Best County for Bass?

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#21 Post by **roger de dodger** » Thu Sep 13, 2007 8:17 pm

with the secrecy involved in bass fishing i dont think i would view the speciemen totals as a benchmark with this in mind have to say dublin threw up some woppers last year and this year also meath produced at least one i know of :D

#22 Post by **JimH** » Thu Sep 13, 2007 10:01 pm

and the best county is.........anyone of them are the same i think. Seven out of ten people who visit SEAi are capable bass fishermen on either fly or lure. The principles they learned in their home countries are equally as applicable there as they are here.

In otherwords a rocky headland in Holland (if there was such a thing) has bass fishing principles that are applied in Wexford with the same results. An oysterebed in France or an estuary in Italy hold the same principles as any in Ireland and are applied by any decent bass fisherman during their visit.

Elevating angling achievments on one geographical holding feature or technique is not what makes bass fishing so exciting - its unlocking that information and then applying it equally as effectively in not only any county in Ireland but in any country in the world.

In estuaries, headlands, harbours, sandbars, rivers, mussel beds, bends, so many places.....

#23 Post by **alanmcc64** » Thu Sep 13, 2007 10:19 pm

Some very interesting replies. I agree that a lot depends on the effort you are willing to put in learning how to fish a particular mark in respect of tides, fish holding areas etc. The beach I regularly fish in Kerry has, in my opinion, declined in recent years even though I tend to fish 'prime tides' when I can. I was wondering if this decline was evident elsewhere or particular to the Kerry region? My theory is that the gulf stream seems to be hitting further north on the west coast.
One thing I have noticed is that in the past 3 years the fishing for bass on the northernmost beaches, such as benone, seems to be coming back, although not to the standard it was 20 years ago.

#24 Post by **Sonaghan** » Fri Sep 14, 2007 10:12 am

with the secrecy involved in bass fishing i dont think i would view the speciemen totals as a benchmark

Are you saying Cork anglers are less secretive than everyone else, and that's why more specimens are reported there? If you can't use specimen totals, what can you use? Obviously many fish go unreported, but assuming this happens everywhere, the list is surely the most objective way of looking at it.

In estuaries, headlands, harbours, sandbars, rivers, mussel beds, bends, so many places.....

....and never enough time to fish them!

#25 Post by **JimH** » Fri Sep 14, 2007 11:39 am

S

With an abscence of any suffiecient data there is simply nothing you can use except what you have. Every fish caught here, and session completed, (for the last six years) is logged at SEAi in a DB. Thats close to 5000 hrs of fishing effort, but i'm not about to reveal any statistics.

I will say this - depending on man hours spent fishing it can look as if particular locations are improving / or deteriorating. Whilst in fact overall numbers remain reasonably constant and this can only be determined with constant fishing and recording.

I know of one person from the UK who visited the west and south west of Ireland several times over a period of a number of years, spent weeks with guides, best times and tides and places etc and never caught a fish.

Consequently he claimed on a well known website that bass fishing was deteriorating in Ireland and was nothing it was cracked up to be - the fact was he couldnt catch a fish in a bath!

Depends on how you look at things!!

#26 Post by **Sonaghan** » Fri Sep 14, 2007 12:46 pm

Absolutely right Jim. All any of us can really trust is our own experience. Myself and my brother also have a detailed log of sessions (successful and otherwise) going back many years, and while it is an excellent resource for us, what it really charts is our improvement as anglers over that time. Another angler may have fished the same locations over the same time period and kept a log which would look entirely different because there are so many other variables, skill being the example you used.

I chose to put the specimen list up as an indicator based on the fact that it is already public knowledge, quite a reasonable sample size, and removes the effectiveness of the angler as a factor. What it shows is actual fish caught and where, for the entire country over a period of time. What it doesn't show is fishing effort. I don't believe all fish are reported, but I was assuming that fish were not reported at a constant rate for the whole country. There may simply have been more people fishing for bass in Cork over the time period, and the higher number of specimens caught is a reflection of this, rather than better bass fishing (which is basically the point you made). As you said, it just depends on how you look at things.

Mr_Green · #27 Post by **Mr_Green** » Fri Sep 14, 2007 1:33 pm

Lads variables inclusive, an anglers skill is somewhat unimportant in comparison to bass fishing... being at the right place at the right time is certainly a key benifit...as an experienced angler i could fish a beach and not get a sausage but joe soap beside me could clean up and bag a beauty... nothing to do with skill, which includes presenation etc... just sheer luck...but since we are experienced we put our catches down to skill...which is fair enough, i dont believe any of my catches were luck at all (except the foul hooked ones)... but how much is put down to being in the right place at the right time.. on the flipside skill is involved in finding the right place at the right time :wink:

