Better Late Than Never!

A whole summer has elapsed and I haven't updated this blog! Well, what can I say... It has been an incredibly dry season on the Bandon, a stark contrast to 2015 but even drier than 2013 and 2014. Catchments to the west and east have recently received great falls of rain resulting in full spates but the Bandon has had to make do with a couple of small rises measuring a foot and half each. Luckily, this freshened up the river and helped spread out salmon and sea trout along its length but unfortunately each spate only lasted a couple of days.

The lower Bandon showing its bones, as has been the case for the majority of the 2016 season.

Besides the water levels, numbers of salmon migrating have been fantastic which is hugely encouraging. Thankfully, these observations have been echoed nationwide and will help make up for the lack of fish last year. Since April, good numbers have been consistently entering the system and making their way to the headwaters. The summer will be remembered as one favouring the bait angling enthusiasts as these have accounted for the lions share of fish. However, many have also come to the fly, especially in late spring and when water levels were conducive to good fly fishing conditions. A good range of sizes have been encountered with a few salmon in the fifteen to twenty pound category coming to the net and this has been further supplemented by an excellent run of grilse.

As fresh an Irish grilse as one could hope for. Hard fighting and covered in sea lice, fish have been in excellent condition. 

On the sea trout front, the best word I can use to describe the season is 'sporadic'. At times there have been decent numbers of fish present but good fishing has never really materialised. Contrary to the dire salmon fishing conditions, it has been a summer of ample opportunity to venture out on a midnight hunt for their smaller cousins. I enjoyed excellent sport on the Argideen at the beginning of the summer but could not quite replicate it on the Bandon. A couple of nice fish have turned up and smaller 'schoolies' have been present in good numbers, but on the back of the previous two seasons we were hoping for more.

A decent Bandon sea trout tempted by a surface lure in the small hours of the morning. This fly has proved to be particularly effective of late.

So far it has been a season of many highlights for me. These have included guiding an angler to his first ever Atlantic salmon on his first attempt, landing four salmon one day recently and catching a bass, salmon and sea trout in one evening. The last success is something I've always wanted to accomplish but never tried and I must say it caught me by surprise! An evening cast on the rocks produced a few bass to five pounds on lures and a night time sortie for sea trout resulted in a twelve pound salmon which is one battle I will not forget in a hurry!

A memorable evening of sport. That's the beauty of West Cork!

Bass fishing is an element of the sport which catches my attention in October when the rivers close but the Irish Bass Festival in July always captures a bass anglers imagination. 2016 was no different and we enjoyed a savage weekend roaming the Copper Coast on our quest for the festival winner or best three combined. It's such an excellent event and it offers the chance to meet up with great friends we don't see too often throughout the year. Conditions this year were excellent and the improved catches of bass were a reflection of this. It really was a festival of two halves as day time sport was best at the beginning and the end spiraled into all night madness, with barely a wink of sleep and too much Red Bull! A summary of the weekend, written by James Barry, can be read here. 

A hard fighting copper coast bass which fell to a Yum Lil Suzee soft plastic lure. 

Finally, two more issues have been released of Ireland's number one angling publication, "Off the Scale". It's hard to believe eleven issues have been published already! In May I wrote an article about Bandon Angling Association's fly fishing tuition day with the world renowned Glenda Powell and Bandon Scouts. The latest issue includes an informative article detailing how an angler can feel their way into the world of sea trout fly fishing at night time. A daunting prospect made easier with day time planning.

Issue 11 of "Off the Scale". Well done to all the great contributors!

P.S. The next update on this blog wont take as long!! Plus, you can see more photos on my Instagram account which can be found on the right hand side of this blog.

2016 So Far

It's been five months since I updated this blog and it's quite hard to know where to begin! Little did I know when the weather broke last November, while we were still catching bass, that we were in for such a wet winter. So much rain fell resulting in the rivers enduring an horrendous battering, with banks getting hammered by unrelenting, strong currents and pools being altered along many stretches. The season opened on February 15th with the Bandon in beautiful condition. To date there have been half a dozen spring salmon reported caught and although it is not a mind boggling number it is actually quite positive for the Bandon in comparison to the last few years. A couple have also been lost and sightings of fish have been relatively encouraging since the start of March.

