The first real acid test

I’ve been biding my time a little and now that a ‘personal benchmark’ approaches I’m anticipating what might lie ahead. Mind games are always complicated things to play and I generally resolve them by just getting on with it. Its the waiting that causes the anxiety. The path taken to the end and the ensued result of course never really plays out as you have imagined and this is commonplace in bass fishing.

This is the first time in nearly five years that I can feel the coast has an opportunity to provide us with really good bass fishing, bass fishing perhaps like it used to be. Apart from the extended cold period during Spring which shredded the countryside there are lots of things in our favour. Very low rainfall during June, and indeed in the southeast its has been a very dry Spring, the lowest rainfall levels in perhaps six or seven years, extended periods of high pressure good light levels near or above average, increasing air and water temperatures even if they are still slightly behind the norm. Water quality is extremely good and remains clear on the coasts that I have visited.

I have always believed that the extremely wet and overcast spring and summers since 2007 and the environmental changes have had an impact on our bass fishing. This was whilst subconsciously avoiding the thoughts of something more sinister. This impact may have been cumulative and has forced the fishing to deteriorate over time. I have made note of this for e.g. HERE, HERE, HERE with plenty more observations made throughout this website.

So in fact all the meteorological reasons, excluding a colder than average spring, that I believe that have impacted negatively on the fish over the past few years, don’t really exist at this time.

On average I spend 80 days guiding on the coast and at least another 40 developing the fishing and workshopping so I have a close and intimate ‘relationship’ with the influences I’m working with, I experience it on a day in and day out level. Contrary to popular belief only 50% of this time is spent in Wexford so I do see a lot of and many different locations, timings, patterns and the interdependent relationships that you associate with bass fishing, these are part of my job, my life really. Much is currently in discussion as regards how far we are behind in relation to the norm. A month, six weeks…. I don’t know how much this behind time is but I do feel we are in a better position than we have been for a considerable number of seasons.

So on Friday night of the 5th two customers arrive from Chichester to fish with me for a week both on the fly & lure. This is the first real acid test. I have already completed a weeks guiding with Jean Yves where we fished Wexford, west and east Cork over the last spring tide co-efficient, more about that later. I’m effectively writing off June as the behind time and now the season begins in earnest like it should. I’m not talking here about isolated incidences of fish in specific marks – ALL systems should begin to operate to a least some extent and build nicely into July and beyond and be accessible to both lure and fly anglers from the shore.

With high pressure set to dominate from the 5th the influences will be from the North and East and fishing will be adjusted to fit those circumstances and as always its only ever a forecast and so things will change. But it continues to be positive, sunny and dry, this will help the latter parts of the season.

I wont hang around in Wexford this weekend to fish with my customers but will make a dash further west early on Saturday morning and return again on Monday evening – the excitement and the hope I feel for the possibilities for good fishing, combined with the never far away and lurking dread of disappointment, well I guess that’s what any pre test nerves are all about.

Bass fishing is always about you and the moment, and then again, there’s always acid test number two!