#28 Post by **Sonaghan** » Fri Sep 14, 2007 2:05 pm

True Mr_Green, and some anglers seem to be very much luckier than others, all things being equal. Myself and my brother would frequently have sessions where one blanks and the other cleans up. It could be either of us and there's never any obvious reason for it. Luck really is the great leveller in fishing. :? :)

Rockhopper · #29 Post by **Rockhopper** » Fri Sep 14, 2007 2:57 pm

How I see "SKILL" regarding fishing.....firstly your bait needs to be looked after right, some skill in that.....then the conditions need to be right, some skill in that knowledge.....then the venue, coupled with the conditions...same skill in that knowledge needed.....time and state of tide is important....ditto again....then if the fish aren't taking your bait, you keep trying different methods until you get a bite...far to often anglers think because they dont get a bite that the fish aren't there.....I have watched fish swimming in gin clear water just not interested in feeding....so like the Salmon anglers do....try to get the fish to take your bait or lure out of aggression.....as to foul hooked fish, most comps and record organizations will recognize a fish foul hooked forward of the gills as caught legal.

If you think hard and work hard your luck will get luckier :lol: :lol:

Tom.

#30 Post by **Sonaghan** » Fri Sep 14, 2007 3:41 pm

Also patience, which I reckon is one of the most important skills of all.

far to often anglers think because they dont get a bite that the fish aren't there

That's very true, you have to believe that there are fish there to be caught. If you don't, you're wasting your time.

Rockhopper · #31 Post by **Rockhopper** » Fri Sep 14, 2007 4:37 pm

Sonaghan wrote:Also patience, which I reckon is one of the most important skills of all.

far to often anglers think because they dont get a bite that the fish aren't there

That's very true, you have to believe that there are fish there to be caught. If you don't, you're wasting your time.

Sona :)

I have to disagree with "patience" most of the anglers I fish with including myself are impatient.....if I dont get a bite pretty quickly I'm chopping and changing. :lol: :lol: :lol: who ever said "all will come to he who waits" couldnt have been an angler :wink: :twisted:

Tom.

Mr_Green · #32 Post by **Mr_Green** » Fri Sep 14, 2007 6:33 pm

nice 1 tom... then again im a lazy ****, i can watch a rod tip all day as long as i have my gas stove, kettle and all other tea making paraphernalia :lol:

#33 Post by **roger de dodger** » Fri Sep 14, 2007 7:59 pm

Sonaghan wrote:
with the secrecy involved in bass fishing i dont think i would view the speciemen totals as a benchmark

Are you saying Cork anglers are less secretive than everyone else, and that's why more specimens are reported there? If you can't use specimen totals, what can you use? Obviously many fish go unreported, but assuming this happens everywhere, the list is surely the most objective way of looking at it.

if you ever fished a mark in dublin that was put on the site as a bass hotspot the day after you wouldnt get car parking nevermind a spot on the beach :lol: i think cork has a few less anglers per mile of coastline hence less secrecy :cry:

#34 Post by **cortaz** » Fri Sep 14, 2007 10:15 pm

MUNSTER ! :) 365...... the rest........ :arrow: sometimes
cork/kerry longest coastline, warmest water, most features, ie.bays,inlets,outcrops,beaches,
waterford only has about 15 miles of surf beaches how many has cork/kerry/wex.?

#35 Post by **Sonaghan** » Fri Sep 14, 2007 10:28 pm

I don't mean sitting and waiting Rockhopper, I mean the ability to stick with it. Chopping and changing does not necessarily mean you're impatient, it means you're persevering and sticking with it, making you patient in your own way. Personally, I believe there's a time and a place for chopping and changing, such as lure fishing, looking for successful colour, size, etc. and a time for sticking with a single method that you have total confidence will catch a fish. It just depends on what you're doing at the time.

if you ever fished a mark in dublin that was put on the site as a bass hotspot the day after you wouldnt get car parking nevermind a spot on the beach i think cork has a few less anglers per mile of coastline hence less secrecy

I don't know about that, I think bass fishermen are as reluctant to part with info in Cork as they are in Dublin or probably anywhere else for that matter.

#36 Post by **JimH** » Sat Sep 15, 2007 9:58 am

Would agree with you there S - any sensible bass fsherman is not going to blast information over a forum or his local pub etc. There still exists within this country, and the evidence exists on two recent postings on this site, that anglers are capable of catching and killing lots of numbers of a protected species.

Supplying more information to gobshites in order for them to become more capable at destroying fish doesnt make sense to me.

So as well as the gobshites killing fish, the continous illegal fishing, the slow life cycle, the incomprehensible neccessity for hotels and restaurants to serve 'Fresh Bass', the species has a very tough time.

What continuously surprises me is the lack of concern that seems to exist for such issues amongst sea angling bodies.

#37 Post by **Eoin** » Tue Sep 18, 2007 9:54 am

wexford, waterford, cork and kerry. several illegal bass nets were taken off kerry beaches last year. this resulted in a fish or two in among the schoolies.

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