Final fish of 2015, a bass measuring 46cm taken on a surf beach at night. Scale readings show this fish to be 8 years old, coming from an average recruitment year in 2007. If you're interested in participating in bass conservation, get in touch with IFI to contribute to the National Bass Programme.

So far I've drawn a blank and have yet to open my account of silver tourists for 2016. Whilst doing quite a lot of fly fishing, as conditions have been suitable, I've been fishing more so with lures of late. Having only fished lures for bass in saltwater before, this is opening up a whole new world when transferred to freshwater. The lures I've been using mostly are from DUO. Matched up with a light rod (Palms Egeria ERNS-74MH 5~16g) small reel (Daiwa Legalis 2500 HA) and braid (10lb Unitika Silver Thread Shore Game PE), the set up is an absolute joy to use. Sensitivity is heightened as I can feel every little twitch and vibration through the rod, right down to the faintest flicker as the lure comes through the current. Whilst fishing for salmon, brown trout to four pounds have shown a liking to this method so far and I can't wait to see how salmon and sea trout will react to these lures when they are more plentiful. 

Brown trout have taken a shining for the DUO Spearhead Ryuki of late. 

For the new year, Bandon Angling Association have set up a new website which you can view here. A new guiding service has been launched in conjunction with this and I'm delighted to be part of it along with two other friends and club members, Peter Aspinwall and Phil Dewey. Details of the guiding service are provided on the website and we're all looking forward to making memories and enhancing people's fishing experiences on the river Bandon.

Glorious spring sunset overlooking the Bandon.

"Off the Scale" has released two more issues since October. Packed with quality material, it is a pleasure for everyone involved to see this magazine going from strength to strength. The editor, Bill Brazier, deserves enormous credit for driving the e-zine and moulding it into the product it is today. Every issue is welcomed and anticipated by a plethora of anglers from sea, coarse and game fishing backgrounds and long may it continue. In the November issue I penned an article on fly tying for beginners and in the latest I detailed fly fishing and spinning tactics for early season spring salmon which I hope readers find informative and helpful.

Latest cover of "Off the Scale", Ireland's leading fishing e-zine. 

Finally, for all those bass lure fishing enthusiasts, the Irish Bass Festival dates for this year have been set for July 1st, 2nd and 3rd. It promises to be another brilliant weekend on the open coast of southern Ireland chasing after these beautiful creatures. Registration closes on May 30th (discount for early entrants before May 15th!) and just to wet the appetite, take a look at this epic video made by James Barry, entitled "Into the Surf: Bass Fishing Ireland". Enjoy!!

Getting stuck into it and reaping the rewards on the Waterford coast.

Over to the Bass...

Not dwelling on the salmon season’s end, angling finished on a whimper. Excellent conditions prevailed for much of the final month before the curtains drew for another year, yet sport was very slack. A dribble of fresh fish entered the system with only the odd silver bullet caught and everything else being red. My final salmon came in the second week of September whilst spinning on a rising flood, a stale male of eight pounds or so which fell to a red and copper size four Flying C. All in all, it was a marginally better season for me then last year, numbers wise, but it wasn’t a salmon season to remember as returning numbers slumped nationwide. Hopefully next year sees an upturn in salmon running our rivers.

Now the salmon and trout rods have been put away, it was time to get the bass gear out and I couldn’t wait to get stuck into it. October is one of the best times of year to go chasing for these silver predators of the sea and I wasn’t disappointed with the sport I enjoyed. First night out and I had great fun landing six fish during a short ssession, all on soft plastics. As you may recall, I have a particular fondness for the brilliant IMA Komomo SF-125 but the soft plastics needed to be given a proper chance. The Gary Yamamoto Swim Senko caught all my fish that night, mostly schoolies of three to five pounds but my last cast produced an absolute pig of a fish which measured 77cm and I estimated it to weigh somewhere between ten or eleven pounds. Playing the fish it was obviously big but I was stunned when it slid up onto the adjacent rock. A new personal best and first specimen, what a way to get the autumn bass fishing underway!

