west waterford 3/11 pics. added

[cortaz]

People: me and dottie

Duration:8/12 a.m.

Tide:l.w.@ 9.30

Weather:bright light southeast

Bait:lugs

Rigs:1 up 1 down

Results: 4 bass, 12,6,5,3lbs ,lost 2 other large fish 1 over 10lb,
went diggin lugs at 6.30 am, lovely morning so decided to have a few casts, first cast dottie hooked a huge bass that pulled the hook after 5 mins. what happened next? all 4 rods started hoppin, lots of panic, dot. landed 2 3/6lb while struggled with the biggie and watched as my other rod was pulled in by the time we had retreved it what ever had taken it had snaped the line, on the next casts i got a 5lber, next 2 hours not as much as a bite
that 20 mins, was better than sex.
5 bass between 10/14 lb. in the last few weeks.



Catch and Release:: Yes/No the 12 lber was deeply hooked and had bleed out , the others went of o.k.

bass,11,12,9lbs



Report:

[stevecrow74]

nice one.... those one up one downs are a deadly rig..

but dunno about the better than sex bit though
mind you i'm still young(ish)

[drseafish]

Some serious session. well done. Hope to sneak out some night during next week, or at least next weekend.

[MAC]

Well done Art. Excellent fish....

Kev

[cortaz]

just read the scales on the 12lb.er 33 yrs. old
is this correct,????

[ckpainters]

if I give you large amounts of money will you tell me your spot

don,t have a gone man begging

Well done on brillant fish

any photos

[bigcol]

Nice one Art.I have never tried the one up,one down rig before but after speaking with Steve in Galway this week and seeing your report i think i will give it a go this weekend instead of my usual 2 hook flapper.
On the topic af age I always thought that bass put on about 1/2 pound per year making your 12lb er about 24 years.

[Kraken]

Hey Art,

Nice session there

Must arrange to get out with you soon

U must have that "bass magnet" turned on again

sent u a pm.

John

[cortaz]

jon u have a p.m.

[cortaz]

if I give you large amounts of money will you tell me your spot

don,t have a gone man begging

Well done on brillant fish

any photos

any photos ! 100s if i could figure out how to get them on screen

[cortaz]

seems easy now

[bigkev]

Jealous,jealous,jealous,jealous and even more jealous

Outstanding fishing cortaz

Any properties for sale near this mark?

Kev

[bass boy]

super session guys.........

[drseafish]

Hi Art,

Had a check of the BASS website and some info I have been given over the years relating to age. It would be easier if you had the length of the fish, (looks like you do from the pictures), but it is unusual but not impossible that a fish of 14lb was 33 years old (born in 1973). They appear to put on less weight per annum after hitting the ~10lb mark, ie not growing as fast but putting on more body weight. If this fish was that age it really makes you think how important it is that we look after this resource. Length and weight of Bass only give you an estimatation of age, reading the scales nails gives you the exact age. For example some scales I took last week, show that a 52cm Bass was 8 years old and a 42cm Bass was only 4/5 yrs old. The spaces between the ring lines on the smaller Bass were much wider apart than normal and therefore it is likely to have migrated up from warmer areas such as the Bay of Biscay where it feeds well all year. Our Bass that stay around typically have tighter ring lines, however with the warming of the seas quite evident who is to say that Irish Bass will not grow as fast in the coming years. This will mean much bigger fish and therefore even more reason to protect them.

[petekd]

Drseafish, I find what your saying in relation to the scales and rings fascinating. Is this a procedure any Joe angler can carry out or do you need a microscope to view this? Also, from what part of the fish would you take a scale sample? I find it interesting as, from my own point of view, I'd love to know more about the particular fish I catch, age etc.

[drseafish]

Bass can be easily aged using lateral line scales taken from just behind the head. Each year represents a line on the scale similar to a tree line. Other fish are not so easily aged and can only be done so by killing them and doing a cross section of a inner bone (ear bone). Its best to take at least 3 scales possibly more as scales can get damaged and replaced in the Bass's life. Replaced scales are missing early lines. This same process can be used to identify farmed and wild fish, as farmed fish do not have defined lines as the are feed the same diet all year round. If the fisheries officers wanted to check that fish sold in fish markets and restaurants were really wild, it would be a piece of cake to do so. You only need at the very minimum a good magnifying glass. I use little stage plastic microscopes (€ 1 each). I have the option of using laboratory microscopes if for example it was a very old fish, like the one above. Hope this helps.

[petekd]

Interesting stuff, thanks. I must give that a try at some stage but ill practise on a table fish first I think...

[x]

BASS advise collecting a few scales from just under the tip of the pectoral fins. Reason being, any scales that were damaged and replaced do not hold the full life history.

A half decent magnifying glass should be all you need. Scales are read from the centre, counting the rings to the edge. Number of rings = number of years. Wide bands indicate years when the bass grew a lot (warm water, good feeding), narrow rings indicate the leaner years.

Since the outside ring indicatges this year, working back you can see which years the bass did well (or badly) in, right back to working out which year it was born.

If you have to kill a fish, you can read the same information from the bony plate in the gill cover.

I've never tried this, but I'd bet my life that a farmed bass from the supermarket would show as being 2 or maybe 3 years old and that all the growth rings would be identical as they are kept in the one place and fed a steady stream of food. Anyone ever looked?

BASS will take scale samples from any angler as they record a lot of this sort of info and have done for donkey's years. Length, girth and weight figures also help, as does the general area of capture, time, tide, weather and the method used to catch them. If interested in helping, gimme a PM.

[TroutSlayer]

Very nice catches Cortaz!

[Rolly]

Hi Cortaz, Finishing up in Dublin soon and back off out west for a few months. your some man. I've been reading bass scales here recently and it seems Sandman and the ladz are bang on.

It's quite possible for anyone to read scales with the aid of a basic microscope. So much info can be taken from scales or otholiths now it's unreal.
Cortaz if you could scrap off a couple of scales from every fish you catch every year for a couple of years you would have amazing recruitment, year classes, growth, and more all locally relevent to your very own Waterford bass. It would be quite an impressive set of data on your own localised stock of fish. Save this data or share only with BASS ladz or maybe CFB ( ) if the time is right.

Some scales are damaged (you wont c the early rings), the fish may have had a bang of a rock or something so you'll need two or three from different areas (as recommended by the ladz) to be sure you get a clear one. Cortaz this is your calling with all the info you could gather the waterford bass could really turn out to be a gem......

well ya know me i'm a stickler for this kind of thing. A great opportunity here for you and a group of ladz in waterford