On the coast, next week…..guiding!

Bass fishing workshop

I met Sean Kelly two days before we went to France and we completed the ‘theory’ section of my bass fishing workshop over a bright Sunday morning.

I met Sean at lunchtime today and we finished the workshop with a practical ‘on the water’ session.

Carrying the theory to the field we both did a little work on both surface and soft lure fishing techniques, reading the water, and location development. Sean was then set free and combined it all expertly when he managed this wonderful fish on a Megabass Hazdong Magnum.

Rod: Illex S210M

Reel: Shimano Rarenium 2500

Line: Famell 6kgs by Yamamoto

The fish was taken in less than a foot of water, confirming once again that bass will feed close to shore in locations that still surprise many people.

As a result Sean's confidence is now high, he has a natural instinct and understanding of the fish and he has the skills that he can open out and develop into his own fishing over the next few autumn months.

Often the best time for bass fishing.

Although the business may be temporarily closed for guiding services, fly and lure fishing workshops are available on request from time to time – and who knows with temperatures falling more fish might be tempted closer to our shores over the next few weeks!

From Irish Bass to Cuban Trevally–Mr Joe c’est superb

I guess I’m regularly asked the most popular of bass fishing questions “Jim what is your favourite bass fishing lure”? There’s a post(s) on here somewhere where I answer that question and while its not definitive, it moves between three or four and I do have a great fondness for Orion lures, have had for a long time now and they have a special place in my heart. The sticker and the Joe are beyond doubt some of the best I have ever fished with.

Some moments here and here

The photo to the right was my first introduction to the Mr Joe back in late summer 2003 – this is the original resin model as cast by Eric. Ten years later during the summer of 2013 Sakura released a modified version and lo and behold the 10,5 cm (23g) version rapidly became a competitor for a top place lure for me (not easily done in my house) mind you! Its not going to replace the original Joe (nothing ever could) but it does add a dynamic that is different perhaps its the sound that’s generated by the new version (similar to the sound of a sammy or bonnie for that matter). I can strongly recommend the white and the white and chartreuse version at 10.5 cms especially on rough days…….the best really!

Digne réplique du leurre artisanal en résine Orion Mr Joe, la version Sakura se distingue avant tout par un corps en plastique et l’ajout de petites billes bruiteuses. Conçu avec une armature intégrale « full wire » ce stickbait coulant peut résister aux mauvais traitements infligés par les prédateurs tropicaux. En version 10,5 cm (23 g) ou 12 cm (35 g) ce leurre surprend par ses qualités balistiques : il fuse vraiment très loin, et droit ! Premier gros point fort. Une fois qu’il touche l’eau on le laisse couler quelques instants et il nage ensuite en « walk the dog » à la perfection lorsqu’on le récupère en imprimant des petits coups de scion. Le Mr Joe est donc une véritable arme secrète pour attaquer des postes ou des chasses de loin en bateau ou depuis le bord avec des conditions adverses tant il se lance bien ; il s’est révélé formidablement efficace (en coloris blanc ou blanc/dos chartreuse) aux îles Bijagos et à Cuba notamment car très peu de poissons locaux le laissent passer sans lui donner la chasse… Et lui mettre un bon coup de dents ! Egalement testé en Irlande, il s’est avéré être un vrai « joker » les jours ventés avec une mer agitée. En fait, ici à Voyages de Pêche, on se demande bien où ce leurre ne serait pas « prenant » tant il est bon !
Rapport qualité prix très intéressant : 12 et 14 € (NB : Armement à changer si on vise des poissons musclés avec une tresse de 30 lb et plus.)

www.sakura-fishing.com

People Places and fish from 2013

People places and fish from 2013

Thanks a million Julien

Page 66-74 on the link below

Nine pages of editorial in any magazine is beyond compare. In a magazine of the status held by Voyages de Peches its a major coup for Irish angling.

