am

Tide: 19th HW at 4.00 am

Weather: 19th - Light southwesterly breeze, mild, dry; 22nd: Strong SE to E wind, rain early, dry and clear later, cold

Bait:Crab and Lug

Rigs: 4/0 pennel pulleys

Results:
19th March: 5 bass, 6 Coalfish, 1 Flounder
22nd March: 2 coalfish

Report:
The Good - 19th March:
After the mega bass session last week I returned to the same mark on Monday night. I arrived at an earlier stage of the tide compared to the previous session. There was a nice surf and it was a dark overcast night with a light southwestly breeze. I dug some fresh lug earlier in the day and also had a dozen fresh peeler crabs. As on the previous session I set up two rods with 4/0 pennel pulleys, one baited with lug, the other with crab.

Shortly after setting up I had a small coalfish. After about half an hour I had a sharp tug on the rod with the lug. This time it felt a much stronger fish and after a few minutes I hauled a 49 cm bass out of the surf - so off to a good start!! I had a couple more coalfish after that.

The tide was rapidly moving in now, so after moving everything back about 50 m, I started casting into a sandy gap between low bedrock exposures which was now submerged. First cast into this area produced another good bite again on the rod with lug. This time it was a smaller bass, with a length of 42 cm. About 25-30 minutes later this was followed by a 44 cm bass, taken on crab

Maybe another 30 minutes later I had the fourth bass, a 47 fish again on crab. This ran a slackliner in towards the shore, I had to reel in a lot of slack before I reconnected with it.

There was then a dry spell with just a few small coalfish to keep me occupied. First I had a double, a small coalie on each hook of the pennel on the crab, then another one on the lug. After about an hour I had the fifth bass, a 43 cm fish, taken on lug.

After that the bass appeared to have moved on. A fished for a hour or so more but only had 31 cm flounder at the end. So while it was nothing compared to the bass frenzy of the previous session, I was happy with the result: 5 Bass,6 Coalfish and 1 Flounder.

The Bad - 22nd March
With a new moon tide Thursday night should have been one of the most productive nights to be fishing. I headed to a mark which used to produce bass on an ebbing tide - although last year they seemed to have changed their feeding patterns and were rare on the ebb. But I thought I would try anyway. I would still have a good chance of a few bass if I waited until early on the rising tide.

There was a good surf so it looked promising. However, the rods remained motionless and the baits untouched apart from two very small coalfish. A strong cold SE wind was blowing early on,with some rain, then changed to an even colder east wind. My waders had sprung a leak so one foot was soaking in cold water. Eventually I had enough - it looked like the east wind was putting off the fish, so I packed up a little earlier than planned and headed home. A night to forget!!

So much for solunar predictions:
Neap tide (15th March) = 19 bass
Quarter moon tide (19th March) = 5 bass
New Moon tide (22nd March) = 0 bass

#2 Post by **declan65** » Fri Mar 23, 2012 8:30 pm

Fair dues Frank, you are off to a great start for the year

, reckon you might have a record breaking year if you keep the current catch rate up.

#3 Post by **krisreid** » Fri Mar 23, 2012 8:31 pm

Fab fishing Rockhunter. You have hundreds of us jealous!

#4 Post by **sparkey+1** » Fri Mar 23, 2012 8:33 pm

Fair play Frank some nice fish there its funny how it didn't fish on the new moon but at least you didnt blank on the 22nd

#5 Post by **tight lines** » Fri Mar 23, 2012 11:08 pm

well done frank it was still a very good nights fishing with 5 bass many of us go out and are over the moon with 1

#6 Post by **mitch** » Fri Mar 23, 2012 11:14 pm

Another super session frank well done

#7 Post by **tiddler1** » Sat Mar 24, 2012 9:06 am

Well done Frank them angling gods are looking after you

#8 Post by **fishy1987** » Sat Mar 24, 2012 8:29 pm

Great fishing again frank,very interesting read you should definetly be a guide!ah well after 19 bass recently followed by 5 has to be some consolation

you didnt have a successful night the second night excellent stuff,you make it looke far to easy!ferg

#9 Post by **roger de dodger** » Sat Mar 24, 2012 10:34 pm

frank if i where you i,d sell your rods and fall on your tripod,s middle leg

,the shame of a bassless night ,keep your curtains drawn and dont go out till its dark imagine your solar lunar mojo must be broke!

#10 Post by **John D** » Mon Mar 26, 2012 4:50 pm

Nice!

John D.

#11 Post by **RockHunter** » Mon Mar 26, 2012 5:14 pm

Thanks guys,

sparkey+1 wrote:Fair play Frank some nice fish there its funny how it didn't fish on the new moon but at least you didnt blank on the 22nd

I thought some would at least show up as the tide began to push in (as they always did once there was a decent bit of surf). I think the easterly wind was to blame.

roger de dodger wrote:frank if i where you i,d sell your rods and fall on your tripod,s middle leg ,the shame of a bassless night ,keep your curtains drawn and dont go out till its dark imagine your solar lunar mojo must be broke!

I was ashamed to set foot on a beach again - until I went back out yesterday afternoon and had another 4 bass

Sea Angling Ireland