Next day I had the pleasure of going out on the boat with my good friend Peter Aspinwall. For the last couple of years we had been meaning to go out but never got around to it. As they say, good things come to those who wait!! Fizzing out along the bay, keeping a look out for signs of activity, our first drift produced a couple of amazingly pristine Clonakilty bass. Peter’s first fish came to a soft plastic but everything else came to surface lures, the lethal IMA Salt Skimmer to be precise. Basking in glorious autumnal weather, enjoying each other’s company, we accounted for a total of ten fish, the biggest being 68cm and would have been around seven pounds. The day had it all, what with such epic, visual surface sport and heaps of pollack in between the bass which are a great sporting fish in their own right.  If you want to book a day with Peter or look up regular reports on the fishing he enjoys, be it at sea or on the river where he is equally at home, click here.

Luckily for the time of year, the weather remained settled for a large proportion of the month. Paired with a great set of tides recently for evening fishing, a couple of friends and I were keen to make the most of conditions. For five consecutive days bass were forthcoming, mostly at night but also during the day. Be it Swim Senkos, YAMA Senkos, TT Shads, Salt Skimmers or SF-125’s, bass were ravenous and were not picky in the slightest, which was a welcome change from the salmon! Possibly the best aspect of all this sport was that we discovered more new marks. A huge satisfaction was tagged to every fish we caught in new areas and this must be one of the most rewarding factors for anglers. To avail of more consistent sport, it’s nice to have a few marks up the sleeve to fish in different conditions. Most bass were schoolies with a couple hitting six pounds and the best weighing around seven or so. Now the weather has broken, with high winds and rolling swells, the clock is counting down to the next adventure on the rocks. It looks like next week may see calmer seas so hopefully we can get out again and entice one or two more fish.

For the latest issue of “Off the Scale”, I wrote an article on a trip to the Kylemore Fishery in Connemara. An amazing venue, James and I enjoyed a great day in an awesome setting where we hoped to catch the fishery’s century fish for the season... Absolute Fishing are now running a bass lure fishing course for anglers interested in taking up the sport. For further information call the shop at 051393559. Finally, I’m delighted to say that I am now a member of the field testing team for Lure Heaven UK. I can’t wait to start trying out their products on some Irish salmon and trout and it's another reason to be very excited about 2016!!

Final Roll of the Dice

As I write this post, the Bandon is experiencing a raging flood. A brown avalanche of water, filled with debris and autumn leaves, is hurtling its way down to sea. The season's end is fast approaching and once this deluge subsides, anglers will be afforded another crack of the whip before packing their tackle away for 2015. It has been a testing time for many, with anglers feeling a mix of emotions. Much like a car on its last legs, the run of salmon took a while to get going. Slowly picking up speed, it glided along for what felt like a short time on reflection and now it is stuttering to a halt. The last couple of weeks have been challenging, with resident salmon lying motionless, stuck to the river bed like a dog to its bone. Fresh salmon are relatively scarce, with just a few dribbling in on the tides. This flood will bring new hope and hopefully more sport as we make the most of the final few weeks.

Before August slipped into September, I enjoyed catching a few more salmon before the river dropped to a low summer level. A couple of good sized, fresh grilse came to the worm when the water dropped between floods while a better stamp of fish snatched slowly swung flies when a good flow was present.

Salmon seemed to be quite fussy and weren't as forthcoming as usual. Sometimes this can happen at this time of year, especially after yo-yo-ing water levels. Adapting to a continuously high river, the "take" seems to elude fish as fresh water no longer triggers a response. With no rain falling for two weeks, this flood may well shock the fish back into life.

This week, I was lucky enough to have a go for sea trout before the rain washed any hopes away. As good as conditions have been for salmon, sea trout fishing is much better in low, settled water. To say this season was a challenge is an understatement and there may not be another night time escapade for these wondrous creatures, on the Bandon at least. Even though fishing was tough, it didn't reflect the numbers of sea trout by any stretch of the imagination and this year saw improved runs once again. As I've written before, there is still a long way to go, but it is certainly going in the right direction. Most sea trout I caught were small, fresh schoolies but a few better fish were forthcoming. One such trout was a beauty of around three and a half pounds. Some of the better fish we catch are disappointing with how they fight but this fish went absolutely berserk, leaping into the air on several occasions followed by heart stopping runs when you hope your line doesn't get snagged on some unsuspecting hindrance. Pouncing on a small, lightly dressed tube, she slipped back into the dark river none the worse for wear.

Finally, I have attached a video which I made for an article in the latest installment of "Off The Scale", called "Summer Grilse on the Fly". This is the sixth issue of the magazine and well done to all involved in such a magnificent production.