Julien La Journade a longtime champion of Irish fishing, accompanied by fly and lure fishermen Bob Hurley and Ronan Collins, made a fantastic week of fishing and memories on the southern coasts of Ireland during August.

This is the realistic report of those few days, the fun, the chat, the environment and the fishing challenges. Safari style fishing is my preferred option finding us fishing and staying in three or four counties during seven guided fishing days and nights.

Many thanks Julien and well done Ireland!

September fly's by

Guiding–Days of living VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

Moving towards Autumn bass fishing

I’ve run out of litmus paper at this stage and I guess I have performed enough acid tests! From a shore based perspective, and I’m sure you don’t need me to tell you this, bass fishing remains difficult and extremely challenging. This presents a number of interesting perspectives from which we could all take something positive however!

Fish are not running the shores as yet in large numbers but there are some fish out there. Conditions are ideal a lot of the time and even at times perhaps ‘too’ perfect, crystal clear water, bright sunshine, gentle and soft breezes most days. The fact of the matter is it remains extremely challenging and you can take that or leave it of course.

Taking it, accepting it, and still trying to succeed could and probably will make you a better angler; you simply have to be a little better a bit more patient, a bit more careful and tactical to catch fish at this time! A result on a day at the moment is something to be very happy with, something you will earn mind, but especially if like most of us you have only a limited opportunity to fish and the decisions are your own then its a big deal. So numbers might not be great, but there are quality fish in the systems that you can find and catch IF you are prepared to work at it and to fish more effectively with a more focused effort and skill.

Debate as to where the fish are will continue and theories will break on the shore and disperse like the current glut of baitfish but to be honest I’m not aware of any bass that’s prepared to share ‘this is where we are’ information, bass don’t do social media and they’re probably better off too, far safer in fact!

A recent loyal and capable French customer remarked to me in a kind way, “Jim I come to Wexford to fish with you and to catch bass and adventure from the shore, this I cannot do so well in France. If I wanted to catch bass from a boat I hire a French guide to take me, it’s easy to catch bass from a boat”.

There’s a lot going on in that sentence, I realise this and there’s many ways we could interpret it, yes the common denominator seems to be at the moment that bass fishing on offshore reefs is producing fish, but don’t take this as a reflection of anything other than bass have always lived on offshore reefs and dropping plastic on their noses to catch them is a relatively easy task!

Boat fishing is not reflective of the fisheries performance as a whole; it just means there are more fish out of range from the shore angler, which is normal! However what is different is the lower numbers of fish on our shores, and indeed this may not necessarily mean the fish have gone but that they are simply responding to different circumstances – as shore anglers we need to adjust to these circumstance and at the same time feel free to express our concerns, these concerns should be acknowledged and met with considered and rational debate. Its perfectly normal to be concerned it doesn’t however mean you are a prophet of doom, this is especially true when confronted with the face of gross exaggeration and disingenuous marketing.

Autumn is on the way and perhaps those offshore fish will run inshore, who knows, and now that we are hardened and better anglers after a long tough season spent honing our skills we can appreciate that hope and anticipate the possibilities, the spirit of the fish even more.

Sunny start for Yvo

Yvo takes a nice fish today VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

MORRF

 

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Middle Of the Road Rock Fishing

Change of light bites - 1

Some tactics to use for the next few days as the tidal sequence increases and decreases – July 18th to July 31st.

I’m getting ready for my third guided week beginning on Saturday evening. Mark and Robin are returning lure fishermen who are just beginning to grasp the potential of lure fishing for bass.

We are on ‘safari’ over the next nine days spending time in three counties – Cork Waterford and Wexford. This is reasonably complex in relation to timings tides and locations but coupled to this is the new dynamic and challenge of a very very settled weather pattern with sun and high pressure. Fishing will need to be adjusted and our plans need to include the added dimension of high air temperatures and lots of sun – we need to be practical economical and tactical in our efforts over such a long time.

