Duration: 11.00 pm - 3.30 am
Tide: LW at 2.30 am
Weather: Strong southwesterly wind, swinging to southerly later, dry, clear
Bait: Razor and a bit of rancid lug
Rigs: 4/0 and 3/0 pennel pulleys
Results: 6 Coalfish, 3 Codling, 1 bass
Report: The wind had changed to a southwesterly and was gaining strength during the afternoon so I reckoned it would be blowing up a decent surf on the beaches. I didn't have time to dig lug in the afternoon so I was a bit limited with bait, but had plenty of razor after a successful razor collecting trip the previous day. The East Cork beaches have been fishing very poorly recently so I decided to head in the Waterford direction.
When I got to the beach there was quite a strong wind blowing and a great looking surf. If it was this time last year I would have been confident of getting a few bass off this beach with such a surf. However, with the low water temperatures this year I wasn't that hopeful but thought it worth a shot.
I set up two rods baited with razor and a few bits of lug I had left over from last weekend. About ten minutes after casting out the first rod I spotted a subtle knock and reeled in a small coalfish. A little later there was a similar small rattle on the other rod - I reckoned it was likely to be another little coalie and left it on as a live bait hoping that something more subtantial might come along and grab it. About another 10 minutes later there was a stronger pull on the rod tip - I struck and retrieved to find two small coalfish, one on each hook of the pennel
There was a fairly regular stream of bites after that, mostly small coalfish and a couple of small codling. That's the first time I have ever got codling off this beach. So with the winter species still in abundance it didn't look too promising for bass.
Then close to low tide there was a sudden sharp pull on one of the rods -it looked like a bass bite
I grabbed the rod, rapidly reeled in the slack and struck. I only momentarily felt the fish, then the line went slack again, I retrieved as fast as I could - I was unsure if I had lost the fish or if its was running a slackliner - after reeling in what seemed like a lot of line I made contact again, but only briefly before the fish surged forward again. This time it just took a few seconds to regain the slack and then I felt a good fighting fish on the end and eventually hauled a 49 cm bass out of the surf 
My first Waterford bass of the year and a better quality fish compared to those I caught in Kerry last weekend I had intended to pack up at low tide - but of course that wasn't going to happen now
I fished on until about 3.30 am (I would probably have stayed longer but I was out until 3.30 am the previous night as well collecting razorfish so the lack of sleep was catching up on me) but I had no more bass bites, although I did get another coalfish bringing the coalfish total to 6 and another codling, the largest of the night at 36 cm.I hadn't really been that optimistic when I headed out and would have preferred to have had some lug or rag in addition to the razor but I went home very happy.
