Irish Bass Festival 2012

Let me start by saying a massive thanks to Cian and James
of Absolute Fishing in Tramore for the idea and implementation
of such a fantastic event.

Never have I met so many like minded people or had such craic

while out and about fishing. The general buzz around was fantastic with
so many anglers 120 in total taking part in the event.
It began in the early hours of Friday morning when Cian opened the shop
at 4am and there were plenty of other anglers around at this time the fun
started from there with plenty of banter going on and alot of coffee.
I headed back to a mark in Wexford and fished on and was very happy to
pick up one fish a few casts albeit very small just touching 25cm. I thought it was
a good start but it wasnt to be for me anyway conditions were bright with crystal
clear flat calm water making fishing very very tough by day although i did see
some fish cruising they had no interest in feeding. Although conditions were
tough it didnt stop me or other anglers fishing and fishing hard for almost the entire
time with a few hours sleep and copious amounts of coffee and red bull being
comsumed.

What I did gleam from the weekend though was just how massive lure angling
for bass is with anglers from all over the U.K. and further afield coming to sample
some of what Irelands Southern coastline has to offer in the way of sport fishing

There was however some absolutely cracking fish caught with a few fish over the 70cm
and even one 80cm fish caught.

The overall longest fish went to Anthony Phealan with an absolute cracking fish of
80cm caught on the Saturday night

In second place with another cracking fish of 77cm was Patrick Morris

It was a fantastic weekend ended by the prize giving in the Grand Hotel in Tramore followed by a serious session with all the anglers involved and there was some craic , jeerings and banter flowing there.

I also used this weekend to catch up with my good friend Steven Neeley http://rookiebassangler.blogspot.ie/ of   it was really great to catch up with both him and his father over the weekend.


Some new friends were made in the form of Jelmer Scheffer and the rest of the Dutch guys from the Labrax
squad it was great to finally meet the guys after been following their blog for a long time you can see what they thought of the festival here.... The Labrax Squad

I cant emphasise enough how much I enjoyed this weekend and once again a massive thanks and well done
to the lads at Absolute Fishing.
I cant wait for next I for one will be taking part I can guarantee that well that was my take on the weekend
I hope to see you all here next year.

Tight Lines

Jay