I’m equipping the guys with rods, reels, and lines plus lure choice – so its the usual that you are familiar with from here Illex and Smith Rods, Sunline braid, Rio fluorocarbon and Shimano Stradics Ci4’s, nothing revolutionary there just practical.

But what of lure choice, what’s in the box? What am I thinking to try and do the best I can?

Fun in the sun

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I can see clearly now the rain has gone!

Of all the fish we have caught on lure techniques in the past few weeks perhaps as much as 90% of those fish landed have been taken using surface lure fishing, my favourite type of bass lure fishing.

Current conditions contribute greatly to bass fishing as warmer temperatures increase their metabolic rates and hence their need to feed more frequently, its almost like a vicious spiral more frequent feeding requires more energy which is available through increased digestive time and then more feeding…..of course not all fish feed at the same time.

Where there is warm clear moving water with energy through either wave or current then expect to find hungry and aggressive fish. And boy are they aggressive, their often hidden ‘tropical personality’ emerges in the sun and they become the fierce fish they can be.

To tap into that aggression when fish are fast moving, hot and competing, small bright and noisy lures are often the key. Remember the fish are active and hunting throughout the water column. Is colour that important? For aggressively competing fish its lower down the list of my priorities and I tend to choose simple SOLIDS solid white, fluo yellow or orange and if its not working then I move to a more translucent type and clear or clear and a slight chartreuse is often perfect.

Fly fishing with lavender and grey and hot pink flies are often keys for me and have proved successful recently on the Cork coast. Its the blend that’s the key here and I’m afraid that’s just too much information for this post.

One of my favourite bright fly combos for Wexford is chartreuse and grey ‘hollow fleye’ from Bob Popovics as featured in these photos from an article I made for a Dutch fly magazine in 2008. Tied sparse almost to transparency its often very very effective. especially when its hot and bright.

Yes its often a little more challenging if you can see clearly then so can the fish so it pays to be more stealthy when making your casts especially of you are situated higher than the water.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Some HOT lure recommendations that have worked consistently for me in bright conditions and have now at last found their way back into action for provocation purposes are

• Rapala skitter walk white
• Illex bonnie 95 bone or ayu
• Smith zipsea pop clear
• Lucky craft G-Splash
• Jackson Ra-pop
• Lucky craft sammy 95

Summer sun a problem? I don’t think so.

Summertime SUN VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

At which point in time did catching bass in summer sunshine become a problem? I very quickly raided raided a few photos above from prior 2007 and could demonstrate at least hundreds more of fish caught during mid afternoon sunshine crystal clear water and high temperatures. Its a question of adjusting your fishing.

Summer conditions are not an impairment to bass fishing. In fact if you want verification of that just look at the recent posts made here Summer Silver. The current challenging fishing is not weather related, for a change!

The sea bass is a sub-tropical species at the northern limits of its range in the British Isles. It is more common along the southern coasts of these islands and forms winter aggregations in the Celtic sea from which it disperses around the coast of Britain and Ireland as the water warms in spring and summer. Bass stocks are maintained by variable recruitments which also appear to be temperature related and probably regulated; a succession of good recruitments and improved growth contributing to a build-up of stocks to bring about a cyclical abundance.

(Fahy, 2000)

Elder serious bassers and dark as you like topsides

Jim,

All I can say is thank you. Your emails have given me the impetus to keep going. After 10 blanks this year already, and 8 blanks in total last year I was sure I had lost my mojo. I fish xxxxx, just up from the xxxxxx school at the xxxxx. Your fabulous photos have kept me going. Anyway, tonight I got down a little later than usual - 2130 (kids would not go to sleep in the heat!) I met up with a couple of kayakers and a pair of elder,serious bassers whom I meet quite often.

Encouraging words were meted out, but the story was still the same - No bass at all, at all. At this stage my confidence is quite low - (I even resorted to youtube Henry Gilbey to see if I was doing the basics of lure fishing correctly.) I set off and kept my mind clear. Everything tonight screamed bass, Full moon, spring tide an the way in, unbelievable heat (25C) and a gentle offshore breeze.

