January Bass on Lures

[Pat]

After many attempts over the years and on my fifth attempt this year I finally managed one of the holy grails; a bass on a plug in January!!! If I can catch one in Feb I'll have caught one very month of the year on lures.

By Sunday a number of days of dropping winds and winds coming from the NW had flattened things out. I was hoping that water clarity at this stage would be much improved. I was also hopeful of my chances as coming upto the weekend it had been very cold but over Saturday night a warm front had passed over bringing temps upto quite a respectable level.

I headed off to an East Cork mark close to the Waterford border. Sure enough, the water was clearing but there were patches of suspended sand interspersed with patches of emerald green. I'd have to choose my spot wisely.

It was just low water and I picked a spot with a shallow reef in front of me dropping off into a deep gulley. Here the water clarity looked good. Rather than go with SP's a gut feeling saw me opt for a shallow diver and I put on a baby feed shallow. After a few casts I got a bump. On the next cast to the exact same spot I got another bump followed quickly by a definite take. Fish on!!!

What did I have? The initial sluggish fight had me guessing. Was it a pollack, seatrout, or bass? If it was a bass it was small I thought. It came into view shortly but wasn't that small. As it held steady over the kelp fronds at the lip of the gulley it suddenly kicked into life and I had a few minutes of diving runs and screeching reels as it dived back into the gulley. I thought I might lose it at one point but managed to bully it through the kelp. The prize was mine; a fine 65cm bass that was as fat as hell.

Unfortunately, I've no pics as I left the camera & phone in the car, but here's a pic of a similar sized one I caught before on the same lure.

[Tanglerat]

Nice fishing achievement Pat.

Is that a net mark on the fish in your photo?

[Tom H]

Well done Pat on your january bass

[bhoy32]

well done pat nice start to the lure fishing for the year

[SlackLiner]

Lovely fish! Well done and to pick it pretty much off the surface

[beachbuddy]

Cracking fish Pat and well done for keeping at the artificals,i take it a few more sessions down that neck of the woods are now on the cards

[JimH]

11 down one to go - well done P -

[yappo]

Well done Pat and hope you get one in Feb of course I would settle for one in a year as I am only starting this year.

Yappo

[declan65]

Great fishing Pat, what a start to the year