Some thing different Bass fishing in Ireland!

[brendon]

Hi All just back from three weeks in Europe :D .

Prior to the trip I had joined http://kayak-angling-ireland.org/forum/index.php and asked if anybody knew of a kayak guide.Dave Tilley replied that he was doing some guiding so I booked him for a days fishing.

Dave is a active member on that forum and runs a bait supply business in Dublin supplying live rag worm,peeler crabs and sand eels to the local tackle stores and also sells wildernes systems yaks.

The primary target for the trip was sea bass .This fish looks like a slightly longer version of a mulloway and acts very much like a tailor.

Dave picked me from my hotel in Dublin at 4.30 am and we headed about an hours drive south along the coast towards Arklow.

We arrived at a car park overlooking a beach and after a short carry we had the two wilderness sytem ride 135 and 140 yaks on the shingle and sand beach .
http://i958.photobucket.com/albums/ae69/brendonyakfisher/Kayak%20fishing%20for%20bass%20in%20Ireland/DaveRiggingup.jpg

The East Coast of Ireland is very sheltered in most conditions and we launched through a whole 30cm of break.The conditions were ideal no swell overcast and about 17c and light winds
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Tackle for the day was 4000 series threadlines on 10 ft rods with braid lines and a short 40lb flurocarbon leader.
The lure of choice was a type of surfice hard body called a feeder 140? Edit Contact feed shallow 128?

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We paddled 400m along the beach towards a rocky headland which had a number of small coves with shingle beachs and very shallow water .
Dave instructed me to cast the lure right into the small shore break on the beach in a cove and retrive in a moderately fast straight manner .

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Second cast and I was on !The fish took the lure very close to shore and proceded to fight like a similar sized tailer.After a short fight I got it up to the yak and it was about 50cm .Unfortunately I dropped the fish before I could lift it into the yak as I was pussy footing around with no net and Dave had mentioned a number of spikes and gill rakers.

Stoked to have got onto a fish so soon as Bass numbers have been very low in recent years and Dave and the other guys over there have been working hard to get the stock numbers back up.

Over the next couple of hours Dave picked up two more fish as we continued to work our way along the rocky coast.
The main bait fish which we saw a number of schools of among the kelp is sand eels of varying sizes.
We were joined at one point by a curious seal and dave said he had seen an otter there once before but I was not so lucky.

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Dave decided we should shift to the next spot looking for better water clarity so we packed the car again and moved further down the coast passing through a couple of very picturesque towns with nice little stone harbours and stopping to drop off bait at a couple of stores.

The next spot reached down a steep gravel road next to a headland looked fantastic with gin clear water about 1-2m deep over weed beds and rocks.
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Had only been paddling for about two minutes when we spotted the first of several bass patrolling the edges of the weed.
Dave soon hooked up and then before he landed it I was on !

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I finally got my first bass in the yak although it was only a little fella of about 40cm. :D
We had paddled up to a rock shelf coming out from the headland and there was a 10m gap between it and another 20m long section of rock with what would become as we fished a fairley strong tidal flow.
At this point we found a large number of actively feeding fish in the swirling water around the island I hooked and dropped a further three bass on the surface lure before switching to a large red storm eel soft plastic lure on which I landed a better fish.

http://i958.photobucket.com/albums/ae69/brendonyakfisher/Kayak%20fishing%20for%20bass%20in%20Ireland/fish2.jpg


Dave pointed out to me that the bass have a very soft mouth and require a softer approach than the Australian trevelly heading for the snag stlye of fishing!
We ended the day with Dave having 5 fish caught and released and myself two.
Dave caught another 15 bass later in the week and is on 87 bass for the month!

The fishing here really demonstrated the advantages of Yak fishing as the shore fishermen are getting very few bass in comparison as the bass's perfered habitat was in shallow water around rocky headlands that the shore guys have little access to and with a couple of the best spots having private property overlooking them.

We drove back to Dublin through some more beautiful villages and winding narrow roads to end a very enjoyable day.

Cheers Brendon

[Perky]

That last shot looks like the mother of all whiting. Nice catch

[pinkey]

Nice report! Looks like great fun. Wondered what the fishing over there was like.
I was over there a few months ago on a bus tour craving a fish but had no time :( but stopped in at a tackle shop and found a few lures, the x-rap's over there are cheaper than here! :D

[T-Ledg]

nice work mate. nice report.
are thos windblade towers lined up in the middle of the ocean?

[Danpachi]

Wow they use nice lures up there...
The surface hardbody if anyone is wondering, is a Contact Feed Shallow 128 manufactured by Tackle House. They make lures for seabass, tuna and the like.

[brendon]

nice work mate. nice report.
are thos windblade towers lined up in the middle of the ocean?

Yes mate they are on a sand bank only a few thousand meters of the coast.Dave was telling me its actually helped the local fishing as the trawlers are banned from that area!

That feed shallow was a niffty lure and had a real sweet action and cast like a bullet .Dave gets them in from Japan.
I reckon tailor and aussie salmon would go bananas for them .$23 eruo a pop though.
Had a look through a handful of local stores and thought most tackle at least as dear as Perth prices although all the rod and reel models are different so hard to say.
Small ranges of lures and soft plastics with sand eel replicas very popular.
Cheers Brendon

[Piscateur]

Thanks for the great report and Photos

[Online store]

Well done on some great fish and a great report. Enjoyed it thoroughly.

Ian.

[EPhunt]

Yep nice report.

[scope]

Top read there mate - Its good to see how the rest of the world fishes...

[fish666]

Great post thanks for that.

[T-Ledg]

wow thats impressive!!!

[forsterfisho]

Thanks for the pics and report mate, it was a good read. It's always good to see something similar but so different.

[bomb]

nice report and pics.good to see how the other half do it.

cheers
bomb