After 15 mins and about 150m covered retrieving my S-Four Mark 2 128, bang! a beauty of a take. I landed the beautiful bar of silver, with dark as you like topsides. A quick photo and a careful release back to fight another day. I kept going for another hour into near total darkness but to no avail - just satisfaction!

He measured 56cm - any idea what weight that may be?

I couldn't have done it without your words of encouragement.

Best of luck & thanks

John

Sunny summer silver – fly & lure

25 degrees and melting VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

ILLEX–CELLENT Evening with Jean Yves

Soft lure and surface lure fishing VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

One of those excellent evenings of fishing that will go down in memory. Two names have featured regularly on this website since I began guiding in 2003 – one of them is Illex fishing gear the other is the regular French customer Jean Yves Quillien.

We both enjoyed an incredible evenings fishing with fish taken on both surface and subsurface techniques – we fished one of my favourites early in the tide through shallow water the brilliant I-Shad fished weedless combined with the Wide Gape Texan hook – finnesse.

Fish came first to the 4.8” I –shad and then later we increased to the 5.8” and continued to take fish right through the rise. Low tide fishing is fun see here from 2010, after a brief lull we changed up to surface lure fishing with increasing depth hiding the weed fronds – these were the first fish we took from the surface this year.

The Illex bonnie both 95 and 128 (featured as one of my top favourites of all time), the Illex Mudsucker 90 and the Illex SK Pop Grande, I couldn't help it I just kept bringing them on.

Rods fished were the Illex 110 and the 220 element rider, paired off with Shimano Ci14’s and sunline braid with Rio fluoro carbon leader – and boy was it fun in the tidal rip taking those fish on the surface with light gear! Its not often I go on about equipment but a session with a customer taking more than 8 fish on the surface is really something special.

All the gear we used is available at  Henrys Tackle, Waterford Angling Centre Murphys of Wexford and Southside tackle too.

Workshop weekend–Fly & Lure MAY 11th and 12th

Bass Fishing Workshop by JimHendrick

If you happen to be attending the bass fishing workshop on Saturday May 11th - please find the details of our plan for the day above. Also please be aware that the weekend sits on a good tidal spectrum and low tide on Saturday is close to 13:30. This means we can actively fish the rising tide during the afternoon and into the evening.

Sunday mornings tide is also an acceptable one and if the weather happened to favour us an overnight stay might be something to consider.

Keep an eye on here during the week previous and I will indicate as best I can if this opportunity exists for any person who might like to take the opportunity

Please bring you waders, boots, and your bass lure fishing gear – plus any lucky charms you might have!

Fly details later this week

Direct foreign investment

Exporting the best of C+R bass angling from Co.Wexford

 

 

 

Saltwater Fly & Lure techniques

Enjoy the series of filmed shorts made for bissclips.tv on the links below

The Wolf of Wexford I

The Wolf of Wexford II

The Wolf of Wexford III

The Wolf of Wexford IV

Made over five days during the difficult season of 2013 with Holger, Holger and Markus. A nice experience working with down to earth capable anglers who seemed really to enjoy the opportunity to simply be out there and doing it.

For me I felt the pressure knowing what a difficult season it had been and hoping that the systems might perform just to show case a little of the Irish saltwater sport fishing perspective and potential.

The harder you work the luckier you get I hear!

Glowing

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

John went lure fishing for sea trout today

Landing Gear

• Rod: SMITH – Troutin Spin – Interboron
• Reel: Daiwa Fuega 2500
• Line: Power pro 4kgs
• Leader: Grand Max Riverge
• Lure: Megabass Vision 95
• Result: Happiness!

Thank you so much for the rod I'm really impressed with its performance and the way it handled that Sea trout today. It's a beaut of a rod and really put out the sub 10g lures further than i expected. – John