A nice calm day.............

Went to a local mark yesterday with a view to picking up

a few wrasse lrf but even though it was a calm day with little 

or no wind the swell was very heavy and i found it very difficult

to keep in touch with the lure or indeed to keep the lure in one place.

I tried for around 2hrs with bites or even a touch so i decided to drop

sizes and do a bit of lrf rockpooling for a while to see if the swell would

die off 

I armed up with a 0.5g jighead size12 hook and rigged it with a small section

of gulp neiris in red after a couple of chucks a nice blenny 

Had plenty of Blennies from various pools around the place 

I had began to give up on any other species when all of a sudden i got smashed by

a very big long spined sea scorpion around six inches in length certaintly the 

biggest specimen of this fish i have caught it actually took a little bit of line and was

perfectly camoflaged in the pool almost like two fish joined together with its strange 

colouration of a black/brown tail and sandy front end

This was the first of around 10 scorpionfish i had it was strange like the blennies switched off and they switched as i had no mix of species it was all of one kind then all of another 

The variation in colour of these fish is incredible with no 2 fish looking the and the way that they display 

by puffing up , growling and vibrating in the hand one fish even flipped over in the hand to display a pair of bright blue fins and and bright golden underside which was a first i had never seen one do that or actually have these colours whether they are a threat or used for mating i cant be sure and will probably never know.

I also spent almost an hour at one particular pool i had a blenny and a scorpionfish in but had spotted 2

wrasse most likely corkwings or maybe goldsinny or even rockcook trying to get these fish to take my

lure plenty of interest but didnt even touch the lure.

I came across this interesting guide to mini species the other day and thought it might be of interest
to any rockpooling or lrfing
Mini species guide

I went back to try for ballans afterwards but the swell hadnt really died down a whole lot so i called 

it a day and headed home

Tight lines

Jay

New year..New name ....

I started this blog almost a year to the day as a way
to chronicle my bass fishing exploits around the South
East coast of Ireland but a year in and my angling and
outlook on angling has changed immensely.
I've learned new techniques and have lots more to learn for example
a year ago I had heard of  LRF but had never even considered
trying it and I am now a total convert and i get as much enjoyment
from a small scorpion fish as I do from a big bass so I felt a change
of  name was in order for my blog to reflect where my angling is
at this present moment in time.
The biggest change in my lure angling has been WRASSE on soft
plastics apparently a couple of years ago it couldnt be done
so i heard anyway whether its on the lrf gear or the heavier gear
the wrasse fast bacame my favourite species of 2011

Thanks to techniques developed and shared by the guys of
JBG(jerseybassguide) they have now become a viable target for
me and many other lure anglers across Ireland and the UK

I was in Tramore the other day and was talking to Cian in
Absolute Fishing and they are organising the inaugaral
Irish Bass Fishing Festival

this will be ran from the 20th - 22nd of July 2012 and will
be a shore only and entirely catch and release and only lure caught fish
are elidgible.
I urge as many anglers as possible to partake in this event and help to make
it a success so hopefully it will be the first of many festivals to come
full details can be found on

http://www.irishbassfestival.com/




A mate of mine Steven came down to visit this week to see if we
could pick up an early bass but unfortunately conditions were against us
from the beginning and we ended up tucked away from the rain but not the wind
on the weds in a little estuary where Steven hooked up but the fish spat
the hook before we were basically forced to call it a day as conditions
worsened.
We tried again on the Thursday with nice conditions but very cold all round
unfortunately most marks were full of weed and almost unfishable due to the
blow the previous day so no fish had but He's back down in April and hopefully
he can pick up a fish then.
You can read about Stevens fishing exploits on his blog
Rookie Bass Angler

Well thats all from me for now

Tight lines

Jay

Lrf freshwater.....

I finally took a trip inland yesterday to try my hand at
a few perch something i had planned on doing for an age
but never done
I arrived at the river around 12ish and fished a 2 mile stretch
up and down without so much as a touch so i moved to fish so
locks and canals with no luck either
I had been told that these were productive perch marks but
spending 3 and a half hrs fishing without so much as a tap
would tell me that these supposed catch and release marks
are being fished by what i call ''keepers''
I dont personally know why anyone would want to keep and
eat a perch or a pike but thats the way it is and the way its going
to be its a pity that they cant catch a fish enjoy it photograph and
release it .....
Anyway i moved on to another mark a little further up river
and fished for the first half hour with no sign of fish but
then just as the light began to fade i caught my first perch
a small fish around 8'' long

I continued to fish near all the moored boats flicking lures all
all around the bases of them and picked up another 8 perch and
then as quick as they swithced on they were gone

All the fish caught were no bigger than 8 or 9'' no point in weighing these but they were
all good crack on the solpara and it was a nice way to finish off the day
and a species i'll definetly be targeting with the light setup again

tight lines

Jay

Out and about on Friday the 13th

I got out yesterday for a few hours and arrived at the mark
greeted by blue skys and a slight swell it looked perfect
but to be honest  the fishing was slow i started off using
berkely sandworms the 6'' cut in half i used all colours
of these with a couple of bites and short-takes.
I moved all over the mark fishing gullies and holes looking
for a wrasse. I had fished for about 3hrs with no fish so
i moved to another rocky mark and decided to rig up a
little craw bait i recently got

A couple of casts in and i had my first tap then another and whack fish
on and after a nice little scrap i landed my first wrasse of 2012 a lovely
fish of just over 2lb

i fished on for another while but with no other fish interested so i moved on

and decided to use the lrf gear as i had been fishing quite heavy all morning 

since the ground i was fishing was really tough going. 

I rigged up a power isome on a little 0.5g size12 jighead and fished for about 

half an hour and piked up a few blennys before i decided to call it a day and

head home.

on another note i read that Inland Fisheries Ireland put pay to some illegal

netting that had been going on

by seizing over 1000m of net along with 45 bass.

A massive well doneto everyone involved in this operation and 

I hope that whoever was doing the netting was caught and will be prosecuted 

to the full extent of the law.

Tight Lines

Jay

Lrf 8th January

I planned on doing some hrf for wrasse today I gave it ago but it was tough water was very coloured and full of dirt and the swell made it almost impossible to keep in touch with my lure so I switched over to lrf and had a few scorpion fish and some blennies before I called it a day

I'll have to wait for my first 2012 wrasse but the weather looks decent for the next week so fingers
crossed

tight lines

Jay